Self-Regulation Through Rumination: Consequences and Mechanisms

Self-regulation through rumination: Consequences and mechanism

Breaking the vise of hopelessness: Targeting its components, antecedents, and context

Hopelessness is a painful cognitive state that is related to depression and suicide. Despite its importance, only unsystematic efforts have been made to specifically target hopelessness in interventions, and no comprehensive review is currently available to guide future clinical studies. In this narrative review, we first analyze the phenomenon of hopelessness, by highlighting its components (e.g., dismal expectations, blocked goal-directed processing, and helplessness), antecedents (e.g., inferential styles), and contextual factors (e.g., loneliness and reduced social support). Then, we review the currently available interventions and manipulations that target these mechanisms, either directly or indirectly, and we highlight both their strengths and lacunae. Finally, we propose possible avenues to improve our clinical toolbox for breaking the vise of hopelessness

Attentional avoidance of high-fat food in unsuccessful dieters

Using the exogenous cueing task, this study examined whether restrained and disinhibited eaters differ in their orientation of attention towards and their difficulty to disengage from high versus low-fat food pictures in a relatively short (500 ms) and a long presentation format (1500 ms). Overall, participants in the 500 ms condition showed a tendency to direct attention away from high-fat food pictures compared to neutral pictures. No differential pattern was evident for the 1500 ms condition. Correlational analysis revealed that reduced engagement with high-fat food was particularly pronounced for disinhibited eaters. Although in the short term this seems an adaptive strategy, it may eventually become counterproductive, as it could hinder habituation and learning to cope with seductive characteristics of high-fat food. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Temperamental factors in remitted depression: The role of effortful control and attentional mechanisms

Temperamental effortful control and attentional networks are increasingly viewed as important underlying processes in depression and anxiety. However, it is still unknown whether these factors facilitate depressive and anxiety symptoms in the general population and, more specifically, in remitted depressed individuals. We investigated to what extent effortful control and attentional networks (i.e., Attention Network Task) explain concurrent depressive and anxious symptoms in healthy individuals (n\u202f=\u202f270) and remitted depressed individuals (n\u202f=\u202f90). Both samples were highly representative of the US population. Increased effortful control predicted a substantial decrease in symptoms of both depression and anxiety in the whole sample, whereas decreased efficiency of executive attention predicted a modest increase in depressive symptoms. Remitted depressed individuals did not show less effortful control nor less efficient attentional networks than healthy individuals. Moreover, clinical status did not moderate the relationship between temperamental factors and either depressive or anxiety symptoms. Limitations include the cross-sectional nature of the study. Our study shows that temperamental effortful control represents an important transdiagnostic process for depressive and anxiety symptoms in adults

The Brief State Rumination Inventory (BSRI): Validation and Psychometric Evaluation

Depressive rumination is an emotion regulation strategy that is considered a major risk factor for depression and other emotional disorders. While well-established measures of trait rumination are available, a psychometrically sound measure of state rumination is lacking. We report on the development and validation of a new self-report measure, the Brief State Rumination Inventory (BSRI), in both Dutch and English. In Study 1, we report the results of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis across three independent samples (n\u2009=\u2009155; n\u2009=\u2009141; n\u2009=\u2009199). The analysis supported the unidimensionality and measurement invariance of the 8-item BSRI. We also examined its construct validity, showing that scores on the BSRI were positively related to measures of negative affect, trait rumination, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Scores were negatively related to adaptive emotion regulation strategies and to positive affect. In Study 2 (n\u2009=\u200960), we demonstrated the measure\u2019s sensitivity to an experimental manipulation of rumination. Taken together, these findings suggest that the BSRI is a quick-to-administer, valid, and reliable measure of state ruminatio

Self-generated thoughts and depression: From daydreaming to depressive symptoms

Human minds often engage in thoughts and feelings that are self-generated rather than stimulus-dependent, such as daydreaming. Recent research suggests that under certain circumstances, daydreaming is associated with adverse effects on cognition and affect. Based on recent literature about the influence of resting mind in relation to rumination and depression, this questionnaire study investigated mechanisms linking daydreaming to depressive symptoms. Specifically, an indirect effect model was tested in which daydreaming influences depressive symptoms through enhancing self-focus and ruminative thought. Results were in line with the hypothesis and several alternative pathways were ruled out. The results provide initial supportive evidence that daydreaming can influence depressive symptoms through influences on self-focus and rumination. Further research should use prospective or experimental designs to further validate and strengthen these conclusions

The interplay between cognitive risk and resilience factors in remitted depression: A network analysis

Individuals in remission from depression are at increased risk for developing future depressive episodes. Several cognitive risk- and resilience factors have been suggested to account for this vulnerability. In the current study we explored how risk- and protective factors such as cognitive control, adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation, residual symptomatology, and resilience relate to one another in a remitted depressed (RMD) sample. We examined the relationships between these constructs in a cross-sectional dataset of 69 RMD patients using network analyses in order to obtain a comprehensive, data-driven view on the interplay between these constructs. We subsequently present an association network, a concentration network, and a relative importance network. In all three networks resilience formed the central hub, connecting perceived cognitive control (i.e., working memory complaints), emotion regulation, and residual symptomatology. The contribution of the behavioral measure for cognitive control in the network was negligible. Moreover, the directed relative importance network indicates bidirectional influences between these constructs, with all indicators of centrality suggesting a key role of resilience in remission from depression. The presented findings are cross-sectional and networks are limited to a fixed set of key constructs in the literature pertaining cognitive vulnerability for depression. These findings indicate the importance of resilience to successfully cope with stressors following remission from depression. Further in-depth studies will be essential to identify the specific underlying resilience mechanisms that may be key to successful remission from depression

Spontaneous thought and vulnerability to mood disorders: The dark side of the wandering mind

There is increasing interest in spontaneous thought, namely task-unrelated or rest-related mental activity. Spontaneous thought is an umbrella term for processes like mindwandering, involuntary autobiographical memory, and daydreaming, with evidence elucidating adaptive and maladaptive consequences. In this theoretical framework, we propose that, apart from its positive functions, spontaneous thought is a precursor for cognitive vulnerability in individuals who are at-risk for mood disorders. Importantly, spontaneous thought mostly focuses on unattained goals and evaluates the discrepancy between current and desired status (Klinger, 1971, 2013a). In individuals who stably (i.e., trait negative affectivity) or transitorily (i.e., stress) experience negative emotions in reaction to goal-discrepancy, spontaneous thought fosters major cognitive vulnerabilities (e.g., rumination, hopelessness, low self-esteem, and cognitive reactivity) which, in turn, enhance depression. Furthermore, we also highlight preliminary links between spontaneous thought and bipolar disorder. The evidence for this framework is reviewed and we discuss theoretical and clinical implications of our proposal