Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Memory-Related Emotion Regulation and its Relation to Internalizing Symptoms

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cognitive Therapy and Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Memory-related emotion-regulation is the emotion-regulation strategies employed in response to the retrieval of specific autobiographical memories. We propose that memory-related emotion-regulation may facilitate the link between a memory’s centrality to an individual’s identity and internalizing symptoms as identified in previous work.

Method

In two studies (Ns = 229 and 199), Amazon MTurk workers reported the use of five emotion regulation strategies in relation to recent memories that were judged to be either highly central or less central to their identity. Further, participants completed different measures of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Results

Across both studies, high-centrality memories were associated with greater employment of emotion regulation strategies than low-centrality memories. Brooding over high-centrality memories (but not low-centrality memories) predicted depressive symptoms. For anxiety, in Study 1, emotion regulation for both high- and low-centrality memories was associated with higher generalized anxiety disorder symptoms (i.e. worry). In Study 2, emotion regulation of high-centrality memories (but not low-centrality memories) predicted fear and panic symptoms.

Conclusions

Highly central memories were associated with a distinct emotional experience and emotion regulation strategies. Brooding, when remembering highly central events, was robustly associated with all types of internalizing symptoms. Other emotion regulation strategies showed less consistent patterns, and emotion regulation for low centrality memories was related only to worry. Overall, the findings underscore the importance that memory centrality has for understanding emotion regulation when experiencing elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Data are available upon request to the first author.

Notes

  1. The samples from Study 1 and Study 2 were merged and analyses with a part of the dataset has been published in Del Palacio-Gonzalez and Berntsen (2019).

References

  • Aldao, A., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2010). Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: A transdiagnostic examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48(10), 974–983.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Gee, D. G., De, L. R., & Seager, I. (2016). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology: current and future directions. Development and Psychopathology, 28(4), 927–946.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Sheppes, G., & Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation flexibility. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 39(3), 263–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., & Haigh, E. A. P. (2014). Advances in cognitive theory and therapy: the generic cognitive model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 1–24.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck depression inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berntsen, D., & Bohn, A. (2010). Remembering and forecasting. The relation between autobiographical memory and episodic future thinking. Memory & Cognition, 38, 265–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2006). The centrality of event scale: a measure of integrating a trauma into one's identity and its relation to post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(2), 219–231.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2007). When a trauma becomes a key to identity: enhanced integration of trauma memories predicts posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21(4), 417–431.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, T., Mansell, W., Dickens, C., & Tai, S. (2013). Is there a core process across depression and anxiety? Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(2), 307–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., & Burton, C. L. (2013). Regulatory flexibility: an individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 591–612.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Borkovec, T. D., Alcaine, O., & Behar, E. (2004). Avoidance theory of worry and generalized anxiety disorder. In R. G. Heimberg, C. L. Turk, & D. S. Mennin (Eds.), Generalized anxiety disorder: advances in research and practice (pp. 77–108). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borkovec, T. D., & Roemer, L. (1995). Perceived functions of worry among generalized anxiety disorder subjects: Distraction from more emotionally distressing topics? Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 26(1), 25–30.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buhrmester, M. D., Talaifar, S., & Gosling, S. D. (2018). An evaluation of Amazon’s mechanical turk, its rapid rise, and its effective use. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13, 149–154.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, M., & Matthews, A. (1992). Autobiographical memory and clinical anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 23–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C., Takahashi, T., & Yang, S. (2015). Remembrance of happy things past: positive autobiographical memories are intrinsically rewarding and valuable, but not in depression. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 4.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chukwuorji, J. C., Ifeagwazi, C. M., & Eze, J. E. (2017). Role of event centrality and emotion regulation in posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among internally displaced persons. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 30(6), 702–715.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coles, M. E., & Heimberg, R. G. (2002). Memory biases in the anxiety disorders: current status. Clinical Psychology Review, 22(4), 587–627.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craske, M. G., Rapee, R. M., Jackel, L., & Barlow, D. H. (1989). Qualitative dimensions of worry in DSM-III-R generalized anxiety disorder subjects and nonanxious controls. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 27(4), 397.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • del Palacio-Gonzalez, A., Berntsen, D., & Watson, L. A. (2017). Emotional intensity and emotion regulation in response to autobiographical memories during dysphoria. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 41(4), 530–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Del Palacio-Gonzalez, A., & Berntsen, D. (2018). Emotion regulation of events central to identity and their relationship with concurrent and prospective depressive symptoms. Behavior Therapy, 49, 604–616.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • del Palacio-Gonzalez, A., & Berntsen, D. (2019). The tendency for experiencing involuntary future and past mental time travel is robustly related to thought suppression: an exploratory study. Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung, 4, 788–804.

    Google Scholar 

  • del Palacio-González, A., & Clark, D. A. (2015). Specificity of cognitive vulnerability in fear and sad affect: anxiety sensitivity, looming cognitive style, and hopelessness in emotion reactivity and recovery. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 8(4), 351–367.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dryman, M. T., & Heimberg, R. G. (2018). Emotion regulation in social anxiety and depression: a systematic review of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal. Clinical Psychology Review, 65, 17–42.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Finnbogadottir, H., & Berntsen, D. (2011). Involuntary and voluntary mental time travel in high and low worriers. Memory, 19, 625–640.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gehrt, T. B., Berntsen, D., Hoyle, R. H., & Rubin, D. C. (2018). Psychological and clinical correlates of the centrality of event scale: a systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 65, 57–80.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Fang, A., & Asnaani, A. (2012). Emotion dysregulation model of mood and anxiety disorders. Depression and Anxiety, 29(5), 409–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iqbal, N., & Dar, K. A. (2015). Negative affectivity, depression, and anxiety: does rumination mediate the links? Journal of Affective Disorders, 181, 18–23.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., Siemer, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2007). Mood regulation in depression: Differential effects of distraction and recall of happy memories on sad mood. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(3), 484–490.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., & Vanderlind, W. M. (2014). Emotion regulation in depression: the role of biased cognition and reduced cognitive control. Clinical Psychological Science, 2(4), 402–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotov, R., et al. (2017). The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): a dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(4), 454–477.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., Williams, J. B. W., Monahan, P. O., & Löwe, B. (2007). Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence, impairment, comorbidity, and detection. Annals of Internal Medicine, 146(5), 317–325, W-77.

  • Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) with the beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 335.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Marks, E. H., Franklin, A. R., & Zoellner, L. A. (2018). Can’t get it out of my mind: a systematic review of predictors of intrusive memories of distressing events. Psychological Bulletin, 144(6), 584–640.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Duarte, C. (2012). Above and beyond emotional valence: the unique contribution of central and traumatic shame memories to psychopathology vulnerability. Memory, 20(5), 461–477.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Gomes, P. (2010). A centralidade das experiências da vergonha: Estudo das propriedades psicométricas da versão portuguesa da escala da centralidade do acontecimento. Psicologia: Revista Da Associação Portuguesa Psicologia, 24(1), 73–95.

  • McEvoy, P. M., & Brans, S. (2013). Common versus unique variance across measures of worry and rumination: predictive utility and mediational models for anxiety and depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(1), 183–196.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mennin, D. S., Holaway, R. M., Fresco, D. M., Moore, M. T., & Heimberg, R. G. (2007). Delineating components of emotion and its dysregulation in anxiety and mood psychopathology. Behavior Therapy, 38(3), 284–302.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Larson, J., & Grayson, C. (1999). Explaining the gender difference in depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 1061–1072.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Plate, A. J., Aldao, A., Quintero, J. M., & Mennin, D. S. (2016). Interactions between reappraisal and emotional nonacceptance in psychopathology: examining disability and depression symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(6), 733–746.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinto-Gouvia, J., & Matos, M. (2011). Can shame memories become a key to identity? The centrality of shame memories predicts psychopathology. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 281–290.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roemer, L., Lee, J. K., Salters-Pedneault, K., Erisman, S. M., Orsillo, S. M., & Mennin, D. S. (2009). Mindfulness and emotion regulation difficulties in generalized anxiety disorder: Preliminary evidence for independent and overlapping contributions. Behavior Therapy, 40(2), 142–154.

  • Roemer, L., Salters, K., Raffa, S. D., & Orsillo, S. M. (2005). Fear and avoidance of internal experiences in GAD: preliminary tests of a conceptual model. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 71–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, D. C., Boals, A., & Berntsen, D. (2008). Memory in posttraumatic stress disorder: Properties of voluntary and involuntary, traumatic and nontraumatic autobiographical memories in people with and without posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 137(4), 591–614.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapero, B. G., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2016). Emotional reactivity and internalizing symptoms: moderating role of emotion regulation. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(3), 328–340.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sinclair, S. J., Siefert, C. J., Slavin-Mulford, J., Stein, M. B., Renna, M., & Blais, M. A. (2012). Psychometric evaluation and normative data for the depression, anxiety, and stress scales-21 (DASS-21) in a nonclinical sample of U.S. adults. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 35(3), 259.

  • Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B. W., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. Archives of Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sumner, J. A., Griffith, J. W., & Mineka, S. (2010). Overgeneral autobiographical memory as a predictor of the course of depression: a meta-analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48(7), 614–625.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Treynor, W., Gonzalez, R., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2003). Rumination reconsidered: a psychometric analysis. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27(3), 247–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valdivia-Salas, S., Sheppard, S. C., & Forsyth, J. P. (2010). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in an Emotion Regulation Context. In A. M. Kring & D. M. Sloan (Eds.), Emotion regulation and psychopathology: a transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment (pp. 310–338). New York, NY, US: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanderlind, W. M., Millgram, Y., Baskin-Sommers, A., Clark, M. S., & Joormann, J. (2020). Understanding positive emotion deficits in depression: from emotion preferences to emotion regulation. Clinical Psychology Review, 76, 11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vasey, M. W., & Borkovec, T. D. (1992). A catastrophizing assessment of worrisome thoughts. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16(5), 505–520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., & Gorenstein, C. (2013). Psychometric properties of the Beck depression inventory-II: a comprehensive review. Revista Brasileira De Psiquiatria, 35(4), 416–431.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wegner, D. M., & Zanakos, S. (1994). Chronic thought suppression. Journal of Personality, 62(4), 615–640.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wisco, B. E., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2010). Valence of autobiographical memories: the role of mood, cognitive reappraisal, and suppression. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48(4), 335–340.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF) under Grant DNRF89. The DNRF had no involvement in the design of the current study or the interpretation of the results.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Bartholis Allé 9, 1351, 8000, Arhus C, Denmark

    Adriana del Palacio-Gonzalez & Dorthe Berntsen

  2. Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Center for Alcohol and Drug Research, Aarhus University, Bartholis Allé 10, 1322-324, 8000, Arhus C, Denmark

    Adriana del Palacio-Gonzalez

Authors
  1. Adriana del Palacio-Gonzalez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dorthe Berntsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adriana del Palacio-Gonzalez.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Adriana del Palacio-Gonzalez and Dorthe Berntsen declare that they have no competing interest.

Informed Consent

All participants in both studies provided an electronic informed consent prior to their participation.

Animal Rights

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 28 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

del Palacio-Gonzalez, A., Berntsen, D. Memory-Related Emotion Regulation and its Relation to Internalizing Symptoms. Cogn Ther Res 44, 1162–1176 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10137-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10137-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation