Predicting emotional health indicators from linguistic evidence of psychological distancing

Abstract

Psychological distancing, a form of cognitive reappraisal, involves construal of emotionally valenced stimuli in an objective manner, or with perceived spatial and temporal distance. Prior work suggests that in appropriate contexts, reappraisal broadly, and distancing specifically, is related to adaptive mental and physical health outcomes. Additionally, recent research suggests that shifting language to be more distant (i.e., linguistic distancing [LD]) can have adaptive emotion regulatory effects. The present study addressed whether LD is also associated with adaptive health indicators. Participants transcribed their thoughts while viewing negative or neutral stimuli in one of three ways: (a) by implementing objective language, (b) by implementing spatially and/or temporally far away language, or (c) by responding naturally. Across psychological distancing groups, LD was associated with lower negative affectivity (lower perceived stress and depression symptoms), better general well‐being (better emotional well‐being and energy and vitality), and better emotion regulation (ER; greater reappraisal frequency and fewer difficulties in implementing ER). Participants who used more LD in the objective group had lower negative affectivity, better general well‐being, and better ER, and those in the far group had better ER. The results reveal linguistic mechanisms underlying ER and its relationship to health indicators, suggesting future examination of LD interventions.

Connecting cognition, cardiology, and chromosomes: Cognitive reappraisal impacts the relationship between heart rate variability and telomere length in CD8+CD28– cells

“…Future experimental work should further examine these relationships by providing participants training in reappraisal longitudinally to examine changes in telomere length and HRV from baseline to post-training. Consistent with the hypothesis of a causal role for cognitive reappraisal in promoting positive health outcomes and reducing stress (Appleton et al, 2014;Shahane et al, 2018;Shahane and Denny, 2019), longitudinal training in reappraisal has been shown to reduce perceived stress over time (Denny and Ochsner, 2014), which may in tandem promote positive physiological health outcomes as well. Additionally, the present work may translate into clinical domains.…”

“…Each individual's HRV measure was calculated from the average of four five-minute long epochs, which is beyond the recommended and standard convention of one five-minute long epoch; thus, this is a reliable measure of HRV. Lastly, the measure used for cognitive reappraisal has been validated in a large volume of studies showing that it is indeed a reliable marker of cognitive reappraisal frequency and health-relevant behavior (Gross, 2013;Gross and John, 2003;Shahane and Denny, 2019).…”

“…We focused on a particular emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal, which involves changing one's appraisal of an aversive situation to make it feel less negative (Gross, 1998;Gross and Thompson, 2007). We chose cognitive reappraisal because it is associated with several positive health outcomes (Appleton et al, 2014;Berna et al,2014;Conley et al, 2016;Shahane et al, 2018;Shahane and Denny, 2019).…”

“…Emotion regulation is the ability to effectively manage and respond to emotional experiences (Gross, 1998). Individuals who are better at regulating their emotions have better mental and physical health outcomes (Aldao et al, 2010;Shahane and Denny, 2019;Verzeletti et al, 2016). For example, poor emotion regulation is associated with increased risk for premature aging, cardiovascular disease, and cancer (Appleton et al, 2014;Berna et al, 2014;Conley et al, 2016;Ebner and Fischer, 2014).…”

Decentering as a core component in the psychological treatment and prevention of youth anxiety and depression: a narrative review and insight report

“…instructions to adopt a third-person perspective or re-perceive events ‘as if watching themselves in a movie’) dampens emotional reactivity towards aversive stimuli. Stimuli include unpleasant images, video clips or self-relevant statements while emotion change is proxied by decreased negative affect ratings 43 , 56 – 58 , reduced believability of inner events 59 – 63 , lower aggressive behaviors 64 and shorter emotional episodes 65 . Second, cross-sectional studies indicate that the positive association between psychological stressors and distress is lessened as decentering-related abilities increase.…”