A theory-informed emotion regulation variability index: Bray-Curtis dissimilarity

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Ecological Psychology
• Quantitative Psychology

Background:

• Emotion regulation (ER) variability, the dynamic change in ER strategy use, is vital for adapting to contextual demands and maintaining well-being.
• Existing methods, like standard deviation (SD)-based approaches, inadequately capture the nuances of ER variability, specifically strategy switching and endorsement changes.
• This limitation hinders accurate measurement and understanding of ER variability's role in psychological health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically evaluate the validity of traditional SD-based indices for measuring ER variability.
• To introduce and validate Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, an ecological measure, as a superior index for quantifying ER variability.
• To examine the association between ER variability, measured by Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, and negative affect.

Main Methods:

• Simulation studies were conducted to compare the sensitivity of Bray-Curtis dissimilarity against SD-based approaches in detecting ER variability.
• Three experience sampling method (ESM) datasets were analyzed, with N=70, 95, and 200 participants, and 5,040, 6,329, and 14,098 moment-level observations, respectively.
• Bray-Curtis dissimilarity and SD-based indices were used to quantify within-person ER variability, and their relationship with negative affect was assessed at both moment and person levels.

Main Results:

• SD-based approaches demonstrated insufficient validity in capturing strategy switching and endorsement change, key components of ER variability.
• Bray-Curtis dissimilarity proved more sensitive than SD-based methods in detecting ER variability across simulation studies.
• Higher Bray-Curtis dissimilarity consistently predicted lower negative affect at both moment and person levels, outperforming SD-based indices.

Conclusions:

• Bray-Curtis dissimilarity offers a more valid and sensitive measure of moment-level within-person ER variability compared to traditional SD-based indices.
• This ecological measure enhances our ability to study the adaptive functions of ER variability in daily life.
• The findings suggest potential applications of Bray-Curtis dissimilarity for analyzing variability in other dynamic, multivariate psychological processes.