Anticipatory Positive Emotion and Recovery from Stress
Prolonged exposure to stress has been implicated in a number of mental and physical health problems. For this reason, successful recovery is important for minimizing the relationship between stress and poor health. Some research has shown that anticipatory positive emotion may aid in this process. We expanded on this topic by comparing the effects of anticipatory positive emotion on recovery from stress to those of positive emotion stemming from a past event, which has also been shown to improve recovery outcomes. The present study was designed to carry out this comparison, as well as to replicate the previously observed benefits of anticipatory positive emotion after stress. To induce positive affect, half of the participants were told that they would see funny cartoons. The other half of participants (controls) were told that they would see unfunny cartoons. To induce stress, participants were assigned to deliver a speech. To manipulate anticipatory emotion half of each group viewed the cartoons prior to preparing the speech and the other half of each group viewed the cartoons after preparing the speech. Recovery was measured using affect ratings, as well as with measures of heart rate, systolic blood pressure, skin conductance, respiratory rate, and respiratory-sinus arrhythmia. Consistent with the hypothesis, individuals in the anticipatory positive emotion group exhibited the more positive emotion during recovery from stress than the control group. Also consistent with our hypothesis, the anticipatory positive emotion group exhibited more positive emotion during recovery than the non-anticipatory positive emotion group. There was no effect of anticipation or positive emotion on measures of physiological arousal, however.
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