Steven Morris St. Mary’s College of Maryland April 30, 2012

Emotion Regulation A strength-based model (Whiteside, Chen, Neighbors, Hunter, Lo, & Larimer, 2007) (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996) Standards Monitoring Operation

Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation Underregulation - A failure to exert self- control; an inadequate strength to counteract an unwanted thought, feeling, or impulse. Awareness, attention, and planning (Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009; Masuda, Price, & Latzman, 2011) Overriding and resisting temptation (van den Bos & de Ridder, 2006; Whiteside et al., 2007)

Dysfunctional Emotion Regulation Misregulation - Misguided regulation that may be effortful but is not effective at controlling the emotion. Learned pleasure association (Evers, Stok, & de Ridder, 2009; Kemp & Kopp, 2011; van den Bos & de Ridder, 2006) Ideal effort to impose will (Chambers et al., 2009) Focusing on short-term fix (Tomarken & Kirschenbaum, 1984)

Emotional Eating Definition: “The tendency of certain individuals to overeat in response to negative emotions” (Evers et al. 2009) Emotional Eating Scale (EES) (Arnow, Kenardy, & Agras, 1994)

Dietary Restraint Chronic dieting with periods of binge eating. Disinhibition hypothesis (Ruderman, 1986; Tomarken & Kirschenbaum, 1984) Escape from self-awareness theory of binge eating (Heatherton, et al., 1998) Restrained eaters show a higher prevalence of emotional eating (Evers, de Ridder, & Adriaanse, 2009; Whiteside et al., 2007)

Cognitive Emotion Regulation Antecedent vs. Response Strategies Cognitive reappraisal as adaptive (Evers et al., 2009; Kemp & Kopp, 2011; Lavender & Anderson, 2009; Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009) Expressive suppression as maladaptive (Evers et al., 2009; Kemp & Kopp, 2011; Lavender & Anderson, 2009; Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009)

Male Depression – Coping Mechanisms Social withdrawal Alcohol abuse Substance abuse Increase in sexual promiscuity - (Kleinke et al., 1982) Findings of both decreased and increased snack food consumption in response to sadness (Christensen & Brooks, 2006; Macht et al., 2002)

Research Questions Do college age men emotionally eat? IV 1 : Sad/Neutral Clip Do cognitive emotion regulation strategies moderate emotional consumption? IV 2 : Emotion Suppression/Cognitive Reappraisal Do certain emotions and cognitive emotion regulation strategies cooperate to affect eating? Interaction: Clip x Strategy

Dual Experiment Design Phase 1 – Film Clip Emotion Induction Phase 2 – Taste Testing Paradigm

Participant Demographics 68 males Age range: years old (M= 20) Ethnicity predominately White (48 White, 11 African American, 3 Hispanic, 3 Asian, 2 Other) Laboratory space – Computer with desk space

Hypotheses Participants who experienced sadness were hypothesized to self- regulate with food and eat more than those participants who received a neutral mood induction. (Main Effect of Clip; Sad > Neutral) Men who were instructed to cognitively reappraise would eat less than those that cognitively suppressed their emotions. (Main Effect of Strategy; Suppression > Reappraisal) Those participants who utilized emotion suppression while viewing the sad clip would eat significantly more than those who utilized cognitive reappraisal and viewed the sad emotion clip. (Interaction: Sad x Suppression > Sad x Reappraisal)

Method – Phase 1 Informed ConsentDemographics Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) Emotion Inventory Strategy Manipulation Film Clip Manipulation Emotion Inventory Manipulation Check Debriefing

Method – Phase 2 Informed Consent Taste Testing Emotional Eating Scale (EES) Dietary Restraint Scale Debriefing

Hypothesized Results

Additional Results Mood inducing clip manipulation ineffective despite pilot study success t (65) = 1.43, p=.159. Exploratory Analyses: Median split of post-manipulation Cheerfulness score

Cheerfulness Analyses Median split created High Cheer and Low Cheer score categories Pattern of means resembled hypothesized results, but not significant

EES Depression Analyses EES depression subscale scores significantly predicted the total amount of food eaten, b =.327, t (67) = 2.81, p =.006. Median split of EES Depression scores into High and Low categories Used to further examine cheerfulness pattern

Discussion and Limitations Lack of effect of cognitive emotion regulation strategy Ineffective manipulation Individual differences in consumption preferences (Macht et al., 2002) Small sample size (N=68)

Future Research More powerful manipulation Selective recruitment of restrained eaters Confine food choices to food groups that are more clearly dichotomous Increase environmental validity

Take Away Message High variability in male eating behavior Emotional eating research requires a powerful manipulation with strong environmental validity Emotional eating in general as well as the EES need further empirical study in college male population

Acknowledgements Dr. Jennifer Tickle (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) Dr. Catharine Evers (Utrecht University) Katie Phipps (St. Mary’s College of Maryland)

Questions?