Social influences on cognitive processing in enacted social support: effects on receivers' cognitive appraisals, emotion, and affiliation.

Background and objectives. Social support is linked with psychological health, but its mechanisms are unclear. We examined supporters' influence on recipients' cognitive processing as a mechanism of effects of support on outcomes associated with depression. Design/methods. 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment. 147 participants (1) experienced a negative event (false feedback); (2) received social support modeling one of two contrasting cognitive processing modes (abstract/evaluative or concrete/experiential); (3) generated explanations for the event, later coded for processing mode and internal/external causal attribution; and (4) reported on emotion, perceptions of self and future, and social affiliation. To examine relational effects, half of participants were led to perceive the supporter as similar to themselves via a shared birthday manipulation. Results. Support condition influenced participants' processing mode and causal attributions as predicted. Abstract/evaluative support led to more positive emotion and self-perceptions, and less pessimistic expectancies for the future than concrete/experiential support. Perceived similarity moderated effects on beliefs about an upcoming social interaction, magnifying positive affiliation outcomes of abstract/evaluative versus concrete/experiential support. Conclusions. Processing modes that are generally maladaptive at the intrapersonal level may be adaptive (and vice versa) when they are interpersonally influenced, and perceived similarity may facilitate interpersonal effects of processing mode on affiliation.

Less is more? Effects of exhaustive vs. minimal emotion labelling on emotion regulation strategy planning.

Previous research suggests that labelling emotions, or describing affective states using emotion words, facilitates emotion regulation. But how much labelling promotes emotion regulation? And which emotion regulation strategies does emotion labelling promote? Drawing on cognitive theories of emotion, we predicted that labelling emotions using fewer words would be less confusing and would facilitate forms of emotion regulation requiring more cognitively demanding processing of context. Participants (N = 82) mentally immersed themselves in an emotional vignette, were randomly assigned to an exhaustive or minimal emotion labelling manipulation, and then completed an emotion regulation strategy planning task. Minimal (vs. exhaustive) emotion labelling promoted higher subjective emotional clarity. Furthermore, in terms of specific emotion regulation strategies, minimal emotion labelling prompted more plans for problem solving and marginally more plans for reappraisal, but did not affect plans for behavioural activation or social support seeking. We discuss implications for the cognitive mechanisms supporting the generation of emotion regulation strategies.

Emotion Regulation and the Transdiagnostic Role of Repetitive Negative Thinking in Adolescents with Social Anxiety and Depression.

Social anxiety and depression are common mental health problems among adolescents and are frequently comorbid. Primary aims of this study were to (1) elucidate the nature of individual differences in specific emotion regulation deficits among adolescents with symptoms of social anxiety and depression, and (2) determine whether repetitive negative thinking (RNT) functions as a transdiagnostic factor. A diverse sample of adolescents (N = 1065) completed measures assessing emotion regulation and symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Results indicated that adolescents with high levels of social anxiety and depression symptoms reported decreased emotional awareness, dysregulated emotion expression, and reduced use of emotion management strategies. The hypothesized structural model in which RNT functions as a transdiagnostic factor exhibited a better fit than an alternative model in which worry and rumination function as separate predictors of symptomatology. Findings implicate emotion regulation deficits and RNT in the developmental psychopathology of youth anxiety and mood disorders.

Using Emotion as Information in Future-Oriented Cognition: Individual Differences in the Context of State Negative Affect.

Predictions about the future are susceptible to mood-congruent influences of emotional state. However, recent work suggests individuals also differ in the degree to which they incorporate emotion into cognition. This study examined the role of such individual differences in the context of state negative emotion. We examined whether trait tendencies to use negative or positive emotion as information affect individuals' predictions of what will happen in the future (likelihood estimation) and how events will feel (affective forecasting), and whether trait influences depend on emotional state. Participants (N=119) reported on tendencies to use emotion as information ("following feelings"), underwent an emotion induction (negative versus neutral), and made likelihood estimates and affective forecasts for future events. Views of the future were predicted by both emotional state and individual differences in following feelings. Whereas following negative feelings affected most future-oriented cognition across emotional states, following positive feelings specifically buffered individuals' views of the future in the negative emotion condition, and specifically for positive future events, a category of future-event prediction especially important in psychological health. Individual differences may confer predisposition toward optimistic or pessimistic expectations of the future in the context of acute negative emotion, with implications for adaptive and maladaptive functioning.

I don't want to come back down: Undoing versus maintaining of reward recovery in older adolescents.

Adolescence is characterized by heightened and sometimes impairing reward sensitivity, yet less is known about how adolescents recover from highly arousing positive states. This is particularly important given high onset rates of psychopathology associated with reward sensitivity during late adolescence and early adulthood. The current study thus utilized a novel reward sensitivity task in order to examine potential ways in which older adolescent females (ages 18-21; N = 83) might recover from high arousal positive reward sensitive states. Participants underwent a fixed incentive reward sensitivity task and subsequently watched a neutral, sad, or a low approach-motivated positive emotional film clip during which subjective and physiological recovery was assessed. Results indicated that the positive and negative film conditions were associated with maintained physiological arousal while the neutral condition facilitated faster physiological recovery from the reward sensitivity task. It is interesting to note that individual differences in self-reported positive emotion during the reward task were associated with faster recovery in the neutral condition. Findings suggest elicited emotion (regardless of valence) may serve to maintain reward sensitivity whereas self-reported positive emotional experience may be a key ingredient facilitating physiological recovery or undoing. Understanding the nuances of reward recovery provides a critical step in understanding the etiology and persistence of reward dysregulation more generally.

Emotion regulation and depressive symptoms: Close relationships as social context and influence.

Depression is associated with social dysfunction and maladaptive social environments, but mechanisms through which social relationships affect depressive psychopathology are unclear. We hypothesized that emotion regulation (ER) is such a mechanism, with outcomes of individuals' ER efforts sensitive to the social context, and individuals' ER strategy repertoire and use sensitive to social influence. In Study 1, a longitudinal study of community adults (N = 1,319), associations of individuals' ER strategies with depressive symptoms depended on social connectedness and romantic relationship status (social context hypothesis). Moreover, associations of social connectedness and relationship status with symptoms were accounted for by maladaptive ER concurrently and, for social connectedness, prospectively over 1 year (social influence hypothesis). Study 2a, using a national sample (N = 772), replicated and extended these findings with a broader array of ER strategies, and ruled out alternative explanations regarding social skills and psychological wellbeing. Among participants in romantic relationships (Study 2b; N = 558), intimacy and trust buffered associations of maladaptive ER strategies with symptoms (context), and maladaptive and adaptive ER mediated links between relationship variables and symptoms (influence). Findings suggest that close relationships-and variation in underlying relational processes within relationships-influence the ER strategies people use, and also affect whether individuals' own ER repertoires contribute to depression when deployed. Results elucidate core social mechanisms of ER in terms of both basic processes and depressive psychopathology, suggest ER is a channel through which social factors affect internal functioning and mental health, and inform relationship pathways for clinical intervention.

EVENT PREDICTION AND AFFECTIVE FORECASTING IN DEPRESSIVE COGNITION: USING EMOTION AS INFORMATION ABOUT THE FUTURE.

Depression is characterized by a bleak view of the future, but the mechanisms through which depressed mood is integrated into basic processes of future-oriented cognition are unclear. We hypothesized that dysphoric individuals' predictions of what will happen in the future (likelihood estimation) and how the future will feel (affective forecasting) are attributable to individual differences in incorporating present emotion as judgment-relevant information. Dysphoric individuals (n = 77) made pessimistic likelihood estimates and blunted positive affective forecasts relative to controls (n = 84). These differences were mediated by dysphoric individuals' tendencies to rely on negative emotion as information more than controls-and on positive emotion less-independent of anhedonia. These findings suggest that (1) blunted positive affective forecasting is a distinctive component of depressive future-oriented cognition, and (2) future-oriented cognitive processes are linked not just to current emotional state, but also to individual variation in using that emotion as information. This role of individual differences elucidates basic mechanisms in future-oriented cognition, and suggests routes for intervention on interrelated cognitive and affective processes in depression.

A habit-goal framework of depressive rumination.

Rumination has been robustly implicated in the onset and maintenance of depression. However, despite empirically well-supported theories of the consequences of trait rumination (response styles theory; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), and of the processes underlying state episodes of goal-oriented repetitive thought (control theory; Martin & Tesser, 1989, 1996), the relationship between these theories remains unresolved. Further, less theoretical and clinical attention has been paid to the maintenance and treatment of trait depressive rumination. We propose that conceptualizing rumination as a mental habit (Hertel, 2004) helps to address these issues. Elaborating on this account, we propose a framework linking the response styles and control theories via a theoretical approach to the relationship between habits and goals (Wood & Neal, 2007). In this model, with repetition in the same context, episodes of self-focused repetitive thought triggered by goal discrepancies can become habitual, through a process of automatic association between the behavioral response (i.e., repetitive thinking) and any context that occurs repeatedly with performance of the behavior (e.g., physical location, mood), and in which the repetitive thought is contingent on the stimulus context. When the contingent response involves a passive focus on negative content and abstract construal, the habit of depressive rumination is acquired. Such habitual rumination is cued by context independent of goals and is resistant to change. This habit framework has clear treatment implications and generates novel testable predictions.

Positive emotion dysregulation across mood disorders: how amplifying versus dampening predicts emotional reactivity and illness course.

Maladaptive regulation of positive emotion has increasingly been associated with psychopathology. Little is known, however, about how individual strategies used to manage positive emotion predict concurrent emotional responding and prospective illness course across mood disorders. The present study examined the concurrent and prospective influence of amplification and dampening regulation strategies of positive emotion (i.e., self-focused positive rumination, emotion-focused positive rumination, and dampening) among remitted individuals with bipolar I disorder (BD; n=31) and major depressive disorder (MDD; n=31). Rumination over positive emotional states concurrently predicted increased positive emotion across both mood disordered groups during an experimental rumination induction. However, dampening positive emotion concurrently predicted increased emotional reactivity (i.e., heart rate and negative affect) and prospective increases in manic and depressive symptoms for the BD group only. This suggests that amplifying positive emotion transdiagnostically increases positive emotion across mood disordered groups, while attempts to dampen positive emotion may paradoxically exacerbate emotional reactivity and illness course in BD. For individuals with BD, negative thinking about one's positive emotion (via dampening) may be particularly maladaptive.

Rumination mediates the relationship between peer alienation and eating pathology in young adolescent girls.

PURPOSE: This study examined whether rumination, the tendency to passively and repeatedly dwell on negative events, mediated the relationship between peer alienation and eating disorder symptoms among adolescent girls. METHODS: Participants included 101 girls (ages 10-14; 47% Hispanic, 24% African American) who completed questionnaires regarding peer relationships, symptoms of eating pathology, rumination, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS: Girls who reported experiencing more peer alienation reported a higher degree of pathological eating symptoms. The relationship between peer alienation and eating pathology was mediated by rumination, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends previous work indicating that rumination is a cognitive mechanism that may contribute to the development and/or maintenance of eating pathology. The findings suggest that adolescents who feel alienated by their peers might be particularly susceptible to engaging in ruminative thinking that can lead to or exacerbate eating problems.

Predictors of alcohol-related problems among depressed and non-depressed women.

BACKGROUND: Depression and alcohol-related problems are often comorbid in women, but not all depressed women have comorbid alcohol-related problems. The current study investigated intrapersonal (drinking expectancies), interpersonal (interpersonal pressure to drink), and familial (mother's and father's drinking history) predictors of alcohol-related problems among women with and without a major depressive episode in the past year. METHOD: Participants were 853 women ages 21-90 from a U.S. national probability sample. Depression diagnosis was determined via interviewer administration of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) depression module. Participants completed self-report measures of alcohol-related problems and intrapersonal, interpersonal, and familial predictors of drinking. RESULTS: Regression analyses indicated that an episode of depression in the past year, more positive drinking expectancies, greater interpersonal pressure to drink, and higher levels of maternal (but not paternal) drinking predicted alcohol-related problems; moreover, the relationships between alcohol-related problems and maternal drinking, paternal drinking, and interpersonal pressure to drink were significantly stronger among women with an episode of major depression in the past year than among women without an episode. LIMITATIONS: Study data was cross-sectional and obtained through self-report, thus limiting causal explanations of results. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that depression may enhance the impact of interpersonal and familial risk factors on women's alcohol misuse. Implications of findings for transdiagnostic models of psychopathology and for prevention and treatment of alcohol-related problems in women presenting with depressive symptoms are discussed.

Mapping mindfulness facets onto dimensions of anxiety and depression.

Mindfulness has been associated with anxiety and depression, but the ways in which specific facets of mindfulness relate to symptoms of anxiety and depression remains unclear. The purpose of the current study was to investigate associations between specific facets of mindfulness (e.g., observing, describing, nonjudging, acting with awareness, and nonreactivity) and dimensions of anxiety and depression symptoms (e.g., anxious arousal, general distress-anxiety, general distress-depression, and anhedonic depression) while controlling for shared variance among variables. Participants were 187 treatment-seeking adults. Mindfulness was measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and symptoms of depression and anxiety were measured using the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire. Bivariate correlations showed that all facets of mindfulness were significantly related to all dimensions of anxiety and depression, with two exceptions: describing was unrelated to general distress-anxiety, and observing was unrelated to all symptom clusters. Path analysis was used to simultaneously examine associations between mindfulness facets and depression and anxiety symptoms. Significant and marginally significant pathways were retained to construct a more parsimonious model and model fit indices were examined. The parsimonious model indicated that nonreactivity was significantly inversely associated with general distress anxiety symptoms. Describing was significantly inversely associated with anxious arousal, while observing was significantly positively associated with it. Nonjudging and nonreactivity were significantly inversely related to general distress-depression and anhedonic depression symptomatology. Acting with awareness was not significantly associated with any dimensions of anxiety or depression. Findings support associations between specific facets of mindfulness and dimensions of anxiety and depression and highlight the potential utility of targeting these specific aspects of mindfulness in interventions for anxiety and mood disorders.

Rumination as a mechanism linking stressful life events to symptoms of depression and anxiety: longitudinal evidence in early adolescents and adults.

Rumination is a well-established risk factor for the onset of major depression and anxiety symptomatology in both adolescents and adults. Despite the robust associations between rumination and internalizing psychopathology, there is a dearth of research examining factors that might lead to a ruminative response style. In the current study, we examined whether social environmental experiences were associated with rumination. Specifically, we evaluated whether self-reported exposure to stressful life events predicted subsequent increases in rumination. We also investigated whether rumination served as a mechanism underlying the longitudinal association between self-reported stressful life events and internalizing symptoms. Self-reported stressful life events, rumination, and symptoms of depression and anxiety were assessed in 2 separate longitudinal samples. A sample of early adolescents (N = 1,065) was assessed at 3 time points spanning 7 months. A sample of adults (N = 1,132) was assessed at 2 time points spanning 12 months. In both samples, self-reported exposure to stressful life events was associated longitudinally with increased engagement in rumination. In addition, rumination mediated the longitudinal relationship between self-reported stressors and symptoms of anxiety in both samples and the relationship between self-reported life events and symptoms of depression in the adult sample. Identifying the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that explain a greater propensity for rumination following stressors remains an important goal for future research. This study provides novel evidence for the role of stressful life events in shaping characteristic responses to distress, specifically engagement in rumination, highlighting potentially useful targets for interventions aimed at preventing the onset of depression and anxiety.

Mindfulness and emotion regulation in depression and anxiety: common and distinct mechanisms of action.

BACKGROUND: The current study seeks to investigate the mechanisms through which mindfulness is related to mental health in a clinical sample of adults by examining (1) whether specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies (rumination, reappraisal, worry, and nonacceptance) mediate associations between mindfulness and depression and anxiety, respectively, and (2) whether these emotion regulation strategies operate uniquely or transdiagnostically in relation to depression and anxiety. METHODS: Participants were 187 adults seeking treatment at a mood and anxiety disorders clinic in Connecticut. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures that included assessments of depression and anxiety (Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire), and emotion regulation (Ruminative Response Scale, Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale). RESULTS: Simple mediation analyses indicated that rumination and worry significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and anxiety symptoms, whereas rumination and reappraisal significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses showed that worry significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and anxiety symptoms and rumination and reappraisal significantly mediated associations between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that mindfulness operates through distinct and common mechanisms depending on clinical context.

Fixable or fate? Perceptions of the biology of depression.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown that biological (e.g., genetic, biochemical) accounts of depression--currently in ascendancy--are linked to the general public's pessimism about the syndrome's prognosis. This research examined for the first time whether people with depressive symptoms would associate biological accounts of depression with pessimism about their own prognoses and whether a psychoeducation intervention portraying the biology of depression as malleable could decrease prognostic pessimism among symptomatic individuals. METHOD: In 3 studies, participants were recruited online and assessed for depression symptoms. Those with significant depressive symptomatology (a Beck Depression Inventory-II score of at least 16) rated their endorsement of biochemical and genetic causal attributions for their symptoms and indicated expected length of symptom duration. An audiovisual intervention emphasizing the malleability of gene effects and neurochemistry was developed, and its effects on symptomatic individuals' prognostic pessimism, feelings of agency, guilt, and general hopelessness were measured. RESULTS: Biochemical and genetic causal attributions for depression were significantly associated with prognostic pessimism among symptomatic individuals. The malleability intervention significantly reduced prognostic pessimism, increased feelings of agency, and decreased general hopelessness. CONCLUSIONS: Biochemical and genetic attributions for depression are related to prognostic pessimism among individuals with depressive symptoms, and not just among the general public. However, emphasizing the malleability of gene effects and brain chemistry in depression can foster more optimism about depression-related beliefs.

One versus many: capturing the use of multiple emotion regulation strategies in response to an emotion-eliciting stimulus.

The past decade and a half has witnessed a renewed interest in the study of affective processes. James Gross' process model of emotion regulation has provided a theoretical framework for this approach. This model stipulates that individuals have a repertoire of emotion regulation strategies they use in order to modify their affect and/or the situations eliciting such affect. However, empirical investigations of the use of emotion regulation strategies have largely oversimplified this model by assuming that individuals use only one regulation strategy to manage the affect elicited by a given emotion-eliciting stimulus or situation. This is problematic because it has resulted in a limited understanding of the complex process by which individuals select and implement regulation strategies. In this brief report, we present findings suggesting that people spontaneously use multiple emotion regulation strategies in response to a brief disgust-eliciting film clip. We discuss implications for future empirical work on emotion regulation strategies.

Interpersonal stress generation as a mechanism linking rumination to internalizing symptoms in early adolescents.

Rumination is a risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms in adolescents. Previous investigations of the mechanisms linking rumination to internalizing problems have focused primarily on cognitive factors. We investigated whether interpersonal stress generation plays a role in the longitudinal relationship between rumination and internalizing symptoms in young adolescents. Adolescents (Grades 6-8, N = 1,065) from an ethnically diverse community completed measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms, perceived friendship quality, and peer victimization at two assessments, 7 months apart. We determined whether rumination predicted increased exposure to peer victimization and whether changes in perceived friendship quality mediated this relationship. We also evaluated whether peer victimization mediated the association between rumination and internalizing symptoms. Adolescents who engaged in high levels of rumination at baseline were more likely to experience overt, relational, and reputational victimization at a subsequent time point 7 months later, controlling for baseline internalizing symptoms and victimization. Increased communication with peers was a significant partial mediator of this association for relational (z = 1.98, p = .048) and reputational (z = 2.52, p = .024) victimization. Exposure to overt (z = 3.37, p = .014), relational (z = 3.67, p < .001), and reputational (z = 3.78, p < .001) victimization fully mediated the association between baseline rumination and increases in internalizing symptoms over the study period. These findings suggest that interpersonal stress generation is a mechanism linking rumination to internalizing problems in adolescents and highlight the importance of targeting interpersonal factors in treatment and preventive interventions for adolescents who engage in rumination.

The influence of context on the implementation of adaptive emotion regulation strategies.

Putatively adaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., acceptance, problem solving, reappraisal) show weaker associations with psychopathology than putatively maladaptive strategies (e.g., avoidance, self-criticism, hiding expression, suppression of experience, worry, rumination). This is puzzling, given the central role that adaptive strategies play in a wide range of psychotherapeutic approaches. We explored this asymmetry by examining the effects of context (i.e., emotion intensity, type of emotion, social vs. academic circumstances) on the implementation of adaptive and maladaptive strategies. We asked 111 participants to describe 8 emotion-eliciting situations and identify which strategies they used in order to regulate their affect. We found support for a contextual model of emotion regulation, in which adaptive strategies were implemented with more cross-situational variability than maladaptive strategies. In addition, the variability in implementation of two adaptive strategies (acceptance, problem solving) predicted lower levels of psychopathology, suggesting that flexible implementation of such strategies in line with contextual demands is associated with better mental health. We discuss these findings by underscoring the importance of adopting a functional approach to the delineation of contextual factors that influence the implementation of emotion regulation strategies.

When are adaptive strategies most predictive of psychopathology?

In recent work, we showed that putatively adaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and acceptance, have a weaker association with psychopathology than putatively maladaptive strategies, such as rumination, suppression, and avoidance (e.g., Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2010; Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010). In this investigation, we examined the interaction between adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in the prediction of psychopathology symptoms (depression, anxiety, and alcohol problems) concurrently and prospectively. We assessed trait emotion regulation and psychopathology symptoms in a sample of community residents at Time 1 (N = 1,317) and then reassessed psychopathology at Time 2 (N = 1,132). Cross-sectionally, we found that the relationship between adaptive strategies and psychopathology symptoms was moderated by levels of maladaptive strategies: adaptive strategies had a negative association with psychopathology symptoms only at high levels of maladaptive strategies. In contrast, adaptive strategies showed no prospective relationship to psychopathology symptoms either alone or in interaction with maladaptive strategies. We discuss the implications of this investigation for future work on the contextual factors surrounding the deployment of emotion regulation strategies.

Emotion regulation and psychopathology: the role of gender.

This review addresses three questions regarding the relationships among gender, emotion regulation, and psychopathology: (a) are there gender differences in emotion regulation strategies, (b) are emotion regulation strategies similarly related to psychopathology in men and women, and (c) do gender differences in emotion regulation strategies account for gender differences in psychopathology? Women report using most emotion regulation strategies more than men do, and emotion regulation strategies are similarly related to psychopathology in women and men. More rumination in women compared to men partially accounts for greater depression and anxiety in women compared to men, while a greater tendency to use alcohol to cope partially accounts for more alcohol misuse in men compared to women. The literature on emotion regulation is likely missing vital information on how men regulate their emotions. I discuss lessons learned and questions raised about the relationships between gender differences in emotion regulation and gender differences in psychopathology.