Negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion in daily life.

Abstract

Nonacceptance of emotion is consistently linked with increased levels of psychopathology and diminished well-being. Research has found that negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion are positively associated cross-sectionally but has yet to directly investigate temporal associations between these constructs. Given that negative emotions are frequently the target of negative thoughts and other emotions, and that acceptance of emotion is associated with prospective decreases in negative emotion, we hypothesized that the temporal relation between negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion is bidirectional. The present study examined the association between these variables during people’s daily lives using an experience sampling methodology. Multilevel modeling was used for all analyses, including hierarchical generalized linear modeling and log-normal hurdle modeling. A total of 187 women from the United States and Australia reported negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion 14 times a day for 5 days. Negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion were positively associated contemporaneously. Across time, nonacceptance of emotion was prospectively and positively associated with the intensity of negative emotion independent of immediately prior negative emotion, and negative emotion intensity was prospectively and positively associated with nonacceptance of emotion independent of immediately prior nonacceptance. Results support a bidirectional model of negative emotion and nonacceptance of emotion wherein each variable predicts increases in the other across time. Our findings elucidate how individuals fall into maladaptive emotional patterns that are difficult to break and could possibly pave the way to the development and maintenance of psychopathology.

Everyday Emotional Experiences in Current and Remitted Major Depressive Disorder: An Experience-Sampling Study

“…Liu & Thompson, 2017;Visted et al, 2018). Although these strategies can be effective in certain situations, they have been shown to lead to increased NA over the short term (i.e., minutes to hours; Bailen et al, 2019;Campbell-Sills et al, 2006;Moberly & Watkins, 2008) and decreased well-being in the long term (e.g., Abela & Hankin, 2011;Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000). Another reason for comparatively high intensity and variability of NA in remitted MDD could be increased exposure to negative events.…”

Emotion regulation shows an age- and sex-specific moderating effect on the relationship between chronic stress and cognitive performance

“…Furthermore, the observed smaller repertoire of ER strategies in men reduces (similarly to limited palette of coping strategies) the individual's resources for effective management of the experienced stress. Finally, a reduced ability to accept (stress-related) emotions, another observed ER dimension moderating the stress-cognition relationship, limits the potential for coping with these emotions because, first, the strategies used may not be properly targeted and second (consequently), unaddressed negative emotions maintain the organism's stress setting for an extended period of time with all its negative behavioral and physiological consequences 77 – 80 .…”

Safety at high altitude: the importance of emotional dysregulation on pilots’ risk attitudes during flight

“…This could occur because nonacceptance of emotions involves a high cognitive effort, such that it further depletes the self-regulatory resources needed to carry out flight performance carefully and lucidly (Muraven et al, 1998;Hagger et al, 2010). Nonacceptance is also reciprocally related to negative emotions (Bailen et al, 2020); negative emotions could therefore alter the assessment of risk situations (Lerner and Keltner, 2001), thereby promoting the pilot's propensity for less safe attitudes during flight performance.…”