Perspective on Thoughts and Feelings as a Predictor of Psychological Well-being in Daily Life, in a Community Sample

Completed

• Conditions: Mental Health; Mindfulness

• Registration Number: NCT03336710
• Lead Sponsor: State University of New York at Buffalo

Brief Summary

This project examines the psychological construct of decentering - a mindfulness-related construct marked by an observer perspective on one's ongoing mental processes. Specifically, this project seeks to explore the extent to which decentering modulates the relationship between people's affective states and their momentary mental health and well-being, and to test the psychological processes by which decentering might exert these effects. This study includes a baseline assessment followed by a 7-day study completed from home where participants respond to brief surveys about their current experiences six times per day (i.e., an Ecological Momentary Assessment \[EMA\] design).

The investigators hypothesize that decentering moderates the association of extreme affect with related symptoms (i.e., elevated negative affect with depression and anxiety; elevated positive affect with mania, narcissism, and histrionic traits) and well-being, such that the association is attenuated at high levels of decentering. This will be examined using the EMA data, analyzing between-person levels (i.e., trait) as well as momentary within-person processes (i.e., concurrent and prospective states).

Further, the investigators predict that broadened attentional focus and improved self-regulation are mechanisms that contribute to the beneficial effects of decentering in daily life. This hypothesis will be examined in two ways:

1. as individual differences, wherein greater self-regulatory abilities (e.g., higher heart rate variability) and less attentional biases towards emotional stimuli mediate the association between trait decentering and subsequent daily well-being/symptoms, and

2. as within-person momentary levels, wherein broader attentional processes and greater self-regulation in daily life mediate the concurrent and prospective association between momentary decentering and well-being/symptoms.

Note that the study uses a multimodal assessment of each of the proposed processes. For attentional processes, a variety of parameters extracted from an emotional eye tracking paradigm will be examined. For self-regulatory abilities, assessments will include self-report, physiological (heart rate variability), and behavioral ("go / no-go" task) measures of such abilities.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2017-07-06
• Study First Submitted: 2017-10-25
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-11-07
• Study First Posted: 2017-11-08
• Primary Completion: 2018-12-07
• Study Completion: 2018-12-17
• Status Verified: 2019-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2019-07-29
• Last Update Posted: 2019-07-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 380

Inclusion Criteria

• age 18-65, fluency in English

Exclusion Criteria

• current cognitive impairments (i.e., intellectual disability, dementia, current psychotic symptoms) that preclude giving informed consent and accurately answering study questions

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Trait decentering: Toronto Mindfulness Scale-Decentering Subscale	Baseline session only	The Toronto Mindfulness Scale-Decentering subscale is a decentering measure that assesses the Observer Perspective aspect of decentering. From Davis, Lau, \& Cairns (2009).
Momentary psychological distress	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	2 items (developed new for this study) assessing the presence and impact of idiographic symptoms identified at baseline, and 4 items assessing dysphoria adapted from the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS)
Trait Decentering: Experiences Questionnaire	Baseline session only	Experiences Questionnaire is a trait measure of decentering, which assesses the Observer Perspective aspect of decentering. From Fresco et al., (2007)
Trait decentering: Valence free decentering measure	Baseline session only	This is an in-development measure of decentering that measures the construct of decentering without explicitly referring to negative thoughts and feelings.
Momentary eudaimonic well-being	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	2 items assessing eudaimonic well-being adapted from Breines et al. (2008) and Lambert et al. (2013)
State Decentering	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	4 items assessing current decentering, adapted from Fresco et al. (2007), Gillanders et al. (2014), and Shoham et al. (2017)
Momentary hedonic well-being (state positive and negative affect)	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	8 items assessing hedonic well-being (positive and negative affect), taken from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).
Trait decentering: Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire	Baseline session only	The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire is a decentering measure that assesses the Reduced Struggle with Inner Experiences aspect of decentering. From Gillanders et al., (2014).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Baseline self-regulation: Go/no-go task	Baseline session only	Go/no-go task asks people to respond to a large number of "go" trials (80%) and a smaller number of "no go" trials. The ability to inhibit the dominant "go" response is seen as an operative measure of self-regulatory abilities, consequently the number of "no go" signals responded to is one measure of self-regulatory abilities.
Self-reported momentary self-regulation	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	3 questions assessing current perceived willpower \& mental exhaustion, adapted from Davisson (2013) and Milyavskaya \& Inzlicht (2017).
Self-reported momentary attentional focus	6 x daily for 7 days following the baseline assessment	4 attentional emotion regulation items (distraction, positive rumination, negative rumination, and reappraisal) adapted from Brans et al. (2013), Feldman et al. (2008), and Nolen-Hoeksema \& Morrow (1991)
Baseline attentional breadth: Ruminative Responses Scale	Baseline session only	Self-report measure corresponding to various emotion regulation strategies (negative rumination)
Baseline self-regulation: Self-Control Scale (short form)	Baseline session only	A self-report measure of people's perceived self-control abilities and outcomes, developed by Tangney, Baumeister, \& Boone (2004).
Baseline attentional breadth: Thought Control Questionnaire	Baseline session only	Self-report measure corresponding to various emotion regulation strategies (distraction and reappriasal)
Baseline self-regulation: Resting heart rate variability	Baseline session only	Assessed with a Polar V800 athletic watch during a 5-minute vanilla baseline and a 5-minute paced breathing task.
Baseline attentional breadth: Emotional eye-tracking paradigm	Baseline session only	Participants will view a series of emotionally expressive versus neutral faces, and the fixation time and number of fixations towards emotionally evocative (angry, sad, happy) faces will serve as indicators of attentional bias
Baseline attentional breadth: Responses to Positive Affect Scale	Baseline session only	Self-report measure corresponding to various emotion regulation strategies (positive rumination)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University at Buffalo, Department of psychology; 🇺🇸 Buffalo, New York, United States