Emotion regulation and vulnerability to depression: Spontaneous versus instructed use of emotion suppression and reappraisal.

Abstract

Emotion dysregulation has long been thought to be a vulnerability factor for mood disorders. However, there have been few empirical tests of this idea. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that depression vulnerability is related to difficulties with emotion regulation by comparing recovered-depressed and never-depressed participants (N = 73). In the first phase, participants completed questionnaires assessing their typical use of emotion regulation strategies. In the second phase, sad mood was induced using a film clip, and the degree to which participants reported to have spontaneously used suppression versus reappraisal to regulate their emotions was assessed. In the third phase, participants received either suppression or reappraisal instructions prior to watching a second sadness-inducing film. As predicted, suppression was found to be ineffective for down-regulating negative emotions, and recovered-depressed participants reported to have spontaneously used this strategy during the first sadness-inducing film more often than controls. However, the groups did not differ regarding the effects of induced suppression versus reappraisal on negative mood. These results provide evidence for a role for spontaneous but not instructed emotion regulation in depression vulnerability.

Neural markers of positive reappraisal and their associations with trait reappraisal and worry.

“…Affective disorder research provides some support for the notion that individual differences in psychopathology may have little effect on positive reappraisal implementation in the lab. Behavioral evidence indicates, for example, that when anxious and depressed people are asked to implement strategies that involve different reappraisal operations, they can be successful (Campbell-Sills, Barlow, Brown, & Hofmann, 2006;Ehring, Tuschen-Caffier, Schnülle, Fischer, & Gross, 2010; also see, Kross & Ayduk, 2009;Kross, Gard, Deldin, Clifton, & Ayduk, 2012). Such patients also respond well to therapies whose primary technique is cognitive reappraisal (Clark & Beck, 2010).…”

Mood reactivity rather than cognitive reactivity is predictive of depressive relapse: A randomized study with 5.5-year follow-up.

“…In addition, changes in mood itself following mood provocation (i.e., mood reactivity [MR]) also appear to be related to relapse in depression (Ehring, Fischer, Schnülle, Bösterling, & TuschenCaffier, 2008;Ehring, Tuschen-Caffier, Schnülle, Fischer, & Gross, 2010;Lethbridge & Allen, 2008). This implies that the inability to effectively regulate affect during emotional or stressful events could signal the return of depressive symptomatology.…”

Examination of Adaptive and Maladaptive Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies as Transdiagnostic Processes: Associations With Diverse Psychological Symptoms in College Students

“…As for adaptive strategies, the converse would be expected (i.e., reliable negative associations with psychopathology) but this finding is less consistent. In some studies, no relation between adaptive strategies and psychopathology is reported (Domínguez-Sánchez et al, 2013;Ehring, Tuschen-Caffier, Schnülle, Fischer, & Gross, 2010;Green et al, 2011). In a meta-analytic review, using normative and clinical samples, adaptive strategies were found to be associated with decreased psychopathology, but the associations had small to medium effect sizes (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010).…”