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Rumination means to perseveratively think about one's negative feelings and problems. It is a response to affective distress that is often referred to as maladaptive emotion regulation. According to the response styles theory and control theory, rumination may further prolong and exacerbate affective distress. This means that rumination can be viewed as both an antecedent and an outcome of negative affect (NA), and vice versa. However, at the level of short-term dynamics, state rumination and NA have previously mainly been examined as two separate outcomes. To model the reciprocal within-person effects and hence, to match theoretical assumptions, we combined the two interrelated time series in one model using dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM). Both effects (NA on subsequent rumination and rumination on subsequent NA) were modeled simultaneously while acknowledging the autoregressive nature of both states (inert properties). We used data from two experience sampling studies (NStudy 1 = 200 Belgian university students; NStudy 2 = 70 German university students). Participants were paged on smartphones several times a day (Study 1: 10; Study 2: 6) for several days (Study 1: 7; Study 2: 9-12). In both studies, we found evidence for reciprocal effects of NA and rumination, and both processes showed autoregressive relationships. Aside from central findings, higher levels of rumination were also associated with higher rumination inertia, pointing toward more habitual rumination also being associated with prolonged rumination. Together, using DSEM, we found reciprocal associations between rumination and NA, while providing new insights into the dynamics between the two processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved). ispartof: EMOTION vol:22 issue:8 pages:1773-1786 ispartof: location:United States status: published

There is a growing body of work suggesting that social class stereotypes are amplified when people perceive higher levels of economic inequality—that is, the wealthy are perceived as more competent and assertive and the poor as more incompetent and unassertive. The present study tested this prediction in 32 societies and also examines the role of wealth-based categorization in explaining this relationship. We found that people who perceived higher economic inequality were indeed more likely to consider wealth as a meaningful basis for categorization. Unexpectedly, however, higher levels of perceived inequality were associated with perceiving the wealthy as less competent and assertive and the poor as more competent and assertive. Unpacking this further, exploratory analyses showed that the observed tendency to stereotype the wealthy negatively only emerged in societies with lower social mobility and democracy and higher corruption. This points to the importance of understanding how socio-structural features that co-occur with economic inequality may shape perceptions of the wealthy and the poor. © 2022 The Authors. European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. WOS:000880016700001 2-s2.0-85141616689 Social Sciences Citation Index Q2 Article Uluslararası işbirliği ile yapılan - EVET 2022 YÖK - 2022-23 Kasım

Emotion regulation (ER) variability refers to how individuals vary their use of ER strategies across time. It helps individuals to meet contextual needs, underscoring its importance in well-being. The theoretical foundation of ER variability recognizes two constituent processes in ER variability: strategy switching (e.g., moving from distraction to social sharing) and endorsement change (e.g., decreasing the intensity of both distraction and social sharing across time-points). Currently, ER variability is commonly operationalized as the standard deviation (SD) between strategies per observation (between-strategy SD) or within a strategy across time (within-strategy SD). In this paper, we show that these SD-based approaches cannot sufficiently capture strategy switching and endorsement change, leading to ER variability indices with poor validity. We propose Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, a measure used in ecology to quantify biodiversity variability, as a theory-informed ER variability index. First, we demonstrate how Bray-Curtis dissimilarity is more sensitive than SD-based approaches in detecting ER variability through two simulation studies. Second, assuming that higher ER variability is adaptive in daily life, we test the relation between ER variability and negative affect (NA) in three experience sampling method (ESM) datasets (total N = 365). Our findings show that a higher Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, at both moment-level and person-level, predicted lower NA more consistently than SD-based indices. We conclude that Bray-Curtis dissimilarity may better capture within-person ER variability and could have implications for studying variability in other multivariate dynamic processes. The paper is accompanied by an R tutorial and practical recommendations for using Bray-Curtis dissimilarity with ESM data.

Emotion differentiation refers to the tendency to label emotions in a granular way. While differentiation is an important individual difference in the context of psychological well-being, it is unknown how it fluctuates within individuals. Such a within-person measure is important, since it would allow the study of how changes in differentiation predict subsequent levels of other variables of interest. Here, we present a framework to study emotion differentiation at the within-person level by introducing a momentary emotion differentiation index. This index is directly derived from the classical emotion differentiation index, the intraclass correlation. We first give a theoretical derivation of this index. Next, using data from two experience sampling studies, we show how this new momentary index is related to other momentary indicators of well-being, and take the first steps in building its nomological network. A better understanding of within-person fluctuations in emotion differentiation will allow us to identify the causes and consequences of these fluctuations, and search for ways to teach individuals to increase their level of emotion differentiation. ispartof: Assessment vol:29 issue:4 pages:700-716 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Laypeople believe that sharing their emotional experiences with others will improve their understanding of those experiences, but no clear empirical evidence supports this belief. To address this gap, using data from four well-powered daily life studies (Ntotal = 659), we explored possible effects of social sharing on subsequent emotion differentiation (labelling emotions with a high degree of complexity) and vice versa. We found evidence that when people experienced specific, stressful negative events and did not ruminate about them, social sharing was linked to greater subsequent emotion differentiation. In contrast, when people experienced such events and ruminated about them, social sharing was linked to lower emotion differentiation. Additionally, lower emotion differentiation was linked to greater subsequent social sharing, suggesting that understanding one’s emotions may pre-empt sharing them with others.

Response to letter: A decision for life – Treatment decisions in newly diagnosed families with spinal muscular atrophy, European Journal of Paediatric Neurology, Volume 30, January 2021, Pages 103-104

Research has shown that how well people can differentiate between different emotional states is an essential requirement for adaptive emotion regulation. People with low levels of emotion differentiation tend to be more vulnerable to develop emotional disorders. Although we know quite a lot about the correlates of emotion differentiation, research on factors or interventions which could improve emotion differentiation skills is scarce. Here, we hypothesize, and study empirically, whether a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) may impact the differentiation of negative and positive emotions. A within-subjects pre-, post-, and follow-up design involving experience sampling was used. At each phase participants reported their current emotions and mindfulness skills up to 40 times across 4 consecutive days using smartphones. Multilevel modeling showed a significant improvement in negative emotion differentiation postintervention and at 4 months of follow-up, and a significant improvement in positive emotion differentiation at 4 months follow-up. The improvement in negative emotion differentiation, however, was no longer significant when controlling for levels of negative affect. A time-lagged mediation model showed that posttreatment changes in mindfulness skills mediated subsequent changes in negative emotion differentiation, also when controlling for levels of negative affect. These results suggest that MBI is a promising approach to improve people’s emotion differentiation skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract) ispartof: Emotion vol:19 issue:1 pages:123-131 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Emotion differentiation refers to the tendency to label emotions in a granular way. While differentiation is an important individual difference in the context of psychological well-being (Kashdan et al., 2015), it is unknown how it fluctuates within individuals. Such a within-person measure is important, since it would allow the study of how changes in differentiation predict subsequent levels of other variables of interest. Here, we present a framework to study emotion differentiation at the within-person level by introducing a momentary emotion differentiation index. This index is directly derived from the classical emotion differentiation index, the intra-class correlation. We first give a theoretical derivation of this index. Next, using data from two experience sampling studies, we show how this new momentary index is related to other momentary indicators of well-being, and take the first steps in building its nomological network. A better understanding of within-person fluctuations in emotion differentiation will allow us to identify the causes and consequences of these fluctuations, and search for ways to teach individuals to increase their level of emotion differentiation.

Abstract. Emotional intelligence (EI) should relate to people’s emotional experiences. We meta-analytically summarize associations of felt affect with ability EI branches (perception, facilitation, understanding, and management) and total scores ( k = 7–14; N = 1,584–2,813). We then use experience sampling ( N = 122 undergraduates over 5 days, 24 beeps) to test whether EI predicts emotion dynamics and complexity. Meta-analyses show that EI correlates significantly with lower negative affect (NA; ρ = −.21) but not higher positive affect (PA; ρ = .05). PA (but not NA) shows a significantly stronger relationship with emotion management (ρ = .23) versus other EI branches (ρ = −.01 to .07). In the experience sampling study, only management significantly related to higher PA, whereas lower NA was significantly related to total EI, perception, facilitation, and management. After controlling for mean affect: (a) only understanding significantly predicted NA dynamics whereas only management and facilitation significantly predicted PA dynamics; (b) management and facilitation predicted lower PA differentiation (EI was unrelated to NA differentiation); and (c) perception and facilitation predicted greater bipolarity. Results show that EI predicts affect, emotion dynamics, and emotion complexity. We discuss the importance of distinguishing between different branches of ability EI.

Emotional intelligence (EI) should relate to people’s emotional experiences. We meta-analytically summarise associations of felt affect with ability EI branches (perception, facilitation, understanding and management) and total scores (k = 7 to 14; N = 1,584 to 2,813). We then use experience sampling (N = 122 undergraduates over 5 days, 24 beeps) to test whether EI predicts emotion dynamics and complexity. Meta-analyses show that EI correlates significantly with lower negative affect (NA; ρ = -.21) but not higher positive affect (PA; ρ = .05). PA (but not NA) shows a significantly stronger relationship with emotion management (ρ = .23) versus other EI branches (ρ = -.01 to .07). In the experience sampling study, only management significantly related to higher PA, whereas lower NA was significantly related to total EI, perception, facilitation, and management. After controlling for mean affect: (a) only understanding significantly predicted NA dynamics whereas only management and facilitation significantly predicted PA dynamics; (b) management and facilitation predicted lower PA differentiation (EI was unrelated to NA differentiation); and (c) perception and facilitation predicted greater bipolarity. Results show that EI predicts affect, emotion dynamics and emotion complexity. We discuss the importance of distinguishing between different branches of ability EI.

Emotion differentiation, the ability to describe and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner, has been repeatedly associated with well-being. However, it is unclear exactly what type of differentiation is most strongly related to well-being: the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotions that are relatively closely related (e.g. anger and irritation), the ability to make larger distinctions between very distinct emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), or the combination of both. To determine which type of differentiation is most predictive of well-being, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis across six datasets. We examined the correlations between these three types of differentiation and several indicators of well-being (depression, emotional clarity, and self-esteem). Results showed that individuals differentiated most between very distinct emotions and least between more related emotions, and that an index computed across emotions from both the same and different emotion categories was most strongly associated with well-being indicators. ispartof: Cognition & Emotion vol:33 issue:2 pages:258-271 ispartof: location:England status: published

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are often categorized as universally adaptive or maladaptive. However, it has recently been proposed that this view is overly simplistic: instead, adaptive ER involves applying strategies variably to meet contextual demands. Using data from four experience-sampling studies (Ns = 70, 95, 200, and 179), we tested the relationship between ER variability and negative affect (NA) in everyday life. The constantly changing demands of daily life provide a more ecologically valid context in which to test the role of variability. We calculated 2 global indicators of variability: within-strategy variability (of particular strategies across time) and between-strategy variability (across strategies at one time-point). Associations between within-strategy variability and NA were inconsistent. In contrast, when controlling for mean strategy endorsement, between-strategy variability was associated with reduced NA across both individuals and measurement occasions. This is the first evidence that variably choosing between different strategies within a situation may be adaptive in daily life. ispartof: Emotion vol:20 issue:3 pages:473-485 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Emotion differentiation, which involves experiencing and labeling emotions in a granular way, has been linked with well-being. It has been theorized that differentiating between emotions facilitates effective emotion regulation, but this link has yet to be comprehensively tested. In two experience-sampling studies, we examined how negative emotion differentiation was related to (a) the selection of emotion-regulation strategies and (b) the effectiveness of these strategies in downregulating negative emotion ( Ns = 200 and 101 participants and 34,660 and 6,282 measurements, respectively). Unexpectedly, we found few relationships between differentiation and the selection of putatively adaptive or maladaptive strategies. Instead, we found interactions between differentiation and strategies in predicting negative emotion. Among low differentiators, all strategies (Study 1) and four of six strategies (Study 2) were more strongly associated with increased negative emotion than they were among high differentiators. This suggests that low differentiation may hinder successful emotion regulation, which in turn supports the idea that effective regulation may underlie differentiation benefits.

Does knowing your own emotions relate to knowing those of others? We argue that our ability to experience and label our own emotions in a differentiated and specific manner is related to the ability to accurately perceive the level of emotions in others. In an experience sampling study among romantic couples, we tested the hypothesis that individuals with higher levels of emotion differentiation are characterized by higher levels of empathic accuracy (i.e., judge others’ emotions more accurately). In line with expectations, results showed that individuals who differentiate highly between their negative emotions are more able to accurately infer how pleasant their partners are feeling across daily life. This finding establishes a link between perceptions of our own and others’ emotions and provides evidence that the skills we use to understand our own emotions are also relevant for understanding how others feel.

Emotion differentiation, the ability to make fine-grained distinctions between emotional states, has mainly been studied as a trait. In this research, we examine within-person fluctuations in emotion differentiation and hypothesize that stress is a central factor in predicting these fluctuations. We predict that experiencing stress will result in lower levels of emotion differentiation. Using data from a 3-wave longitudinal experience sampling study, we examined the within-person fluctuations in the level of emotion differentiation across days and months and tested if these fluctuations related to changes in stress levels. On the day-level, we found that differentiation of negative emotions varied significantly within individuals, that high stress levels were associated with lower levels of emotion differentiation, and that stress on 1 day negatively predicted the level of differentiation of negative emotions on a next day (but not vice versa). On the wave-level, we found a concurrent, but not a prospective relationship between stress and emotion differentiation. These results are the first to directly demonstrate the role of stress in predicting fluctuations in emotion differentiation and have implications for our theoretical understanding of emotion differentiation, as well as for interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record ispartof: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY vol:115 issue:2 pages:179-191 ispartof: location:United States status: published

The ability to distinguish between emotions is considered indicative of well-being, but does emotion differentiation (ED) in an aesthetic context also reflect deeper and more knowledgeable aesthetic experiences? Here we examine whether positive and negative ED in response to artistic stimuli reflects higher fluency in an aesthetic domain. Particularly, we test whether knowledge of the arts and curiosity are associated with more fine-grained positive and negative aesthetic experiences. A sample of 214 people rated their positive and negative feelings in response to various artworks including positive and negative themes. Positive ED was associated with the embracing sub-trait of curiosity that reflects engagement and enjoyment of novelty and complexity, but was unrelated to artistic knowledge and perceived comprehension. Negative ED was associated with higher curiosity and particularly more knowledge of the arts. This relationship was mediated by appraised comprehension suggesting that deeper engagement with art, by those with more art knowledge, is associated with more fine-grained emotional experiences. This finding extends ED beyond well-being research and suggests that more nuanced emotional experiences are more likely for those with expertise in the arts and motivation for exploration. ispartof: Cognition and Emotion vol:32 issue:3 pages:593-599 ispartof: location:England status: published

People differ in the extent to which they experience positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) rather independently or as bipolar opposites. Here, we examine the proposition that the nature of the relation between positive and negative affect in a person's emotional experience is indicative of psychological well-being, in particular the experience of depressive symptoms, typically characterized by diminished positive affect (anhedonia) and increased negative affect (depressed mood). In three experience sampling studies, we examine how positive and negative affective states are related within people's emotional experience in daily life and how the degree of bipolarity of this relation is associated with depressive symptom severity. In Study 1 and 2, we show both concurrently and longitudinally that a stronger bipolar PA-NA relationship is associated with, and in fact is predicted by, higher depressive symptom severity, even after controlling for mean levels of positive and negative affect. In Study 3, we replicate these findings in a daily diary design, with the two conceptually related main symptoms of depression, sadness, and anhedonia, as specific manifestations of high NA and low PA, respectively. Across studies, additional analyses indicate these results are robust across different time scales and various PA and NA operationalizations and that affective bipolarity shows particular specificity toward depressive symptomatology, in comparison with anxiety symptoms. Together, these findings demonstrate that depressive symptoms involve stronger bipolarity between positive and negative affect, reflecting reduced emotional complexity and flexibility. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a commonly used self-report scale to measure depressive symptoms in the general population. In the present study, the Dutch version of the CES-D was administered to a sample of 837 Dutch-speaking adults of Belgium to examine the factor structure of the scale. Using confirmatory factory analysis (CFA), four first-order models and two second-order models were tested, and the second-order factor model with three pairs of correlated error terms provided the best fit to the data. Second, five socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education level, relation status, and family history of depression) were included as covariates to the second-order factor model to explore the associations between background characteristics and the latent factor depression using a multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) approach. Age had a significantly negative effect on depression, but the effect was not substantial. Female gender, lower education level, being single or widowed, and having a family history of depression were found to be significant predictors of higher levels of depression symptomatology. Finally, percentile norms on the CES-D raw scores were provided for subgroups of gender by education level for the general Dutch-speaking adult population of Belgium. ispartof: Psychologica Belgica vol:56 issue:1 pages:1-12 ispartof: location:England status: published

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is commonly associated with reduced ability to recognize emotions in others. It is less clear however, whether ASD is also associated with impaired knowledge of one's own emotions. In the current study we present a first examination of how much knowledge individuals with ASD have about their emotions by investigating their ability to differentiate between emotions. Across two lab tasks that measured to what extent and how people differentiate between their own feeling states and semantic emotion terms, results showed that ASD individuals differentiated less than typically developing individuals. Yet, both groups of participants similarly categorized emotions according to previously established theoretical categories. These findings indicate that while both give similar meaning to emotions, individuals with ASD make less subtle distinctions between emotions. With low levels of emotion differentiation being linked to reduced well-being, these findings may help to better understand the high prevalence of internalizing problems associated with ASD.

That emotions change in response to emotion-eliciting events is a natural part of human life. However, it is equally important for emotions to return to baseline once the emotion-eliciting events have passed. This suggests that the ability to emotionally react to and recover from emotion-eliciting events is critical for healthy psychological functioning. But why do individuals differ in their emotion reactivity and recovery? The present work postulates that the ability to update emotional information in working memory (WM) may explain individual differences in emotion reactivity and recovery. Two studies are presented, which examined whether updating ability was related to emotion reactivity and recovery. In Study 1, we assessed participants' self-reported affect as they viewed negative and positive films. Our results revealed that better updating ability was related to greater emotion reactivity and facilitated (i.e., quicker) recovery from watching negative films. In Study 2, participants recalled a recent angering event, and were then instructed to either ruminate about or reappraise the event. Results revealed that updating ability was again related to greater emotion reactivity and facilitated (i.e., successful) emotion recovery in response to the angering event, and that this was unrelated to the emotion regulation strategy used. These findings identify the ability to update emotional information in WM as a possible mechanism in emotion responding. ispartof: Frontiers in Psychology vol:6 issue:MAR pages:1-13 ispartof: location:Switzerland status: published

Western culture has become obsessed with happiness, while treating negative emotions like sadness, depression, or anxiety as pathological and nonnormative. These salient cultural norms communicate social expectations that people should feel “happy” and not “sad.” Previous research has shown that these “social expectancies” can increase feelings of sadness and reduce well-being. In this study, we examined whether these perceived social pressures might also lead people to feel socially disconnected—lonely—when they do experience negative emotions? Drawing on a large stratified sample prescreened for depressive symptoms and utilizing both trait measures and moment-to-moment “experience sampling” over a 7-day period, we found that people who felt more negative emotions and also believe that others in society disapprove of these emotions reported more loneliness. Our data suggest that social pressures to be happy and not sad can make people feel more socially isolated when they do feel sad.

Emotion differentiation refers to the level of specificity with which people distinguish between their emotional states and is considered to play an important role for psychological well-being. Yet, not much is known about what characterizes people high or low in emotion differentiation and what underlies these differences. In 2 studies involving experience sampling (Studies 1-2) and lab based (Study 2) methods, we investigated how emotion differentiation is related to individual differences in valence focus and the overlap in appraisal patterns between emotions. In line with expectations, results showed that high levels of both positive and negative emotion differentiation are related to lower levels of valence focus and lower levels of appraisal overlap between emotions. These findings suggest that individuals who are low in emotion differentiation mainly emphasize the valence aspect of emotions while individuals who are high in emotion differentiation make stronger distinctions between emotions in terms of their underlying appraisal profiles.

Previous research has shown that individual differences in negative emotion differentiation may play a prominent role in well-being. Yet, many basic questions about negative emotion differentiation remain unanswered, including how it relates and overlaps with related and known dimensions of individual differences and what its possible underlying processes are. To answer these questions, in the current article we present three correlational studies that chart the nomological network of individual differences in negative emotion differentiation in terms of personality, difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, and several indicators of well-being, propose a novel paradigm to assess it in the lab, and explore relationships with a possible underlying mechanism in terms of the motivation to approach or avoid emotions. The results affirm consistent relations between negative emotion differentiation and indicators of adjustment like negative affect, self-esteem, neuroticism, depression and meta-knowledge about one's emotions, and show how it is related to the motivation to experience affective states.