Understanding and Managing Emotions in Gelotophobia

Gelotophobia is a fear of ridicule, that manifests both as part of anxiety and depressive disorders, and independently. The study finds out whether some features of recognition and control of expression are limited to the area of positive emotions or manifest themselves in the regulation of other emotions with gelotophobia. The results of self-reporting and test methods for assessing the understanding of emotions, as well as direct and indirect measurements of the ability to control emotions, are compared, and an interference effect of alexithymia is controlled. In total 235 subjects took a part (M_age=17,95, SD_age=1,78), among whom 181 female and 54 male students of the humanities answered questionnaires Emotional Intelligence (EI), Ways of coping (WCQ) of Lazarus, Questionnaire of Gelotophobia (GELOPH-15), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), attributional style questionnaire of Seligman) and did tests (Video Test of Lysin and Ovsyannikova, timing of emotion naming). Quantitative comparative analysis, correlation, and regression analysis were used. The results indicate that some characteristic properties of recognition and control of emotions associated with gelotophobia extend to some other emotions (sadness, but not fear and anger). The reduction in recognition and control of emotions in gelotophobia manifests only through self-reporting methods, while tests show minimal differences depending on gelotophobia grade and their derived character. The accuracy of recognition decreases with gelotophobia grade only when the recognition time is limited. The reduction of control manifests only in the rarer use of Avoidance coping, which is associated with a lower evaluation of the ability to control achieving success and avoiding failure by the individual. the conviction of the individual.

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