Emotion regulation strategies in daily life: mindfulness,cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression

Most empirical studies of emotion regulation have relied on retrospective trait measures, and have not examined the link between daily regulatory strategies and every day emotional well-being. We used a daily diary methodology with multilevel modelling data analyses (n = 187) to examine the influence of three emotion regulation strategies (mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal and emotion suppression) on the experience of daily negative and positive affect. Our results suggested that daily mindfulness was associated with lower negative and higher positive affect whereas the converse pattern was found for daily emotion suppression; cognitive reappraisal was related to daily positive, but not negative affect. When daily mindfulness, suppression and reappraisal were included in the same models, these strategies predicted unique variance in emotional well-being. Random slope analyses revealed substantial variability in the utility of these strategies. Indeed the presumably “adaptive” cognitive reappraisal strategy seemed to confer no benefit to the regulation of negative affect in approximately half the sample. Additional analyses revealed that age moderates the effect of cognitive reappraisal on daily negative affect: Higher use of reappraisal was associated with more negative affect for adolescents (aged 17 to 19) but became associated with less negative affect with increasing age. We interpret these results in line with a contextual view of emotion regulation where no strategy is inherently “good” or “bad”.     

Suppression mediates the effect of 5‐HTTLPR by stress interaction on depression

A number of studies have shown that the presence of short (S), as opposed to long (L), allele of the serotonin transporter‐linked polymorphic region (5‐HTTLPR) is associated with a higher risk for depression following exposure to stressful life events. However, many other studies failed to confirm this association. One reason for this inconsistency might be the fact that the interaction of the 5‐HTTLPR polymorphism with stress may relate not to depression per se, but rather to adaptive or maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Here we show that individuals homozygous for the long allele respond to stressful events by reappraising their emotional meaning, which may hamper the harmful effect of stress on mental health. In S genotype carriers, on the other hand, stress triggers the appearance of intrusive thoughts and vain attempts to suppress them, which in this group acts as a mediator between stress and depressive symptoms. These findings are in line with neuroimaging studies showing that 5‐HTTLPR polymorphism has an effect on the connectivity among key areas involved in emotion regulation.     

Investigation of the indulgence cycles hypothesis of suppression on experimentally induced visual intrusions in dysphoria

Within the thought control literature, Wegner [(1989). White bears and other unwanted thoughts: Suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. New York, NY, USA: Penguin Press.] referred to the combined initial suppression and expression phases of thought control as an indulgence cycle which results in the rebound effect typically observed in suppression studies. According to Ironic Process Theory [Wegner, (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.], this rebound leads to further attempts to suppress that are difficult due to the target thought's hyperaccessibility, resulting in a secondary rebound effect owing to a positive feedback system of indulgence cycles. The current study investigated (i) the effects of repeated suppression and opportunities for expression by using a method to index the frequency, duration, and associated levels of distress of an experimentally induced visual intrusion, and (ii) whether any observed effects were differentially linked to depressive symptomatology in an analogue sample of low and high dysphoric participants. Results supported a secondary rebound effect in those participants most successful at suppressing target intrusions. The findings offer an important extension to the emerging literature on the management of intrusive memories in depression.     

Development of a view-invariant representation of the human head

Do infants perceive visual cues as diverse as frontal-view faces, profiles or bodies as being different aspects of the same object, a fellow human? If that is the case, visual exposure to one such cue should facilitate the subsequent processing of the others. To verify this hypothesis, we recorded event-related responses in 4-month-old infants and in adults. Pictures of eyes were interleaved amongst images belonging to three human contexts (frontal-view faces, profiles or bodies) or non-human contexts (houses, cars or pliers). In adults, both profile and frontal-face contexts elicited suppression of the N170 response to eye pictures, indicating an access to a view-invariant representation of faces. In infants, a response suppression of the N290 component was recorded only in the context of frontal faces, while profile context induces a different effect (i.e., a P400 enhancement) on eye processing. This dissociation suggests that the view-invariant representation of faces is learned, as it is for other 3-D objects and needs more than 4 months of exposure to be established. In a follow-up study, where infants were exposed to a short movie showing people rotating their heads, the profile-induced P400 effect was speeded up, indicating that exposure to successive views of the same object is probably a way to build up adult-like face representations.     

Suppression-induced hyperaccessibility of thoughts in abstinent alcoholics: a preliminary investigation

Abstinent alcoholics were compared to a non-alcoholic control group on a modified Stroop color-naming task. Alcoholics took significantly longer to name the color of the word "alcohol" than to name the color of non-alcohol words (i.e., they showed an interference effect) after they had first tried to suppress thoughts of alcohol. Alcoholics who had freely expressed thoughts about alcohol prior to the Stroop did not show such interference. Control participants who had suppressed thoughts of alcohol showed no interference effect. The results overall suggest that when alcoholics try to suppress thoughts of alcohol, these thoughts may become hyperaccessible immediately afterward.     

Why did the white bear return? Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and attributions for unsuccessful thought suppression

The current study examined the nature and consequences of attributions about unsuccessful thought suppression. Undergraduate students with either high (n=67) or low (n=59) levels of obsessive–compulsive symptoms rated attributions to explain their unsuccessful thought suppression attempts. We expected that self-blaming attributions and attributions ascribing importance to unwanted thoughts would predict more distress and greater recurrence of thoughts during time spent monitoring or suppressing unwanted thoughts. Further, we expected that these attributions would mediate the relationship between obsessive–compulsive symptom levels and the negative thought suppression outcomes (distress and thought recurrence). Structural equation models largely confirmed the hypotheses, suggesting that attributions may be an important factor in explaining the consequences of thought suppression. Implications are discussed for cognitive theories of obsessive–compulsive disorder and thought suppression.     

成人依恋、情绪调节与主观幸福感:重新评价和表达抑制的中介作用

通过对1163名大学生被试进行成人依恋关系、情绪调节策略的使用以及主观幸福感的测查,该研究从情绪调节这一新的视角,深入探讨了成人依恋对主观幸福感产生影响的可能机制。结果发现:重新评价策略的使用在依恋安全对主观幸福感影响中具有重要的中介作用;依恋回避直接影响个体的主观幸福感;表达抑制对主观幸福感影响不显著。这些结果表明重新评价策略的使用是成人依恋关系影响个体主观幸福感的一个重要途径。     

西蒙效应研究新进展

该文主要从三个方面回顾了西蒙效应的研究：双线路模型,信息门控御制理论以及最新的从捆绑的角度对西蒙效应所做的事件文件构想的解释。在对各个理论的优势和不足做了简要的评价后,启示和思考的部分提出了改善实验的概括性方案,同时对理论的扩展提出了相应的建议。     

特征注意的全局性调制作用——增强还是抑制?

特征注意(feature-based attention)是个体根据特定的特征维度或特征值分配视觉注意资源的能力。在注意焦点内, 特征注意会增强对注意特征具有反应选择性的神经元活动, 并抑制对干扰特征具有反应选择性的神经元活动。大量研究表明, 特征注意的调制作用可以扩散到注意焦点以外, 具有全局性的特点, 但这种全局性调制作用是增强机制还是抑制机制仍然存在争议。这可能是由于两种机制在时间进程等属性上存在差异, 在视觉信息加工中可能扮演着不同角色。相对而言, 全局性抑制作用可能更易受实验设计和实验参数的影响。后续研究应该探究全局性抑制机制在什么条件下发挥作用, 以及进一步对全局性的增强机制和抑制机制进行分离。     

Effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on daily work-related outcomes: Comparison between younger and older Chinese workers

The existing models of emotion regulation (ER) do not make any specific prediction about the differential effects of the same ER strategy among individuals of different ages. However, such assumption may not be necessarily true, given that older adults emphasise emotional goals greater than their younger counterparts. Using a daily diary approach, this study investigated whether the effects of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES) on daily work-related outcomes would vary by age when individuals were experiencing negative events at work. A total of 141 Chinese managerial employees (M_age = 42.40, SD = 9.16) completed the diary report for 15 consecutive workdays by recording their daily work experiences. The results of the multilevel analyses showed that age moderated the effects of ES on daily negative emotions, perceived work stress, and job satisfaction. More beneficial effects were observed among older workers than among younger workers. By contrast, the use of CR significantly lowered the levels of negative emotions and perceived work stress for both younger and older workers. These findings revealed the importance of considering the role of age in evaluating the effects of ES on work-related outcomes, which provides important implications for future research and training programs in ER.