Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: March 14, 2025
Exposure and reactivity to repetitive thought in the neuroticism-distress relationship
Suzanne C Segerstrom1, Elana M Gloger1, Jaime K Hardy1
1Department of Psychology University of Kentucky Lexington, KY.
Introduction:
Distress has been assumed to result from exposure to repetitive thought (RT). However, if RT is viewed as internally generated stressors, both exposure and affective reactivity to RT could play roles in generating distress.
Methods:
Three studies (young adults, N=99; midlife women, N=111; older adults, N=159) assessed exposure and reactivity to daily RT and tested whether neuroticism was related to individual differences in both exposure and affective reactivity.
Results:
Across all 3 studies, reactivity effects on depressive symptoms exceeded those of exposure to RT, and neuroticism was associated with more exposure and greater affective reactivity. Furthermore, RT exposure and reactivity accounted for most when not all of the relationship between neuroticism and depressive symptoms.
Discussion And Conclusions:
Further consideration of both exposure and affective reactivity to RT can not only increase the explanatory power of this construct but also suggest effective targets for intervention.
Related Concept Videos
Psychological Responses to Stress
Hazan and Shaver's Attachment Styles
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Lazarus's Cognitive Appraisal Theory
Primary Appraisal:...
Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
Theory of Romantic Attachment in Adulthood

