Negative Emotion Differentiation Research Articles

The association between negative emotion differentiation and emotion regulation flexibility in daily life

ABSTRACT Emotion differentiation emphasises labelling emotional experiences in a precise and context-sensitive way. Negative emotion differentiation (NED) has been found to be associated with mental health, where emotion regulation (ER) may act as a pathway. The current study aims to explore the association between NED and flexible ER implementation in daily life. Specifically, we examined how NED was associated with two aspects of ER flexibility: contextual synchrony and temporal ER variability. 101 college students (54% female; M age = 20.24 years) reported their momentary emotions via a 7-day experience sampling protocol, and the intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to reflect NED. In 10-day daily diaries, they also reported information about the most negative event during the day (i.e. event type, event intensity and ER goal) and how they regulated their emotions. The results revealed that individuals with high NED showed higher levels of synchrony between change in ER use and change in event type and ER goal. In addition, NED was positively associated with both within- and between-strategy variability in ER use. The results demonstrated that the ability to differentiate between negative emotions was related to higher ER flexibility, which shed new light on understanding the role of emotion differentiation in well-being.

Moderating effect of negative emotion differentiation in chronic stress and fatigue among Chinese employees

IntroductionAccording to the reactivity hypothesis and the diathesis-stress model, repeated activation of the stress system has a negative effect on health, and this effect may differ because of individual characteristics. Thus, the present study explores the effect of chronic stress on fatigue and investigates its mechanism.MethodsA questionnaire survey of 288 participants selected from the northwest part of China was conducted (13.89% females; ages ranged from 18 to 34 years, with M ± SD = 23.14 ± 3.79 years) on chronic stress, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and negative emotion differentiation. SPSS 28.0 was used to process descriptive statistics and correlation analysis and the PROCESS macro was used to analyze the moderated chained multi-mediation.ResultsChronic stress was found to be positively correlated with fatigue, depression, and anxiety; depression and anxiety played a chained multi-mediating role between chronic stress and fatigue, and negative emotion differentiation played a moderating role in the chained multi-mediation model.DiscussionCompared with depression, anxiety plays a more important role in the influence of chronic stress on fatigue. Therefore, it is necessary to pay more attention to anxiety symptoms and take appropriate intervention measures. Negative emotion differentiation plays a moderating role. Improving negative emotion differentiation through mindfulness and adaptive emotion regulation is an effective way to reduce the influence of chronic stress on fatigue.

Effects of a brief online emotion word learning task on negative emotion differentiation, emotional self-efficacy, and prospective distress: Preliminary findings.

Disruptions in emotion processing are common across psychological disorders. Research suggests that emotion differentiation (ED; specificity in language used to characterize one's emotional experience) and emotional self-efficacy (ESE; perceived ability to understand and manage one's emotions) are important transdiagnostic factors associated with various psychological benefits. Whether ED and ESE can be improved in adults remains largely unclear. Using a longitudinal prospective design, we tested a brief online training targeting emotion word knowledge (vs. a control condition) to see if it improved negative ED (NED) and ESE in a college sample. Moreover, we tested if changes in NED or ESE mediated the effects of the training on levels of psychological distress one week and two-months post-intervention. Findings provided partial support for our hypotheses. Individuals whose ESE increased post-intervention reported lower levels of distress two months later. Moreover, exploratory analyses revealed those who demonstrated greater training engagement experienced increases in NED that in turn predicted lower distress one-week post-intervention. However, there were no direct effects of intervention group on NED or ESE and distress. These findings highlight the potential of a remotely-administered emotion-language intervention to influence key dimensions of emotion processing and suggest avenues for further refinement. Both NED and ESE may be malleable for some, and that enhancements in ESE may produce long-term psychological benefits.

Emotion differentiation among individuals in a randomized clinical trial for alcohol use disorder: Within- and between-person associations with affect, craving, and alcohol use in daily life

Emotion differentiation refers to cognitively distinguishing among discrete, same-valenced emotions. Negative emotion differentiation (NED) is a transdiagnostic indicator of emotional functioning. The role of positive emotion differentiation (PED) in clinical disorders, including alcohol use disorder (AUD), is less understood. Further, despite consensus that emotions are highly variable, little is known about within-person fluctuations in NED/PED. The current study leveraged 84 consecutive daily smartphone surveys from participants (N = 181) in a clinical trial of cognitive behavioral therapy for AUD to investigate whether between-person differences in overall NED/PED, or within-person variability in daily NED/PED, were associated with affect intensity, craving, drinking, and heavy drinking in daily life. Subsequent analyses explored whether associations were moderated by baseline alexithymia. At the between-persons level, greater average PED, but not NED, was associated with lower heavy drinking odds. At the within-persons level, higher-than-usual PED was associated with lower negative affect and odds of any drinking. Individuals with baseline alexithymia had stronger negative within-person associations between daily NED and both any and heavy drinking. PED is a skill linked to less alcohol use between- and within-persons irrespective of baseline alexithymia, whereas greater daily NED appears especially important for reduced alcohol use among individuals with co-morbid AUD and alexithymia.

Negative emotion differentiation in trauma-exposed community members: Associations with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in daily life.

The ability to make fine-grained distinctions between discrete negative emotions-termed negative emotion differentiation (NED)-is important for emotion regulation and psychological well-being. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with elevated trauma-related negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger, guilt, shame) and self-reported difficulty identifying feelings, suggesting that low NED may be a feature of PTSD. PTSD is also characterized by overreliance on avoidance as an emotion regulation strategy-a characteristic that could be influenced by low NED. Here, we examined whether NED is reduced in PTSD and the role NED plays in the association between trauma-related avoidance and other PTSD symptoms (traumatic reexperiencing, negative alterations in cognition and mood, alterations in arousal and reactivity). Hypotheses were tested using 3 days of ecological momentary assessment (up to 17 prompts per day) in 80 trauma-exposed participants (39 with PTSD, 41 without PTSD; total completed surveys = 2,158). NED was reduced and self-reported difficulty identifying feelings was elevated in those with PTSD, and both predicted PTSD severity (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale-5 score) and momentary PTSD symptoms. Furthermore, low NED, but not difficulty identifying feelings, predicted a stronger association between momentary trauma-related avoidance and PTSD symptoms. Results suggest that NED is involved in the emotional processing of trauma by decreasing the negative impact of avoidance behavior on other PTSD symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Does Children’s Negative Emotion Differentiation Relate to Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology?

Does Children’s Negative Emotion Differentiation Relate to Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology?

Daily-level relationships between negative affect, negative emotion differentiation, and cannabis behaviors among a high-risk sample of young adults

Prior research suggests that higher trait negative emotion differentiation (NED; one's ability to make subtle distinctions between different negative emotional states) is associated with consuming less alcohol when experiencing high negative affect (NA) in daily life. Yet, whether these findings extend to cannabis use behaviors is unclear. The present study used intensive daily data to test whether NED moderated the relationship between NA and cannabis behaviors.A community sample of 409 young adults who used alcohol and cannabis completed a baseline survey and five 2-week bursts of online surveys across two years. Multilevel models tested cross-level interactions between trait NED (person-level) and daily NA (daily-level) predicting cannabis use, hours high, negative consequences, craving, and coping motives.In contrast to expectations, on days with higher reported NA, people with higher NED (compared to those with lower NED) had a greater likelihood of experiencing any cannabis craving, experienced more intense craving, and reported higher cannabis coping motives. NED x NA interaction was not significant for likelihood of cannabis use, hours high, or negative consequences. Post-hoc descriptive analyses suggest notable person-specific heterogeneity in these findings. Individuals with higher ability to differentiate between negative emotions reported higher coping motives and craving when experiencing higher NA. However, these associations were variable for individuals within the sample. It may be that high NED individuals crave and purposefully use cannabis to reduce NA states. Findings are inconsistent with the alcohol literature and have important implications for intervention efforts aimed at reducing coping-motivated cannabis use among young adults.

Negative emotion differentiation and white matter microstructure

BackgroundDeficits in the differentiation of negative emotions – the ability to specifically identify one's negative emotions – are associated with poorer mental health outcomes. However, the processes that lead to individual differences in negative emotion differentiation are not well understood, hampering our understanding of why this process is related to poor mental health outcomes. Given that disruptions in some affective processes are associated with white matter microstructure, identifying the circuitry associated with different affective processes can inform our understanding of how disturbances in these networks may lead to psychopathology. Thus, examination of how white matter microstructure relates to individual differences in negative emotion differentiation (NED) may provide insights into (i) its component processes and (ii) its relationship to brain structure. MethodThe relationship between white matter microstructure and NED was examined. ResultsNED was related to white matter microstructure in right anterior thalamic radiation and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and left peri-genual cingulum. LimitationsAlthough participants self-reported psychiatric diagnoses and previous psychological treatment, psychopathology was not directly targeted, and thus, the extent to which microstructure related to NED could be examined in relation to maladaptive outcomes is limited. ConclusionsResults indicate that NED is related to white matter microstructure and suggest that pathways subserving processes that facilitate memory, semantics, and affective experience are important for NED. Our findings provide insights into the mechanisms by which individual differences in NED arise, suggesting intervention targets that may disrupt the relationship between poor differentiation and psychopathology.

Emotional complexity under high stress: Do protective associations for risk behaviors persist even during a pandemic?

Risk behaviors like substance use and binge eating are often used to cope with negative emotions. Engagement in these behaviors has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Past research suggests that complex emotion conceptualizations captured as emotion differentiation (ability to discriminate between emotional states) and polarity (ability to integrate positive and negative features of emotional experience) may be protective. We examined associations of mean affect intensity, emotion differentiation, and emotion polarity with frequency of daily substance use and binge eating across 10 days in a demographically diverse sample of U.S. adults (N = 353) recruited between March 24 and April 9, 2020, when stay-at-home orders were initiated. Owing to the nested data structure and excessive zero values, analyses were conducted using multilevel zero-inflated negative binomial regression. Consistent with past research, negative affect was positively associated with frequency of substance use and binge eating. Importantly, results indicated that negative emotion differentiation was protective, predicting greater likelihood of not using substances and binge eating at all across the sampling period. These effects remained even after controlling for mean affect intensity, emotion polarity, and positive emotion differentiation. Neither positive emotion differentiation nor emotion polarity were significantly associated with either behavior. Our results suggest that greater complexity in conceptualization of negative emotions facilitates some protection against risk behaviors such as substance use and binge eating, even during periods of high environmental stress. These findings have important implications for optimizing interventions to reduce engagement in risk behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A daily diary study on stressors, hurt feelings, aggression, and somatic symptoms: The role of rejection sensitivity and negative emotion differentiation.

The current study adopted a daily diary design to examine associations of daily stressors and hurt feelings to three unfavorable daily outcomes, including verbal aggression, physical aggression, and somatic symptoms and the moderation of rejection sensitivity and negative emotion regulation on the relations between these daily variables. A total of 248 college students participated in the daily diary study in which they responded to the assessment on a daily basis for 7 consecutive days. The results indicated that daily stressors predicted daily verbal aggression; daily stressors, daily hurt feelings, and rejection sensitivity predicted somatic symptoms. Negative emotion regulation moderated the association between stressors and verbal aggression such that more stressors and high negative emotion regulation predicted more frequent daily verbal aggression. Rejection sensitivity moderated the association of hurt feelings to verbal and physical aggression. Perception of hurt feelings and high rejection sensitivity predicted more verbal aggression but less physical aggression. Rejection sensitivity also moderated the association of stressors to somatic symptoms such that more stressors and high rejection sensitivity predicted more somatic symptoms. The findings collectively highlight the importance of supporting individuals with high rejection sensitivity to encode social cues in a healthy way. It is imperative to provide emotion regulation skills to cope with negative emotions derived from social interactions.

Effects of chronic stress on smartphone addiction: A moderated mediation model.

Based on the compensatory Internet use theory and diathesis-stress model, the present study explores the effects of chronic stress on smartphone addiction (SPA). As intolerance of uncertainty and emotion-related variables are important factors that affect addictive behavior, we explore the mediating role of intolerance of uncertainty and the moderating role of emotion differentiation. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 286 participants (13.64% female; M age = 22.88; SD = 3.77; range = 17-39) on chronic stress, SPA, intolerance of uncertainty, and emotion differentiation. SPSS 28.0 was used to analyze the descriptive statistics and correlations and test the moderated mediation model. We find that (1) intolerance of uncertainty, SPA, and chronic stress are positively correlated with each other. Positive emotion differentiation is positively correlated with intolerance of uncertainty and negative emotion differentiation. (2) Intolerance of uncertainty plays a mediating role in chronic stress and SPA. (3) Positive emotion differentiation significantly moderates the relationship between chronic stress and SPA. Under the condition of low positive emotion differentiation, chronic stress is more effective in predicting SPA. These findings may contribute to intervention and prevention programs for SPA. Thus, the intervention and prevention of SPA can start from two directions-reduce the intolerance of uncertainty and enhance the ability to experience positive emotion differentiation.

Emotion differentiation and behavioral dysregulation in clinical and nonclinical samples: A meta-analysis.

Behavioral dysregulation that may manifest as the use of maladaptive behaviors aimed at regulating or avoiding distress, despite potential negative health consequences, is central to the development and maintenance of common psychological disorders. However, less is known about factors that may influence the engagement of these maladaptive behaviors. Recent research suggests that negative emotion differentiation (NED) may be important. The present investigation was a meta-analysis examining the relationship between NED and maladaptive behaviors ranging from binge drinking and nonsuicidal self-injury to treatment noncompliance, in clinical and nonclinical samples across 17 included studies obtained via electronic literature searches. Despite between-study methodological heterogeneity, our results indicated that NED was negatively associated with the enactment of maladaptive behaviors (r = -.15). Additionally, no significant differences in effect sizes were observed between clinical (n = 7; r = -.15) and nonclinical (n = 10; r = -.16) samples. Critically, the relationship between NED and maladaptive behaviors remained significant even after controlling for negative affect (NA; n = 11; r = -.09). This association also did not depend on levels of NA. Overall, our findings suggest that NED is generally associated with reduced engagement of maladaptive behaviors, regardless of diagnostic status and NA, and have important clinical implications for understanding and treating psychological disorders involving behavioral dysregulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Association of Daily Stressors and Daily Emotions to Daily Optimism

Abstract. Daily life events often trigger and co-occur with various emotional reactions, which activate self-regulatory processes. One possible outcome of self-regulatory processes is optimism. Limited research has examined optimism in daily life and potential daily predictors, including stressors, negative emotions, and positive emotions. Emotion differentiation – the ability to identify and label discrete emotional states – has the potential to change the association between daily predictors and optimism. The current study contextualized optimism in the emotion-laden daily life and examined the association of daily stressors and daily negative and positive emotional states to daily optimism and the role of negative and positive emotion regulation on these relationships. The current study adopted a daily diary design and collected self-reported daily responses from a sample of 248 college students over a 7-day study period. The results included concurrent and lagged effects and showed that daily negative affect and positive affect predicted both concurrent daily optimism and the next day’s optimism. Greater negative emotion differentiation predicted higher daily optimism. A better ability to differentiate positive emotions predicted a stronger relation between positive affect and daily optimism. The findings underscored the importance of daily affect and emotion differentiation being important markers for optimism interventions and daily practices.

Correction to: Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior

Correction to: Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior

Emotion differentiation in early recovery from alcohol use disorder: Associations with in-the-moment affect and 3-month drinking outcomes.

BackgroundEarly recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD) is commonly associated with high levels of negative affect, stress, and emotional vulnerability, which confer significant relapse risk. Emotion differentiation—the ability to distinguish between discrete emotions—has been shown to predict relapse after treatment for a drug use disorder, but this relationship has not been explored in individuals recovering from AUD.MethodsThe current study used thrice daily random and up to thrice daily self‐initiated ecological momentary assessment surveys (N = 42, observations = 915) to examine whether 1) moments of high affective arousal are characterized by momentary differences in emotion differentiation among individuals in the first year of a current AUD recovery attempt, and 2) individuals’ average emotion differentiation would predict subsequent alcohol use measured by the timeline follow‐back over a 3‐month follow‐up period.ResultsMultilevel models showed that moments (Level 1) of higher‐than‐average negative affect (p < 0.001) and/or stress (p = 0.033) were characterized by less negative emotion differentiation, while moments of higher‐than‐average positive affect were characterized by greater positive emotion differentiation (p < 0.001). At the between‐person level (Level 2), participants with higher stress overall had lower negative emotion differentiation (p = 0.009). Linear regression showed that average negative, but not positive, emotion differentiation was inversely associated with percent drinking days over the subsequent 3‐month follow‐up period (p = 0.042). Neither form of average emotion differentiation was associated with drinking quantity.ConclusionsWe found that for individuals in early AUD recovery, affective states are associated with acute shifts in the capacity for emotion differentiation. Further, we found that average negative emotion differentiation prospectively predicts subsequent alcohol use.

Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior

Sympathy or distress? The moderating role of negative emotion differentiation in helping behavior

The roles of negative emotion intensity, negative emotion differentiation, and self‐compassion in loss of control eating

Negative affect intensity is robustly related to binge eating, but the relationship between negative emotion differentiation (i.e., the ability to differentiate negatively-valenced emotions) and binge eating is unclear. Further, little is known about factors that might reduce emotion intensity and/or enhance emotion differentiation, thereby reducing binge eating. Self-compassion is consistently linked to less binge eating, which may be due to decreased negative affect and/or an enhanced ability to differentiate emotions. The current study examined the roles of negative emotion intensity, negative emotion differentiation, and self-compassion in binge eating using ecological momentary assessment. Participants were 201 university students (52.2% female) who completed questionnaires assessing affect seven times a day, and engagement in loss of control (LOC) eating episodes at the end of each day, for 10 days. The average of sadness, fear, guilt, and hostility subscales represented negative emotion intensity; intraclass correlations across negative affect subscales defined negative emotion differentiation. Both daily (i.e., within-person) and trait (i.e., between-person) emotion variables were examined as predictors. Between-person negative emotion intensity, but not negative emotion differentiation, significantly predicted LOC eating occurrence. Self-compassion had a significant effect on LOC eating frequency, and this relationship was partially mediated via negative emotion intensity, but not via negative emotion differentiation. Lower levels of negative emotion intensity partially account for the relationship between greater self-compassion and less frequent LOC eating. These findings highlight the importance of cultivating self-compassion to down-regulate negative emotions and to reduce LOC eating. Our findings suggest that university students who approach their limitations compassionately experience fewer negative emotions in daily life and engage in less loss of control eating. Lower levels of negative affect partially explain this relationship between self-compassion and loss of control eating. These results highlight the importance of cultivating an understanding and a compassionate attitude toward oneself for reducing eating pathology.

Feel to Heal: Negative Emotion Differentiation Promotes Medication Adherence in Multiple Sclerosis.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that results in lower quality of life. Medication adherence is important for reducing relapse, disease progression, and MS-related symptoms, particularly during the early stages of MS. However, adherence may be impacted by negative emotional states. Therefore, it is important to identify protective factors. Past research suggests that the ability to discriminate between negative emotional states, also known as negative emotion differentiation (NED), may be protective against enactment of maladaptive risk-related behaviors. However, less is known as to how NED may promote adaptive health behaviors such as medication adherence. Utilizing weekly diaries, we investigated whether NED moderates the association between negative affect and medication adherence rates across 58 weeks among patients (n = 27) newly diagnosed with MS (following McDonald criteria). Results revealed that NED significantly moderated the relationship between negative affect and medication adherence. Specifically, greater negative affect was associated with lower adherence only for individuals reporting low NED. However, this link disappeared for those reporting moderate to high NED. Building upon past research, our findings suggest that NED may promote adaptive health behaviors and have important clinical implications for the treatment and management of chronic illness.

From Knowledge to Differentiation: Increasing Emotion Knowledge Through an Intervention Increases Negative Emotion Differentiation.

Labeling emotions with a high degree of granularity appears to be beneficial for well-being. However, there are individual differences in the level of emotion differentiation, and some individuals do not appear to differentiate much between different emotions. Low differentiation is associated with maladaptive outcomes, therefore such individuals might benefit from interventions that can increase their level of emotion differentiation. To this end, we tested the effects of an emotion knowledge intervention on the level of emotion differentiation. One hundred and twenty participants were assigned to either an experimental or a control condition. Emotion differentiation was assessed with a Scenario Rating Task before and after the intervention, and at follow-up. As predicted, negative emotion differentiation increased significantly after the emotion knowledge intervention, and this increase was not observed in the control group. Positive emotion differentiation also increased slightly; however, it did not reach significance level. This finding suggests that an emotion knowledge intervention might be beneficial for increasing negative emotion differentiation and may have implications for the clinical context.

Emotion differentiation during the transition to parenthood—Concurrent and prospective positive effects

Emotion differentiation, the extent to which same-valenced emotions are experienced as distinct, has been found to be associated with various positive outcomes. However, little is known about its role in relational contexts. The present work examines couples in the transition to parenthood, a particularly emotionally demanding period, and explores the associations between emotion differentiation and both concurrent (3-month post-partum) and prospective (6-month post-partum) relationship quality adjusting for pre-partum relationship quality. Both negative emotion differentiation (NED) and positive emotion differentiation (PED) were computed from daily affect ratings completed over 21 days by both partners in 88 couples. They were then examined as predictors of relationship quality (relationship satisfaction and perceived partner responsiveness) using actor–partner interdependence models. NED was found to be concurrently associated with elevated perceived partner responsiveness for one’s self and for one’s partner, and with elevated relationship satisfaction when the partner’s NED was low. Positive emotion differentiation was found to be concurrently associated with relationship satisfaction for one’s self and one’s partner. Prospectively, partner NED and partner PED were associated with greater relationship satisfaction. The findings suggest that NED may function as a compensatory or shared dyadic resource, and that PED, whose effects in previous studies have been mixed, may also be constructive. Individuals undergoing emotionally demanding periods (such as the transition to parenthood) may benefit from developing more nuanced emotional experiences.