Abstract
Emotions are processes that unfold over time. This implies that research on dynamic features of emotions is needed to understand how emotions operate. One key dynamic feature is emotion duration. For a long time, no research on emotion duration was conducted. However, during the last three decades, our understanding of emotion duration increased significantly. In the present chapter, I provide an overview of research on emotion duration. First, I define emotion duration and discuss the conceptual complexities surrounding the start and end of an emotional episode. Next, I describe studies that examined how long emotional episodes last. These studies converged on the conclusion that emotion duration is highly variable with episodes lasting for seconds, minutes, hours or even longer. Subsequently, I review research examining the mechanisms underlying emotion duration. These mechanisms include psychological processes that occur at the start of an emotional episode, as the initial appraisal of an emotion-eliciting event and intensity of the emotional response are major determinants of emotion duration. Moreover, emotion duration also depends on psychological processes that unfold during the emotional episode as dynamics in attention, appraisals and regulation strategies prolong or shorten emotional episodes. The chapter ends with directions for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aldao, A. (2013). The future of emotion regulation research: Capturing context. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(2), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612459518
Beedie, C. J., Terry, P. C., & Lane, A. M. (2005). Distinctions between emotion and mood. Cognition and Emotion, 19(6), 847–878. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930541000057
Beike, D. R., & Wirth-Beaumont, E. T. (2005). Psychological closure as a memory phenomenon. Memory, 13(6), 574–593. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210444000241
Block, J., & Kremen, A. M. (1996). IQ and ego-resiliency: Conceptual and empirical connections and separateness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(2), 349–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.2.349
Brans, K., Koval, P., Verduyn, P., Lim, Y. L., & Kuppens, P. (2013). The regulation of negative and positive affect in daily life. Emotion, 13(5), 926–939. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032400
Brans, K., Van Mechelen, I., Rimé, B., & Verduyn, P. (2014). To share, or not to share? Examining the emotional consequences of social sharing in the case of anger and sadness. Emotion, 14(6), 1062–1071. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037604
Brans, K., & Verduyn, P. (2014). Intensity and duration of negative emotions: Comparing the role of appraisals and regulation strategies. PLoS One, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092410
Bylsma, L. M., Croon, M. A., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., & Rottenberg, J. (2011). When and for whom does crying improve mood? A daily diary study of 1004 crying episodes. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(4), 385–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2011.04.007
Charles, S. T., Mogle, J., Urban, E. J., & Almeida, D. M. (2016). Daily events are important for age differences in mean and duration for negative affect but not positive affect. Psychology and Aging, 31(7), 661–671. https://doi.org/10.1037/pag0000118
Darwin, C. (1965). The expression of the emotions in man and animals. University of Chicago Press.
Davidson, R. J. (1998). Affective style and affective disorders: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Cognition and Emotion, 12(3), 307–330.
Ekman, P. (1984). Expression and the nature of emotion. In K. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 319–344). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1982). Felt, false, and miserable smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6(4), 238–252.
Fennell, M. J., Teasdale, J. D., Jones, S., & Damlé, A. (1987). Distraction in neurotic and endogenous depression: An investigation of negative thinking in major depressive disorder. Psychological Medicine, 17(41), 441–452.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1998). Positive emotions speed recovery from the cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 12(2), 191–220. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999398379718
Freund, A. M., & Keil, A. (2013). Out of mind, out of heart: Attention affects duration of emotional experience. Cognition and Emotion, 27(3), 549–557. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2012.725574
Frijda, N. H. (2007). The laws of emotion. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Frijda, N. H., Mesquita, B., Sonnemans, J., & Van Goozen, S. (1991). The duration of affective phenomena or emotions, sentiments and passions. In K. T. Strongman (Ed.), International review of studies on emotion (pp. 187–225). Wiley.
Gilboa, E., & Revelle, W. (1994). Personality and the structure of affective responses. In S. Van Goozen, N. E. Van De Poll, & J. A. Sargent (Eds.), Essays on current issues in the field of emotion theory (pp. 134–159). Erlbaum.
Gross, J. J. (1998a). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.74.1.224
Gross, J. J. (1998b). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271
Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781
Heller, A. S., & Casey, B. J. (2016). The neurodynamics of emotion: Delineating typical and atypical emotional processes during adolescence. Developmental Science, 19(1), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12373
Heller, A. S., Fox, A. S., Wing, E. K., McQuisition, K. M., Vack, N. J., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). The neurodynamics of affect in the laboratory predicts persistence of real-world emotional responses. Journal of Neuroscience, 35(29), 10503–10509. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0569-15.2015
Heller, A. S., Johnstone, T., Shackman, A. J., Light, S. N., Peterson, M. J., Kolden, G. G., et al. (2009). Reduced capacity to sustain positive emotion in major depression reflects diminished maintenance of fronto-striatal brain activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(52), 22445–22450. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0910651106
Heylen, J., Van Mechelen, I., Verduyn, P., & Ceulemans, E. (2016). KSC-N: Clustering of hierarchical time profile data. Psychometrika, 81(2), 411–433. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-014-9433-x
Heylen, J., Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., & Ceulemans, E. (2015). Variability in anger intensity profiles: Structure and predictive basis. Cognition and Emotion, 29(1), 168–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2014.896783
Hovasapian, A., & Levine, L. J. (2018). Keeping the magic alive: Social sharing of positive life experiences sustains happiness. Cognition and Emotion, 32(8), 1559–1570. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1422697
Hutcherson, C. A., Goldin, P. R., Ochsner, K. N., Gabrieli, J. D., Feldman Barrett, L., & Gross, J. J. (2005). Attention and emotion: Does rating emotion alter neural responses to amusing and sad films? NeuroImage, 27(3), 656–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.04.028
Joormann, J., & Siemer, M. (2004). Memory accessibility, mood regulation, and dysphoria: Difficulties in repairing sad mood with happy memories? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113(2), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.113.2.179
Kalokerinos, E. K., Résibois, M., Verduyn, P., & Kuppens, P. (2017). The temporal deployment of emotion regulation strategies during negative emotional episodes. Emotion, 17(3), 450–458. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000248
Kaneko, M., Ozaki, Y., & Horike, K. (2018). Curiosity about a positive or negative event prolongs the duration of emotional experience. Cognition and Emotion, 32(3), 600–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1324766
Keltner, D., & Gross, J. J. (1999). Functional accounts of emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 13(5), 467–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/026999399379140
Kross, E., & Ayduk, O. (2008). Facilitating adaptive emotional analysis: Distinguishing distanced-analysis of depressive experiences from immersed-analysis and distraction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(7), 924–938. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167208315938
Kuppens, P., & Verduyn, P. (2015). Looking at emotion regulation through the window of emotion dynamics. Psychological Inquiry, 26, 72–79.
Kuppens, P., & Verduyn, P. (2017). Emotion dynamics. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 22–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.004
Lapate, R. C., & Heller, A. S. (2020). Context matters for affective chronometry. Nature Human Behaviour. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0860-7
Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2001). Fear, anger, and risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(1), 146–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.1.146
Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2002). Looking back in time: Self-concept change affects visual perspective in autobiographical memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(2), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.2.167
McIsaac, H. K., & Eich, E. (2004). Vantage point in traumatic memory. Psychological Science, 15(4), 248–253. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00660.x
Mehta, A., Formanowicz, M., Uusberg, A., Uusberg, H., Gross, J. J., & Suri, G. (2020). The regulation of recurrent negative emotion in the aftermath of a lost election. Cognition and Emotion, 34(4), 848–857. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2019.1682970
Nigro, G., & Neisser, U. (1983). Point of view in personal memories. Cognitive Psychology, 15(4), 467–482. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(83)90016-6
Nolan, S. A., Roberts, J. E., & Gotlib, I. H. (1998). Neuroticism and ruminative response style as predictors of change in depressive symptomatology. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 22(5), 445–455. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018769531641
Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Morrow, J. (1993). Effects of rumination and distraction on naturally occurring depressed mood. Cognition and Emotion, 7(6), 561–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699939308409206
Pe, M., Frederickx, S., Verduyn, P., De Laet, I., Brans, K., Hofmans, J., et al. (2013). The relationship between arousal and the remembered duration of positive events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(4), 493–496. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.2926
Peuters, C., Kalokerinos, E. K., Pe, M. L., & Kuppens, P. (2019). Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event. PLoS One, 14(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209029
Pieper, S., & Brosschot, J. F. (2005). Prolonged stress-related cardiovascular activation: Is there any? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 30(2), 91–103. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324796abm3002_1
Provenzano, J., Bastiaansen, J. A., Verduyn, P., Oldehinkel, A. J., Fossati, P., & Kuppens, P. (2018). Different aspects of the neural response to socio-emotional events are related to instability and inertia of emotional experience in daily life: An fMRI-ESM study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00501
Raio, C. M., Orederu, T. A., Palazzolo, L., Shurick, A. A., & Phelps, E. A. (2013). Cognitive emotion regulation fails the stress test. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(37), 15139–15144. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305706110
Ray, R. D., Wilhelm, F. H., & Gross, J. J. (2008). All in the mind’s eye? Anger rumination and reappraisal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(1), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.1.133
Résibois, M., Kuppens, P., Van Mechelen, I., Fossati, P., & Verduyn, P. (2018a). Depression severity moderates the relation between self-distancing and features of emotion unfolding. Personality and Individual Differences, 123, 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.018
Résibois, M., Rotgé, J. Y., Delaveau, P., Kuppens, P., Van Mechelen, I., Fossati, P., & Verduyn, P. (2018b). The impact of self-distancing on emotion explosiveness and accumulation: An fMRI study. PLoS One, 13(11), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206889
Résibois, M., Verduyn, P., Delaveau, P., Rotgé, J. Y., Kuppens, P., Van Mechelen, I., & Fossati, P. (2017). The neural basis of emotions varies over time: Different regions go with onset- and offset-bound processes underlying emotion intensity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(8), 1261–1271. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx051
Rimé, B. (2009). Emotion elicits the social sharing of emotion: Theory and empirical review. Emotion Review, 1(1), 60–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073908097189
Rimé, B., Finkenauer, C., Luminet, O., Zech, E., & Philippot, P. (1998). Social sharing of emotion: New evidence and new questions. European Review of Social Psychology, 9, 145–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/14792779843000072
Scherer, K. R., & Wallbott, H. G. (1994). Evidence for universality and cultural variation of differential emotion response patterning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 310–328.
Schuyler, B. S., Kral, T. R. A., Jacquart, J., Burghy, C. A., Weng, H. Y., Perlman, D. M., et al. (2012). Temporal dynamics of emotional responding: Amygdala recovery predicts emotional traits. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(2), 176–181. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss131
Shafir, R., Schwartz, N., Blechert, J., & Sheppes, G. (2015). Emotional intensity influences pre-implementation and implementation of distraction and reappraisal. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(10), 1329–1337. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv022
Sheppes, G., & Gross, J. J. (2011). Is timing everything? Temporal considerations in emotion regulation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15(4), 319–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310395778
Sheppes, G., Scheibe, S., Suri, G., & Gross, J. J. (2011). Emotion-regulation choice. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1391–1396. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611418350
Siegle, G. J., Granholm, E., Ingram, R. E., & Matt, G. E. (2001). Pupillary and reaction time measures of sustained processing of negative information in depression. Biological Psychiatry, 49(7), 624–636. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0006-3223%2800%2901024-6
Siegle, G. J., Steinhauer, S. R., Thase, M. E., Stenger, V. A., & Carter, C. S. (2002). Can’t shake that feeling: Event-related fMRI assessment of sustained amygdala activity in response to emotional information in depressed individuals. Biological Psychiatry, 51(9), 693–707.
Sonnemans, J., & Frijda, N. H. (1994). The structure of subjective emotional intensity. Cognition & Emotion, 8(4), 329–350.
Tugade, M. M., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(2), 320–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.86.2.320
Van Mechelen, I., Verduyn, P., & Brans, K. (2013). The duration of emotional episodes. In D. Hermans, B. Rimé, & B. Mesquita (Eds.), Changing emotions (pp. 174–180). Psychology Press.
Verduyn, P., & Brans, K. (2012). The relationship between extraversion, neuroticism and aspects of trait affect. Personality and Individual Differences, 52(6), 664–669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.017
Verduyn, P., Delaveau, P., Rotgé, J. Y., Fossati, P., & Van Mechelen, I. (2015). Determinants of emotion duration and underlying psychological and neural mechanisms. Emotion Review, 7, 330–335.
Verduyn, P., Delvaux, E., Van Coillie, H., Tuerlinckx, F., & Van Mechelen, I. (2009a). Predicting the duration of emotional experience: Two experience sampling studies. Emotion, 9(1), 83–91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014610
Verduyn, P., & Lavrijsen, S. (2015). Which emotions last longest and why: The role of event importance and rumination. Motivation and Emotion, 39(1), 119–127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9445-y
Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., & Frederix, E. (2012a). Determinants of the shape of emotion intensity profiles. Cognition and Emotion, 26(8), 1486–1495. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2012.662152
Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., Kross, E., Chezzi, C., & Van Bever, F. (2012b). The relationship between self-distancing and the duration of negative and positive emotional experiences in daily life. Emotion, 12(6), 1248–1263. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028289
Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., & Tuerlinckx, F. (2011). The relation between event processing and the duration of emotional experience. Emotion, 11(1), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021239
Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., Tuerlinckx, F., Meers, K., & Van Coillie, H. (2009b). Intensity profiles of emotional experience over time. Cognition & Emotion, 23(7), 1427–1443. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930902949031
Verduyn, P., Van Mechelen, I., Tuerlinckx, F., & Scherer, K. (2013). The relation between appraised mismatch and the duration of negative emotions: Evidence for universality. European Journal of Personality, 27(5), 481–494. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1897
Villano, W. J., Otto, A. R., Ezie, E. C., Gillis, R., & Heller, A. S. (2020). Temporal dynamics of real-world emotion are more strongly linked to prediction error than outcome. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(9), 1755–1766. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000740
Waugh, C. E., Hamilton, J. P., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). The neural temporal dynamics of the intensity of emotional experience. NeuroImage, 49(2), 1699–1707. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.006
Waugh, C. E., Shing, E. Z., & Avery, B. M. (2015). Temporal dynamics of emotional processing in the brain. Emotion Review, 7(4), 323–329. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915590615
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Verduyn, P. (2021). Emotion Duration. In: Waugh, C.E., Kuppens, P. (eds) Affect Dynamics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82965-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82965-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82964-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82965-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)