Cognitive Costs of Reappraisal Depend on Both Emotional Stimulus Intensity and Individual Differences in Habitual Reappraisal

Time-dependent relations between emotion regulation, frustration, and metacognitive strategy use in technology-mediated learning

Understanding how learners regulate their emotions and engage in metacognitive strategies is crucial for fostering self-regulated learning, particularly in technology-mediated learning. This study examines the temporal relationships between two emotion regulation (ER) strategies, reappraisal and suppression, frustration, and use of progress monitoring as metacognitive strategy, within the context of an educational game on financial literacy. The study involved 82 undergraduate students whose levels of frustration, progress monitoring behaviour, ER strategies were assessed at various points during the learning task. Findings revealed that the use of both reappraisal and suppression decreased during the learning task. Additionally, both ER strategies were negatively associated with frustration, although the relationship between reappraisal and frustration diminished over time. Frustration was negatively related to progress monitoring, indicating that effective emotion regulation can help maintain engagement in metacognitive strategies by keeping cognitive resources available. Notably, suppression and progress monitoring showed a positive relation that increased over time, highlighting the potential usefulness of suppression in extended learning tasks, despite its generally lower effectiveness compared to reappraisal. The results highlight the importance of considering temporal dynamics in the application of ER strategies during extended learning. Practical implications for the design of technology-mediated learning environments and educational interventions are proposed.

Investigating the Role of Anger and Cognitive Malfunction in Mental Health: A Cross-Sectional Exploration Paving the Way for a Subsequent Experiment

The functional outcomes associated with subjective well-being (SWB) and the detrimental aspects of psychological distress (PD) make it essential to explore contributing factors. The present study investigated a model about the existing gap in the determining role of trait anger (TA), state anger (SA), cognitive reappraisal (CR), rumination and cognitive failure (CF) as predictors of SWB and PD. The study contributes by exploring the interaction of dispositional, situation factors and emotional regulation strategies in shaping SWB and PD in the Indian Sample. A cross-sectional survey design was employed wherein 600 young adults aged 18-40 (Mage = 22.13, SDage = 4.06) were recruited from Uttar Pradesh, India using a multi-level cluster sampling method. The data were collected using questionnaires in the field setting during August-December 2021. Regression and path analysis revealed that the proposed predictors explained significant variance in SWB and PD, i.e., R2 = 0.24, F (5, 594) = 38.03, p < 0.01, Cohen f2 =0.31 and R2 = 0.35, F (5, 594) = 66.40, p < 0.01, Cohen f2 = 0.53, respectively. The models also fit well with the statistical indices. Except CR, all predictors emerged as significant risk factors. The findings suggest that the interventions to reduce PD and enhance SWB may consider inculcating CR and reducing higher levels of TA, SA, rumination and CF to enhance an individual's adaptive functioning. The findings pave the way for conducting a pre-planned experiment to study the outcomes of various levels of TA in regulating incidental anger (SA) employing CR and rumination.

Implicit, But Not Explicit, Emotion Regulation Relieves Unpleasant Neural Responses Evoked by High-Intensity Negative Images

Evidence suggests that explicit reappraisal has limited regulatory effects on high-intensity emotions, mainly due to the depletion of cognitive resources occupied by the high-intensity emotional stimulus itself. The implicit form of reappraisal has proved to be resource-saving and therefore might be an ideal strategy to achieve the desired regulatory effect in high-intensity situations. In this study, we explored the regulatory effect of explicit and implicit reappraisal when participants encountered low- and high-intensity negative images. The subjective emotional rating indicated that both explicit and implicit reappraisal down-regulated negative experiences, irrespective of intensity. However, the amplitude of the parietal late positive potential (LPP; a neural index of experienced emotional intensity) showed that only implicit reappraisal had significant regulatory effects in the high-intensity context, though both explicit and implicit reappraisal successfully reduced the emotional neural responses elicited by low-intensity negative images. Meanwhile, implicit reappraisal led to a smaller frontal LPP amplitude (an index of cognitive cost) compared to explicit reappraisal, indicating that the implementation of implicit reappraisal consumes limited cognitive control resources. Furthermore, we found a prolonged effect of implicit emotion regulation introduced by training procedures. Taken together, these findings not only reveal that implicit reappraisal is suitable to relieve high-intensity negative experiences as well as neural responses, but also highlight the potential benefit of trained implicit regulation in clinical populations whose frontal control resources are limited.

The Association of Emotion Regulation with Distress Tolerance Depends on a Neural Correlate of Cognitive Control

BACKGROUND

Distress tolerance is associated with transdiagnostic mental health problems. Theory and research implicate emotion regulation and cognitive control as factors in distress tolerance. But their unique contributions and interdependency have been unclear. This study tested how emotion regulation and the N2, a neural index of cognitive control, uniquely and interactively predicted distress tolerance.

METHODS

Undergraduate psychology students (N = 57) completed self-report measures and a Go-NoGo task, from which the N2 was extracted using PCA. The Go-NoGo task was counter-balanced to avoid confounding stimulus characteristics and frequency of stimulus presentation.

RESULTS

Emotion regulation predicted distress tolerance, but the N2 did not. The association of emotion regulation with distress tolerance was moderated by the N2, such that the association was larger at higher N2 amplitudes.

LIMITATIONS

The use of a non-clinical student sample limits the generalizability of the results. The data are cross-sectional and correlational, preventing conclusions about causality.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate that emotion regulation is associated with better distress tolerance at higher levels of N2 amplitude, a neural correlate of cognitive control. Emotion regulation may be more effective at enabling distress tolerance in individuals with better cognitive control. This supports past work indicating that distress tolerance interventions may benefit by developing emotion regulation skills. Additional research is needed to test if such an approach is more effective in individuals with better cognitive control.

Effects of positive reappraisal and self-distancing on the meaningfulness of everyday negative events

Current work on meaning-making has primarily focused on major negative life events such as trauma and loss, leaving common daily adversities unexplored. This study aimed to examine how utilizing meaning-making strategies such as positive reappraisal and self-distancing (in isolation or in combination) can facilitate an adaptive processing of these daily negative experiences. Overall meaning and facets of meaning (coherence, purpose, and significance/mattering) were assessed at both global and situational levels. Results suggested that positive reappraisal was generally effective for enhancing situational meaning but not under all conditions. Specifically, when negative experiences were high on emotional intensity, reflecting on the experience from a distanced (third-person) perspective enhanced coherence and existential mattering more than engaging in positive reappraisal. However, when negative experiences were low on intensity, distanced reflection led to less coherence and mattering than positive reappraisal. The findings of this study elucidated the importance of examining the multidimensional construct of meaning at the facet level and highlighted the importance of applying different coping strategies to effectively make meaning out of daily negative experiences.

"Studying cognitive reappraisal as an antidote to the effect of negative emotions on medical residents' learning: a randomized experiment"

BACKGROUND

Medical trainees often encounter situations that trigger emotional reactions which may hinder learning. Evidence of this effect on medical trainees is scarce and whether it could be counteracted is unclear. This study investigated the effect of negative emotions on medical residents' learning and whether cognitive reappraisal counteracts it.

METHODS

Ninety-nine medical residents participated in a three-phase experiment consisting of: (1) watching a video, either a neutral or an emotion-induction version, the latter either followed by cognitive reappraisal or not (2) learning: all participants studied the same medical text; study-time and cognitive engagement were measured; (3) test: a recall-test measured learning. Data was analysed using Chi-square test and one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS

Study time significantly varied between conditions (p = 0.002). The two emotional conditions spent similar time, both significantly less than the neutral condition. The difference in test scores failed to reach significance level (p = 0.053). While the emotional conditions performed similarly, their scores tended to be lower than those of the neutral condition.

CONCLUSION

Negative emotions can adversely affect medical residents' learning. The effect of emotions was not counteracted by cognitive reappraisal, which has been successfully employed to regulate emotions in other domains. Further research to examine emotion regulation strategies appropriate for medical education is much needed.

Understanding the benefits of extrinsic emotion regulation in depression

Depression is a serious psychiatric illness that negatively affects people's feelings, thoughts, and actions. Providing emotion regulation support to others, also termed Extrinsic Emotion Regulation (EER), reduces depressive symptoms such as perseverative thinking and negative mood. In this conceptual review paper, we argue that EER may be especially beneficial for individuals with depression because it enhances the cognitive and affective processes known to be impaired in depression. Behavioral studies have shown that EER recruits processes related to cognitive empathy, intrinsic emotion regulation (IER), and reward, all impaired in depression. Neuroimaging data support these findings by showing that EER recruits brain regions related to these three processes, such as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex which is associated with IER, the ventral striatum, which is associated with reward-related processes, and medial frontal regions related to cognitive empathy. This conceptual review paper sheds light on the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of EER for individuals with depression and therefore offers novel avenues for treatment.

The link between emotion regulation and size estimation of spiders pictures among women with fear of spiders

Introduction

Fear is associated with perceptual biases. People who are afraid of spiders perceive spiders as larger than people without this fear. It is yet unclear, however, whether this effect can be influenced by using implicit (non-deliberate) emotion regulation (ER) processes and explicit (deliberate) ER strategies, such as reappraisal and suppression.

Method

This study examined the link between implicit and explicit ER and size estimation among women afraid of spiders. After performing an implicit ER (cognitive control) task, participants rated the size and valence of spiders, wasps and butterflies shown in pictures. Participants' tendency to use reappraisal and suppression was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire.

Results

Results showed no effect of implicit ER on size and valence ratings. A greater tendency to use reappraisal was linked to reduced negative feelings on seeing the pictures of spiders. Greater use of suppression, however, was linked to increased size estimation of the spider stimuli.

Discussion

These results highlight the role of ER in perceptual biases and offer avenues for future ER-based treatments for specific phobias.

Using expectation violation models to improve the outcome of psychological treatments

Expectations are a central maintaining mechanism in mental disorders and most psychological treatments aim to directly or indirectly modify clinically relevant expectations. Therefore, it is crucial to examine why patients with mental disorders maintain dysfunctional expectations, even in light of disconfirming evidence, and how expectation-violating situations should be created in treatment settings to optimize treatment outcome and reduce the risk of treatment failures. The different psychological subdisciplines offer various approaches for understanding the underlying mechanisms of expectation development, persistence, and change. Here, we convey recommendations on how to improve psychological treatments by considering these different perspectives. Based on our expectation violation model, we argue that the outcome of expectation violation depends on several characteristics: features of the expectation-violating situation; the dynamics between the magnitude of expectation violation and cognitive immunization processes; dealing with uncertainties during and after expectation change; controlled and automatic attention processes; and the costs of expectation changes. Personality factors further add to predict outcomes and may offer a basis for personalized treatment planning. We conclude with a list of recommendations derived from basic psychology that could contribute to improved treatment outcome and to reduced risks of treatment failures.

Successful implementation of cognitive reappraisal: effects of habit and situational factors

Reappraisal is an adaptive emotion regulation strategy associated with favourable mental health outcomes. It is unclear whether the adaptive outcomes of habitual reappraisal are associated with better implementation of reappraisal when faced with negative affective situations. The current study aimed to examine whether habitual reappraisal predicts the implementation of instructed reappraisal and to evaluate the potential moderating effects of situational factors, namely - emotional intensity and reappraisal affordance. To address this question, 100 participants reported their habitual reappraisal tendency and were asked to imagine themselves in different hypothetical interpersonal situations. Participants rated emotional intensity levels and reappraisal affordance for each situation, followed by instructions to implement reappraisal. Implementation success was measured by self-reported affect pre-and-post-implementation. Results indicated that habitual reappraisal was associated with greater reappraisal implementation success. While higher intensity scores predicted greater reappraisal implementation success, intensity did not moderate the association between habitual reappraisal and reappraisal implementation success. Reappraisal affordance did not predict reappraisal implementation success, nor did it moderate the association between habitual reappraisal and reappraisal implementation success. Our findings suggest that individual-centred factors play a significant role in reappraisal implementation success, while the effects of situation-centred factors demand further investigation.

Different Roles of the Left and Right Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognitive Reappraisal: An Online Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

The ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) plays a pivotal role in cognitive reappraisal. Previous studies suggested a functional asymmetry of the bilateral VLPFC, but the evidence is still insufficient during cognitive reappraisal. In this study, we conducted an online single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS) to investigate the causal and distinct roles of the left and right VLPFC in reappraisal. Participants were instructed to reappraise (down-regulate) or attend to pictures depicting social exclusion scenarios while the spTMS was applied over the left or right VLPFC of the participants’ brains. The results showed that spTMS of either the left or the right VLPFC would increase reappraisal difficulty. Meanwhile, the outcome of reappraisal (measured by self-reported negative feelings) significantly deteriorated when the right (but not the left) VLPFC was temporally interrupted by spTMS, while the verbal fluency during oral reporting of the reappraisal strategy was significantly reduced when the left VLPFC was interrupted by spTMS. Taken together, these findings provide causal evidence for the involvement of left and right VLPFC with distinct roles: while the left VLPFC is responsible for the linguistic especially semantic process of generating and selecting appraisals according to the goal of emotion regulation, the right VLPFC plays a critical role in inhibiting inappropriate negative emotions and thoughts generated by the effective scenarios. These findings deepen our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanism of emotion regulation.

An event-related potential investigation of distanced self-talk: Replication and comparison to detached reappraisal

Emotion regulation is critical for managing stress, but many regulatory strategies consume high levels of cognitive resources to implement, which are depleted under stress. This raises a conundrum: the tools we have to feel better may be ineffective when they are most needed. Recent event-related potential (ERP) research indicates that distanced self-talk (i.e., reflecting on one's experiences using non-first-person singular pronouns and one's name) reduces negative emotional reactivity without overtaxing cognitive resources. Here, we report the first direct replication of this work and extend it by examining how distanced self-talk compares to detached reappraisal, one of the most frequently studied regulatory techniques. Sixty-seven participants were randomly assigned to an emotion regulation picture task and instructed to reflect on the feelings they experienced in response to viewing negative emotional images using distanced self-talk or detached reappraisal while ERPs were measured. Directly replicating past findings, distanced self-talk led to a reduction in an affective arousal ERP, the late positive potential (LPP), without increasing stimulus preceding negativity (SPN), an ERP that reflects anticipatory and preparatory processing. These results further bolster support for distanced self-talk as a relatively effortless emotion regulation strategy. On the other hand, detached reappraisal was neither associated with the modulation of the LPP nor the SPN. Due to the failed replication of the reappraisal effect, a direct comparison between emotion regulation strategies was not conducted. Methodological limitations that may have contributed to the reappraisal failure and future directions for comparisons between emotion regulation strategies comparison are discussed.

Effect of Cognitive Reappraisal on Archery Performance of Elite Athletes: The Mediating Effects of Sport-Confidence and Attention

Through empirical studies or laboratory tests, previous studies have shown that sport-confidence, attention, and emotion regulation are key factors in archery performance. The present study aims to further identify the effects and pathways of sport-confidence, attention, and cognitive reappraisal (a specific emotion regulation strategy) on real-world archery performance by constructing a hypothesized model to provide a basis for scientific training of athletes to improve sport performance. A survey design was utilized on a sample of 61 athletes (12 international-level athletes, 30 national-level athletes, and 19 first-class athletes) from the Chinese National Archery Team to test the model. The measurement and hypothesized models were tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that the model fit well and explained 33.6% of the variance in archery performance. Sport-confidence (total effects = 0.574, p < 0.001) and attention (total effects = 0.344, p = 0.009) were important predictive indicators of archery performance, while the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and archery performance showed considerable complexity (direct effects = −0.268, p = 0.020; total effects = −0.007, p = 0.964). We conclude that the development of sport-confidence and attention of archery athletes should be strengthened, but athletes who use cognitive reappraisal in archery competition should be mindful of its potential appropriation of cognitive resources and should be directed to improve sport-confidence or develop a positive orientation to arouse excitement.

In search of convergent regional brain abnormality in cognitive emotion regulation: A transdiagnostic neuroimaging meta-analysis

Ineffective use of adaptive cognitive strategies (e.g., reappraisal) to regulate emotional states is often reported in a wide variety of psychiatric disorders, suggesting a common characteristic across different diagnostic categories. However, the extent of shared neurobiological impairments is incompletely understood. This study, therefore, aimed to identify the transdiagnostic neural signature of disturbed reappraisal using the coordinate‐based meta‐analysis (CBMA) approach. Following the best‐practice guidelines for conducting neuroimaging meta‐analyses, we systematically searched PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science databases and tracked the references. Out of 1,608 identified publications, 32 whole‐brain neuroimaging studies were retrieved that compared brain activation in patients with psychiatric disorders and healthy controls during a reappraisal task. Then, the reported peak coordinates of group comparisons were extracted and several activation likelihood estimation (ALE) analyses were performed at three hierarchical levels to identify the potential spatial convergence: the global level (i.e., the pooled analysis and the analyses of increased/decreased activations), the experimental‐contrast level (i.e., the analyses of grouped data based on the regulation goal, stimulus valence, and instruction rule) and the disorder‐group level (i.e., the analyses across the experimental‐contrast level focused on increasing homogeneity of disorders). Surprisingly, none of our analyses provided significant convergent findings. This CBMA indicates a lack of transdiagnostic convergent regional abnormality related to reappraisal task, probably due to the complex nature of cognitive emotion regulation, heterogeneity of clinical populations, and/or experimental and statistical flexibility of individual studies.

Neural Responses During Emotion Transitions and Emotion Regulation

Why are some people more susceptible to interference from previous emotional stimuli? Neural mechanisms underlying emotion regulation are typically studied with one-off positive or negative stimuli. Less is known about how they operate during dynamic emotional experiences, which more closely resemble how emotions occur in real life. Therefore, we investigated the interaction among temporal context, stimulus content, and regulatory strategy. Image sequences included either neutral to negative emotion or negative to neutral emotion. Participants were instructed to either passively watch the emotional stimuli or apply cognitive reappraisal during the image sequences presentation. Participants also reported their habitual use of cognitive reappraisal in their daily lives on a standard scale. We measured functional connectivity (FC) with electroencephalography (EEG) source localization. A three-way interaction suggested that, in addition to momentary emotional content and regulatory effort, the temporal context of stimuli impacts the FC between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in both alpha and beta frequency bands. In the reappraisal condition-but not the passive watch conditions-, individual differences in habitual reappraisal were manifested in the FC of vmPFC-ACC in alpha band. Emotion transitions may be more demanding because prefrontal-posterior FC in the beta band decreased during emotion transitions regardless of emotional content or regulation efforts. Flexible emotion regulation enables the recruiting of neural activities in response to the content of dynamic, ever-changing experiences encountered in daily life. Studying brain responses to dynamic emotional stimuli may shed light on individual differences in adaptation and psychological health. It also provides a more ecologically valid assessment of emotion regulation.

Postpartum Stress and Neural Regulation of Emotion among First-Time Mothers

Early parenting relies on emotion regulation capabilities, as mothers are responsible for regulating both their own emotional state and that of their infant during a time of new parenting-related neural plasticity and potentially increased stress. Previous research highlights the importance of frontal cortical regions in facilitating effective emotion regulation, but few studies have investigated the neural regulation of emotion among postpartum women. The current study employed a functional neuroimaging (fMRI) approach to explore the association between perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and the neural regulation of emotion in first-time mothers. Among 59 postpartum mothers, higher perceived stress during the postpartum period was associated with less self-reported use of cognitive reappraisal in everyday life, and greater use of emotion suppression. While viewing standardized aversive images during the Emotion Regulation Task (ERT), mothers were instructed to experience their natural emotional state (Maintain) or to decrease the intensity of their negative emotion by using cognitive reappraisal (Reappraise). Whole-brain analysis revealed a two-way interaction of perceived stress x condition in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) at p < .05 cluster-wise corrected, controlling for postpartum months and scanner type. Higher levels of perceived stress were associated with heightened right DLPFC activity while engaging in cognitive reappraisal versus naturally responding to negative stimuli. Higher right DLPFC activity during Reappraise versus Maintain was further associated with elevated parenting stress. Findings suggest that stress and everyday reappraisal use is reflected in mothers' neural regulation of emotion and may have important implications for their adaptation to parenthood.

Instructed reappraisal and cardiovascular habituation to recurrent stress

Instructed reappraisal has previously been associated with a challenge-oriented cardiovascular response profile, indexed by greater cardiac output (CO) and lower total peripheral resistance (TPR), in response to a single stress exposure. The present study builds on this research by employing a stress habituation paradigm where participants completed a speech task twice; in which prior to the second task participants heard reappraisal instructions (i.e., view feelings of stress arousal as something that is beneficial) or control instructions. This paradigm allowed us to (a) test if reappraisal aids cardiovascular habituation to recurrent stress, and (b) examine if reappraisal leads to a within-participant change in CO/TPR responding from an uninstructed task to an instructed reappraisal task. Habitual use of reappraisal was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The analyses report upon 173 young adults (121 women, 52 men). Cardiovascular parameters were measured continuously using the Finometer Pro. All participants demonstrated similar cardiovascular habituation during the second stress exposure (lower SBP, CO, and HR); suggesting that reappraisal did not aid cardiovascular habituation to recurrent stress. Reappraisal instructions did not lead to a challenge-oriented response compared to both the control group and responses to the uninstructed task. This study is the first to examine the relationship between instructed reappraisal and cardiovascular habituation and identifies that habitual use of reappraisal does not interact with reappraisal instructions to influence cardiovascular responses to stress.

Schadenfreude, malicious and benign envy are associated with low body mass index in restrictive-type anorexia nervosa

PURPOSE

According to the Cognitive-Interpersonal Maintenance Model of anorexia nervosa, social factors are involved in the maintenance and development of this disorder. Therefore, this study aimed to test whether patients with restrictive-type anorexia nervosa (AN-R) experience malicious envy (negative emotions associated with the wish that others lack their superior quality), benign envy (negative emotions associated with the desire to reach and obtain the others' superior quality) and Schadenfreude (pleasure at the misfortunes of others) with a higher intensity than healthy controls (HC).

METHODS

26 AN-R patients and 32 HC completed scenarios that aimed to induce envy and Schadenfreude and completed questionnaires measuring envy, self-esteem and social comparison.

RESULTS

AN-R patients reported more benign envy than HC. Interestingly, higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with less Schadenfreude, malicious and benign envy in AN-R only.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that AN-R patients present higher motivation to evolve when facing others' superior quality (i.e., benign envy). It also underlines the importance of considering social factors in the maintenance of AN-R and the role of BMI when examining emotions related to others' fortune.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level III, case-control analytic study.

Positive and Detached Reappraisal of Threatening Music in Younger and Older Adults

Past empirical studies have suggested that older adults preferentially use gaze-based mood regulation to lessen their negative experiences while watching an emotional scene. This preference for a low cognitively demanding regulatory strategy leaves open the question of whether the effortful processing of a more cognitively demanding reappraisal task is really spared from the general age-related decline. Because it does not allow perceptual attention to be redirected away from the emotional source, music provides an ideal way to address this question. The goal of our study was to examine the affective, behavioral, physiological, and cognitive outcomes of positive and detached reappraisal in response to negative musical emotion in younger and older adults. Participants first simply listened to a series of threatening musical excerpts and were then instructed to either positively reappraise or to detach themselves from the emotion elicited by music. Findings showed that, when instructed to simply listen to threatening music, older adults reported a more positive feeling associated with a smaller SCL in comparison with their younger counterparts. When implementing positive and detached reappraisal, participants showed more positive and more aroused emotional experiences, whatever the age group. We also found that the instruction to intentionally reappraise negative emotions results in a lesser cognitive cost for older adults in comparison with younger adults. Taken together, these data suggest that, compared to younger adults, older adults engage in spontaneous downregulation of negative affect and successfully implement downregulation instructions. This extends previous findings and brings compelling evidence that, even when auditory attention cannot be redirected away from the emotional source, older adults are still more effective at regulating emotions. Taking into account the age-associated decline in executive functioning, our results suggest that the working memory task could have distracted older adults from the reminiscences of the threat-evoking music, thus resulting in an emotional downregulation. Hence, even if they were instructed to implement reappraisal strategies, older adults might prefer distraction over engagement in reappraisal. This is congruent with the idea that, although getting older, people are more likely to be distracted from a negative source of emotion to maintain their well-being.

Maultsby’s Rational Behavior Therapy: Background, Description, Practical Applications, and Recent Developments

In this article we present Maultsby’s Rational Behavior Therapy (RBT) as a unique and distinct, but underutilized form of cognitive-behavior therapy, including its origins, theory (with psychosomatic learning theory), basic concepts, and practical applications, as well as never before published recent developments. As readers will see, many of Maultsby’s concepts, while pioneering and beckoning the third wave, still remain fresh, validated by current cognitive neuroscience, and are very relevant to modern psychotherapeutic practice. We describe RBT’s valuable concepts and effective techniques in such a way that readers may readily start using them to complement and enhance any other form of cognitive behavior therapy. An article comparing RBT with REBT and CBT will follow.

Stress Influences the Effect of Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms on Emotion Regulation

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with emotion regulation impairments, namely the frequent use of maladaptive strategies such as suppression and the decreased use of reappraisal strategies. Additionally, these patients exhibit elevated stress levels. Since stress exposure affects emotion regulation abilities, stress might influence the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and emotion regulation. In this study, we explored the effects of stress and obsessive-compulsive symptoms on emotion regulation in a sample of healthy and OCD individuals. We used self-reported psychometric scales to measure stress levels, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and emotion reappraisal and suppression skills. We applied multiple regression and mediation analyses. Our results demonstrated that increased reappraisal scores were associated with higher suppression scores. Additionally, elevated stress values predicted increased scores for suppression and decreased scores for reappraisal. Furthermore, the reappraisal abilities resulted from a combination of a direct effect of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and an indirect effect of obsessive-compulsive symptoms mediated by stress. The reliance on suppression strategies and the difficulty in using reappraisal approaches are explained by stress levels and are not directly explained by obsessive-compulsive symptoms. This study highlights the necessity of targeting stress in current therapy-based treatments for OCD.

Do I really feel better? Effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies depends on the measure and social anxiety

BACKGROUND

Effective emotion regulation (ER) is important to long-term healthy functioning, but little is known about what constitutes effective ER in the moment or how social anxiety symptoms and different strategies influence short-term effectiveness outcomes.

METHODS

Intensive ecological momentary data from N = 124 college students illustrate how different ways of operationalizing ER effectiveness leads to different conclusions about the short-term effectiveness of different strategies in daily life.

RESULTS

When effectiveness is operationalized as the degree to which participants judged that their ER attempts made them feel better, social anxiety severity was negatively associated with effectiveness, and avoidance-oriented strategies were judged to be less effective than engagement-oriented strategies. In contrast, when effectiveness is operationalized as the degree of change in self-reported affect following ER attempts, social anxiety severity was not related to effectiveness, and avoidance-oriented strategies were more effective than engagement-oriented strategies. Social anxiety and ER strategy type did not interact in either model, regardless of how effectiveness was measured.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlights discrepancies when examining two common but distinct ways of measuring the same overarching effectiveness construct, and raises intriguing questions about how forms of psychopathology that are intimately tied to emotion dysregulation, like social anxiety, moderate different ways of measuring the effectiveness of ER attempts.

Cognitive reappraisal and acceptance: Effects on emotion, physiology, and perceived cognitive costs

Two emotion regulation strategies-cognitive reappraisal and acceptance-are both associated with beneficial psychological health outcomes over time. However, it remains unclear whether these 2 strategies are associated with differential consequences for emotion, physiology, or perceived cognitive costs in the short-term. The present study used a within-subjects design to examine the effects of reappraisal (reframing one's thoughts) and acceptance (accepting feelings without trying to control or judge them) on the subjective experience of negative emotions, positive emotions, and physiological responses during and following recovery from sad film clips shown in the laboratory. Participants also reported on perceived regulatory effort, difficulty, and success after deploying each emotion regulation strategy. In 2 samples of participants (N = 142), reappraisal (vs. acceptance) was associated with larger decreases in negative and larger increases in positive emotions, both during the film clips and recovery period. However, acceptance was perceived as less difficult to deploy than reappraisal, and was associated with a smaller dampening of skin conductance level (indicating more successful regulation) during the film clips in 1 sample. These results suggest that reappraisal and acceptance may exert differential short-term effects: Whereas reappraisal is more effective for changing subjective experiences in the short term, acceptance may be less difficult to deploy and be more effective at changing one's physiological response. Thus, these 2 strategies may both be considered "effective" for different reasons. (PsycINFO Database Record