En betydande andel individer med bipolär sjukdom upplever kvarvarande, subkliniska symtom mellan egentliga sjukdomsepisoder. Sådana restsymtom är förenade med sänkt livskvalitet och förhöjd risk för återfall i sjukdomsepisoder. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka huruvida en kort, internetadministrerad behandling är genomförbar och kan ge en minskning av depressiva restsymtom, genom interventioner riktade mot sömn och emotionsreglering. För detta syfte användes en single-subject design med upprepade mätningar (n=4). Studiens resultat visar att behandlingen är genomförbar och att den, för vissa individer, kan ge en minskning av depressiva restsymtom. Vidare forskning kring behandlingen är motiverad. / A significant proportion of persons diagnosed with bipolar disorder experience subclinical, residual symptoms between major episodes. Residual symptoms are associated with poor quality of life and increased risk of relapse. The current study aims at investigating whether a time limited, internet-based treatment targeting disturbed sleep and emotion regulation is feasible and successful in reducing residual depressive symptoms. Pertaining to this purpose, a single-subject design with repeated measures was used (n=4). Results show that the treatment is feasible and, for some individuals, can lead to a decrease in depressive symptoms. Future studies regarding this treatment are warranted.

One of the ways in which the attachment relationships we develop during infancy influence us throughout life is by emotion regulation. Although studies have shown that attachment orientations affect emotional functioning, the effect of attachment dimensions on overall emotional functioning and sociability has still not been investigated. The purpose of the present study was to examine if attachment dimensions predict emotional intelligence (EI) and sociability. The sample consisted of 75 psychology students at Stockholm University who completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Feeney, Noller & Hanrahan, 1994) and a section of the Understanding Personal Potential (UPP; Sjöberg, 2001) that measures EI with self-report as well as performance measures, and sociability. The current data did not offer conclusive evidence for the impact of attachment on EI, but suggests that secure attachment predicts sociability. The results are discussed in relation to existing theory and a more integrative approach is suggested for future studies.

The purpose of the study was to examine the role of test anxiety, academic self-efficacy, and cognitive appraisal processes in predicting eighth grade students&rsquo / emotion regulation strategies during test taking. In addition, gender was included as a predictor in the study. The sample of the study consisted of 778 eighth grade students (398 females and 380 males) in 17 schools of &Ccedil / ankaya and Yenimahalle districts in Ankara. Emotion Regulation during Test Taking Scale (ERT) (Schutz, Distefano, Benson, &amp / Davis, 2004), Anxiety subscale of Academic Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) (Pekrun, Goetz, Titz, &amp / Perry, 2002), and Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (ASE) (Jerusalem &amp / Schwarzer, 1981) were used to collect the data. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed for the ERT, anxiety subscale of AEQ, and ASE scale. All of the scales were working as intended. Cronbach alpha coefficients were .85 for test anxiety, .76 for ASE, and ranged from .58 to .75 for ERT scale. Four separate hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the role of gender, cognitive appraisal processes (goal congruence, agency, and testing problem efficacy), academic self-efficacy, and test anxiety in predicting four emotion regulation strategies: task focusing, tension reduction, wishful thinking, and self blame strategies. For all strategies, almost all of the predictors were found statistically significant. Test anxiety was found to be the most powerful predictor for all the dependent variables. Girls tend to use more emotional regulation strategies than boys.

Happiness, anger, surprise, irritation… if we note down the emotions that we go through on a given day, the list will most probably be quite long. A surge of studies on the bidirectional interaction between emotion and cognition suggests that we need emotional appraisals in order to lead a successful life and maintain our personal, social and economic integrity (Bechara, 2005; Damasio, 1994; Fox, 2008; Gross & Thompson, 2007; Walter, 2005). And yet, we seldom ‘just’ experience emotions, but often try to influence them to best fit our current goals. Based on the assumption that emotional reactions entail changes on various levels, and that these changes happen in- or outside of our awareness, affective science has adopted emotion regulation as one of its major research topics (Beauregard, Levesque, & Paquette, 2004; Gross, 1999; Ochsner, 2007). In fact, neural (e.g. amygdala activation) and behavioral (e.g. feeling of negativity) correlates of emotional reactions are effectively reduced by top-down processes of explicit and implicit control (Drabant, McRae, Manuck, Hariri, & Gross, 2009; Levesque, et al., 2003; Ochsner, Ray, et al., 2004). Furthermore, evidence from studies investigating voluntary thought control suggests that control strategies may have lasting and paradoxical consequences (Abramowitz, Tolin, & Street, 2001; Wegner, 2009). In a very recent investigation, lasting effects of regulation were also shown after the cognitive control of emotions: the activation timecourse of the amygdala was significantly increased immediately following regulation, and this difference was also related to the activation of the amygdala to the same stimuli a few minutes later (Walter, et al., 2009). Aside from these contextual or qualitative influences, emotional processing also differs between individuals: genetic variation within the serotonergic system for instance is known to affect emotional reactivity both on the behavioral and on the neural level (Hariri, et al., 2005; Hariri, et al., 2002; Lesch, et al., 1996). In the present work, the temporal dynamics of volitional emotion regulation were investigated in three studies. It was hypothesized that both the subjective experience of negativity and the amygdala activation can be attenuated by the detachment from negative emotions, which in turn leads to an immediate neural aftereffect after the offset of regulation. Furthermore, volitional emotion regulation was expected to be capable of reducing or even obliterating genetically mediated amygdala hyperreactivity to negative emotional cues. Similar to previous investigations (Walter, et al., 2009), pictures of aversive or neutral emotional content were presented while participants were instructed to react naturally to half of the pictures, and to regulate their emotional response upon the other half of the stimuli. The first two studies of the present work were designed to further characterize the immediate aftereffect of volitional regulation in the amygdala: Study 1 included behavioral ratings of negativity at picture offset and at fixation offset in order to provide behavioral measures of experiential changes, while in Study 2, participants continued to experience or regulate their emotions during a “maintain” phase after picture offset. The primary goal of Study 3 was to evaluate whether volitional emotion regulation can reduce genetically mediated amygdala hyperreactivity to aversive emotional material in individuals with the short variant of the serotonin transporter genotype (Hariri, et al., 2005; Hariri, et al., 2002), and whether the immediate aftereffect is also influenced by the serotonin transporter genotype. In all three studies, the amygdala was significantly activated by aversive versus neutral stimuli, while cognitive emotion regulation attenuated the activation in the amygdala and increased the activation in a frontal-parietal network of regulatory brain regions. This neural effect was complemented by the behavioral ratings which show that the subjective experience of negativity was also reduced by detachment (Study 1). Also in all three studies, an immediate aftereffect was observed in the amygdala following the end of regulation. Moreover, the preoccupation with the previously seen pictures after the scanning session varied across the experimental conditions (Studies 2 and 3). Volitional regulation proved effective in reducing amygdala activation to negative stimuli even in 5-HTTLPR short allele carriers that show an increased reactivity to this type of cue. At the same time, functional coupling of the ventrolateral and medial orbital prefrontal cortex, the subgenual and the rostral anterior cingulate with the amygdala was higher in the s-group. However, in Study 3 the immediate aftereffect was found only in l/l-homozygote individuals following the regulation of fear. Taken together, the results of the three studies clearly show that volitional regulation is effective in reducing behavioral and neural correlates of the experience of negative emotions (Levesque, et al., 2003; Ochsner, Bunge, Gross, & Gabrieli, 2002; Ochsner, Ray, et al., 2004), even in the case of a genetically mediated hyperreactivity to such materials. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that conscious will can effectively counteract genetic determinants of emotional behavior. Moreover, the present results suggest that the temporal dynamics of volitional emotion regulation are characterized by a paradoxical rebound in amygdala activation after regulation, and that the immediate aftereffect is a marker of the efficiency of the initial and the sustained effects of emotion regulation (Walter, et al., 2009). In summary, the successful replication of the immediate aftereffect of emotion regulation in all three studies of this dissertation opens up exciting new research perspectives: a comparison of the short- and long-term effects of different regulatory strategies, and the investigation of these effects also in positive emotions would complement the present results, since the neural mechanisms involved in these processes show some characteristic differences (Ochsner, 2007; Staudinger, Erk, Abler, & Walter, 2009). A comprehensive characterization of this neural marker and its implications for emotional experience might also be useful with respect to clinical applications. The detailed examination of the various time scales of emotional regulation might for instance inform the diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in affective disorders that are associated with emotional dysfunctions (Brewin, Andrews, & Rose, 2000; Johnstone, van Reekum, Urry, Kalin, & Davidson, 2007). Ultimately, we might thus come to understand the neural underpinnings of what the feelings we have today have to do with the feelings we had yesterday – and with the feelings with might have tomorrow.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is thought to be characterized by emotion regulation deficits, including decreased use of adaptive strategies such as reappraisal, but little is known about the exact nature of these deficits and whether or not they are specific to the depressed mood state. The late positive potential (LPP) is a sustained positive deflection of the event-related potential (ERP) associated with responding to emotionally-valenced stimuli, and reappraisal strategies have been found to reduce LPP magnitude in response to emotional stimuli in healthy individuals, but this effect has not been examined in MDD. This study utilized ERPs to examine emotional reactivity to positive and negative pictures during passive viewing and a reappraisal condition in a sample 25 of individuals with current MDD, 26 with remitted depression (RMD), and 26 healthy controls. The LPP was greater for passive viewing of positive and negative relative to neutral pictures in all groups, with no significant group findings emerging. For positive pictures, all groups showed reduced LPP's for positive reappraisal relative to passive viewing with no group by condition interactions. For negative pictures, both the MDD and RMD groups exhibited abnormalities, with the MDD group failing to show a reduction in LPP for reappraised pictures relative to passive viewing and the RMD group demonstrating an unexpected increase in LPP magnitude for reappraised negative pictures. The LPP for emotional pictures and reappraisal instructions may reveal deficits in emotional reactivity and regulation among mood-disordered individuals, particularly for negative stimuli, and may suggest targets for clinical intervention.

Depression- och ångestsymtom, som kan beskrivas som en del av emotionell ohälsa, är ett frekvent och växande problem inom den svenska ungdomspopulationen. Både en hög komorbiditet samt könsskillnader i ohälsa kan observeras. Samband mellan emotionsreglering och ohälsa har under senare år erhållit ett brett empiriskt stöd. Denna longitudinella studie syftade till att undersöka emotionsreglerings roll som mediator i utvecklandet av emotionell ohälsa över tid samt om det eventuella sambandet modereras av kön. Analyser visade att emotionsreglerings-strategierna kognitiv emotionsreglering och beteendemässigt undvikande medierade sambandet. Detta skiljde sig även åt mellan könen vad gäller kognitiv emotionsreglering. Utifrån studiens resultat dras slutsatsen att emotionsreglering kan utgöra en del av förklaringen av ökad emotionell ohälsa över tid hos ungdomar. Detta samband tycks även vara mer gällande för flickor. / Depressive and anxiety symptoms, which can be classified as types of emotional distress, anre common and growing issues among Swedish youth. Substantial comorbidity and gender differences concerning emotional distress have been observed. The relationship between emotion regulation and emotional distress have obtained convincing empirical support during the last couple of decades. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotion regulation in the development of emotional distress over time. The question of gender as a moderator of the relationship was also addressed. Analysis indicate that two emotion regulation strategies, cognitive emotion regulation and behavioral avoidance, do mediate the relationship. Gender differences were found in the cognitive strategy. The results of the study indicate that emotion regulation could be a part of the explanation for the increase of adolescent emotional distress over time. This relationship also seem to be more distinct for girls.

HINTERGRUND: Gefühle zu kontrollieren ist wichtig für ein erfolgreiches Agieren im täglichen Leben. Eine der häufigsten psychischen Störungen sind Angststörungen, bei denen fehlende Kontrolle der Emotionen vorliegt. Drei unterschiedliche Studientypen haben sich mit der Regulation negativer Emotionen auseinandergesetzt. Mittels Furchtextinktion, Placebobehandlung und willentlicher Emotionsregulation ist es möglich negative Emotionen zu reduzieren. ZIEL: Das Ziel war es, die Ergebnisse publizierter hirnbildgebender Studien zu vergleichen um ein mögliches übergreifendes Regulationszentrum über negative Emotionen zu identifizieren. MATERIAL UND METHODEN: Mit Hilfe der activation likelihood estimation (ALE) wurde eine koordinatenbasierte Metaanalyse der Ergebnisse bildgebender Studien gesunder Probanden der Jahre 2000 bis 2010 durchgeführt um Gehirnaktivierungen und- deaktivierungen bei Reduktion negativer Emotionen zu identifzieren. ERGEBNISSE: Es zeigten sich Gehirnaktivierungen im ventromedialen präfrontralem Kortex (VMPFC) in allen drei domänspezifischen ALE-Metaanalysen, begleitet von einer Amygdaladeaktivierung. In den Placebo- und Emotionsregulationsstudien wurden zudem Gehirnaktivierungen im anterioren Gyrus cinguli und der anterioren Inselrinde beobachtet. FAZIT: Der VMPFC scheint als Regulationszentrum über negative Emotionen eine entscheidende Rolle während der Emotionskontrolle einzunehmen und die Amygdala als Teil des limbischen Systems zu deaktivieren. Zudem scheinen zusätzliche Gehirnregionen bei anspruchsvolleren Formen der Emotionsregulation eine Rolle zu spielen.

Tyrimai rodo, kad valgymo sutrikimais sergančios merginos pasižymi mažiau adaptyvia streso įveika bei emocijų reguliacijos sutrikdymais lyginant su sveikomis merginomis. Tyrimai ir klinikinė praktika rodo, kad šios merginos vaikystėje dažnai yra patyrusios seksualinę prievartą. Šio tyrimo tikslas yra ištirti valgymo sutrikimais sergančių merginų streso įveikos strategijų ir emocijų reguliacijos ypatumų sąsajas su vaikystėje patirta seksualine prievarta. Šiame tyrime 39,34 procentai valgymo sutrikimais sergančių merginų nurodė iki 18 metų patyrusios kurią nors iš seksualinės prievartos formų, tad galutines tyrimo dalyvių grupes sudarė 24 patyrusios seksualinę prievartą ir 27 nepatyrusios seksualinės prievartos valgymo sutrikimais sergančios merginos bei 48 kontrolinės grupės merginos. Depresija ir nerimas buvo vertinami Becko depresijos ir Spielbergerio Situacinio – vidinio nerimo klausimynu, įveikos strategijos buvo vertinamos Grakausko ir Valicko sukurtu Keturių faktorių streso įveikos klausimynu, o emocijų reguliacijos ypatumams tirti buvo taikomas olandų sukurtas Kognityvinės emocijų reguliacijos klausimynas ir dvi skalės iš Garnerio Valgymo sutrikimų klausimyno. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo, kad patyrusios seksualinę prievartą stresinėse situacijose rečiau siekia socialinės paramos, tačiau nesiskiria pagal kitas įveikos strategijas lyginant su prievartos nepatyrusiomis merginomis. Seksualinę prievartą patyrusios merginos pasižymi didesniais sunkumais atpažįstant ir įvardinant... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research show that eating disorders are associated with less adaptive coping strategies and more emotion regulation impairments. Research studies and clinical practice show that eating disorderd females aften are victims of childhood sexual abuse. The main purpose of this study is to investigate peculiarities of stress coping strategies and emotion regulation in relation to childhood sexual abuse experience. 24 (or 39,34 %) eating disordered females reported a history of sexual abuse before age 18. The other two groups consisted of 27 eating disordered women who did not report a history of sexual abuse and 48 students. Beck Depression Inventory and State – Trait Anxiety Inventory were used for evaluation of distress level, Lithuanian Four-Factor Coping with Stress Questionnaire, Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and two scales from the Eating Disorders Inventory were used for evaluation of emotion regulation and stress coping peculiarities. Compared with subjects who did not report a history of childhood sexual abuse, females with a history of sexual abuse are less seeking social support in stressfull situations, but don‘t differ in comparison with other coping strategies. Eating disordered females with a history of sexual abuse exhibited lower emotional awareness and more emotion dysregulation: proness to anger outbursts, mood instability. Those who report history of sexual abuse were liky to show bulimic symptoms: binge eating episodes and were more likely to use... [to full text]

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of different aspects of executive function (EF) and social understanding to emotion regulation (ER), and the influence of these aspects of self-regulation on temper tantrums. A model of self-regulation is presented in which ER, EF, and social understanding contribute to self-regulatory competence. General cognitive (i.e., language) and emotional (i.e., temperamental emotional reactivity) measures are included to increase the specificity of the relation between ER and other aspects of self-regulation. ER, EF, and social understanding were also examined in relation to temper tantrums. One hundred twenty seven preschool children and their parents completed batteries of ER, EF, and social understanding, as well as measures of verbal ability, temperament, and temper tantrums. This study extends previous research by including multitrait, multimethod assessment of EF, ER, and social understanding, and controlling for verbal ability and emotional reactivity. Exploration of temper tantrums offers a unique illustration of the manner in which aspects of self-regulation contribute to everyday displays of strong emotion in preschoolers. Overall, the results of this investigation provided evidence that aspects of EF and social understanding are related to ER and that these aspects of self-regulation are also related to temper tantrums. More specifically, this study makes three main contributions to understanding children’s ER. First, there was evidence that EF and social understanding were related to ER even after individual differences in emotional reactivity and verbal ability had been removed. Affective social understanding, but not cognitive social understanding, was a useful predictor in the regression model. Among the EF variables, there was evidence that individual differences in both response and delay inhibition contributed significantly to ER. This finding replicates and extends Carlson and Wang’s (2007) findings of partial correlation (controlling for verbal ability) between inhibitory control and ER. Second, individual differences in both delay inhibition and ER contributed to the prediction of temper tantrums, even after controlling for emotional reactivity. Social understanding variables were not included in this analysis because correlations between social understanding and temper tantrums were low. Finally, mediation analysis provided evidence that ER significantly buffers the effect of emotional reactivity on temper tantrums. That is, the effect of emotional reactivity on temper tantrums was significantly reduced by ER. This effect remained even after controlling for age. These findings suggest that inhibitory control and affective social understanding make unique contributions to understanding ER and that temper tantrums are related to inhibitory control and ER.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka relationen mellan ogiltig skolfrånvaro och grad av psykologiska, emotionella och sociala resurser. Vi undersökte både hemmasittande ungdomar (N = 13) och normalpopulation (N = 235) i två delstudier med en enkätbaserad tvärsnittsdesign. Resultatet visade att hemmasittande ungdomar upplevde mycket låg grad av psykologiska resurser. Resultaten visade även att graden av ogiltig skolfrånvaro hängde samman med graden av psykologiska resurser. Ogiltig skolfrånvaro hängde även till viss del samman med sociala och emotionella resurser. Ogiltigt skolfrånvarande ungdomar använde sig i lägre grad av adaptiv emotionsreglering och upplevde lägre socialt stöd från lärare. Vidare forskning behövs för att bekräfta resursernas betydelse. / The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between unauthorized absence from school and psychological, emotional and social resources. We examined two samples, one consisting of students with complete school absence (N = 13) and one population based reference group (N = 235), using a questionnaire based cross-sectional research design. Results showed that students with complete school absence experience a very low level of psychological resources. Results also showed that unauthorized absence from school was related to level of psychological resources. Unauthorized absence from school was also partly related to social and emotional resources. Students with unauthorized absence from school used adaptive emotional regulation strategies to a lesser extent, and experienced a lower level of social support from teachers. Further research is required to confirm the relevance of the psychological, emotional, and social resources.