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Inducing negative affect using film clips with general and eating disorder-related content

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Abstract

The aim of the present study was to select appropriate film clips with a general vs. eating disorder (ED)-related content to induce negative affect. More specifically, the study examined the subjective emotional experience (valence, arousal, anxiety, induction of somatic symptoms, and ability to control reactions during film clips) of Greek-Cypriot university students (N = 79) in response to three types of film clips: general unpleasant, ED-specific unpleasant, and emotionally neutral. In addition, the study aimed to compare the emotional reactions to the aforementioned clips between two groups of participants differing on their risk for ED (high vs. low). Preliminary results indicate the clips with general content (“The Champ”) and with ED-specific content (“Binge eating”) that are most effective in inducing negative affect and differentiating between risk groups. These clips provide an effective method for emotion induction that can be used for assessing the emotional experience of individuals with ED symptoms, since their emotional experience is significantly implicated in the development and maintenance of their symptoms (Merwin, Clin Psychol Sci Pract 18(3):208–214, 2011).

Level of evidence No level of evidence, Experimental Study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Maria Koushiou

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 20537, 1678, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Kalia Nicolaou & Maria Karekla

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  1. Maria Koushiou
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  2. Kalia Nicolaou
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Contributions

All authors were personally and actively involved in the work for this paper and hold themselves responsible for its content. The list of authors is as follows: MK (Ph.D.), KN (BA), and MK (Ph.D.), University of Cyprus, Cyprus.

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Correspondence to Maria Karekla.

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None of the authors declare any conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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All study participants provided written informed consent prior their enrolment in the study.

Data sharing

The study’s data set is available from the corresponding author at mkarekla@ucy.ac.cy. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.

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Koushiou, M., Nicolaou, K. & Karekla, M. Inducing negative affect using film clips with general and eating disorder-related content. Eat Weight Disord 23, 775–784 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0485-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0485-2

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