Ego Depletion as a Measure of Emotion Processing Deficits among MUS Patients
JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY, cilt.146, sa.3, ss.234-257, 2019 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 146 Sayı: 3
- Basım Tarihi: 2019
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/00221309.2018.1562416
- Dergi Adı: JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.234-257
- Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Previous studies have found a link between emotion processing deficits and medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUS). The majority of previous studies have used self-report measures of emotional processing, with the majority focusing on alexithymia, and have produced inconsistent and contradictory results. In the present study, we investigated the role of emotion-processing deficits in MUS by assessing emotion regulation performance and the effects of performance on ego depletion. Participants with high or low levels of self-reported MUS watched emotion-evoking videos under instructions to allow or suppress their emotional reactions, and then performed an anagram task to measure their effort and perseverance. Contrary to the research with self-report measures, experimental analysis of emotion-processing revealed that MUS is correlated with the inability to regulate negative emotions. Unexpected self-regulatory tendencies of the participants with high symptom levels were discussed.