Measuring Subtypes of Emotion Regulation: From Broad Behavioural Skills to Idiosyncratic Meaning-making.

UNLABELLED: The current paper introduces the notion of clinically relevant subtypes of emotion regulation behaviours. A new measure of emotion regulation, the Complexity of Emotional Regulation Scale (CERS), was established as psychometrically sound. It was positively correlated with a measure of emotional awareness (r = 0.28, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with measures of self-criticism (r = -0.28, p < 0.001) and depression (r = -0.35, p = 0.025), among others. Participants were drawn from two samples: clients from a university counselling centre and a non-clinical student sample. Comparisons were conducted between non-clinical and clinical samples to determine the effects of depression and other symptoms of psychopathology on participant's generation of strategies for emotion regulation. Participants in the clinical sample more often identified an intention to soothe but did not follow through as compared with the non-clinical group, F(1, 198) = 4.662, p < 0.04. Furthermore, individuals in the non-clinical sample were more likely to engage in specific, meaning-making strategies when compared with the clinical group, F(1, 198) = 5.875, p < 0.02. Implications from the current studies suggest the possible applicability of the CERS to clinical settings using an interview rather than questionnaire format. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE: Emotion regulation should be thought of as being on a continuum of complexity, where strategies range from general ('one size fits all') action to specific ('personal and idiosyncratic') meaning. The best emotion regulation strategy depends on a client's presenting difficulty and level of distress.

The influence of carer fear and self-blame when supporting a loved one with an eating disorder.

Carers often feel disempowered and engage in behaviours that inadvertently enable their loved one's ED symptoms and yet little is known regarding these processes. This study examined the relationships among fear, self-blame, self-efficacy, and accommodating and enabling behaviours in 137 carers of adolescents and adults with ED. The results revealed that fear and self-blame predicted low carer self-efficacy in supporting their loved one's recovery as well as the extent to which carers reported engaging in recovery-interfering behaviours. The relevance of these findings are discussed in the context of family-oriented ED therapies and highlight the importance for clinicians to attend to and help to process strong emotions in carers, in order to improve their supportive efforts and, ultimately, ED outcomes.

Executive function in pathological gamblers and healthy controls.

Executive function (EF) deficits may underlie some of the impulse control problems seen in pathological gambling. Pathological gamblers (PGs, n = 45) and controls (n = 45) were compared on several measures of EF (including measures of response inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility and perseveration, planning and decision-making), as well as memory and intelligence tests to examine whether PGs evidence EF dysfunction. Compared with controls, PGs exhibited specific deficits on measures of planning and decision-making. PGs also exhibited relative deficits on a measure of perseveration, but this deficit was no longer significant after controlling for group differences in intelligence. These results suggest that PGs may experience deficits on specific components of EF.

Affective and cognitive correlates of gambling behavior in university students.

The purpose of the following study was to explore certain affective and cognitive components and their relationships to gambling behavior in an undergraduate population. Specifically, the aim was to predict gambling severity using depression scores on the BDI-II, the dependency and self-criticism subscales on the DEQ, emotional awareness scores on the LEAS, cognitive flexibility scores from the STROOP, and a creativity subtests from the TTCT. Participants were 200 undergraduate students and 3.5-7.5% of individuals reported some level of problematic gambling behavior. Multiple regression analysis indicated that self-criticism and creative originality were significant predictors of gambling behavior, explaining 7.6% of the variance. Further analyses reveal a non-linear trend in the creative originality of those who gamble; only the at-risk gamblers were high in creativity whereas abstainers and problematic gamblers display similarly lower levels of creativity. Results are discussed in regards to Blaszczynski and Nower's Addiction 97:487-499 (2002) subtypes of gambling vulnerability.

The influence of shyness on the use of Facebook in an undergraduate sample.

Researchers have suggested that individual differences will help to determine which online communication tools appeal to and are used by different individuals. With respect to the domain of computer-mediated communication, shyness is a particular personality trait of interest, as forums provide opportunities for social interactions that shy individuals might otherwise avoid. The present study investigated the personality trait of shyness and its relation with certain features of an online communication tool (Facebook). We hypothesized that shyness would be significantly related to the quantity of time spent on Facebook, the number of contacts added to one's Facebook profile, and attitudes toward Facebook. Our findings supported that shyness was significantly positively correlated with the time spent on Facebook and having favorable attitudes toward the social networking site. Furthermore, shyness was significantly negatively correlated with the number of Facebook "Friends.'' Limitations of the present study and suggestions for future research are addressed.