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Emotion Regulation as a Transdiagnostic Process in Psychopathology:
In Memory of Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
Chairs: Jutta Joormann and Sue Mineka
Discussant: Sue Mineka
This symposium commemorates the immense contributions of Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema,
following her tragic death in January. Her work was dedicated to improving our understanding of
psychopathology by adopting a transdiagnostic perspective and by identifying underlying
mechanisms of emotional disorders such as cognitive processes and emotion regulation
difficulties. This symposium honors Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema with talks from her collaborators, past
students, and other scholars whose research has been greatly inspired by her work. Amelia Aldao
examines dysregulated goal pursuit in psychological disorders and its relation to emotion
regulation. She presents data from a diary study showing that worry and rumination mediate the
relation between symptoms of psychopathology and reduced goal pursuit. Lauren Alloy
discusses the specificity of rumination to depression as well as the role of rumination and
interpersonal stress in the emergence of gender differences in depression. Philippe Goldin
presents data on neural correlates of rumination in social anxiety disorder and finds distinct
neurocognitive processes associated with subcomponents of rumination. Finally, Jutta Joormann
discusses the possibility of altering emotion regulation ability by modifying interpretive biases in
depression. Sue Mineka will discuss the presented research and its relation to Susan NolenHoeksema’s influential work.
Emotion Regulation and Goal Pursuit: Relationships to Psychopathology
Amelia Aldao
Ohio State University
Dysregulated goal pursuit has been associated with various mental disorders (e.g.,
Johnson, 2005). Yet, the study of emotion regulation deficits in psychopathology has largely
refrained from examining the implementation of regulation strategies within the context of
pursuing personally meaningful goals (e.g., Aldao, 2013; c.f. Moberly & Watkins, 2010). In this
diary study, 170 participants described personally meaningful goals that they sought to pursue
each day for 5 consecutive days (702 goals). For each goal, participants rated the extent to
which they: 1) considered it important, 2) experienced goal-interfering emotions, 3) used
regulation strategies to manage such emotions, and 4) were able to achieve it. Goal importance
was not associated with the likelihood of its achievement. Rather, low negative affect, high
positive affect, and low use of worry/rumination were predictors of goal achievement.
Importantly, no other emotion regulation strategies (e.g., reappraisal, acceptance, suppression)
predicted goal achievement, suggesting that their usefulness might be a function of contextual
factors. Symptoms of depression, social anxiety, eating disorders, and borderline personality
predicted reduced likelihood of goal pursuit and these effects were mediated by negative affect
and worry/rumination. Findings will be discussed within a contextual approach to the study of
emotion regulation deficits in psychopathology.
Stressors, Sex Differences, and Symptom Specificity
Lauren B. Alloy1, Jonathan P. Stange1, Jessica L. Hamilton1, and Lyn Y. Abramson2
1Temple
University, 2University of Wisconsin-Madison
Objective: Individuals who ruminate in response to dysphoric mood are likely to experience
increases in depression following stress. However, previous studies have not addressed (1) the
specificity of these vulnerability-stress relations to depression following different types of stressors,
and (2) whether these vulnerability-stress relations can account for the sex differences in depression
that emerge during early adolescence.
Method: Early adolescents (ages 12-13; N=256) completed measures of rumination and
depressive and anxiety symptoms at baseline, and intervening life events, emotional
maltreatment, peer relational victimization, and depressive and anxiety symptoms at 9-month
follow-up.
Results: Higher rumination interacted with several types of stressors to predict increases in
symptoms of depression, but not anxiety. Rumination was more strongly associated with
elevations in depressive symptoms following relational victimization events in girls than in
boys. Additionally, dependent interpersonal stress mediated the sex difference in depressive
symptoms that emerged at follow-up, and this indirect pathway was stronger among adolescents
who ruminated.
Conclusions: Rumination may confer specific vulnerability for depressive symptoms following
recent stressors during early adolescence. Girls who ruminate may be particularly likely to
experience increases in depression following relational victimization, and dependent
interpersonal stressors may help account for girls’ greater depression risk during adolescence.
Differential Neural Substrates of Brooding and Pondering Forms of Rumination
in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder
Philippe Goldin & James Gross
Stanford University
Rumination is an important aberrant cognitive process in mood and anxiety disorders. In the
context of social anxiety disorder (SAD), compared to healthy controls, patients report greater
rumination. Nothing, however, is known about the differential neural substrates of two distinct
forms of rumination considered maladaptive (brooding) and adaptive (pondering) in patients
with SAD. Using the brooding and pondering subscales of the Rumination Response Scale
(Treynor, Gonzalez, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003), we examined functional magnetic response
imaging blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses related to brooding and pondering in
67 patients with SAD during a task that assessed cognitive reappraisal versus reacting to social
anxiety related negative self-beliefs (NSBs). Results showed that significant associations of
BOLD responses for cognitive reappraisal (vs. react) NSBs with greater brooding in a brain
network implicating conceptual self-referential processing (medial prefrontal cortex), memory
(hippocampus), and visual attention (lingual gyrus) processes, and with greater pondering in a
brain network implicating cognitive control (dorsal and rostral anterior cingulate cortex, left
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), stimulus evaluation (ventromedial orbital frontal cortex), and
memory (parahippocampus) processes. These findings highlight distinct neurocognitive
processes for brooding and pondering. Changes in these brain networks with CBT and its
relation to CBT outcome will be reported.
Interpretive Bias Training in Depression: Effects on Emotion Regulation
Jutta Joormann1 & Ian Gotlib2
1University of Miami
2Stanford University
The most consistent bias in depression involves the negative interpretation of ambiguous stimuli.
Previous research has linked interpretive biases to individual differences in stress reactivity and
emotion regulation. This suggests that these biases may play a critical role in the maintenance of
depressive disorders. Studies using interpretive bias training have shown that it is possible to
experimentally induce and modify interpretive biases. This study extends on previous work by
examining whether an interpretive bias training affects interpretation, memory, and stress
responding in participants diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The results
indicate that the training was effective in inducing the intended group differences in interpretive
bias. Importantly, participants exhibited memory biases that corresponded to their training
condition and reported differential responding to the stressor. These results suggest that
interpretive biases in depression can be modified and that this training can result in
corresponding changes in memory and improvements in stress reactivity. Findings from this
study highlight the importance of future research on the relation among cognitive biases and on
the possibility of modifying cognitive biases in emotional disorders.