Controlling Emotions? Cognitive control and daily emotion regulation in individuals with major depression or borderline personality disorder.

• Applicants: Dr. Lars Schulze; Dr. Ulrike Zetsche
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 286547201

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are the two most prominent mental disorders associated with impairments in emotion regulation. Surprisingly, there have only been very few studies directly comparing these two disorders to disentangle shared and disorder-specific deficits in emotion regulation (ER). Studies comparing individuals with MDD or BPD to healthy controls have shown that both groups are characterized by an increased use of maladaptive strategies to regulate their emotions (e.g., rumination and suppression). In addition, individuals with MDD or BPD as compared to healthy individuals might also be less effective in using adaptive ER strategies (e.g. reappraisal). Thus, the present project focuses on the three most researched ER strategies, namely reappraisal, rumination, and suppression. Importantly, theoretical models link effective ER to cognitive control functions. Indeed, recent findings suggest that different cognitive control functions play a crucial role in successful emotion regulation. Given that individuals with MDD or BPD are characterized by impairments in the cognitive control of emotional information, it will be intriguing to examine whether these impairments in cognitive control might explain their difficulty in emotion regulation. Thus, the aim of the present research project is to investigate the link between individual differences in cognitive control functions and impairments in the above mentioned ER strategies in the daily life of individuals with MDD or BPD. Specifically, the project assesses performance in four different cognitive control functions that have been implicated in successful emotion regulation: response inhibition, updating of working memory representations, shifting between tasks or mental sets and interference control. The current project further uses ambulatory assessment to examine the use and effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. Studies combining the assessment of cognitive parameters with the ambulatory assessment of emotion regulation have been missing so far. An examination of cognitive processes associated with impairments in emotion regulation in these disorders will be an important step to further improve our understanding of emotion regulation and to ultimately advance the treatment strategies for MDD and BDP.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants