Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

This study examined emotional reactivity and emotion regulation strategies used by participants high (n = 41) and low (n = 55) in borderline personality (BP) features. Participants were randomly assigned to a neutral or fear emotion induction, and emotional responses (self-report and psychophysiological) were assessed. Participants also reported the types of strategies they used to regulate their emotions during the emotion induction. The high-BP (but not low-BP) participants reported greater fear, Upset, and hostility in the fear condition compared with the neutral condition. The participants in the fear condition evidenced vagal withdrawal, relative to the neutral condition, although there was some evidence of vagal withdrawal among the high-BP group in the neutral condition as well. Further, the high-BP (vs. low-BP) participants reported greater use of distraction, cognitive reappraisal, and emotion suppression, and less use of emotional acceptance. Reported use of acceptance partially mediated the moderation effect of BP features on the relationship between condition and reported hostility.

Within dysphoria, rumination has been identified as a particularly maladaptive emotion regulation strategy linked to prolonged negative affect and the onset of depressive episodes. Until now, the majority of research assessing naturally occurring rumination has utilized trait rumination measures; however, additional information may be obtained by assessing state rumination. The current study examined the association between state rumination and participants' emotional recovery from stress. In addition, biased attention toward emotional information was investigated as a mechanism that might underlie state rumination. Participants completed the exogenous cuing task to assess attentional engagement and disengagement from emotional facial expressions followed by a psychosocial stressor. State rumination and self-reported sadness were measured during the recovery period. As expected, state rumination was associated with less recovery in sadness scores, even after controlling for trait rumination and depressive symptoms. Moreover, within the high dysphoria group, participants who had more difficulty disengaging from emotional expressions reported higher levels of rumination in response to the stressor. Results highlight an important association between state rumination and individuals' recovery from stress, and suggest that difficulty disengaging attention from emotional expressions might be one mechanism underlying state rumination in dysphoria.

This study examined the effect of personalized trauma cue exposure (relative to neutral cue exposure) on cocaine cravings within a sample of trauma-exposed cocaine dependent patients with and without current PTSD. We also examined the extent to which negative affect (as well as the discrete negative emotional states of anxiety, anger, and shame/guilt) in response to the trauma cue accounted for these cocaine cravings. Sixty cocaine dependent patients in residential substance use treatment (50% with PTSD) were exposed to a personalized trauma and neutral script on separate days. Self-reported cocaine cravings and emotional response prior to and following each script were assessed. PTSD was associated with increased cocaine cravings following a personalized trauma (but not a neutral) script, and, for men specifically, the experience of self-conscious emotions (shame and guilt) to the trauma script mediated the relationship between PTSD and cocaine cravings following trauma script exposure. Treatment implications are discussed.

There is burgeoning interest in the study of positive emotion regulation and psychopathology. Given the significant public health costs and the tremendous variance in national prevalence rates associated with many disorders of positive emotion, it is critical to reach an understanding of how cultural factors, along with biological factors, mutually influence positive emotion regulation. Progress in this domain has been relatively unexplored, however, underscoring the need for an integrative review and empirical roadmap for investigating the cultural neuroscientific contributions to positive emotion disturbance for both affective and clinical science domains. The present paper thus provides a multidisciplinary, cultural neuroscience approach to better understand positive emotion regulation and psychopathology. We conclude with a future roadmap for researchers aimed at harnessing positive emotion and alleviating the burden of mental illness cross-culturally.

Overweight and obese individuals are at greater risk for the development of a major depressive disorder. A main factor contributing to negative affect in obese women is body-related worrying. Given the potential benefits of various emotion regulation (ER) strategies in the modification of negative affect, the aim of the present study was to test whether experimentally-induced body dissatisfaction can be modified by ER strategies in obese women. Body dissatisfaction was experimentally induced in a group of 37 obese women using model pictures. Following this, participants were randomly assigned to two different ER strategies: rumination on present emotions and thoughts, or acceptance of whatever thoughts and feelings come up. Weight and appearance satisfaction, distress about body feelings and mood were assessed both prior to, immediately after, and 4 min after the induction. Psychophysiological parameters were assessed continuously. The main results reveal that after the use of ER strategies, weight and appearance satisfaction returned to baseline levels. However, in the rumination condition, distress about body feelings remained above and mood below baseline. In the acceptance condition distress and mood returned to baseline levels. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of ER strategies with regard to reducing body-related distress.

Central to models of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is the notion that dysfunctional application of avoidant emotion regulation strategies results in elevated emotional reactivity. To test this account, participants (N = 87) with varying severity of BPD underwent two negative mood inductions, the first with no particular instructions and the second following suppress or accept instructions. BPD severity was associated with greater negative affect at baseline. While BPD severity was associated with greater avoidance, this did not lead to differential reactivity or recovery when viewing the uninstructed film. Both instructed suppression and acceptance reduced emotional reactivity and accelerated recovery in the second film. While BPD severity did not influence how effectively instructed regulation could manage self- reported affect, those with more marked symptoms were trend less effective at regulating electrodermal response. Overall, these data provide little support for the notion that avoidant regulation strategies might lead to emotional hyper-reactivity in BPD, inconsistent with emotional dysregulation accounts of the disorder.

Empirically-supported theories posit that individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) experience uncomfortable affective states and distress in response to perceived emotionally-laden contexts (e.g., interpersonal situations), and are motivated to avoid emotional content through worry. Although we have extensive self-report and physiological evidence for the role of emotional avoidance and subsequent worry in GAD, behavioral evidence is lacking. In the current study, we investigated behavioral avoidance of emotion and subsequent worry in GAD, as well as in depression. Participants viewed either an anxious or neutral video and then viewed slides consisting of mutilation images, followed by a worry assessment. We recorded facial expressivity during the slide-viewing task. We used diminished facial expressivity and disengagement from the slide-viewing task as indices of behavioral avoidance. Our findings provide preliminary support for the assertion that emotional avoidance demonstrates an exacerbating role in worry and that this relationship might be particularly pronounced in GAD.

It is widely thought that many psychological disorders involve emotion dysregulation. However, it is not yet clear just how many of the disorders presented in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) are formally characterized by emotion regulation difficulties and related affective disturbances. To address this issue, we first define emotion, emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, and affective disturbance. Next, we systematically code the psychological disorders listed in the DSM-IV-TR in terms of the presence or absence of affective disturbance and emotion dysregulation. We then use an emotion regulation perspective to examine affective disturbances in Axis II disorders, with a focus on borderline personality disorder (BPD). Finally, in the last section, we discuss some of the implications of our emotion regulation perspective for clinical assessment and intervention.

This paper analyses some of the key issues raised across the eight contributions of the present special issue. First, the remarkable ubiquity of emotion regulation (ER) problems throughout psychopathology will be stressed, and the merits of relying on emotion science to further our understanding of psychopathology will be discussed. Then, the status of ER strategies in psychopathology will be discussed: Are they causes, consequences, mediators, or moderators of psychopathology? Developing this question implies considering the functions served by ER strategies and their interaction with the context in which they appear. Next, we examine the benefits of an ER approach to psychopathology for clinical practice, both for case conceptualization and for psychological treatment. Finally, some directions for future research are proposed. This paper analyses some of the key issues raised across the eight contributions of the present special issue. First, the remarkable ubiquity of emotion regulation (ER) problems throughout psychopathology will be stressed, and the merits of relying on emotion science to further our understanding of psychopathology will be discussed. Then, the status of ER strategies in psychopathology will be discussed: Are they causes, consequences, mediators, or moderators of psychopathology? Developing this question implies considering the functions served by ER strategies and their interaction with the context in which they appear. Next, we examine the benefits of an ER approach to psychopathology for clinical practice, both for case conceptualization and for psychological treatment. Finally, some directions for future research are proposed.