Mai B Mikkelsen1, Emma Elkjær1, Douglas S Mennin2, David M Fresco3, Robert Zachariae1,4, Allison Applebaum5, Mia S O'Toole1. 1. Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark. 2. Department of Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. 3. Department of Psychiatry, Research Professor, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, US. 4. Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark. 5. Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emotion differentiation is considered adaptive because differentiated emotional experiences are believed to promote access to the information that emotions carry, enabling context-appropriate emotion regulation. In the present study, secondary analyses from a recent randomized controlled trial (O'Toole et al., 2019) were conducted to investigate whether emotion differentiation can improve as a result of psychotherapy and whether improvements in emotion differentiation are associated with reduced distress. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 81 distressed caregivers of cancer patients were randomized to Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT), an intervention aimed at improving emotion differentiation and facilitating healthy emotion regulation, or a waitlist condition. Emotion differentiation scores could be calculated for 54 caregivers. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that ERT led to significant improvements in negative (η2 = 0.21, p = .012), but not positive emotion differentiation (η2 = <0.01, p = .973). Correlation analyses showed that improvements in negative emotion differentiation were not associated with changes in distress. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that negative emotion differentiation can improve as a result of psychotherapy. Further research is needed to clarify how improvements in emotion differentiation following therapeutic interventions relate to treatment outcomes such as distress.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02322905.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Emotion differentiation is considered adaptive because differentiated emotional experiences are believed to promote access to the information that emotions carry, enabling context-appropriate emotion regulation. In the present study, secondary analyses from a recent randomized controlled trial (O'Toole et al., 2019) were conducted to investigate whether emotion differentiation can improve as a result of psychotherapy and whether improvements in emotion differentiation are associated with reduced distress. DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 81 distressed caregivers of cancer patients were randomized to Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT), an intervention aimed at improving emotion differentiation and facilitating healthy emotion regulation, or a waitlist condition. Emotion differentiation scores could be calculated for 54 caregivers. RESULTS: Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that ERT led to significant improvements in negative (η2 = 0.21, p = .012), but not positive emotion differentiation (η2 = <0.01, p = .973). Correlation analyses showed that improvements in negative emotion differentiation were not associated with changes in distress. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that negative emotion differentiation can improve as a result of psychotherapy. Further research is needed to clarify how improvements in emotion differentiation following therapeutic interventions relate to treatment outcomes such as distress.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02322905.
Authors: Yasemin Erbas; Eva Ceulemans; Elise K Kalokerinos; Marlies Houben; Peter Koval; Madeline L Pe; Peter Kuppens Journal: J Pers Soc Psychol Date: 2018-08
Authors: Mia S O'Toole; Robert Zachariae; Megan E Renna; Douglas S Mennin; Allison Applebaum Journal: Psychooncology Date: 2016-05-05 Impact factor: 3.894