# Constructive and Unconstructive Repetitive Thought



## Daniel (Sep 3, 2011)

Constructive and Unconstructive Repetitive Thought
_American Psychological Association
_by Edward R. Watkins
August 2007

...This review focuses on a number of thought processes that that have been highlighted as important in the wider literature relevant to self-regulation, psychopathology, and mental and physical health. A property common to all of these constructs is the process conceptualized by Segerstrom et al. (2003, p. 909) as “repetitive thought,”, defined as the “process of thinking attentively, repetitively or frequently about one's self and one's world,” which was proposed to form “the core of a number of different models of adjustment and maladjustment.” As the rest of this section makes clear, these different classes of RT encompass a wide range of conceptualizations, associated with both unconstructive and constructive consequences.

*Depressive Rumination (**Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991**)*
Nolen-Hoeksema defined depressive rumination as “behaviors and thoughts that focus one's attention on one's depressive symptoms and on the implications of these symptoms” (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991, p. 569) and as “passively and repetitively focusing on one's symptoms of distress and the circumstances surrounding these symptoms” (Nolen-Hoeksema, McBride, & Larson, 1997). Nolen-Hoeksema's Response Styles Theory (RST; 1991, 2000, 2004a, 2004b) hypothesized that depressive rumination is a particular response style to depressed mood, which is causally implicated in the onset and maintenance of depression. Depressive rumination is typically assessed on the Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ;Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991), which asks participants to endorse how much they ruminate in response to sad or depressed mood (e.g., “When you feel sad, down or depressed how often do you: Think `Why do I always react this way?'”). A related questionnaire is the Rumination on Sadness Scale (RSS; Conway, Csank, Holm, & Blake, 2000), which assesses tendency to engage in RT when feeling sad, down, or blue (e.g., “I repeatedly analyze and keep thinking about the reasons for my sadness”).

*Rumination (**Martin & Tesser, 1996**)*
Rumination was defined as “a class of conscious thoughts that revolve around a common instrumental theme and that recur in the absence of immediate environmental demands requiring the thoughts” (Martin & Tesser, 1996, p. 7). Within this conceptualization, rumination is RT on a theme related to personal goals and concerns, which can have either constructive or unconstructive consequences, depending on whether the RT helps or hinders the progress toward the unattained goal that triggered the rumination. It is assessed with the Global Rumination Scale, which measures the extent to which an individual dwells on problems and concerns (W. D. McIntosh & Martin, 1992).

*Worry*
Worry has been defined as “a chain of thoughts and images, negatively affect-laden and relatively uncontrollable” and as “an attempt to engage in mental problem-solving on an issue whose outcome is uncertain but contains the possibility of one or more negative outcomes” (Borkovec, Robinson, Pruzinsky, & Depree, 1983, p. 9). Worry typically involves RT about future potential threat, imagined catastrophes, uncertainties, and risks (e.g., “What if they have an accident?”). It is conceptualized as an attempt to avoid negative events, to prepare for the worst, and to problem solve, and it is linked to unconstructive outcomes including increased negative affect, interference with cognitive function, and disruptions to physiological processes (Borkovec, Ray, & Stober, 1998). However, worry is also proposed to serve a number of constructive functions when it is objective, controllable, and brief (Tallis & Eysenck, 1994): (a) an alarm function that interrupts ongoing behavior and directs attention to an issue demanding immediate priority; (b) a prompt function, keeping an individual aware of potential unresolved threats; and (c) a preparation function, motivating an individual to prepare for difficulties and to adopt adaptive behaviors that reduce potential threat. The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; see Davey, 1993, for a discussion of this and other measures; Meyer, Miller, Metzger, & Borkovec, 1990) assesses predisposition to worry (e.g., “I am always worrying about something”).

*Perseverative Cognition*
Perseverative cognition has been defined as “the repeated or chronic activation of the cognitive representation of one or more psychological stressors” and is hypothesized to be a core feature of worry, rumination, and other forms of RT (Brosschot, Gerin, & Thayer, 2006; Brosschot, Pieper, & Thayer, 2005; Pieper & Brosschot, 2005). Perseverative cognition is hypothesized to involve repeated cognitive representations of a psychological problem or crisis, which acts to prolong the immediate psychological and physiological responses to such life events and daily stressors such that the body's systems associated with stress (e.g., cardiovascular, hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal, and immune systems) become chronically activated, leading to the development of disease (Brosschot et al., 2006;A. R. Schwartz et al., 2003).

*Cognitive and Emotional Processing*
Cognitive processing has been defined as the process of actively thinking about a stressor, the thoughts and feelings it evokes, and its implications for one's life and future (J. E. Bower, Kemeny, Taylor, & Fahey, 1998; Greenberg, 1995), thus falling within the definition of RT (Silver, Boone, & Stone, 1983). Cognitive processing accounts propose that RT about upsetting events, for example in the form of persistent intrusions about the event, is part of the process of attempting to resolve the discrepancy between stressful events and core beliefs and assumptions (Greenberg, 1995; Horowitz, 1985; McCann, Sakheim, & Abrahamson, 1988; D. N. Mcintosh, Silver, & Wortman, 1993). Such accounts hypothesize that in response to a stressful experience, people think repetitively about their experience in order to work it through, make sense of it, and integrate it into their beliefs and assumptions about the world (Harber & Pennebaker, 1992; Horowitz, 1986; Janoff-Bulman, 1992;Tait & Silver, 1989). Similarly, RT is hypothesized to be a central process in the development of posttraumatic growth, defined as “the experience of significant positive change arising from the struggle with a major life crisis” (Calhoun, Cann, Tedeschi, & McMillan, 2000, p. 521; see also Calhoun & Tedeschi, 1998; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2004). Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004) proposed that major traumatic events challenge or destroy key aspects of individuals' beliefs and goals, producing emotional distress, which in turn produces RT in order to resolve the distress, leading to personal growth.

Emotional processing has been defined as volitional efforts to acknowledge and understand the significance of one's emotions and is operationalized as persistent focus and analysis of feelings (e.g., “I take time to figure out what I'm really feeling”;Stanton, Danoff-Burg, et al., 2000; Stanton, Kirk, Cameron, & Danoff-Burg, 2000). Emotional processing has been associated with both constructive outcomes, such as better adjustment, and unconstructive outcomes, such as increased distress.

*Planning, Problem Solving, and Mental Simulation*
RT can also take the form of cognitive coping strategies, such as anticipatory coping, planning, rehearsal, and problem solving. Problem solving has been conceptualized as involving several stages: definition or appraisal of the problem, generation of alternative solutions, selection of alternatives, implementing the chosen solution, and evaluating its effectiveness (D'Zurilla & Goldfried, 1971), each of which could involve RT. Plan rehearsal involves envisioning the steps or strategies one could use to achieve a desired outcome and often involves repetitive mental rehearsing of future actions and situations. Similarly, mental simulation has been defined as the imaginative and imitative mental construction and representation of some event or series of events (Taylor, Pham, Rivkin, & Armor, 1998; Taylor & Schneider, 1989). Repeated mental simulation can be an important process in planning, coping, and self-regulation, via rehearsal of likely future events or by replaying past events (Pham & Taylor, 1999). Mental simulations can also take the form of “painful ruminations that plague many people suffering from depression or reacting to trauma” (Taylor et al., 1998, p. 431), for example, an individual repetitively replaying a memory of a car accident.

*Counterfactual Thinking*
Counterfactual thinking is the generation of imagined mental representations of alternative versions of the past (Roese, 1997; upward if better than what actually happened, e.g., “If only I had studied more, I would have done better”; downward if worse than reality, e.g., “If I had turned left, I would have crashed”). Repeated counterfactual thinking is often prompted by negative affect and in response to difficult events (Roese & Olson, 1993). Upward counterfactuals can have unconstructive consequences, such as exacerbating shame, guilt, anxiety, sadness, and regret (Mandel, 2003; Markman, Gavanski, Sherman, & McMullen, 1993;Niedenthal, Tangney, & Gavanski, 1994; Sanna, 1997), and can have constructive consequences, such as generating inferences about the causes of previous difficulties, guiding effective preparative and preventive behavior (Mandel & Lehman, 1996; Roese, 1997).

*Defensive Pessimism*
Defensive pessimism is characterized by (a) setting low expectations about future outcomes and (b) a “thinking through” process, called reflectivity/reflection, in which individuals extensively reflect on and rehearse possible “worst-case scenarios” of what could go wrong prior to an event and then imagine how these negative outcomes might be prevented (Cantor & Norem, 1989; Norem & Cantor, 1986a,1986b; Norem & Chang, 2002; Norem & Illingworth, 1993, 2004; Spencer & Norem, 1996). Defensive pessimism is conceptualized as strategically serving (a) a self-protective goal of preparing for possible failure and (b) a motivational goal of increasing effort to enhance the possibility of doing well (Sanna, 1996, 2000;Showers, 1992; Showers & Ruben, 1990).

*Reflection*
Reflection has been defined as chronic self-consciousness that involves playful exploration of novel, unique, or alternative self-perceptions, motivated by curiosity and pleasurable, intrinsic interest in philosophical thinking (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999). The construct of reflection developed as an attempt to explain the “self-absorption paradox,” which reflects the fact that private self-consciousness is positively associated with both increased self-knowledge, which is assumed to facilitate psychological adjustment, and increased psychological distress and psychopathology. Noting that private self-consciousness was correlated with both Neuroticism and Openness to Experience, Trapnell and Campbell (1999)hypothesized that the self-absorption paradox could be explained if there was a neurotically motivated, threat-avoidant form of chronic self-focus, labeled _rumination_, which contributes to psychopathology, as well as a contrasting form of chronic self-focus, motivated by epistemic curiosity, labeled _reflection_, which would be associated with increased self-knowledge. The Rumination–Reflection Questionnaire (Trapnell & Campbell, 1999) distinguishes between reflection (e.g., “I love analyzing why I do things”) and rumination, defined as RT about the self prompted by threats, losses, or injustices to the self.

*Mind Wandering*
Mind wandering has been defined as “a shift of attention from a primary task toward internal information, such as memories” (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006, p. 946). Mind wandering can be persistent and repetitive, and as such fits within RT. Mind wandering has unconstructive consequences in terms of reduced attention to external task-related information and interfering with performance on tasks that require substantial controlled processing (Smallwood, Davies, et al., 2004; Teasdale, Dritschel, et al., 1995). However, it is hypothesized to facilitate problem solving by repeated working over unresolved current concerns (Smallwood & Schooler, 2006).

*Post-Event Rumination*
Post-event rumination (also called “post-event processing” and “post-mortem thinking”) has been defined as “repetitive thoughts about subjective experiences during a recent social interaction, including self-appraisals and external evaluations of partners and other details involving the event” (Kashdan & Roberts, 2007, p. 286). Post-event rumination is hypothesized to contribute to the development and maintenance of social anxiety (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997).

*Positive Rumination*
Positive rumination has been defined as “the tendency to respond to positive affective states with thoughts about positive self-qualities, positive affective experience, and one's favorable life circumstances that might amplify the positive affect” (S. L. Johnson, McKenzie, & McMurrich, in press). Positive rumination is hypothesized to be a process that may contribute to the dysregulation of positive affect in individuals vulnerable to mania and hypomania. The Responses to Positive Affect Questionnaire (Feldman, Joorman, & Johnson, in press) assesses how much an individual ruminates in response to positive mood (e.g., “When you feel happy, excited, or enthused how often do you: `Think about how happy you feel'”).

*Habitual Negative Self-Thinking*
Habitual negative self-thinking is negative self-thinking that has become a mental habit, defined as having “a history of repetition, characterized by a lack of awareness and conscious intent, mentally efficient, and sometimes difficult to control” (Verplanken, Friborg, Wang, Trafimow, & Woolf, 2007, p. 526). The Habit Index of Negative Thinking (Verplanken et al., 2007) assesses the self-reported experience of the frequency, awareness, automaticity, and control of negative thinking.

*Full Text
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---------- Post added at 03:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:35 PM ----------

A summary of the above:

*Depressive rumination*–thinking about your own depression and how it’s messing with your life
*Rumination*—thinking about anything over and over, even when it’s not relevant to the moment at hand
*Worry*—thinking about something that might end badly
*Perseverative cognition*—thinking about something stressful, causing stress responses in your body
*Cognitive and emotional processing*—thinking about a stressor and how to integrate it into your life and worldview
*Planning, Problem Solving, and Mental Simulation*—planning stuff, figuring stuff out
*Counterfactual thinking*—thinking about how you might have done things differently in a past event
*Defensive pessimism*—thinking about worst-case scenarios to figure out how they can be prevented
*Reflection*—thinking philosophically about who you are, in a way that enhances self-knowledge
*Mind wandering*—letting your mind drift from the current task to “internal information”
*Post-event rumination*—i.e. thinking about the dumb things you said last night
*Positive rumination*—thinking about all the ways you’re awesome
*Habitual negative self-thinking*—thinking (uncontrollably) about all the ways you’re a loser
_from:_ When You Can’t Stop Thinking About It - Real World Research


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