An Experimental Approach to Emotion Regulation: Investigating Rumination, Cognitive Control, and Maladaptive Behaviors. - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Objective: The study will employ an in-lab experimental design to investigate the emotional reactivity and cognitive control of individuals across several positive and negative emotions. Background: Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), a disorder of emotional and behavioral dysregulation, has significant medical costs, indicating a high burden to society.15 Suicide is about 200 times higher in individuals with BPD compared to the general population.16 Individuals with BPD or subclinical BPD often report engaging in a wide variety of maladaptive behaviors, including nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI),17 binge eating and purging,18 substance misuse,19 shoplifting,20 reckless driving,21 impulsive spending,21 starting arguments,22 physical aggression,23 and excessive reassurance seeking.7 Due to the high-risk nature of BPD, individuals with this disorder often engage in multiple treatments throughout their lifetime and therefore require more mental-health resources than do individuals with other psychiatric disorders.25,26 Significance: Understanding the development, underlying constructs, and mechanisms of emotion dysregulation is vital for personalized treatment development and implementation. More effective treatments and implementations of those treatments would result in a significant decrease of the burden to society. Innovation: Previous studies have not compared the intensity of emotional reactions across different emotions. Further, no study has investigated positive valence systems in relation to emotion dysregulation, cognitive control, and engagement of maladaptive behaviors. Specific Aims: The aims of this project are to expand upon previous literature by examining the link between emotional reactivity due to rumination in relation to cognitive control difficulties. Expected Results: First, individuals with greater emotion regulation difficulties will have stronger changes in affect upon completing the in-lab rumination task. Second, negative emotion rumination tasks will lead to more difficulties with cognitive control. Finally, individuals with elevated emotion regulation difficulties will show an increase in negative affect after completing the neutral and positive affect rumination tasks while individuals with lower scores will have an increase in positive affect after completing the neutral and positive rumination tasks. Future Directions: This project will lead to the development of personalized medicine for individuals who have difficulty regulating emotions.
