Top

Published in:

Open Access 01-06-2017 | Commentary

Opportunities and Challenges for the Emerging Field of Positive Emotion Regulation: A Commentary on the Special Edition on Positive Emotions and Cognitions in Clinical Psychology

Author: Barnaby D. Dunn

Published in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Issue 3/2017

Abstract

The importance of developing a better understanding of positive emotion regulation in both healthy and clinical populations is now recognised. This special edition brings together leading figures in the positive emotion regulation field and has contributions characterizing positive phenomena, differentiating them from negative phenomena, and evaluating underlying psychological mechanisms that drive these phenomena. This commentary reviews these articles to highlight challenges and opportunities for this emerging field, including the need to better characterize positive phenomena, to be more explicit about how the links between negative and positive phenomena are conceptualised, to evaluate more robustly underlying mechanisms, to standardize measurement of positive constructs, and to ensure that these scientific findings lead to meaningful changes in real-world policy and practice.

Annual report of the chief medical officer (2013). Public Mental Health Priorities: Investing in the Evidence. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/413196/CMO_web_doc.pdf.

Andersson, G., Cuijpers, P., Carlbring, P., Riper, H., & Hedman, E. (2014). Guided internet10606 vs. Face-to-face cognitive behaviour therapy for psychiatric and somatic disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. World Psychiatry, 13, 288–295. doi:10.1002/wps.20151.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Baer, R. A., Smith, G. T., Lykins, E., Button, D., Krietemeyer, J., Sauer, S., Walsh, E., Duggan, D., & Williams, J. M. G. (2008). Construct validity of the five facet mindfulness questionnaire in meditating and non-meditating samples. Assessment, 15, 329–342. doi:10.1177/1073191107313003.CrossRefPubMed

Bartholomew Eldrigde, L. K., Markham, C. M., Ruiter, R. A. C., Fernàndez, M. E., Kok, G., & Parcel, G. S. (2016). Planning health promotion programs: An Intervention Mapping approach (4th edn.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. ISBN: 978-1-118-04684-5.

Berntsen, D., & Jacobsen, A. S. (2008). Involuntary (spontaneous) mental time travel into the past and future. Consciousness & Cognition, 17, 1093–1104. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2008.03.001.CrossRef

Berntsen, D. (2007). Involuntary autobiographical memories: Speculations, findings and an attempt to integrate them. In John H. Mace (Ed.), Involuntary Memory (pp. 20–50). Malden: Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9780470774069.CrossRef

Blackwell, S. E., Browning, M., Mathews, A., Pictet, A., Welch, J., Davies, J., Watson, P., Geddes, J. R., & Holmes, E. A. (2015). Positive imagery-based cognitive bias modification as a web-based treatment tool for depressed adults: a randomized controlled trial. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 91–111. doi:10.1177/2167702614560746.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Bryant, F. B., Chadwick, E. D., & Kluwe, K. (2011). Understanding the Processes that Regulate Positive Emotional Experience: Unsolved Problems and Future Directions for Theory and Research on Savoring. International Journal of Wellbeing, 1(1), 107–126. doi:10.5502/ijw.v1i1.18.CrossRef

Burr, L., Javiad, M., Jell, G., Wener-Seidler, A., & Dunn, B. D. (2017). Turning lemonade into lemons: Dampening appraisals reduce positive affect and increase negative affect during positive activity scheduling. Behaviour Research & Therapy. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2017.01.010.

Carl, J. R., Soskin, D. P., Kerns, C., & Barlow, D. H. (2013). Positive emotion regulation in emotional disorders: A theoretical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 343–360. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2013.01.003.CrossRefPubMed

Chaves, C., Lopez-Gomez, I., Hervas, G., & Vazquez, C. (2016). A comparative study on the efficacy of a positive psychology intervention and a cognitive behavioural therapy for clinical depression. Cognitive Therapy & Research, doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9778-9.

Corradi, R. B. (2013). Ambivalence: its development, mastery, and role in psychopathology. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 77, 41–69. doi:10.1521/bumc.2013.77.1.41.CrossRefPubMed

Coughlan, K., Tata, P., MacLeod, A. K. (2016). Personal goals, well-being and deliberate self-harm. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9769-x.

DeRubeis, R. J., Cohen, Z. D., Forand, N. R., Fournier, J. C., Gelfand, L. A., & Lorenzo-Luaces, L. (2013). The personalized advantage index: Translating research on prediction into individualized treatment recommendations. A demonstration. PLOS One, 9, e83875. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083875.CrossRef

Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13.CrossRefPubMed

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61, 305–314. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.4.305.CrossRefPubMed

Disabato, D. J., Kashdan, T. B., Short, J. L., Jarden, A. (2016) What predicts life events that influence the course of depression? A longitudinal examination of gratitude and meaning in life. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9785-x.

Dunn, B. D. (2012). Helping depressed clients reconnect to positive emotion experience: Current insights and future directions. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 19(4), 326–340. doi:10.1002/cpp.1799.CrossRef

Dunn, B. D., & Roberts, H. (2016). Improving the capacity to treat depression using talking therapies: Setting a positive clinical psychology agenda. In The Wiley Handbook of Positive Clinical Psychology (pp. 181–204). doi:10.1002/9781118468197.ch13.

Edge, M. D., Miller, C. J., Muhtadie, L., Johnson, S. L., Carver, C. S., Marquinez, N., & Gotlib, I. H. (2013). People with biploar I disorder report avoiding rewarding activities and dampening positive emotion. Journal of Affective Disorders, 146, 407–413. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2012.07.027.CrossRefPubMed

Garland, E. L., Kiken, L. G., Faurot, K., Palsson, O., Gaylord, S. A. (2016). Upward sprials of mindfulness and reappraisal: Testing the mindfulness-to-meaning theory with autoregressive latent trajectory modeling. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9768-y.

Geschwind, N., Peeters, F., Drukker, M., van Os, J., & Wichers, M. (2011). Mindfulness training increases momentary positive emotions and reward experience in adults vulnerable to depression: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79, 618–628. doi:10.1037/a0024595.CrossRefPubMed

Gray, J. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Grimshaw, J. M., Eccles, M. P., Lavis, J. N., Hill, S. J., & Squires, E. J. (2012). Knowledge translation of research findings. Implementation Science, 7, 50. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-7-50.

Gross, J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26, 1–26. doi:10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781.CrossRef

Gruber, J. (2011). Can feeling too good be bad?: Positive emotion persistence (PEP) in bipolar disorder. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 217–221. doi:10.1177/0963721411414632.CrossRef

Gruber, J., Van Meter, A., Gilbert, K. E., Youngstrom, J. K., Feeny, N. C., & Findling, R. L. (2016). Positive emotion specificity and mood symptoms in an adolescent outpatient sample. Cognitive Therapy and Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9796-7.

Hofmann, S. G. (2016). Emotion in therapy: From science to practice. New York, NY: Guilford Press. ISBN 9781462524488.

Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Fang, A., & Asnaani, A. (2012). Emotion dysregulation model of mood and anxiety disorders. Depression and Anxiety, 29, 409–416. doi:10.1002/da.21888.CrossRefPubMed

Holmes, E. A., Lang, T. J., & Shah, D. M. (2009). Developing interpretation bias modification as a “cognitive vaccine” for depressed mood: imagining positive events makes you feel better than thinking about them verbally. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 76–88. doi:10.1037/a0012590.CrossRefPubMed

Holmes, E. A., Blackwell, S. E., Burnett-Heyes, S., Renner, F., & Raes, F. (2016). Mental imagery in depression: phenomenology, potential mechanisms, and treatment implications. Annual Review in Clinical Psychology, 12, 249–280. doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-092925.CrossRef

Jazaieri, H., Goldin, P. R., & Gross, J. J. (2016). Treating social anxiety disorder with CBT: Impact on emotion regulation and satisfaction with life. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9762-4.

Johnson, J. & Wood, A. M. (2015). Integrating positive and clinical psychology: Viewing human functioning as continua from positive to negative can benefit clinical assessment, interventions and understandings of resilience. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-015-9728-y.

Kanter, J. W., Mulick, P. S., Busch, A. M., Berlin, K. S., & Martell, C. R (2007). The Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale (BADS): Psychometric properties and factor structure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 29, 191–202. doi:10.1007/s10862-006-9038-5.CrossRef

Kashdan, T. B., Weeks, J. W., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011). Whether, how, and when social anxiety shapes positive experiences and events: A self-regulatory framework and treatment implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(5), 786–799. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.012.CrossRefPubMed

Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Behavior Research, 43, 207–222.CrossRef

Keyes, C. (2005). Mental illness and/or mental health? Investigating axioms of the complete state model of health. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 539–548. doi:10.1037/0022-. 006X.73.3.539.CrossRefPubMed

Kraemer, H. C., Wilson, G. T., Fairburn, C. G., & Agras, W. S. (2002). Mediators and moderators of treatment effects in randomized clinical trials. Archives of General Psychiatry, 59, 877–883. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.59.10.877.CrossRefPubMed

Leaviss, J., & Uttley, L. (2015). Psychotherapeutic benefits of compassion-focused therapy: an early systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 45, 927–945. doi:10.1017/S0033291714002141.CrossRefPubMed

May, C. (2013). Towards a general theory of implementation. Implementation Science, 8, 18. doi:10.1186/1748-5908-8-18.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Mazzucchelli, T., Kane, R. T., & Rees, C. S. (2010). Behavioral activation interventions for well-being: A meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 105–121. doi:10.1080/17439760903569154.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Morris, Z. S., Wooding, S., & Grant, J. (2011). The answer is 17 years, what is the question: Understanding time lags in translational research. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104, 510–520. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2011.110180.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Moulds, M. L., Williams, A. D., Grisham, J. R., & Nickerson, A. (2012). A comparison of retrieval vantage perspective of positive and negative intrusive memories. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 3, 168–177. doi:10.5127/jep.014811.CrossRef

Musiat, P., Goldstone, P., & Tarrier, N. (2014). Understanding the acceptability of e-mental health: Attitudes and expectations towards computerised self-help treatments for mental health problems. BMC psychiatry, 14, 109. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-14-109.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Oettingen, G. (2012). Future thought and behavior change. European Review of Social Psychology, 23, 1–63. doi:10.1080/10463283.2011.643698.CrossRef

Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducability of psychological science. Science, 349, doi:10.1126/science.aac4716.

Quoidbach, J., Mikolajczak, M., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Positive Interventions: An Emotion Regulation Perspective. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 655–693. doi:10.1037/a0038648.CrossRefPubMed

Rees, L., Rothman, N. B., Lehavy, R., & Sanchez-Burks, J. (2013). The ambivalent mind can be a wise mind. Emotional ambivalence increases judgement accuracy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 360–367. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.12.017.CrossRef

Renner, F., Ji, J. L., Pictet, A., Holmes, E. A., Blackwell, S. E. (2016). Effects of engaging in repeated mental imagery of future positive events on behavioural activation in individuals with major depressive disorder. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9776-y.

Rice, E. L. & Fredrickson, B. L. (2016). Of passions and positive spontaneous thoughts. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9755-3.

Rizvi, S. J., Pizzagalli, D. A., Sproule, B. A., & Kennedy, S. H. (2016). Assessing anhedonia in depression: Potentials and pitfalls. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 65, 21–35. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.03.004.CrossRef

Roepke, A. M., & Seligman, M. E. (2016). Depression and prospection. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 23–48. doi:10.1111/bjc.12087.CrossRefPubMed

Saddichha, S., Al-Desouki, M., Lamia, A., Linden, I. A., & Krausz, M. (2014). Online interventions for depression and anxiety – A systematic review. Health Psychology & Behavioural Medicine, 2, 841–881. doi:10.1080/21642850.2014.945934.CrossRef

Snaith, R., Hamilton, M., Morley, S., Humayan, A., Hargreaves, D., & Trigwell, P. (1995). A scale for the assessment of hedonic tone the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 99–103. doi:10.1192/bjp.167.1.99.CrossRefPubMed

Strauss, C., Lever Taylor, B., Gu, J., Kuyken, W., Baer, R., Jones, F., & Cavanagh, K. (2016). What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 15–27. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004.CrossRefPubMed

Tennant, R., Hiller, L., Fishwick, R., Platt, S., Joseph, S., Weich, S., Parkinson, J., Secker, J., & Stewart-Brown, S. (2007). The Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation. Health and Quality of life Outcomes, 5(63), 1–13. doi:10.1186/1477-7525-5-63.

Trompetter, H. R., de Kleine, E., Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2016) Why does positive mental health buffer against psychopathology? An exploratory study on self-compassion as a resilience mechanism and adaptive emotion regulation strategy. Cognitive Therapy & Research, doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9774-0.

Vallerand, R. J., Blanchard, C., Mageau, G. A., Koestner, R., Ratelle, C., Le ´onard, M., et al (2003). Les passions de l’a ˆme: On obsessive and harmonious passion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(4), 756–767. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.4.756.CrossRefPubMed

Vanderlind, W. M., Stanton, C. H., Weinbrecht, A., Velkoff, E. A., Joormann, J. (2016). Remembering the good ole days: Fear of positive emotion relates to affect repair using positive memories. Cognitive Therapy & Research. doi:10.1007/s10608-016-9775-z.

Vilhauer, J. (2014). Think Forward to Thrive: How to Use the Mind’s Power of Anticipation to Transcend Your Past and Transform Your Life. Novato. California: New World Library.

Watson, D., & Naragon-Gainey, K. (2010). On the specificity of positive emotional dysfunction in psychopathology: Evidence from the mood and anxiety disorders and schizophrenia/schizotypy. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 839–848. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11.002.CrossRefPubMed

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.CrossRefPubMed

Wergeland, G. J., Fjermestad, K. W., Marin, C. E., Haugland, B. S., Bjaastad, J. F., Oeding, K., Silverman, W. K., Ost, L. G., Havik, O. E., & Heiervang, E. R. (2014). An effectiveness study of individual vs group cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in youth. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 57, 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2014.03.007.CrossRef

Werner-Seidler, A., Banks, R., Dunn, B. D., & Moulds, M. L. (2013). An investigation of the relationship between positive affect regulation and depression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51, 46–56. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2012.11.001.CrossRefPubMed

Williams, M. J., Dalgleish, T., Karl, A., & Kuyken, W. (2014). Examining the factor structures of the five facet mindfulness questionnaire and the self-compassion scale. Psychological Assessment, 26, 407–418. doi:10.1037/a0035566.CrossRefPubMed

Wood, A. M., & Tarrier, N. (2010). Positive clinical psychology: A new vision and strategy for integrated research and practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 819–829. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.06.003.CrossRefPubMed

Title: Opportunities and Challenges for the Emerging Field of Positive Emotion Regulation: A Commentary on the Special Edition on Positive Emotions and Cognitions in Clinical Psychology
Author: Barnaby D. Dunn
Publication date: 01-06-2017
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Cognitive Therapy and Research / Issue 3/2017
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9831-3

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Opportunities and Challenges for the Emerging Field of Positive Emotion Regulation: A Commentary on the Special Edition on Positive Emotions and Cognitions in Clinical Psychology

Abstract

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 3/2017

Of Passions and Positive Spontaneous Thoughts

Automaticity of Attentional Bias to Threat in High and Low Worriers

Personal Goals, Well-Being and Deliberate Self-Harm

Positive Emotion Specificity and Mood Symptoms in an Adolescent Outpatient Sample

What does Positivity Add to Psychopathology? An Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Positive Emotions and Cognitions in Clinical Psychology’

Why Does Positive Mental Health Buffer Against Psychopathology? An Exploratory Study on Self-Compassion as a Resilience Mechanism and Adaptive Emotion Regulation Strategy