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

Learning to be inventive in the face of statistics: A positive reappraisal intervention for statistics anxiety

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The burden of statistics anxiety on students calls for effective interventions. This study investigated whether a cognitive reappraisal training designed to stimulate the generation of positive re-interpretations may yield behavioral changes in anxiety measures and changes in cerebral activation patterns reflecting the activation of approach/avoidance motivational tendencies (frontal EEG alpha asymmetry response).

METHODS

Three groups of female psychology students (n = 45) with statistics anxiety were tested. Two groups received a guided, two-week reappraisal training with either statistics-anxiety or general anxiety situations; the control group received no intervention.

RESULTS

Both training groups significantly increased their amount of positive re-interpretations from pre-to post-test compared to the control group. Increased habitual use of reappraisal in statistics situations and significant EEG changes reflecting more approach-oriented coping with anxiety occurred in the statistics-anxiety training group only. No changes in statistics anxiety and statistics attitudes were observed, suggesting that the training effects, though corroborated through neurophysiological changes, did not sufficiently translate to improving students' deep-rooted anxiety.

LIMITATIONS

Effects, though robust and following the same pattern, were observed in a small sample.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings delineate a promising expandable approach for helping students' cope with statistics anxiety in a healthier way.

Maternal autistic traits and anxiety in children with typical development in Chinese families: a moderated mediation model of mothers' negative emotional expressions and child gender

Background

Prior studies have focused on the effects of maternal autistic traits on children with autism, but little attention has been paid to the effects of maternal autistic traits on typically developing children, while the mechanisms of the effects are not clear.

Objective

Given that, a moderated mediation model was conducted to examine the association between maternal autistic traits and typically developing children's anxiety and the underlying mechanisms.

Methods and results

Participants were 648 mother-child dyads in which these children had no autistic siblings. Mothers reported their autistic traits and negative emotional expressions in the family and children's anxiety. The results indicated that children's anxiety was predicted by maternal autistic traits. Mediating analysis revealed that mothers' negative emotional expressions partially mediated the association between their autistic traits and children's anxiety. The findings also indicated that child gender moderated the relationship between maternal emotional expressions and children's anxiety. Specifically, anxiety in girls was more strongly predicted by negative emotional expressions from their mothers than in boys.

Conclusion

These results have important theoretical and practical implications for reducing the adverse effect of maternal autistic traits on children's anxiety, especially for girls. The present study also reveals that maternal negative emotional expression is an important mechanism. Causal conclusions cannot be drawn based on cross-sectional research design, so it is necessary to conduct longitudinal studies in the future.

Regulating emotions with experience - the effectiveness of reappraisal inventiveness depends on situational familiarity

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Previous research identified cognitive reappraisal as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy. However, theories on emotion regulation flexibility suggest that reappraisal effectiveness (RE) may depend on an individual's familiarity with stressors. In this study, we expect high reappraisal inventiveness (RI), i.e., the generation of many and categorically different reappraisals, to increase RE for individuals with low situational familiarity. Individuals with high situational familiarity, however, would be more effective with low RI.

DESIGN

A total of 148 participants completed the Script-based Reappraisal Task, in which they were presented with fear- and anger-eliciting scripts. Depending on trial type, participants were instructed to reappraise (reappraisal-trial) or react naturally (control-trial) to the scripts. After each trial, participants indicated affective states and reappraisals. We assessed RI and calculated RE-scores as difference between affect ratings in reappraisal- and control-trials for valence and arousal. Finally, participants rated the familiarity with each situation.

RESULTS

The results indicated a significant moderating effect of situational familiarity on the relationship between RI and RE-valence (not RE-arousal). The moderation was mainly driven by a detrimental effect of RI for individuals with high situational familiarity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results hint at the importance of individual experience with emotional content in the research of cognitive reappraisal.

Reappraisal capacity is unrelated to depressive and anxiety symptoms

Research suggests affective symptoms are associated with reduced habitual use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy in individuals with mental health problems. Less is known, however, about whether mental health problems are related to reduced reappraisal capacity per se. The current study investigates this question using a film-based emotion regulation task that required participants to use reappraisal to downregulate their emotional response to highly evocative real-life film footage. We pooled data (N = 512, age: 18-89 years, 54% female) from 6 independent studies using this task. In contrast to our predictions, symptoms of depression and anxiety were unrelated to self-reported negative affect after reappraisal or to emotional reactivity to negative films. Implications for the measurement of reappraisal as well as future directions for research in the field of emotion regulation are discussed.

Emotion Controllability Beliefs and Young People's Anxiety and Depression Symptoms: A Systematic Review

Emotion regulation is a powerful predictor of youth mental health and a crucial ingredient of interventions. A growing body of evidence indicates that the beliefs individuals hold about the extent to which emotions are controllable (emotion controllability beliefs) influence both the degree and the ways in which they regulate emotions. A systematic review was conducted that investigated the associations between emotion controllability beliefs and youth anxiety and depression symptoms. The search identified 21 peer-reviewed publications that met the inclusion criteria. Believing that emotions are relatively controllable was associated with fewer anxiety and depression symptoms, in part because these beliefs were associated with more frequent use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. These findings support theoretical models linking emotion controllability beliefs with anxiety and depression symptoms via emotion regulation strategies that target emotional experience, like reappraisal. Taken together, the review findings demonstrate that emotion controllability beliefs matter for youth mental health. Understanding emotion controllability beliefs is of prime importance for basic science and practice, as it will advance understanding of mental health and provide additional targets for managing symptoms of anxiety and depression in young people.

Association between working memory updating ability and cognitive reappraisal: An investigation into a modulatory role of the individual's sex

Cognitive reappraisal has been shown to be an effective emotion regulation strategy that contributes to mental health. Previous studies focused on sex differences in the frequency of use and ability to use this strategy, and the association of fequency of use and ability with executive functioning. However, there is a lack of behavioral studies examining whether the involvement of executive functions in cognitive reappraisal use and ability differs for men and women. Such a sex difference may inform the design of cognitive interventions directed at enhancing cognitive reappraisal use and ability. The present study used a sample of 125 Chinese university students and focused on one key component of executive functioning: working memory updating. Frequency of cognitive reappraisal use was assessed by self-report. Ability to use cognitive reappraisal and working memory updating capacity were each assessed with a laboratory task. The results revealed no sex difference in cognitive reappraisal use or ability. However, of primary interest, the ability to apply cognitive reappraisal was associated with working memory updating performance, but only for women. If confirmed in further studies, these findings suggest that cognitive interventions in general, and working memory updating trainings more specifically, are more likely to enhance the ability to use cognitive reappraisal as a means to regulate emotions in women than in men.

Sociocultural Moderators of Emotion Regulation in Family Members of the Critically Ill

Coping with a loved one's critical illness as a surrogate decision-maker (SDM) elicits intense psychological distress. Emotion regulation (ER) may mitigate psychological distress. However, ER tendencies and their effects on psychological distress vary by racial and gender identity, which can inform the tailoring of ER-focused interventions. For this study, we examined between-group differences and the moderating effects of race and gender on ER (reappraisal and suppression) and psychological distress. We recruited 274 SDMs from a Midwestern academic medical center. Men reported a greater tendency to use suppression than women, and SDMs identifying as non-White reported a greater tendency to use reappraisal and suppression. Reappraisal resulted in greater psychological distress for non-White men and less psychological distress for White women. Incorporating tailored ER skill building into supportive interventions may improve the short- and long-term psychological well-being of SDMs, which may improve their ability to make value-concordant decisions and fulfill other informal caregiving responsibilities.

Cognitive reappraisal, emotional suppression, and depressive and anxiety symptoms in later life: The moderating role of gender

OBJECTIVES

Although socioemotional selectivity (SST) suggests that people experience more positive affect as they age, symptoms of anxiety and depression persist and are often greater in older women than men. Coping strategies may influence the extent to which older adults experience these symptoms. The purpose of the current study is to examine possible gender differences in the use of an adaptive (cognitive reappraisal (CR) and a maladaptive (emotive suppression (ES) emotion regulation strategy in relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms.

METHOD

Our study uses cross-sectional data drawn from a community sample of older adults (60+; n = 906). We used OLS regression and moderation analyses to test our study hypotheses.

RESULTS

Gender moderated the association between CR in both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Women reported greater use of CR relative to men. Further, CR use was negatively related to symptoms of anxiety and depression in women, but not men. In contrast, men used ES more frequently than women, though older men and women's use of ES was unrelated to anxiety or depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide initial evidence that greater CR use in older women is related to lower symptoms of both anxiety and depression relative to older men. Age-related increases in CR use (e.g. SST) among women may serve to decrease anxiety and depression symptoms. Findings suggest decreasing anxiety and depressive symptoms via CR may benefit older women more than older men. Future research is needed to identify the coping strategies that are most beneficial for men.

Being Intelligent with Emotions to Benefit Creativity: Emotion across the Seven Cs of Creativity

In this review of emotion, emotional intelligence (EI) and creativity, we look at the various ways that these topics can be explored together using the seven Cs of Creativity as a structuring framework. The seven Cs of creativity are: creators, creating, collaborations, contexts, creations, consumption and curricula, representing the different facets of creativity research. The question of emotion and creativity has a long historical lineage, which has led up to the study of intelligent and dynamic aspects of emotion and their impact on creativity. Previous and emerging work on EI, related emotional aspects and creativity offer promising ways to advance this field of research. However, we show that some aspects of creativity and EI are less explored than others. We offer several implications for the direction of future work.

Operationalization and Reporting Practices in Manuscripts Addressing Gender Differences in Biomedical Research: A Cross-Sectional Bibliographical Study

Historically, authors in the biomedical field have often conflated the terms sex and gender in their research significantly limiting the reproducibility of the reported results. In the present study, we investigated current reporting practices around gender in biomedical publications that claim the identification of "gender differences". Our systematic research identified 1117 articles for the year 2019. After random selection of 400 publications and application of inclusion criteria, 302 articles were included for analysis. Using a systematic evaluation grid, we assessed the provided methodological detail in the operationalization of gender and the provision of gender-related information throughout the manuscript. Of the 302 articles, 69 (23%) solely addressed biological sex. The remaining articles investigated gender, yet only 15 (6.5%) offered reproducible information about the operationalization of the gender dimension studied. Followingly, these manuscripts also provided more detailed gender-specific background, analyses and discussions compared to the ones not detailing the operationalization of gender. Overall, our study demonstrated persistent inadequacies in the conceptual understanding and methodological operationalization of gender in the biomedical field. Methodological rigor correlated with more nuanced and informative reporting, highlighting the need for appropriate training to increase output quality and reproducibility in the field.

Religious coping and young adult's mental well-being during Covid-19: Testing a double moderated mediation model

The literature describes religious coping as an important predictor of mental well-being. Present study is aimed at extending this knowledge by assessing whether specific religious coping regulates specific cognitive emotional responses to improve well-being during Covid pandemic, an extreme international event with significant impacts on individuals and communities. A sample of young adults responded to self-report measures of negative and positive religious coping, positive reappraisal, self-blaming, and mental well-being. Results revealed that positive religious coping was a positive predictor of mental well-being and positive reappraisal mediated this positive link. Also, gender and physical health status significantly interacted with positive reappraisal to predict mental well-being in these mediational associations. More specifically, indirect effects of positive reappraisal were positive and significant for men and for participants with better physical health compared with women and those with poor physical health. However, negative religious coping was not a significant correlate of mental well-being but a positive correlate of self-blame. Results suggest that positive religious coping facilitates positive regulation of emotions for improved mental well-being in young adults and particularly young men.

The antidepressant effect of cognitive reappraisal training on individuals cognitively vulnerable to depression: Could cognitive bias be modified through the prefrontal–amygdala circuits?

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is one of the core treatment components of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and is the gold standard treatment for major depressive disorders. Accumulating evidence indicates that cognitive reappraisal could function as a protective factor of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, the neural mechanism by which CR training reduces cognitive vulnerability to depression is unclear. There is ample evidence that the prefrontal–amygdala circuit is involved in CR. This study proposes a novel cognitive bias model of CR training which hypothesizes that CR training may improve the generation ability of CR with altered prefrontal–amygdala functional activation/connectivity, thus reducing negative cognitive bias (negative attention bias, negative memory bias, negative interpretation bias, and/or negative rumination bias) and alleviating depressive symptoms. This study aims to (1) explore whether there is abnormal CR strategy generation ability in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression; (2) test the hypothesis that CR training alleviates depressive symptoms through the mediators of cognitive bias (interpretation bias and/or rumination bias); (3) explore the neural mechanism by which CR training may enhance the ability of CR strategy generation; and (4) examine the short- and long-term effects of CR training on the reduction in depressive symptoms in individuals who are cognitively vulnerable to depression following intervention and 6 months later. The study is promising, providing theoretical and practical evidence for the early intervention of depression-vulnerable individuals.

It's worth the trouble: Stressor exposure is related to increased cognitive reappraisal ability

Recent theories propose moderate (compared to high or no) stressor exposure to promote emotion regulation capacities. More precisely, stressful situations are expected to serve as practice opportunities for cognitive reappraisal (CR), that is, the reinterpretation of a situation to alter its emotional impact. Accordingly, in this study, we expect an inverted U-shaped relationship between exposure to daily hassles and performance in a CR task, that is, best reappraisal ability in individuals with a history of moderate stressor exposure. Participants (N = 165) reported the number of daily hassles during the last week as indicator of stressor exposure and completed the Script-based Reappraisal Test (SRT). In the SRT, participants are presented with fear-eliciting scripts and instructed to either downregulate negative affect via reappraisal (reappraisal-trials) or react naturally (control-trials). Two measures indicate CR ability: (1) reappraisal effectiveness, that is, the difference between affective ratings in reappraisal- and control-trials and (2) reappraisal inventiveness, that is, the number of valid and categorically different reappraisal thoughts. Multiple regression analyses revealed positive linear, but not quadratic, relationships of exposure to daily hassles and both indicators of CR ability. Potential benefits of stressor exposure for emotion regulation processes are discussed.

Positive Cognitive Reappraisal in Stress Resilience, Mental Health, and Well-Being: A Comprehensive Systematic Review

Stress-related psychopathology is on the rise, and there is a pressing need for improved prevention strategies. Positive appraisal style, the tendency to appraise potentially threatening situations in a positive way, has been proposed to act as a key resilience mechanism and therefore offers a potential target for preventive approaches. In this article, we review n  =  99 studies investigating associations of positive cognitive reappraisal, an important sub-facet of positive appraisal style, with outcome-based resilience and relevant other outcomes, which are considered resilience-related. According to the studies reviewed, positive cognitive reappraisal moderates the relation between stressors and negative outcomes and is positively related to several resilience-related outcomes. It also mediates between other resilience factors and resilience, suggesting it is a proximal resilience factor.

Comparing the affective and social effects of positive reappraisal and minimising reappraisal

Negative interpersonal events, such as close relationship conflicts, can threaten one's affective and social well-being. To improve affect and to maintain valuable relationships, individuals could select different reappraisal tactics. One could use positive reappraisal to find potential benefits of the event (e.g. "This conflict helps our relationship grow."), or use minimising reappraisal to decrease the perceived impact of event (e.g. "This is no big deal."). These two tactics target distinct appraisal dimensions: valence versus significance. We investigated whether these two reappraisals would show similar or different profiles of affective and social effects in the context of close relationship conflicts. Study 1 was based on a sample of 90 Chinese younger adults. Study 2 was based on a sample of 237 American adults (156 MTurk workers and 81 undergraduates combined). Across two studies, both reappraisals effectively improved affect in response to a recalled conflict. Minimising reappraisal group showed significantly increased affect and relationship satisfaction (Study 1&2), but decreased conflict resolution motivation (Study 2) across time. Positive reappraisal group, on the other hand, showed less pronounced increases in positive affect but increased conflict resolution self-efficacy across time (Study 1&2). We discuss these findings by highlighting within-reappraisal variation and potential trade-offs in pursuing affective and social regulation goals.

Creativity in an Affective Context

Abstract. Everyday life often requires considerable creativity in dealing with challenging circumstances. This implies that creativity regularly operates in an affective context, however, this “C” of creativity is rarely addressed in contemporary research. In this brief review article, we address some important milestones in this nascent field of research. Starting with early accounts on emotional creativity, we discuss seminal research intertwining creativity and mood states, and finally introduce two recent developments in this field: reappraisal inventiveness as the capacity to generate manifold cognitive reappraisals for aversive situations, and malevolent creativity as creative ideation intentionally used to damage others. We discuss the conceptual origins of reappraisal inventiveness and malevolent creativity and provide an extensive review of past behavioral and neuroscientific findings regarding these differently motivated instances of affective creativity. Additionally, novel pilot findings and prospects on both lines of research will be provided, which may help to advance investigations into more real-world applications of creative cognition.

Failure to reappraise: Malevolent creativity is linked to revenge ideation and impaired reappraisal inventiveness in the face of stressful, anger-eliciting events

Background and objectives: The complexities of daily life often necessitate creative ideas to successfully cope with negative social situations. This study investigated the relationship of two types of creativity that may be elicited by similar contexts but are associated with different goals and impact of ideas: reappraisal inventiveness (the capability to generate manifold reappraisals for negative situations) and malevolent creativity, capturing the inventiveness in intentionally harming others.Design and methods: In 73 women, these variables were assessed by performance tests depicting real-life, anger-eliciting situations. Additionally, participants reported their trait anger and depressive symptoms.Results: Inventiveness (ideational fluency) was positively correlated between the two tasks, probably indicating shared divergent thinking demands. A more intricate pattern emerged for quality aspects of generated ideas. Participants inventing particularly harmful ideas for damaging others generated fewer valid reappraisals and displayed less problem-oriented thinking during reappraisal. Greater inventiveness in damaging others was linked to more revenge-related ideation during reappraisal attempts, which also correlated with self-reported depressive symptoms.Conclusions: A higher capacity for malevolent ideation may potentially hamper successful coping with stressful, anger-eliciting events and, as a result, may advance an adverse spiral of reinforcement. Considering these links may help tailor psychotherapeutic interventions to individuals' specific predispositions.

Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression relate differentially to longitudinal structural brain development across adolescence

Emotional disorders commonly emerge in adolescence, a period characterized by changes in emotion-related processes. Thus, the ability to regulate emotions is crucial for well-being and adaptive social functioning during this period. Concurrently, the brain undergoes large structural and functional changes. We investigated relations between tendencies to use two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, and structural development of the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures (specifically amygdala and nucleus accumbens given these structures are frequently associated with emotion regulation). A total of 112 participants (59 females) aged 8-26 were followed for up to 3 times over a 7-year period, providing 272 observations. Participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), yielding a measure of tendencies to use cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression at the final time point. Linear mixed model analyses were performed to account for the longitudinal nature of the data. Contrary to expectations, volumetric growth of the amygdala and nucleus accumbens was not associated with either emotion regulation strategy. However, frequent use of expressive suppression was linked to greater regionally-specific apparent cortical thinning in both sexes, while tendency to use cognitive reappraisal was associated with greater regionally-specific apparent thinning in females and less thinning in males. Although cognitive reappraisal is traditionally associated with cognitive control regions of the brain, our results suggest it is also associated with regions involved in social cognition and semantics. The continued changes in cortical morphology and their associations with habitual use of different emotion regulation strategies indicate continued plasticity during this period, and represent an opportunity for interventions targeting emotion regulation for adolescents at risk.

This time it's personal: reappraisal after acquired brain injury

Reappraisal is a widely investigated emotion regulation strategy, often impaired in those with acquired brain injury (ABI). Little is known, however, about the tools to measure this capacity in patients, who may find traditional reappraisal tasks difficult. Fifty-five participants with ABI, and thirty-five healthy controls (HCs), completed reappraisal tasks with personal and impersonal emotion elicitation components, questionnaires measuring reappraisal (the ERQ-CA), and neuropsychological assessment. The main findings demonstrated that both groups produced more reappraisals, and rated their reappraisal ideas as more effective for personal stimuli. The ABI group were significantly faster to generate reappraisals for personal, compared to impersonal, stimuli. Yet, participants with ABI performed worse than HCs on the majority of reappraisal components, across both reappraisal tasks. Results of regression analyses revealed significant relationships between certain measures of cognitive control and certain reappraisal components, which varied for the personal and impersonal reappraisal task. Notably, while inhibition predicted aspects of reappraisal in both the ABI and HC group, working memory was only related to reappraisal in participants with ABI. The study suggests that personal context plays a key role in reappraisal, and proposes a model to better understand the role of cognitive control across the reappraisal process.

More habitual physical activity is linked to the use of specific, more adaptive cognitive reappraisal strategies in dealing with stressful events

Physical activity may improve stress resilience and well-being. However, specific links to individuals' coping abilities with stressful events are sparse. This study tested whether individuals reporting more physical activity in daily life showed a higher capacity for cognitive reappraisal in dealing with potential stressors. Ninety-eight participants reported their regular physical activity in the Freiburger Questionnaire on Physical Activity and completed a maximum performance test of their inventiveness in generating reappraisals for situations depicting real-life stressors. The latter provides scores for overall cognitive reappraisal capacity (quantity of ideas) and preference for specific cognitive reappraisal strategies (quality of ideas; positive reinterpretation; problem-oriented, de-emphasizing reappraisals). Additionally, participants' anxious and depressive dispositions and general creative abilities were assessed. Results showed no association between time spent on physical activities per week and total quantity of generated reappraisal ideas. However, a higher degree of physical activity was specifically linked to a greater relative preference for the reappraisal strategy of positive reinterpretation. Opposite associations emerged for the strategy of de-emphasizing reappraisals. The findings support the notion of more adaptive cognitive reappraisal use in more physically active individuals and may advance research on interrelationships between physical activity and cognitive and affective functions implicated in stress management.

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.