Anxiety and depression are often associated with strong beliefs that entering specific situations will lead to aversive outcomes – even when these situations are objectively safe and avoiding them reduces well-being. A possible mechanism underlying this maladaptive avoidance behavior is a failure to reflect on: (1) appropriate levels of uncertainty about the situation, and (2) how this uncertainty could be reduced by seeking further information (i.e., exploration). To test this hypothesis, we asked a community sample of 416 individuals to complete measures of reflective cognition, exploration, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found significant associations between each of these measures in expected directions (i.e., positive relationships between reflective cognition and strategic information-seeking behavior or “directed exploration”, and negative relationships between these measures and anxiety/depression symptoms). Further analyses suggested that the relationship between directed exploration and depression/anxiety was due in part to an ambiguity aversion promoting exploration in conditions where information-seeking was not beneficial (as opposed to only being due to under-exploration when more information would aid future choices). In contrast, reflectiveness was associated with greater exploration in appropriate settings and separately accounted for differences in reaction times, decision noise, and choice accuracy in expected directions. These results shed light on the mechanisms underlying information-seeking behavior and how they may contribute to symptoms of emotional disorders. They also highlight the potential clinical relevance of individual differences in reflectiveness and exploration and should motivate future research on their possible contributions to vulnerability and/or maintenance of affective disorders.

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Introduction The COVID‐19 pandemic has presented a major challenge to mental health and emotional wellbeing. The present study examined whether training in emotional intelligence (EI) skills, provided before the pandemic, would serve as a protective factor for sustaining mental health during the COVID‐19 crisis. Methods Data came from a longitudinal study ( N = 89) that was initially designed to test the effectiveness of an EI training program versus a non‐emotion‐focused placebo program. The design and timing of the study were such that baseline and posttraining assessments of depression and anxiety had been completed before the pandemic, and planned 6‐month follow‐ups were serendipitously scheduled to occur after the onset of the COVID‐19 crisis. This provided us with an unexpected real‐world opportunity to investigate whether EI training would bolster emotional resilience to the challenges posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic. Results Although mental health concerns generally increased after the start of the pandemic, individuals who completed the EI training program scored lower on depression, suicidal ideation, and state anxiety relative to individuals who had been assigned to the placebo training program. Conclusion Online EI training appears to be effective at sustaining critical aspects of mental health during a subsequent real‐life crisis.

ObjectiveAn advantage of the trait approach to health is that it implicates common elements to multiple different health behaviors. An advantage of the social‐cognitive approach, in contrast, is that it models the situational factors that are likely to elicit particular behavioral reactions. The present research sought to combine the advantages of these two approaches.MethodA situational judgment method was developed to quantify general variations in health competence (HC) in terms of more specific responses to simulated health‐challenging events.ResultsAfter developing the method, Study 1 showed that individual differences in HC were systematically related to approach‐related coping tendencies and behaviors known to be health promoting. Study 2 then showed that variations in HC predicted both health behaviors and quality of life among older individuals.ConclusionsThe results highlight a new form of HC that is not dependent on self‐reports of ability.