Emotion Regulation and Emotion Perception

Recruitment & Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria

ages 18-55;
have a smartphone and agree to receive text-messages;
have difficulty with their relationships or social interactions;
high emotion dysregulation, assessed with the Difficulties with Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)(Gratz & Roemer, 2004) with scores over 90.

Exclusion Criteria

Current mania;
Meets full criteria for any current psychotic disorder;
Currently/chronically homeless;
Current suicidal ideation;
Psychiatric hospitalization within past 6 months;
Unable to read, blind or deaf. Our previous study recruited only participants who were currently in treatment, but this study will include both participants who are currently in treatment, as well as those who are not in treatment.
high self-reported autistic traits, as assessed by the Autism Spectrum Quotient (Auyeung & Baron-Cohen, 2012).

Study & Design

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Habituation	Habituation	Participants receive an exposure/habituation intervention to regulate their emotional distress during a stressor task. They will then receive one week of reminders, delivered through their mobile phones.
Mindful Breathing	Mindful Breathing	Participants receive training in a mindful breathing skill to regulate their emotional distress during a stressor task. They will then receive one week of reminders to use this skill, delivered through their mobile phones.
Control	Control	Participants complete the stressor task with no emotion regulation training. Similar to the other conditions, they will then receive one week of reminders, delivered through their mobile phones to test for placebo effects.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in Emotion Perception, as Measured by a Phone-based Behavioral Assessment	After the one week of phone-based intervention	Perception of positive emotional expressions and negative emotional expressions are measured by a behavioral phone-based assessment, delivered multiple times over one week via mobile phones. Scores for ratings of emotional valence range from 0-9, with higher scores as more positive emotional valence and lower scores as more negative emotional valence.
The Ability to Perceive Negative and Positive Emotional Expressions, as Measured by a Behavioral Computer-based Assessment	During the laboratory experiment (week 1)	Emotion perception is measured by a computer-based behavioral assessment during the laboratory session. Scores for negative emotional expressions range from 0-100%, with higher scores indicating greater emotion perception accuracy.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in Emotional Distress, as Measured by Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS)	Beginning of Week one laboratory experiment, End of Week one laboratory experiment	SUDS are measured on a 10-point Likert self-report scale of Subjective Units of Distress, ranging from 0-9. Scores are changes in SUDS ratings from before hearing the tone to after the tone, with greater scores indicating greater reductions in distress (positive outcomes). SUDS score was evaluated at the beginning of the laboratory experiment, and then at the very end of the lab experiment. The change score was calculated by subtracting the beginning score from the end score.

Recruitment & Eligibility