A round peg in a square hole: strategy-situation fit of intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies and controllability.

Although the importance of contextual factors is often recognised, research on emotion regulation strategies (ERS) has mainly focused so far on the effectiveness of ERS across situations. In the present research, we tested the strategy-situation fit hypothesis, which does not assume general effectiveness of ERS but instead stresses the importance of the congruency between ERS and the contexts in which they are used. Using a longitudinal Ambulatory Assessment dataset (N = 138), we found that controllability of a situation positively moderated the effectiveness of interpersonal ERS, such that, e.g. providing feedback to others was significantly associated with less positive feelings but only in less controllable situations. Intrapersonal ERS were negatively moderated by controllability, such that downplaying a negative situation was associated with less negative feelings in less controllable situations. Finally, favouring interpersonal over intrapersonal ERS was also positively moderated by controllability, demonstrating the situational fit of ERS in daily life.

Cognitive reappraisal capacity mediates the relationship between prefrontal recruitment during reappraisal of anger-eliciting events and paranoia-proneness.

Difficulties in emotion regulation, particularly in using adaptive regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal, are a commonly observed correlate of paranoia. While it has been suggested that poor implementation of cognitive reappraisal in dealing with aversive events precedes the onset of subclinical paranoid thinking, there is little empirical research on neural activation patterns during cognitive reappraisal efforts that might indicate vulnerability towards paranoid thinking. Prefrontal EEG alpha asymmetry changes were recorded while n = 57 participants were generating alternative appraisals of anger-eliciting events, and were linked to a behavioral measure of basic cognitive reappraisal capacity and self-reported paranoia proneness (assessed by personality facets of hostility and suspiciousness; Personality Inventory for DSM-5). Mediation analysis revealed that less left-lateralized activation at ventrolateral prefrontal sites during reappraisal efforts predicted a higher degree of paranoia proneness. This relationship was mediated through poorer cognitive reappraisal capacity. Matching previous evidence, findings suggest that inappropriate brain activation during reappraisal efforts impairs individuals' capacity to come up with effective alternative interpretations for anger-evoking situations, which may accentuate personality features related to increased paranoid thinking. The findings add to our understanding of neurally underpinned impairments in the capacity to generate cognitive reappraisals and their link to maladaptive personality and behavior.

Gender Differences in Generating Cognitive Reappraisals for Threatening Situations: Reappraisal Capacity Shields Against Depressive Symptoms in Men, but Not Women.

Despite major research interest regarding gender differences in emotion regulation, it is still not clear whether men and women differ in their basic capacity to implement specific emotion regulation strategies, as opposed to indications of the habitual use of these strategies in self-reports. Similarly, little is known on how such basic capacities relate to indices of well-being in both sexes. This study took a novel approach by investigating gender differences in the capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals in adverse situations in a sample of 67 female and 59 male students, using a maximum performance test of the inventiveness in generating reappraisals. Participants' self-perceived efficacy in emotion regulation was additionally assessed. Analyses showed that men and women did not differ in their basic capacity to generate alternative appraisals for anxiety-eliciting scenarios, suggesting similar functional cognitive mechanisms in the implementation of this strategy. Yet, higher cognitive reappraisal capacity predicted fewer depressive daily-life experiences in men only. These findings suggest that in the case of cognitive reappraisal, benefits for well-being in women might depend on a more complex combination of basic ability, habits, and efficacy-beliefs, along with the use of other emotion regulation strategies. The results of this study may have useful implications for psychotherapy research and practice.

Reappraisal inventiveness: impact of appropriate brain activation during efforts to generate alternative appraisals on the perception of chronic stress in women.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous research indicated that more left-lateralized prefrontal activation during cognitive reappraisal efforts was linked to a greater capacity for generating reappraisals, which is a prerequisite for the effective implementation of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life. The present study examined whether the supposedly appropriate brain activation is relevant in terms of more distal outcomes, i.e., chronic stress perception. DESIGN AND METHODS: Prefrontal EEG alpha asymmetry was recorded while female participants were generating reappraisals for stressful events and was correlated with their self-reported chronic stress levels in everyday life (n = 80). RESULTS: Women showing less left-lateralized brain activity in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex during cognitive reappraisal efforts reported experiencing more stress in their daily lives. This effect was independent of self-efficacy beliefs in managing negative emotions. CONCLUSION: These findings underline the practical relevance of individual differences in appropriate brain activation during emotion regulation efforts and the assumedly related basic capacity for the generation of cognitive reappraisals to the feeling of being stressed. Implications include the selection of interventions for the improvement of coping with stress in women in whom the capability for appropriate brain activation during reappraisal efforts may be impaired, e.g., due to depression or old age.

Affective creativity meets classic creativity in the scanner.

The investigation of neurocognitive processes underlying more real-life creative behavior is among the greatest challenges in creativity research. In this fMRI study, we addressed this issue by investigating functional patterns of brain activity while participants were required to be creative in an affective context. Affective creativity was assessed in terms of individual's inventiveness in generating alternative appraisals for anger-evoking events, which has recently emerged as a new ability concept in cognitive reappraisal research. In addition, a classic divergent thinking task was administered. Both creativity tasks yielded strong activation in left prefrontal regions, indicating their shared cognitive processing demands like the inhibition of prepotent responses, shifting between different perspectives and controlled memory retrieval. Regarding task-specific differences, classic creative ideation activated a characteristic divergent thinking network comprising the left supramarginal, inferior temporal, and inferior frontal gyri. Affective creativity on the other hand specifically recruited the right superior frontal gyrus, presumably involved in the postretrieval monitoring of reappraisal success, and core hubs of the default-mode network, which are also implicated in social cognition. As a whole, by taking creativity research to the realm of emotion, this study advances our understanding of how more real-life creativity is rooted in the brain. Hum Brain Mapp 39:393-406, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals is reflected in asymmetric activation of frontal brain regions.

Encouraging patients to use cognitive reappraisal constitutes the core of modern psychotherapeutic approaches. However, evidence for specific neural correlates of the capacity for cognitive reappraisal, which is a necessary prerequisite for the effective implementation of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life, has been sparse to date. In the present study, the capacity for cognitive reappraisal was studied in terms of the participants' inventiveness in generating alternative appraisals of anger-evoking events, and was correlated with frontal EEG alpha asymmetry recorded while the participants were generating reappraisals as well as during a common creative idea generation task. During cognitive reappraisal efforts, individuals higher on the capacity for generating cognitive reappraisals showed more left-lateralized activity in lateral prefrontal cortex, specifically in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex extending toward the frontal pole. This effect was observed independently from the activation during novel idea generation without emotional component, indicating that specific demands are implicated in the generation of reappraisals of emotional events. Taken together, the results indicate that individuals higher on the capacity for cognitive reappraisal are more capable or more prone to recruit appropriate brain regions when the situation demands coming up with alternative appraisals of stressful events. The findings may stimulate the development of more individually targeted interventions.

Adaptive modes of rumination: the role of subjective anger.

Rumination has been demonstrated to have negative consequences on affect, behaviour, and physiological markers. Recent studies, however, suggest that distinct "modes" of anger-associated rumination may lead to several positive consequences. Previous research primarily used recall procedures of anger episodes to elicit anger. By contrast, the present study focused on the effect of subjective anger on the process of rumination and tested its effects in a "staged" social interaction where a confederate provoked participants. Subsequently, participants engaged in rumination about the anger-eliciting event either in an abstract-distanced or a concrete-immersed rumination mode. Results showed an adaptive effect of abstract-distanced rumination on subjective anger primarily if anger is high prior to rumination. The findings also suggest different self-reported anger-related coping strategies in response to subjective anger intensity. These findings highlight that an abstract-distanced rumination may have differential effects on affective outcomes and anger-related coping strategies.

Creative ways to well-being: Reappraisal inventiveness in the context of anger-evoking situations.

Neuroscientific studies in the field of creativity mainly focused on tasks drawing on basic verbal divergent thinking demands. This study took a step further by investigating brain mechanisms in response to other types of creative behavior, involving more "real-life" creativity demands in the context of emotion regulation and well-being. Specifically, functional patterns of EEG alpha activity were investigated while participants were required to generate as many and as different ways as possible to reappraise presented anger-eliciting situations in a manner that reduces their anger. Cognitive reappraisal involves some of the same cognitive processes as in conventional verbal creativity tasks, inasmuch as it requires an individual to inhibit or disengage from an emotional event, to shift attention between different perspectives, and to flexibly adopt new solutions. To examine whether alpha oscillations during cognitive reappraisal are different from those during conventional creative ideation, the EEG was also assessed during performance of the Alternative Uses task, requiring individuals to generate as many and as original uses of an object as possible. While cognitive reappraisal was associated with a similar pattern of alpha power as observed in conventional verbal creative ideation, the former yielded significantly stronger alpha power increases at prefrontal sites, along with lower alpha increases at more posterior cortical sites, indicating higher cognitive control and less spontaneous imaginative thought processes in the generation of effective strategies to regulate an ongoing negative emotional state.

No smile like another: adult age differences in identifying emotions that accompany smiles.

People smile in various emotional contexts, for example, when they are amused or angry or simply being polite. We investigated whether younger and older adults differ in how well they are able to identify the emotional experiences accompanying smile expressions, and whether the age of the smiling person plays a role in this respect. With this aim, we produced 80 video episodes of three types of smile expressions: positive-affect smiles had been spontaneously displayed by target persons as they were watching amusing film clips and cartoons. Negative-affect smiles had been displayed spontaneously by target persons during an interaction in which they were being unfairly accused. Affectively neutral smiles were posed upon request. Differences in the accompanying emotional experiences were validated by target persons' self-reports. These smile videos served as experimental stimuli in two studies with younger and older adult participants. In Study 1, older participants were less likely to attribute positive emotions to smiles, and more likely to assume that a smile was posed. Furthermore, younger participants were more accurate than older adults at identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles. In Study 2, both younger and older participants attributed positive emotions more frequently to smiles shown by older as compared to younger target persons, but older participants did so less frequently than younger participants. Again, younger participants were more accurate than older participants in identifying emotional experiences accompanying smiles, but this effect was attenuated for older target persons. Older participants could better identify the emotional state accompanying smiles shown by older than by younger target persons. Taken together, these findings indicate that there is an age-related decline in the ability to decipher the emotional meaning of smiles presented without context, which, however, is attenuated when the smiling person is also an older adult.

Positive beliefs about rumination are associated with ruminative thinking and affect in daily life: evidence for a metacognitive view on depression.

BACKGROUND: Self-regulatory executive function theory (Wells and Matthews, 1994; Wells, 2008) stresses the role of metacognitions in the development of emotional disorders. Within this metacognitive model, positive beliefs about ruminative thinking are thought to be a risk factor for engaging in rumination and subsequently for depression. However, most of the existing research relies on retrospective self-report trait measures. AIMS: The aim of the present study was to examine the theory's predictions with an Ecological Momentary Assessment approach capturing rumination as it occurs in daily life. METHOD: Non-clinical participants (N = 93) were equipped with electronic diaries and completed four signal-contingent momentary self-reports per day for 4 weeks. A multilevel mediation model was computed to examine associations between positive beliefs about rumination and ruminative thinking and negative affect in daily life. RESULTS: Positive beliefs about rumination were significantly associated with ruminative thinking as it occurs in daily life. We further found evidence for a negative association with positive affect that was completely mediated via ruminative thinking in daily life occurring in response to negative emotions. CONCLUSIONS: Our results add ecologically valid corroborating evidence for the metacognitive model of emotional disorders within the framework of self-regulatory executive function theory.

Reappraisal inventiveness: the ability to create different reappraisals of critical situations.

In this article, we propose a new ability approach to reappraisal that focuses on individual differences in the ability to spontaneously generate different reappraisals for critical situations. Adopting concepts from the realms of creativity and divergent thinking, we developed the Reappraisal Inventiveness Test (RIT) to measure a person's fluency and flexibility in inventing as many categorically different reappraisals for an anger-eliciting situation as possible within a limited period of time. The results of two studies in which we examined the psychometric characteristics of the RIT provided evidence that the RIT produces reliable test scores. The construct validity of the RIT was confirmed by positive associations of reappraisal inventiveness with openness to experience and tests that measure divergent thinking. Moreover, RIT performance proved to be unrelated to the self-reported habitual use of reappraisal, indicating differences between ability tests and self-report measures. RIT performance was not significantly related to Neuroticism or to trait anger. In our view, this points to the notion that effective emotion regulation is a function of both the ability and the motivation to act upon one's ability to generate reappraisals for critical situations.

Cardiac vagal tone is associated with social engagement and self-regulation.

The polyvagal theory (Porges, 2007) represents a biobehavioral model that relates autonomic functioning to self-regulation and social engagement. The aim of the two presented studies was to test the proposed association of cardiac vagal tone (CVT), assessed via resting high-frequency heart rate variability (respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA), with coping, emotion-regulation, and social engagement in young adults. In Study 1 (retrospective self-report), RSA was positively associated with engagement coping (situation control, response control, positive self-instructions, social-support seeking) and aspects of social well-being. In Study 2 (ecological momentary assessment), for 28 days following the initial assessment, RSA predicted less use of disengagement strategies (acceptance and avoidance) for regulating negative emotions and more use of socially adaptive emotion-regulation strategies (i.e., social-support seeking as a reaction to sadness and making a concession as a reaction to anger caused by others). Furthermore, RSA was higher in participants who reported no anger episodes compared to those who reported at least one anger episode and was positively associated with reported episodes of negative emotions. Results support the association proposed by the PVT between CVT and self-regulatory behavior, which promotes social bonds.

The more the better? The relationship between mismatches in social support and subjective well-being in daily life.

In this study, we examined the relationship between discrepancies between desired and received support and subjective well-being, as indicated by negative affect and perceived stress, in daily life. Participants were 30 undergraduates who were equipped with hand-held computers for seven days. Results showed that underprovision of support predicted lower well-being, whereas overprovision was related to higher well-being, suggesting a linear relationship. Emotional support proved to be more influential than practical and informational support. In contrast to previous research, perceived social support turned out to be unrelated to well-being in daily life.

Cardiac autonomic regulation and anger coping in adolescents.

The current study investigated spontaneous anger coping, cardiac autonomic regulation and phasic heart rate responses to anger provocation. Forty-five adolescents (27 female, mean age 14.7 years) attended the single experimental session, which included monitoring of continuous heart rate and blood pressure responses to anger provocation (receiving an unfair offer) using a modified version of the Ultimatum Game (UG). Vagal activation was operationalized as high frequency component of heart rate variability during rest periods, and spontaneous baroreflex-sensitivity (SBR) during the UG. Adolescents employing cognitive reappraisal showed higher vagal activity under resting conditions and attenuated heart rate deceleration after receiving the unfair offer compared with participants who tended to ruminate about their anger and experienced injustice. Results from SBR suggested vagal withdrawal in anger ruminators during contemplation of the unfair offer. These results provide further support for the specificity and sensitivity of vagal responses to higher cortical functions such as emotion regulation.

Daily hassles and emotional eating in obese adolescents under restricted dietary conditions--the role of ruminative thinking.

Emotional eating is conceptualized as eating in response to negative affect or distress and is discussed as a mechanism leading to eating binges. Recent evidence suggests that eating may not only be triggered by negative affect, but also ruminative thinking. We report results of an experience sampling study examining the role of rumination for emotional eating in 16 obese adolescents (M=15.5 years, S.D.=1.4; range 14-17, body mass index M = 31.1 kgm(-2), S.D.=5.5) under restricted dietary conditions. We hypothesized that daily hassles type of stress predicted the individuals' desire to eat, with the predictive value further increased when negative affect and rumination were accounted for. The results of mixed regression modeling were in line with our predictions, suggesting a significant contribution of ruminative thinking to the mechanisms of negative affect induced eating.

The spirited, the observant, and the disheartened: social concepts of optimism, realism, and pessimism.

The social concepts of optimism, pessimism, and realism were investigated by assessing the prototypical acts (thoughts, feelings, goals, and actions) that laypersons assign to optimists, pessimists, and realists responding to a controllable and an uncontrollable situation. Optimists and realists, but not pessimists, were seen as adjusting their behavior to the situation. However, whereas optimists were characterized by flexibility in thoughts and feelings but invariance in goals and actions (i.e., they pursued their goals in both controllable and uncontrollable situations), the act profiles assigned to realists varied on all of these dimensions. The profile assigned to pessimists was characterized by cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral invariance, encompassing negative construals of the situation, giving up, and a focus on distress.