Research Projects

Emotion Regulation in Depression

This research was funded by:

  • Spanish Minister of Science. Reference: PSI2017-83463-R.
  • University Camilo Jose Cela. Reference: DICCRE (2020).

The main goal of this research is to examine the role of individual differences in emotion regulation to understand depression. We focus on 1) the involvement of different emotion regulation strategies (e.g., rumination), 2) examining key factors that determine why people choose specific emotion regulation strategies: maladaptive schemas, metacognitive beliefs, beliefs about emotion, cognitive control.

Specific projects:
Emotion regulation in depression: A testing of the impaired disengagement hypothesis.

Spanish Minister of Science. Reference: PSI2017-83463-R

The main goal of this project is to test the impaired disengagement model examining the specific role of metacognitive beliefs and cognitive control (updating, inhibition and attention shifting ability) in predicting rumination and depression symptoms.

Also, we aime to test the effectiveness of Cognitive Control Training in reducing rumination and emotional symptoms, and explore it’s effect in reducing metacognitive beliefs and enhancing the use of adaptive strategies (e.g., reappraisal).

Individual Differences in Depression: The role of implicit theories and cognitive control in emotion regulation.

University Camilo Jose Cela. Reference: DICCRE (2020).

Finally, we examine wether implicit theories about emotions (e.g., uncontrollably beliefs) and the self-efficacy over emotion regulation strategies (e.g., reappraisal self-efficacy) moderated the effects of Cognitive Control Training in reducing emotional symptoms.

Emotion Regulation, Anger and Aggression

This research was in part funded by:

  • The University of Sunshine Coast. Reference: RCG/002.
  • The Andalusian Government (Spain). PAIDI 2020, FEDER 2020. References: PY20-00155, UMA20-FEDERJA-143.

The mail goal of this project is to examine the role of emotion regulation in anger and aggression. We focused on analyzing the influence of angry rumination (a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy) in predicting anger and aggression. Also, we focused on the involvement of cognitive factors, metacognitive beliefs andthe influence of different cognitive factors, metacognitive beliefs and maladaptive schemas, on the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (e.g., angry rumination) in the prediction of anger and different kinds of aggressive behavior (direct, indirect, displaced aggression). We use cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal studies (e.g., EMA) to test the implications of emotion regulation in predicting anger and aggression. 

Transdiagnostic Approach to Emotional Disorders

Based on the «General Model of Emotional Disorders» (Salguero, Ramos-Cejudo, & Estévez, 2014), this project aim to examined the role of different transdiagnostic factors (e.g., meta-emotional beliefs, meta-cognitive beliefs, cognitive control) in different anxiety and depressive disorders. A secondary goal is to translate results to improve treatments.