Emotion Regulation and Delayed Discounting: The Development of an Emotional Discounting Paradigm
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Date
2015-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
When we are confronted with threats, it can quite reasonable for us to escape. However, the habitual avoidance of potential threats can interfere with our ability to adaptively engage with the environment and it has been associated with the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders and with problems regulating emotions (e.g., Aldao et al., 2010; Hayes et al., 1999; Hoffman et al., 2012; Roemer et al., 2008). Thus, a critical questions entails identifying the point at which avoidance might no longer confer an advantage. I modified a monetary discounting paradigm to capture individual differences in how people avoid an impending negative emotional experience. I administered a monetary discount paradigm capturing impulsivity and an emotional discounting paradigm assessing avoidance. Undergraduate students (N=177) were asked to: 1) make decisions between taking a small amount of money (varying in amount) or taking a chance of receiving a larger amount (varying in probability) (monetary discounting) and 2) make decisions between watching short disgust-eliciting film clips for certain (varying in length) or taking a chance of having to watch a longer film clip (varying in probability) (emotional discounting). Larger discounting rates reflected greater impulsivity and avoidance, respectively. Discounting rates in the monetary paradigm were linked with more symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, and social anxiety and with more emotional difficulties. Performance on the emotional discounting was not associated with individual difference or with performance on the delay discounting paradigm. Future work should 1) examine the links between emotional discounting and symptoms in clinical populations, 2) test the link between emotional discounting and physiological markers of emotion regulation.
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Keywords
Emotion Regulation, Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, Avoidance, Impulsivity