Understanding the utility of emotional approach coping: evidence from a laboratory stressor and daily life.

BACKGROUND: Dispositional emotional approach coping (EAC) marks an adaptive tendency to process and express emotions. EAC's association with cognitions, affect, and intra- and interindividual characteristics that may account for its utility was examined in response to an acute stressor and in daily life. DESIGN: This study included a laboratory stress task and ecological momentary assessment. METHODS: Healthy undergraduate students (n = 124; mean age: 20; women: 56%) completed a laboratory component (baseline survey, speech stress task, pre- and posttask measures) and five subsequent days of surveys via palm pilot (six surveys/day). RESULTS: Controlling for sex, neuroticism, and social support, greater EAC was associated with more positive cognitive appraisals, personal resources, and positive affect and less-negative affect during the lab stressor, and with more perceived control and positive affect in daily life. Significant EAC × sex interactions were found for poststressor affect: men with high EAC reported more positive affect and women with high EAC reported less negative affect. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide support that EAC's utility may be independent of intra- and interindividual characteristics, and that men and women may benefit from EAC in different ways in regards to affect. The proclivity to use EAC may come with a resiliency that protects against stress and promotes general well-being.

Eliciting and maintaining ruminative thought: the role of social-evaluative threat.

This study tested whether a performance stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (SET) elicits more rumination than a stressor without this explicit evaluative component and whether this difference persists minutes, hours, and days later. The mediating role of shame-related cognition and emotion (SRCE) was also examined. During a laboratory visit, 144 undergraduates (50% female) were randomly assigned to complete a speech stressor in a social-evaluative threat condition (SET; n = 86), in which an audience was present, or a nonexplicit social-evaluative threat condition (ne-SET; n = 58), in which they were alone in a room. Participants completed measures of stressor-related rumination 10 and 40 min posttask, later that night, and upon returning to the laboratory 3-5 days later. SRCE and other emotions experienced during the stressor (fear, anger, and sadness) were assessed immediately posttask. As hypothesized, the SET speech stressor elicited more rumination than the ne-SET speech stressor, and these differences persisted for 3-5 days. SRCE-but not other specific negative emotions or general emotional arousal-mediated the effect of stressor context on rumination. Stressors characterized by SET may be likely candidates for eliciting and maintaining ruminative thought immediately and also days later, potentially by eliciting shame-related emotions and cognitions.

Rumination predicts longer sleep onset latency after an acute psychosocial stressor.

OBJECTIVES: Rumination has been linked to self-reported sleep quality. However, whether rumination is related to an objective sleep parameter has not been tested. This study examined whether rumination predicts sleep onset latency (SOL) on the night after an acute psychosocial stressor. We hypothesized that those who ruminate (assessed with both trait and stressor-specific measures) would have longer SOL (assessed with objective and subjective methods). METHODS: Seventy participants delivered a 5-minute speech in front of an evaluative panel during an afternoon laboratory session. Trait rumination was assessed before the stressor. Stressor-specific rumination was captured with the frequency of task-related thoughts participants experienced during a 10-minute rest period after the stressor. Participants wore actigraphs on their wrists on the night after the laboratory session to measure objective sleep onset latency (SOL-O). Subjective sleep onset latency was estimated by participants on the subsequent morning. RESULTS: Consistent with hypotheses, trait and stressor-specific rumination predicted longer SOL-O and subjective sleep onset latency, respectively. In addition, trait and stressor-specific rumination interacted to predict longer SOL-O. SOL-O was longest among those who engaged in more stressor-specific rumination and had greater trait rumination scores. Neither rumination measure was related to sleep duration or wakefulness after sleep onset. CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study are consistent with previous research linking rumination to subjective sleep quality. The results also suggest that post-stressor ruminative thought may predict delayed sleep onset for those with a propensity for rumination.

Emotion regulation and cortisol reactivity to a social-evaluative speech task.

BACKGROUND: Previous laboratory studies have found a relationship between experimentally manipulated emotion regulation strategies such as suppression and reappraisal and cardiovascular reactivity. However, these studies have not examined trait forms of these strategies and cortisol responses. The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between trait suppression, reappraisal, and cortisol reactivity to a social-evaluative speech task. METHODS: Participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire [ERQ; Gross, J.J., John, O.P., 2003. Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 85, 348-362] to assess trait suppression and reappraisal and were asked to complete a speech task in front of an evaluative audience. They provided five saliva samples throughout the duration of the session to assess cortisol response patterns. RESULTS: Consistent with hypotheses, trait suppression predicted exaggerated cortisol responses to the speech task, with those scoring higher on suppression exhibiting greater cortisol reactivity. High levels of trait reappraisal also predicted exaggerated cortisol reactivity to the speech task. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that certain emotion regulation strategies such as suppression and reappraisal predict heightened cortisol reactivity to an acute stressor. Future studies should examine the psychological mechanisms through which these emotion regulation strategies affect cortisol response patterns.

Does self-affirmation, cognitive processing, or discovery of meaning explain cancer-related health benefits of expressive writing?

Although expressive writing has positive effects on health, little is known about the underlying psychological mechanisms for these effects. The present study assessed self-affirmation, cognitive processing, and discovery of meaning as potential mediators of the effects of expressive writing on physical health in early-stage breast cancer survivors. A content analysis of the essays showed that self-affirmation writing was associated with fewer physical symptoms at a 3-month follow-up assessment, with self-affirmation writing fully mediating the effects of the emotional expression and benefit-finding writing conditions on reduced physical symptoms. Cognitive processing and discovery of meaning writing were not associated with any physical health outcomes. Consistent with evidence showing that self-affirmation plays an important role in buffering stress, the present study provides the first evidence for self-affirmation as a viable mechanism underlying the health benefits of expressive writing.