Assessing response styles to positive affect: One or two dimensions of positive rumination in the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire? ¬リニ

a r t i c l e i n f o The Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire (RPA) assesses responses that either tend to dampen or enhance positive affect. Previously, using factor analysis, enhancing (i.e., positive rumination, PR) has been divided into self-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Whereas these PR types are mostly treated as different factors, they are also examined as a single factor, for instance in adolescents. Given that self-concept changes through adolescence, there might be an age effect such that self-focused PR and emotion-focused PR become more differentiated through adolescence. The present aim was to investigate the distinction between emotion-focused and self-focused PR by comparing the RPA structure in three age groups, i.e., early, middle, and late adolescence (Study 1); and by conducting a systematic review of the relationship between both strategies in published research (Study 2). In Study 1, we found no evidence that the two types of PR were more differentiated in the oldest than in the youngest group. In Study 2, related to Study 1, self-focused and emotion-focused PR were highly correlated in most of the published research. Also, there were item switches between the PR factors in RPA translations. In sum, it is justifiable to investigate PR as a single construct when using the RPA. Cognitive theories focus on how individuals process or respond to affective states and how these response styles are linked to the course of emotional disorders (e. These responses often concern how individuals respond to negative affect. Yet, individuals also differ in the way they respond to positive affect which is especially relevant in the context of depression, a disorder characterized by both high negative affect and low positive affect. To address the need for research into response styles to positive affect, Feldman, Joormann, and Johnson (2008) developed a measure that captures individual differences in response tendencies to positive affect. This questionnaire asks respondents to indicate how they typically respond when they feel happy, excited, or enthused. Items were created to measure strategies which would either tend to dampen or enhance positive affect, resulting in the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire (RPA). Dampening refers to mental strategies that downgrade the intensity and duration of positive affect by, for instance, minimizing the significance of a positive event and positive affect (e.g., " in fact, I did not deserve this " ; " these happy feelings won't last ") or by directing …