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Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event.

ABSTRACT: In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the event twice, b) reappraise the event, and then ruminate about the event, c) ruminate about the event, and then reappraise the event, or d) ruminate twice about the event. The effects of the first strategy used replicated a large body of research: reappraisal was associated with a decrease in anger, but rumination was associated with no change in anger. There was a small interactive effect of the combination of the two strategies, such that those who ruminated and then reappraised showed a larger decrease in anger than those who reappraised and then ruminated. There were no other differences between groups. This suggests that the second strategy does have an effect over and beyond the first strategy, but this effect is small in size, highlighting the importance of the initial emotion regulation strategy used.

SUBMITTER: Peuters C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6314601 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event.

Peuters Carmen C Kalokerinos Elise K EK Pe Madeline Lee ML Kuppens Peter P

PloS one 20190102 1

In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the ev ...[more]

PMID: 30601837

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Project description:Previous studies have reported the failure of cognitive emotion regulation (CER), especially in regulating unpleasant emotions under stress. The underlying reason for this failure was the application of CER depends heavily on the executive function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), but this function can be impaired by stress-related neuroendocrine hormones. This observation highlights the necessity of developing self-regulatory strategies that require less top-down cognitive control. Based on traditional Chinese philosophy and medicine, which examine how different types of emotions promote or counteract one another, we have developed a novel emotion regulation strategy whereby one emotion is used to alter another. For example, our previous experiment showed that sadness induction (after watching a sad film) could reduce aggressive behavior associated with anger [i.e., "sadness counteracts anger" (SCA)] (Zhan et al., 2015). Relative to the CER strategy requiring someone to think about certain cognitive reappraisals to reinterpret the meaning of an unpleasant situation, watching a film or listening to music and experiencing the emotion contained therein seemingly requires less cognitive effort and control; therefore, this SCA strategy may be an alternative strategy that compensates for the limitations of cognitive regulation strategies, especially in stressful situations. The present study was designed to directly compare the effects of the CER and SCA strategy in regulating anger and anger-related aggression in stressful and non-stressful conditions. Participants' subjective feeling of anger, anger-related aggressive behavior, skin conductance, and salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels were measured. Our findings revealed that acute stress impaired one's ability to use CR to control angry responses provoked by others, whereas stress did not influence the efficiency of the SCA strategy. Compared with sadness or neutral emotion induction, CER induction was found to reduce the level of subjective anger more, but this difference only existed in non-stressful conditions. By contrast, irrespective of stress, the levels of aggressive behavior and related skin conductance after sadness induction were both significantly lower than those after CER induction or neutral emotion induction, thus suggesting the immunity of the regulatory effect of SCA strategy to the stress factor.

Project description:OBJECTIVE:Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are commonly occurring and frequently comorbid disorders. Though individuals with SAD and MDD are more likely to engage in rumination and worry, relatively few studies have compared individuals with SAD, MDD, or both disorders on their use of these cognitive styles. Similarly, the extent to which the disorders differ in their use of reappraisal remains unclear. Thus, the current study sought to systematically examine rumination, worry, and reappraisal in individuals with and without SAD, MDD, or both disorders. METHODS:The study comprised 330 participants recruited from the community (n = 54 with SAD, n = 61 with MDD, n = 69 with comorbid SAD/MDD, and n = 146 healthy controls). Following confirmation of diagnostic status via clinical interview, participants completed measures of rumination, worry, and reappraisal. RESULTS:Healthy controls reported less use of rumination (i.e., brooding and reflection) and worry than individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis. Individuals with SAD or MDD did not differ from each other, but participants in both groups reported less rumination, particularly brooding, than individuals with comorbid SAD/MDD. Diagnostic group differences in reappraisal only emerged when reappraisal was considered alongside other cognitive styles. Further, moderation analyses indicated that reappraisal was only associated with SAD or MDD when participants also reported high levels of rumination and worry. CONCLUSIONS:Results support transdiagnostic conceptualizations of rumination and worry. They also suggest that reappraisal is only useful when it is used by people who experience frequent and habitual negative cognitions. PRACTITIONER POINTS:Individuals with SAD or MDD report more rumination and worry than healthy controls, but do not differ from each other in their reliance on these cognitive styles. Individuals with comorbid SAD/MDD endorse more rumination than individuals with SAD or MDD alone, even after adjusting for differences in symptom severity. Reappraisal may only predict diagnostic group status when considered alongside other cognitive styles. In particular, high reappraisal may be associated with reduced risk of psychiatric disorder, but only when rumination and worry are also high. LIMITATIONS:The study was limited by its cross-sectional design and reliance on self-report measures. Participants were diagnosed using DSM-IV-TR criteria for SAD and MDD.

Dataset Information

Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event.

Publications

Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event.

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