Emotion Regulation: A Transdiagnostic Perspective on a New RDoC Domain

Abstract

It is widely agreed that emotion regulation plays an important role in many psychological disorders. We make the case that emotion regulation is in fact a key transdiagnostic factor, using the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) as an organizing framework. In particular, we first consider how transdiagnostic and RDoC approaches have extended categorical views. Next, we examine links among emotion generation, emotion regulation, and psychopathology, with particular attention to key emotion regulation stages including identification, strategy selection, implementation, and monitoring. We then propose that emotion regulation be viewed as a sixth domain in the RDoC matrix, and provide a brief overview of how the literature has used the RDoC units of analyses to study emotion regulation. Finally, we highlight opportunities for future research and make recommendations for assessing and treating psychopathology.

Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Borderline Personality Disorder: Diagnostic Comparisons and Associations with Potentially Harmful Behaviors

“…Discriminant function analysis also indicated a high degree of overlap between the MAD and BPD group with respect to strategy use, such that the largest function discriminating the 2 clinical groups from the HC group accounted for 92% of the total variance. Given the emerging trend to consider emotion dysregulation as a transdiagnostic factor that cuts across many mental disorders [42], some researchers suggest that BPD may be more closely linked to depressive and anxiety disorders because of similar emotional difficulties [70]. Findings in the present study suggest that the selection of maladaptive ER strategies more often is not specific to a BPD diagnosis over other mental disorders and may contribute to emotion dysregulation within many different conditions.…”

“…People with anxiety and depressive disorders are also more likely than healthy individuals to select and implement more maladaptive cognitive ER strategies based on self-report and mood induction methods [39-41]. Whether people with anxiety and depressive disorders differ from BPD in the cognitive ER strategies they use most frequently is not yet clear, although similar patterns in cognitive ER strategies across the disorders could suggest common underlying mechanisms consistent with a transdiagnostic perspective on the relationship between ER and psychopathology [42]. Even less is known about the relationships between the full repertoire of cognitive ER strategies and harmful behaviors in the context of BPD and other mental disorders characterized by emotion dysregulation.…”

Using Functional Neuroimaging to Refine the Diagnostic Construct of Borderline Personality Disorder

“…We believe that approaching the BPD diagnosis from a more dimensional, systems approach, can better align the research with current RDoC literature. For example, recent works suggests that emotion dysregulation, a key aspect of BPD, may also be a useful transdiagnostic marker of pathology, amenable to inclusion within the RDoC matrix [190]. Evidence also suggests that the neural networks reviewed in the current project (e.g., the DMN, SN, and CEN) play an important role in other, related forms of psychopathology, including PTSD [191][192][193].…”

BDNFVal66Met polymorphism moderates the link between child maltreatment and reappraisal ability

“…We focused on reappraisal ability because it represents a clinically important dimension of emotion regulation, which has been related to depression (Troy et al ; this study) and may contribute to the risk for other forms of psychopathology (Fernandez et al ; Gross & Jazaieri ; Sheppes et al ). Reappraisal was assessed in this study using an established laboratory task, in which ability is operationalized as the degree to which reappraisal decreases negative affect induced by distressing images (Ochsner et al ).…”

“…The nonspecific association between child maltreatment and a host of mental disorders suggests that studies should increasingly focus on psychological mechanisms that underlie transdiagnostic symptoms (Cicchetti & Toth ; McLaughlin ; Meyer‐Lindenberg & Weinberger ). Emotional symptoms characterize many mental disorders and may stem from problems with emotion regulation (Fernandez et al ; Gross & Jazaieri ; Sheppes et al ). Emotion regulation refers to the strategies by which one attempts to control the generation and expression of emotional responses in line with current goals (Gross ).…”