Symposia
Research Methods and Statistics
Kevin King, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Kevin King, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Associate Professor
University of Washington, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Jonas Dora, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Katherine Seldin, M.A.
Doctoral Student
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Michele Smith, M.A.
Doctoral Student
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Megan Schultz, B.A.
Doctoral Student
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Connor McCabe, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Todd Obilor, B.A.
Doctoral Student
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Diego Moss, B.A.
Research Coordinator
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Gregory Smith, PhD
Professor
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Yuichi Shoda, PhD
Professor
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Christine Lee, PhD
Professor
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Megan Patrick, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Experiencing negative affect is hypothesized to make people more likely to engage in rash and impulsive behaviors to regulate those emotions, and a tendency to respond to negative emotions with impulsivity (e.g. emotional impulsivity) is thought to be a transdiagnostic correlate of psychopathology. However, it is unclear for whom or when experiencing strong negative affect is especially likely to lead to rash and impulsive behaviors, which may be important towards building mechanistically informed models of psychopathology. In the current pre-registered study, we focused on whether between (negative emotionality, internalizing symptoms, emotion regulation strategy use, or emotion differentiation) or within person (emotion regulation strategy use, momentary emotion appraisals) differences in emotion regulation modified the within-person association between the experience of negative emotions and momentary impulsivity. We used data from a sample of young adults (age 18 – 22, 60% female, (n = 134) participants who completed 5 EMAs per day over two social weekends (Thursday - Sunday). We tested our hypotheses with Bayesian multilevel models in R using the package brms. Consistent with prior research, participants reported higher levels of momentary impulsivity when they also experienced higher than usual negative emotions (b = .20). This association was stronger when participants also reported using more maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (b = .12, 95% CI = .01 – .24) and when they reported that it was important to change their current emotions (b = .33, 95% CI = .16 – 50), but not when they reported feeling less confident about changing emotions. Moreover, this association was stronger for participants who reported higher trait negative emotionality (b = .16, 95% CI = .05 – .33), but not for those with higher trait maladaptive emotion regulation strategy use, or higher internalizing symptoms. Taken together, this suggests that the momentary process of emotional impulsivity (e.g. stronger impulsivity in the face of negative emotions) is related to other aspects of how people seek to regulate their emotions, and to people’s typical emotional experiences. Interventions that train participants in effective emotion regulation strategies and to better tolerate momentary negative emotions may be especially effective at disrupting the momentary associations between emotions and rash and impulsive behaviors.
