Decentering the Ability to Regulate One\'s Emotions

Decentering

The ability to regulate one's emotions has been increasingly incorporated into models of psychopathology, distress disorders such as depression and anxiety, eating disorders, and substance abuse. Emotion regulation has been conceptualized as mental processes by which individuals control or temper their emotions in a conscious or unconscious fashion in order to respond environmental demands (Fresco et al., 2007). The process of emotion regulation is believed to be distinct from the emotion generation process; however, the specific distinction between the two processes still remains a source of debate. Theoretical models have been able to associate successful emotion regulation with positive health outcomes, improved personal relationships, and even more productive performances in academic endeavors and work, whereas difficulties with emotion regulation have been associated with mental disorders and emotional distress (Fresco et al., 2007). One emotion regulation strategy is decentering.

Fresco et al. (2007) discuss the concept of decentering as an ability to observe one's thoughts and feelings as temporary, objective events that occur in the mind as opposed to viewing them as reflections of the self that are true. For instance, a person using decentering would think to themselves "I am thinking that I feel depressed right now" as opposed to thinking "I am depressed" (Fresco et al.,. 2007). Decentering is focused on the present and assumes a nonjudgmental, accepting stance regarding one's feelings and thoughts. This allows one to take a detached view of thoughts and emotions and is a useful tool in cognitive therapies. Understanding how a client uses emotion regulation techniques such as decentering can be useful in counseling clients with issues regarding their mood, life or job satisfaction, adjustment, as well as helping those with forms of psychopathology such as personality disorders. Helping people learn how to step back from their thoughts and feelings is one of the goals of mindfulness-based counseling.

The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ) was designed as a measure of decentering and rumination to be used in practice-oriented settings as opposed to research-oriented settings; however, the measure had not been empirically validated. Fresco et al. (2007) attempted validate the EQ via three separate studies.

First to confirm the presence of the two subscales (rumination and a wider perspective) the researchers used a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on data obtained from the first of two samples of students, but could not achieve a good fit. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and subsequent CFA (on the second sample) indicated a unifactorial construct of decentering. This unifactorial measure consisted of 11 of the 16 items. The other five items did not hang well together. Therefore, it was hypothesized that the EQ measures a single uniform decentering construct consisting of several different aspects of decentering.

Concurrent and discriminant validity of the EQ were examined in the second study. This was achieved in relation to four different theoretical constructs: depressive rumination, experiential avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and emotion suppression. Fresco et al. hypothesized that decentering should have positive correlations with measures of cognitive reappraisal and negative correlations with the other three constricts. Moreover, the EQ was also hypothesized to have negative correlations with measures of depression. The EQ was correlated with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (a measure of experiential avoidance), the Ruminative Responsive subscale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (rumination), Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (measuring cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression), and two subscales of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (anhedonic depression and anxious arousal subscales). All correlations ranged from moderate to high and were the predicted direction. In addition, individuals with no history of psychopathology in their lifetime had higher levels of decentering than individuals who had a history of a depressive disorder.

In a third study Fresco et al. (2007) attempted to perform a CFA on a sample of clinical patients. This was done in an effort to further determine the factor structure in a clinical sample in order to broaden the generalizability of the EQ. The single decentering factor derived from study one was applied to data from two clinical samples with histories of being readmitted for depression. In addition the BDI and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression were administered to the samples. The model fit the data reasonably well indicated that a unifactorial decentering factor of the EQ to be generalized to clinical populations as well as community samples.