The primary aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the presence of distinct emotional prosody in individuals characterised by high levels of overcontrol. While self-control has been associated with emotional well-being, excessive self-control, known as overcontrol, can give rise to maladaptive behavioural coping patterns including emotional suppression, limited emotional expressiveness, heightened sensitivity to threats, diminished responsiveness to rewards, perfectionism, and inflexibility.
The Theory of Overcontrol suggests that maladaptive overcontrol coping is linked to social isolation, anxiety disorders, treatment-resistant depression, and personality disorders. Currently, the clinical identification of individuals with maladaptive overcontrol involves extensive assessments and is prone to misdiagnosis.
The utilisation of prosodic analysis (in combination with the overcontrol scale) presents a potentially easier method for identifying individuals with maladaptive overcontrol.
Drawing upon The Theory of Overcontrol, the researcher postulates that individuals with elevated levels of overcontrol will exhibit reduced emotional expressiveness. Additionally, it is anticipated that these individuals will display specific patterns of intensity and pitch in their emotional expression.
To explore these hypotheses, an online study was conducted, involving 45 proficient English speakers who were recruited through the Prolific platform.
The participants completed a combination of questionnaires and scales to assess their levels of overcontrol and emotional expressiveness.
Furthermore, they provided audio responses to open-ended questions aimed at evaluating their emotional expressiveness and capturing potential prosodic features.
The findings indicated a statistically significant negative correlation between individuals with high levels of overcontrol and emotional expressiveness, suggesting a tendency for diminished emotional expression among those with pronounced overcontrol traits.
Further analysis of the audio data will be undertaken to identify any specific prosodic features that may be exhibited by these individuals.
