Spontaneous Self-Distancing Mediates the Association Between Working Memory Capacity and Emotion Regulation Success

Abstract

Self-distancing is associated with adaptive emotion regulation (ER), thereby making it a common treatment target across psychotherapies. However, less is known about cognitive processes that facilitate self-distancing. Working memory capacity (WMC) has been associated with self-distancing and ER, although research has not directly examined WMC and spontaneous self-distancing activity. Here, we tested the association between WMC and self-distancing (indexed by pronoun use) in relation to ER during a negative-mood induction in college students ( N = 209). Results suggested a mediation model: Higher WMC predicted lower I and greater we pronouns (i.e., greater self-distancing), which in turn predicted lower negative affect. Furthermore, higher WMC predicted greater we pronouns, which predicted higher positive affect. No significant mediation was observed for you. These findings enrich current theoretical models describing WMC and self-distancing in ER and suggest important future research to further elucidate the cognitive processes underlying self-distancing with implications for clinical practice.

Boosting Positive Mood During Stress: A Daily Coping Toolkit Replication in College Undergraduates

“…For example, momentary increases in positive emotions have been shown to precede engagement in health behaviors such as exercise, or support-seeking, across clinical samples and community adults (Aurora et al, 2022;Nylocks et al, 2018). Moreover, reports of affect both influence and are influenced by the experience of emotional self-efficacy (Seah & Coifman, 2020). Our findings here appear to be somewhat consistent with this prior evidence, with some key caveats.…”

“…Third, we explored impacts on psychological health including outcomes that are more proximal such as changes in cognition and behavior (i.e., less perceived stress, more self-care behaviors, and more emotional selfefficacy) and outcomes that are distal (i.e., greater psychological well-being) after the two weeks of the intervention. Although we did not make predictions about these outcomes, we did expect that the DCT would be less likely to influence broader, distal outcomes, but perhaps more likely to influence proximal outcomes given prior research suggesting that momentary positive emotions can drive increased use of health behaviors within hours (Aurora et al, 2022;Nylocks, et al, 2018) and shifts in cognition, including emotional self-efficacy (Seah & Coifman, 2020).…”

“…Additionally, participants were asked to indicate how capable they felt in recognizing and handling their emotions over the past week (Seah & Coifman, 2020;Seah & Coifman, in prep).…”

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

“…Moreover, past research suggests that ED may counteract maladaptive cognitive-emotional processes such as rumination that often exacerbate NA and increase propensity of maladaptive behavioral engagement ( Zaki et al, 2013 ; Seah et al, 2020 ). Instead, it is possible that ED may enable one to disengage from difficult experiences (rather than staying “stuck”), and in turn facilitate greater psychological distance and adaptive regulation of negative emotion ( Kross and Ayduk, 2017 ; Seah et al, 2021 ). Nevertheless, these hypotheses remain preliminary and future research should aim to explicitly test possible underlying mechanisms of ED in relation to adaptive behavioral response to increase our understanding of how it may operate.…”

The link between anger and reactive aggression: Insights into anger rumination

“…Finally, individuals were instructed to engage in self-distanced anger rumination by reading the instructions themselves; we did not assess their ability to distance themselves during anger rumination. As the ability to distance oneself is related to working memory capacity (Seah et al, 2020), future research could explore whether moderators, such as cognitive ability, influence how self-distanced anger rumination affects reactive aggression.…”