Sheri L. Johnson

Objective: Internalizing disorders are associated with emotion regulation characterized by repetitive negative thinking. There is a proposed relationship between rumination and working memory and there are gaps in understanding how emotions impact this association. In the present study, we investigated differences in negative (hot) and neutral (cold) working memory processing in relation to measures of rumination and emotion reactivity. Our aim was to address hot working memory as a potential clinically relevant mechanism in challenges with emotion regulation. Emotion reactivity was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between rumination and working memory. Method: Participants were undergraduate students ( N = 120). Working memory was assessed using the Memory Affective Flexibility Task (MAFT), an affective experimental paradigm based on the n -back task that incorporates neutral and valenced visual stimuli. Facets of maladaptive emotion regulation were measured through self-report questionnaires for rumination and emotion reactivity. Associations were examined using multiple linear regression with rumination as the outcome variable. Results: There were small relationships between working memory performance in both neutral and negative conditions of the MAFT with measures of rumination and emotion reactivity. There was a significant moderate correlation between emotion reactivity and rumination. Conclusion: Despite correlations among self-report measures of emotion reactivity and rumination, we observed limited support for the links of task-based hot or cold working memory performance with self-rated emotion measures. This aligns with previous reports of modest correlations between task-based and self-report measures. The findings add to a growing literature on the challenges of capturing the interplay between emotion processes, affect and cognition in neuroscientific research.

Substance use (SU) is often characterized as an affect regulation strategy. Yet, evidence is mixed for SU's acute affect regulation function, particularly in clinical populations and substances beyond cannabis and alcohol. We examined the affective antecedents and consequences surrounding use of alcohol, cannabis, and other substances among a high-risk clinical population. Recently suicidal adults receiving psychiatric inpatient care (N = 95) completed baseline measures followed by 28 days of ecological momentary assessment after discharge. Seven daily surveys assessed current negative affect (NA) and positive affect and SU. Within-person increases in affective intensity predicted any SU; any SU then predicted decreased affective intensity. When alcohol, cannabis, and other SU were analyzed separately, elevated NA predicted cannabis and other SU, while decreased NA predicted alcohol use. Further, alcohol use predicted subsequent increased NA, while cannabis use predicted decreased NA, and other SU predicted decreased positive affect. Sensitivity analyses were mixed, wherein the relationship between any SU and affect became somewhat more robust, while results considering each substance separately became nonsignificant. Although affective antecedents are consistent with SU as an attempt at affect regulation, use itself did not reliably improve affect in this high-risk clinical sample, highlighting the value of other affect regulation strategies as intervention targets given the risks of SU. Future research should examine real-time changes in affect to understand the reinforcement properties of various substances and to explore the drivers and outcomes of the potential affect regulatory function of cannabis use in high-risk adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Many individuals with bipolar disorders (BD) value creativity, and some consider it a strength associated with BD. Existing literature supports a link between creativity and BD. This photovoice study represents the first of its kind, offering novel insights into the complex relationships among mood, creativity, and the lived experiences of individuals with BD in a non-Western cultural setting. Our research team recruited 10 Chinese individuals in recovery from BD. They participated in either painting or expressive writing. Participants used a photovoice methodology over a nine-month period to document their creative processes and recovery, culminating in a public art exhibition and "human library" event, sharing their experiences and reducing stigma. The study revealed that mood had a significant influence on participants' creativity over time. During hypomanic episodes, some participants described heightened creativity, characterized by bursts of inspiration and increased output. Some participants reported an enhanced sense of perception during depressive episodes. Participants also reported that their ambitions and ability to execute their plans for achieving their goals seemed to play a significant role in explaining the relationship between mood episodes and creativity levels. Through activities such as drawing and writing, the participants gained a deeper understanding of themselves, exploring and making sense of their thoughts, emotions, and experiences. The sharing of creative work on social media during the study period emerged as a catalyst for fostering community, motivation, and self-confidence. Limitations include all‑female participants with high school or higher education levels, and variability in attendance and artistic output. This investigation offers insights into strengths-based approaches to supporting those with BD through the transformative power of the creative arts. The participants in this study emphasized the importance of finding meaning in their creative goals and cultivating determination by connecting their aspirations to personal values and intrinsic strengths. The present findings add to studies exploring the talents and skills of Chinese individuals with BD and to reducing stigma toward this population.

Objectives: Negative emotions have been well studied in relation to suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs); however, little research in these areas have been informed by affective science frameworks that consider the complex and time varying nature of STBs. Emotion differentiation is well‐validated as one such core construct in affective science. The present study is the first to examine negative emotion differentiation in relation to STBs and in a sample at heightened risk for suicide. In addition, to investigate how emotion differentiation relates to real time measures of emotion regulation, we examined the relationship between negative emotion differentiation and facets of affective dynamics (i.e., affective inertia, intensity, and variability). Methods: Adults leaving psychiatric inpatient care ( n = 68) with recent STBs completed semi‐structured interviews, self‐report measures, and a 4‐week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) protocol in the period from 2021 to 2023. Results: Results indicated no significant relationship between negative emotion differentiation and STBs (suicidal ideation duration, frequency, controllability, severity, nor suicide attempt history) when measured retrospectively or concurrently. However, negative emotion differentiation was significantly related to only some negative affective dynamics (i.e., inertia and variability). Conclusions: These findings have important clinical implications regarding type and timing of treatment for STBs.

Purpose: To develop and validate the Entrepreneur Well-being Check (EWC), a screening tool to assess mental health, well-being and occupational functioning among entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach: Literature review identified core emotional, well-being and occupational concerns among entrepreneurs. Items for each dimension were drafted, tested for content validity and refined. 314 entrepreneurs completed these items and other instruments to test the EWC scale structure, internal consistency, criterion and construct validity. They retook measures at six months to assess test-retest reliability. Findings: Seven items loaded onto one factor. The EWC exhibited good internal consistency, content validity, criterion validity, construct validity and fair test-retest reliability. The EWC score correlated with measures of well-being, occupational functioning and multiple mental health conditions. Research limitations/implications: Findings are based on self-report measures in a self-selected sample. The EWC shows validity as a measure of mental health and well-being, but findings await replication. Practical implications: The EWC could inform research on the mental health and well-being needs of entrepreneurs and related interventions. EWC-identified distressed entrepreneurs could be offered referrals to care and may benefit from policy or programmatic support. Social implications: The EWC is a free, publicly available, evidence-informed screening tool that can identify at-risk entrepreneurs. The EWC could help educators, mentors, coaches and clinicians support entrepreneur well-being. Originality/value: The EWC is the first screener of broad mental health, well-being and occupational concerns among entrepreneurs.

Misophonia is a disorder involving sensitivity to certain sounds and related stimuli. Here, we explore the relationship between misophonia and affective flexibility, which describes cognitive shifting abilities in the face of emotion‐evoking stimuli. The secondary aim of this study is to test the potential association between misophonia and cognitive flexibility, building upon findings from previous research. The third objective is to examine the relationship between misophonia and rumination. One hundred and forty participants completed the Memory and Affective Flexibility Task (MAFT), designed to assess affective flexibility, as well as a battery of self‐report measures to evaluate misophonia severity, cognitive flexibility, and rumination. Results suggested an inverse relationship between affective flexibility as measured by switch accuracy, but not reaction time, and misophonia severity. Cognitive flexibility was also inversely associated with misophonia severity, but was not attributed to task‐based affective flexibility, suggesting two independent constructs both involved in misophonia manifestation. Rumination associated positively with misophonia severity and inversely with cognitive flexibility, but not affective flexibility. Taken together, these findings highlight a unique cognitive profile of misophonia, characterized by rigidity at the psychological level through cognitive inflexibility and rumination, as well as at the executive function level in terms of affective switching difficulties.

Prior theory and research offer competing predictions for associations between intrapersonal emotion (dys)regulation and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). One possibility is that difficulties recognizing, accepting, or managing one's emotions might tend to interfere with seeking or benefiting from IER. Alternatively, people who struggle to regulate their emotions by themselves might nevertheless be able to outsource regulatory functions or capitalize on regulatory support effectively, such that benefits of IER might be preserved or even amplified. We conducted secondary analyses of five samples (Ns = 90-381) collected between 2016 and 2020 to examine links between individual differences in intrapersonal emotion (dys)regulation and reported desire for, seeking of, and helpfulness of receiving IER. The samples consisted of students at a public university in California (Samples 1-3), romantic couples recruited predominantly from the Greater San Francisco Bay Area community (Sample 4), and adults reporting difficulties with emotion-related impulsivity enrolled in an online intervention to reduce aggression (Sample 5). Methods varied across samples, including questionnaires, autobiographical recall, nightly diaries, and ecological momentary assessment. Across samples, individual differences in emotion dysregulation, cognitive reappraisal, and expressive suppression were more robustly tied to perceived helpfulness of IER than reported desire for IER. More specifically, emotion dysregulation and suppression use were negatively associated with helpfulness, whereas reappraisal use was positively associated with helpfulness; however, some results were inconsistent across samples. We examine these consistencies and inconsistencies considering differences in sample characteristics and methods. We discuss conceptual and practical implications of these findings alongside strengths, limitations, and future directions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Inhibitory deficits are common in psychopathology. Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) and rumination are general risk factors for psychiatric distress that are similarly associated with dysfunctional inhibition—particularly in affective contexts. A number of cognitive remediation procedures have been developed to improve inhibitory control; however, most remediation programs focus on “cold” cognition independent of affective processing. This pilot trial will gather preliminary evidence for a new cognitive training intervention targeting “hot” affective control (ie, inhibitory functions during elevated emotional arousal) in a transdiagnostic sample of adults who report heightened emotion dysregulation. Objective: This manuscript describes a protocol for a pilot randomized waitlist-controlled trial to assess changes in ERI and rumination after neurobehavioral affective control training (N-ACT), an 8-week cognitive training intervention designed to improve emotional response inhibition and emotional working memory. Our primary aim is to evaluate the efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of N-ACT in reducing rumination and ERI, which we respectively conceptualize as complementary cognitive and behavioral consequences of emotion dysregulation. Secondarily, we will examine whether N-ACT leads to improvements in inhibitory control and, more distally, psychopathology symptoms. Methods: The final sample will comprise 80 adults who report high ERI or rumination. Participants will be randomized to (1) begin the N-ACT program without delay or (2) join a waitlist condition and then complete N-ACT. Exclusion criteria include active alcohol or substance use disorders, psychosis, and suicide risk. At the baseline and postintervention time points, participants will complete measures of emotion dysregulation and psychiatric symptoms, as well as a neuropsychological assessment of inhibitory control. Individuals assigned to the control group will undergo an identical assessment before joining the waitlist, followed by parallel assessments before and after N-ACT. Results: This trial is funded by support from the University of California Board of Regents and the Peder Sather Foundation (funding period: October 2022-September 2025). Recruitment is scheduled to begin in spring 2025. We will begin data analysis once data collection is complete, which is planned to occur in fall 2025. Conclusions: This pilot randomized waitlist-controlled trial is designed to assess the initial efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of N-ACT, a novel cognitive remediation approach developed to address 2 key contributors to psychopathology: ERI and rumination. The N-ACT program uses computerized adaptive behavioral tasks to strengthen the affective control processes theoretically and empirically linked to ERI and rumination. We hope this work will help inform future studies with sufficient statistical power to ascertain whether enhancing affective control through cognitive training (N-ACT) produces downstream reductions in psychiatric symptoms via improved emotion regulation. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06226467; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06226467; Open Science Framework Registry rak5z; https://osf.io/rak5z International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/54221

Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) shows robust longitudinal associations with psychiatric disorders, aggression, and suicidality, yet a parsimonious account of its neurocognitive correlates has not been offered. We connect ERI with the glutamate-amplifies-noradrenergic-effects (GANE) model, a framework describing how norepinephrine tunes “hotspots” of brain activation during heightened physiological arousal. First, we systematically reviewed studies of ERI and task-based functional MRI. Meta-analysis of significant effects yielded one cluster in right inferior frontal gyrus. Twenty-six of 30 significant effects systematically colocalized in neuroanatomical hotspots in each corresponding task, in line with GANE. Second, adults recruited for a range of psychopathology ( N = 120) completed a reward/punishment go/no-go task while undergoing functional MRI. ERI correlated with stronger nucleus-accumbens activation for a model sensitive to heightened trial reward and in anterior cingulate for models sensitive to heightened trial arousal. Findings provide empirical support for the relevance of GANE hotspot mechanisms to ERI.