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Feelings of positive or negative affect are not restricted to temporary states. They can also determine future affective experiences, by influencing the building of an individual’s personal resources. The present study was designed to understand the daily fluctuations in positive and negative affect more fully. To this end, we examined the involvement of a variety of affect regulation strategies in these fluctuations. The affect regulation strategies we explored included positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping, appreciation and rumination. We adopted an experience sampling method, consisting of five daily assessments over a 2-week period. As expected, within a few hours of experiencing more positive affect, participants engaged in greater positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping and appreciation. In turn, greater use of each of these three strategies was followed by more intense experiences of positive affect. We observed analogous reciprocal influences between rumination and the experience of negative affect, within the same time interval. Changes in affective experience over several hours were also directly influenced by concurrent use of these strategies. More specifically, greater positive reappraisal, problem-focused coping and appreciation accelerated the rise in positive affect that follows low feelings of positive affect, and slowed the decline in positive affect that follows high feelings. Rumination had an analogous influence on change in negative affect. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

The study evaluated, in a sample of 230 adolescents (147 males and 83 females, mean age = 16.67) and a sample of 181 young people (21 males and 160 females, mean age = 22.57), the relationships between time perspective and the following personal skills: coping styles, perceived efficacy on affect regulation, and creative divergent problem solving. Results highlight that future time perspective increases in value from adolescence to youth, while present time perspective decreases. Future time perspective is correlated with creative problem solving and problem solving coping style in both age groups, while present time perspective is positively correlated with expression of positive emotions in both age groups. Results are discussed also for their relevance for school educational and training programs.

This study focuses on the first stage of instrument development, content validity, and provides guidance on what steps should be taken when designing and evaluating content through the development of an instrument to reflect a recent theory concerning emotional episodes. To establish this instrument, we (1) operationalized the theory, identifying 25 sub-constructs for topics such as listening attention, meaning generation, preferences, familiarity, reward, and functions attributed to the use of music to regulate affectual states; (2) proposed a set of items (N = 495) to represent the relevant constructs operationalized here from the Episode Model; (3) analyzed and reduced the item pool with natural language processing (NLP); (4) assessed whether items were indeed reflective of their assumed construct and would garner appropriate responses using feedback supplied by subject matter experts; (5) refined the item pool based on expert feedback; (6) reassessed the revised items which resulted in a reduced item sample (N = 168). Through this collaborative content validity process, experts supported the theoretical positioning of the Episode Model through their agreement with the operationalized constructs. Expert insight shaped the implementation of theory from loosely associated items into a more tightly interrelated set of items, comprising fewer and more distinct constructs. We conclude by discussing the purpose of these content validity processes and outline the next stages of instrument development to construct a robust instrument which contextualizes emotional episodes experienced with music.

A number of studies have found that individuals pursue emotional experiences that match their personality traits. For the trait negative individual (e.g., neurotic) who pursues experiences that create negative emotions, this finding is inconsistent with the hedonic hypothesis that their activity is controlled by the pursuit of good feelings. As a resolution of the conflict between these two positions, it was predicted that people with traits that elicit negative affect would pursue trait-affect consistency (a long-term outcome) except when their emotional state was very negative. At this point their hedonic tendencies (short-term) would take over and they would pursue experiences that produced happiness. College students responded to measures of Extroversion, Neuroticism, SPANE Trait Positive Affect, SPANE Trait Negative Affect, and Depression. Then, for five mood states, ranging from Ecstasy to Black and Leaden, they whether they would like to play a sad song, happy song, song that produced negative affect, and song that produced positive affect. For the positive traits, trait-affect consistency was predicted. For the negative traits, trait affect consistency was predicted for all of the moods except for the most negative mood condition. No support was found for the hedonic hypothesis. It was found that for mood state participants preferred happy songs that produced positive affect when feeling positive (e.g., Ecstasy) and sad songs that produced negative affect when feeling negative (e.g., Black and Leaden). Evidence was found for both trait- and state-affect matching. The results were explained in terms the need for epistemic certainty.

The widely used Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) measures the habitual use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Recently, a more economical 8-item version of the ERQ was proposed that showed good model fit. We assessed whether the latent constructs of the ERQ-8 are generalizable across different countries and cultures. To this end, we used data from the COVIDiSTRESS survey and investigated measurement invariance of the ERQ-8 in a large sample that included 11,288 individuals from 29 countries with diverse cultural backgrounds. Our analyses revealed configural and metric invariance of the ERQ-8 in 14 countries. The results suggest that emotion regulation strategies may not readily converge across all cultures. This underscores the importance of testing measurement invariance before interpreting observed differences and similarities between countries.

Background: Psychological well-being and health-specific self-regulation have been associated with cardiovascular health. This study aimed to examine the longitudinal relationship of positivity and health-specific self-regulatory variables to health-related quality of life in patients with cardiovascular disease. Methods: A sample of 550 cardiac patients completed a number of instruments (positivity, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and cardiac self-efficacy scales, and the general health questionnaire SF-12) on two occasions 9 months apart, assessing their level of positivity, health-specific self-efficacy beliefs, and health-related quality of life. Results: Mediational analyses demonstrated that healthspecific self-efficacy beliefs mediate the relationship between positivity and health-related quality of life. In terms of self-efficacy in managing negative affect, the despondency-distress factor showed both direct and indirect effects on health, while the anger factor showed only an indirect effect. The results of the structural equation model demonstrated suitable indices of fit. Conclusions: Posit iv it y m ay act a s a d isp osit ion helps p atient s to use motivational strategies related to health, be more confident in their ability to regulate their emotions, and follow the recommendations of their cardiac medical team, enabling them to perceive a higher quality of life. These findings indicate the need to promote psychosocial interventions that include these variables. Keywords: Positivity; Cardiac self-efficacy; Self-regulation; Affect regulation; Cardiovascular disease; Health-related quality of life. Calidad de Vida relacionada con la Salud de Personas con Enfermedad Cardiovascular: Positividad y Creencias de Autoeficacia. Antecedentes: el bienestar psicologico y la autorregulacion se asocian con la salud cardiovascular. Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar longitudinalmente la relacion entre la positividad y variables autorreguladoras especificas de la salud con la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en pacientes cardiovasculares. Metodo: quinientos cincuenta pacientes cardiacos respondieron dos veces a las escalas de positividad, autoeficacia para la regulacion emocional, autoeficacia cardiaca y salud general SF-12 con un intervalo de nueve meses, evaluando respectivamente su nivel de positividad, creencias de autoeficacia especificas de la salud y calidad de vida relacionada con la salud. Resultados: los analisis mediacionales demostraron que las creencias de autoeficacia median la relacion entre la positividad y la calidad de vida. La autoeficacia para el manejo del afecto negativo, concretamente el factor desaliento-angustia, mostro un efecto directo e indirecto sobre la salud. Los resultados del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales mostraron indices de ajuste adecuados para el modelo longitudinal propuesto. Conclusiones: la positividad puede actuar como un factor disposicional que facilita desarrollar estrategias motivacionales relacionadas con la salud, tener mayor confianza en la capacidad para regular las emociones y seguir las recomendaciones del equipo medico-cardiaco, permitiendo asi a los pacientes percibir una mayor calidad de vida. Palabras clave: positividad; autoeficacia cardiaca; autorregulacion; afecto negativo; enfermedad cardiovascular; calidad de vida relacionada con la salud.

Emotion Dysregulation (ED) and Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) are two rising global issues requiring further understanding on how they are linked. This paper aims to summarize the evidence pertaining to this relationship. Five databases were systematically searched for published literature from inception until 29 March 2021 using appropriate search strategies. Each study was screened for eligibility based on the set criteria, assessed for its quality and its level of evidence was determined. The Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software program (CMA) was employed to run further analyses of the data. Twenty-one studies were included in the systematic review. Nine studies with extractable data for meta-analysis had high across-studies heterogeneity, hence subgroup analyses were performed that confirmed a significant moderate positive correlation between ED and PSU (pooled correlation coefficient, r = 0.416 (four studies, n = 1462) and r = 0.42 (three studies, n = 899), respectively) and a weak positive correlation between “expressive suppression” and PSU (pooled correlation coefficient, r = 0.14 (two studies, n = 608)). Meta-regression analysis showed a stronger correlation between ED and PSU (R2 = 1.0, p = 0.0006) in the younger age group. Further studies to establish and explore the mechanisms that contribute towards the positive link between ED and PSU are required to guide in the planning of targeted interventions in addressing both issues.

We examined the concurrent and prospective relations between response styles to positive affect and depression in a community sample. Participants ( n  = 345) completed self-report measures of current and past depressive episodes, depressive symptoms, anhedonia, and responses to positive affect (including dampening and positive rumination) at two time points, with a 5-month interval. Higher levels of dampening responses to positive affect were related to higher concurrent levels of depressive symptoms. The tendency to positively ruminate on positive affect was negatively related to concurrent anhedonic symptoms. When controlling for current depressive symptomatology, formerly depressed individuals had a higher tendency to dampen positive affect than never-depressed controls, and did not differ from a currently depressed group. Dampening responses did not predict depressive symptoms prospectively, but lower levels of (self-focused) positive rumination did predict higher levels of future anhedonic symptoms. Results indicate that not only currently but also formerly depressed individuals engage in dysfunctional (dampening) strategies in response to positive affect. It is possible that currently as well as formerly depressed individuals might benefit from interventions that are directed at the remediation of disturbed regulation of positive affect. However, our prospective results make clear that more research is needed to examine the precise conditions under which dampening would be a detrimental (and positive rumination a beneficial) response style in the course of depression.

IntroductionResearch has shown that negative affect leads to unhealthy eating, the top cause of death in the United States.ObjectivesThis project examined whether AR (Affect Regulation) can be applied to incidental negative affect to improve eating behavior.MethodsWe conducted four studies.ResultsIn Studies 1 and 2 (n=80), we developed a autobiographical negative affect induction, showed that it induces negative affect, and demonstrated that participants can learn to downregulate this negative affect. In Study 3 (n=40), participants completed a three-phase dietary food choice task. In phase 1, participants made food choices under neutral conditions. In phase 2, participants made food choices after receiving the negative affect induction from Studies 1 and 2. In phase 3, participants made food choices while downregulating the negative affect caused by the induction. In phase 2, participants placed less importance on health (b=-0.15, z=-5.99, p<.001) when making food choices than under neutral conditions (phase 1). In phase 3, participants successfully downregulated their negative affect (b=-1.2, t=-22.01, p<.001) and placed the same level of importance on health when making food choices as in phase 1, indicating that AR applied to incidental affect is an effective method for improving eating behavior. In Study 4 (n=120), we pre-registered and replicated our findings from Study 3. In addition, we fit drift-diffusion models to participants reaction time data and show that these results extent to the by-participant weights participants place on health when making food choices.ConclusionsThese results are a step towards scalable AR interventions to improve eating behavior.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

The Emotion Regulation of Others and Self Scale (EROS) is commonly used to measure individual differences in the use of strategies to regulate one’s own and other people’s emotions. This study aimed to examine its psychometric properties and measurement invariance across sex in a Portuguese clinical sample. For this purpose, we tested the factorial structure of the EROS in a sample of 390 adults (259 women; Mage = 34.33; SD = 9.99) undergoing active psychotherapy in a private clinic. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the four-factor solution proposed by the original authors (intrinsic affect-improving, intrinsic affect-worsening, extrinsic affect-improving and extrinsic affect-worsening) fitted well to our data. Invariance across sex was determined by using multi-group analyses. Additionally, reliability analysis indicated good coefficients for all the dimensions. The pattern of associations of the EROS subscales with dispositional mindfulness, ruminative thinking, psychological inflexibility, emotional intelligence, and psychopathological symptoms were examined. As expected, small to moderate correlations were found evidencing the convergent construct validity of the EROS. Findings suggest that the EROS is a psychometrically sound approach for assessing individual differences in emotion regulation in clinical samples.