Abstract
The Internalizing (INT) and Externalizing (EXT) spectra are an emerging way to conceptualize the structure of psychopathology. Demonstrating relationships with emotional reactions to, and cognitive appraisals of, daily stressful events would be strong evidence of ecological validity. In the current study (N = 78), the experience sampling method (ESM, a structured diary technique with Palm Pilots) was used to capture affect and cognition related to current stressor, five times per day, for 1 week. Multilevel random coefficient modeling was used to examine affective and cognitive reactivity to daily stressors as a function of baseline levels of INT and EXT. INT scores were related to higher levels of negative affect (NA), lower levels of positive affect (PA) and more negative cognitive appraisals of the stressful situation. Several cross-level interactions were found between psychopathology scores, cognitive appraisals, and affect. Participants higher in INT psychopathology showed less decrease in NA as level of control increased, compared to participants low in INT. EXT moderated the association between NA and distress, with higher levels of EXT resulting in a stronger association between distress and NA. INT and EXT also moderated the relationships between the cognitive variables (distress and control, coping and control). Findings support both the utility and validity of the INT and EXT dimensions in understanding different forms of stress-related impairment in emotion and cognition.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
We could conceivably have used a three-level HLM regression for the current analyses (beeps nested within days nested within people), but we had no a priori day-level predictors to add to our model. We did run fully unconditional three-level models to examine the variance explained at each level, and for all beep-level variables, variance explained at day level ranged from 3 % (Hostility) to 11 % (Sadness), with an average of 7 %.
References
Barrett, L. F., & Barrett, D. J. (2005). ESP, the experience sampling program.
Bolger, N., DeLongis, A., Kessler, R. C., & Schilling, E. A. (1989). Effects of daily stress on negative mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 6, 111–129.
Bylsma, L. M., Taylor-Clift, A., & Rottenberg, J. (2011). Emotional reactivity to daily events in major and minor depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 155–167.
Clark, L. A. (2005). Temperament as a unifying basis for personaltiy and psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 505–521.
Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. (1991). Tripartite model of anxiety and depression: psychometric evidence and taxonomic implications. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100, 316–336.
Clark, L. A., Watson, D., & Mineka, S. (1994). Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 103–116.
Crandall, C. S., Preisler, J. J., & Aussprung, J. (1992). Measuring life event stress in the lives of college students: the undergraduate stress questionnaire. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 627–662.
David, J. P., Green, P. J., Martin, R., & Suls, J. (1997). Differential roles of neuroticism, extraversion, and event desirability for mood in daily life: an integrative model of top-down and bottom-up influences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 73, 149–159.
DeLongis, A., Coyne, J. C., Dakof, G., Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1982). Relationship of daily hassles, uplifts, and major life events to health status. Health Psychology, 1, 119–136.
Eaton, N. R., Keyes, K. M., Krueger, R. F., Balsis, S., Skodol, A. E., Markon, K. E., Grant, B. F., & Hasin, D. S. (2012). An invariant dimensional liability model of gender differences in mental disorder prevalence: Evidence from a national sample. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 282–288.
Ebner-Priemer, U. W., & Trull, T. J. (2009). Ecological momentary assessment of mood disorders and mood dysregulation. Psychological Assessment, 21, 463–475.
Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., Spinrad, T. L., Fabes, R. A., Shepard, S. A., Reiser, M., et al. (2001). The relations of regulation and emotionality to children’s externalizing and internalizing problem behavior. Child Development, 72, 1112–1134.
Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Scherer, K. R. (2003). Apprisal processes in emotion. In R. J. Davidson, H. Goldsmith, & K. R. Scherer (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 572–595). New York: Oxford University Press.
Gable, S. L., Reis, H. T., & Elliot, A. J. (2000). Behavioral activation and inhibition in everyday life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 1135–1149.
Griffith, J. W., Zinbarg, R. E., Craske, M. G., Mineka, S., Rose, R. D., Waters, A. M., et al. (2010). Neuroticism as a common dimension in the internalizing disorders. Psychological Medicine, 40, 1125–1136.
Hall, J. R., Bernat, E. M., & Patrick, C. J. (2007). Externalizing psychopathology and the error-related negativity. Psychological Science, 18, 326–333.
Hay, E. L., & Diehl, M. (2010). Reactivity to daily stressors in adulthood: the importance of stressor type in characterizing risk factors. Psychology and Aging, 25, 118–131.
Hettema, J. M., Neale, M. C., Myers, J. M., Prescott, C., & Kendler, K. S. (2006). A population-based twin study of the relationship between neuroticism and internalizing disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 163, 857–864.
Johnson, E. I., Husky, M., Grondin, O., Mazure, C. M., Doron, J., & Swendsen, J. (2008). Mood trajectories following daily life events. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 251–259.
Joorman, J., Yoon, K. L., & Siemer, M. (2010). Cognition and emotion regulation. In A. M. Kring & D. M. Sloan (Eds.), Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment. New York: Guilford Press.
Kendler, K. S., Prescott, C. A., Myers, J., & Neale, M. C. (2003). The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for common psychiatric and substance use disorders in men and women. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 929–937.
Kendler, K. S., Aggen, S. H., Knudsen, G. P., Roysamb, E., Neale, M. C., & Reichborn-Kjennerud, T. (2011). The structure of genetic and environmental risk factors for syndromal and subsyndromal common DSM-IV Axis I and all Axis II disorders. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 168, 29–39.
Kotov, R., Gamez, W., Schmidt, F., & Watson, D. (2010). Linking “Big” personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 768–821.
Kramer, M. D., Krueger, R. F., & Hicks, B. M. (2008). The role of internalizing and externalizing liability factors in accounting for gender differences in the prevalence of common psychopathological syndromes. Psychological Medicine: A Journal of Research in Psychiatry and the Allied Sciences, 38, 51–61. doi:10.1017/S0033291707001572.
Kring, A. M., & Bachorowski, J. A. (1999). Emotions and psychopathology. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 575–599.
Krueger, R. F. (1999a). Personality traits in late adolescence predict mental disorders in early adulthood: a prospective-epidemiological study. Journal of Personality, 67, 39–65.
Krueger, R. F. (1999b). The structure of common mental disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 56, 921–926.
Krueger, R. F., & Markon, K. (2006). Reinterpreting comorbidity: a model-based approach to understanding and classifying psychopathology. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2, 111–133.
Krueger, R. F., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (1998). The structure and stability of common mental disorders (DSM-III-R): a longitudinal-epidemiological study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 216–227.
Krueger, R. F., Hicks, B. M., Patrick, C. J., Carlson, S. R., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2002). Etiologic connections among substance dependence, antisocial behavior, and personality: modeling the externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 411–424.
Krueger, R. F., Markon, K. E., Patrick, C. J., Benning, S. D., & Kramer, M. D. (2007). Linking antisocial behavior, substance use, and personality: an integrative quantitative model of the adult externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116, 645–666.
Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist, 64, 241–256.
Lawton, M. P., DeVoe, M. R., & Parmelee, P. (1995). Relationship of events and affect in the daily life of an elderly population. Psychology and Aging, 10, 469–477.
Lazarus, R. S. (1984). Puzzles in the study of daily hassles. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 7, 375–389.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
Lejuez, C. W., Alkin, W., Daughters, S., Zvolensky, M., Kahler, C., & Gwadz, M. (2007). Reliability and validity of the youth version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Taks (BART-Y) in the assessment of risk-taking behavior among inner-city adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 36, 106–111.
Magid, V., Colder, C. R., Stroud, L. R., Nichter, M., Nichter, M., & Members, T. E. R. N. (2009). Negative affect, stress, and smoking in college students: unique associations independent of alcohol and marijuana use. Addictive Behaviors, 34, 973–975.
Marco, C. A., & Suls, J. (1993). Daily stress and the trajectory of mood: spillover, response assimilation, contrast, and chronic negative affectivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 1053–1063.
Marco, C. A., Neale, J. M., Schwartz, J. E., Shiffman, S., & Stone, A. A. (1999). Coping with daily events and short-term mood changes: an unexpected failure to observe effects of coping. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 755–764.
Marini, V. A., & Stickle, T. R. (2010). Evidence for deficits in reward responsivity in antisocial youth with callous-unemotional traits. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1, 218–229.
Merz, E., & Roesch, S. C. (2011). Modeling trait and state variation using multilevel factor analysis with PANAS daily diary data. Journal of Research in Personality, 45, 2–9.
Mineka, S., Watson, D. W., & Clark, L. A. (1998). Comorbidity of anxiety and unipolar mood disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 377–412.
Mroczek, D. K., & Almeida, D. M. (2004). The effect of daily stress, personality, and age on daily negative affect. Journal of Personality, 72, 355–378.
Murphy, C. M., & O’Farrell, T. J. (1994). Factors associated with marital aggression in male alcoholics. Journal of Family Psychology, 8, 321–335.
Myin-Germeys, I., Peeters, F., Havermans, R., Nicolson, N. A., DeVries, M. W., Delespaul, P., et al. (2003). Emotional reactivity to daily life stress in psychosis and affective disorder: an experience sampling study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 107, 124–131.
Neupert, S. D., Almeida, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (2007). Age differences in reactivity to daily stressors: the role of personal control. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 62B, P216–P225.
Nezlek, J. B. (2007). Multilevel modeling in personality research. In R. W. Robins, R. C. Fraley, & R. F. Krueger (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in personality psychology (pp. 502–522). New York: Guilford.
Nezlek, J. B., & Gable, S. L. (2001). Depression as a moderator of relationships between positive daily events and day-to-day psychological adjustment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1692–1704.
Nezlek, J. B., & Plesko, R. M. (2003). Affect- and self-based models of relationships between daily events and daily well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 584–596.
Peeters, F., Nicolson, N. A., Berkhof, J., Delespaul, P., & deVries, M. (2003). Effects of daily events on mood states in major depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 203–211.
Piasecki, T. M., Hufford, M. R., Solhan, M., & Trull, T. J. (2007). Assessing clients in their natural environments with electronic diaries: rationale, benefits, limitations, and barriers. Psychological Assessment, 19, 25–43.
Piasecki, T. M., Jahng, S., Wood, P. K., Robertson, B. M., Epler, A. J., Cronk, N. J., et al. (2011). The subjective effects of alcohol–tobacco co-use: an ecological momentary assessment investigation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 557–571.
Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. S., & Congdon, R. (2004). HLM 6: Hierarchical linear & nonlinear modeling. Lincolnwood: Scientific Software International.
Schneiders, J., Nicolson, N. A., Berkhof, J., Feron, F. J., van Os, J., & deVries, M. W. (2006). Mood reactivity to daily negative events in early adolescence: relationship to risk for psychopathology. Developmental Psychology, 42, 543–554.
Scollon, C. N., Kim-Prieto, C., & Diener, E. (2003). Experience sampling: promises & pitfalls, strengths & weaknesses. Journal of Happiness Studies, 4, 5–34.
Settles, R. E., Fischer, S., Cyders, M. A., Combs, J. L., Gunn, R. L., & Smith, G. T. (2012). Negative urgency: a personality predictor of externalizing behavior characterized by neuroticism, low conscientiousness, and disagreeableness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 160–172.
Siemer, M., Mauss, I., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Same situation- different emotions: how appraisals shape our emotions. Emotion, 7, 592–600.
Singh, A. L., & Waldman, I. D. (2010). The etiology of associations between negative emotionality and childhood externalizing disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 376–388.
Slade, T., & Watson, D. (2006). The structure of common DSM-IV and ICD-10 mental disorders in the Australian general population. Psychological Medicine, 36, 1593–1600.
South, S. C., & Krueger, R. F. (2008). Marital quality moderates genetic and environmental influences on the internalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 826–837.
Swendsen, J. D., Tennen, H., Carney, M. A., Affleck, G., Willard, A., & Hromi, A. (2000). Mood and alcohol consumption: an experience sampling test of the self-medication hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 198–204.
Sylvers, P., Brennan, P. A., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Alden, S. A. (2010). Gender differences in autonomic indicators of antisocial personality disorder features. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 1, 87–96.
Tellegen, A. (1985). Structures of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self-report. In A. H. Tuma & J. D. Mason (Eds.), Anxiety and the anxiety disorders (pp. 681–706). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Trull, T. J., Solhan, M. B., Tragesser, S. L., Jahng, S., Wood, P. K., Piasecki, T. M., et al. (2008). Affective instability: measuring a core feature of borderline personality disorder with ecological momentary assessment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117, 647–661.
van Eck, M., Nicolson, N. A., & Berkhof, J. (1998). Effects of stressful daily events on mood states: relationship to global perceived stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 1572–1585.
Vollebergh, W. A. M., Iedema, J., Bijl, R. V., de Graaf, R., Smit, F., & Ormel, J. (2001). The structure and stability of common mental disorders: the NEMESIS study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 58, 597–603.
Wagner, B. M., Compas, B. E., & Howell, D. C. (1988). Daily and major life events: a test of an integrative model of psychosocial stress. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16, 189–205.
Watson, D. (1988). Intraindividual and interindividual analyses of positive and negative affect: their relation to health complaints, perceived stress, and daily activities. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1020–1030.
Watson, D. (2005). Rethinking the mood and anxiety disorders: a quantitative hierarchical model for DSM-V. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 522–536.
Watson, D. (2009). Differentiating the mood and anxiety disorders: a quadripartite model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 5, 221–247.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1984). Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychological Bulletin, 96, 465–490.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule - Expanded form. University of Iowa.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Watson, D., Wiese, D., Vaidya, J., & Tellegen, A. (1999). The two general activation systems of affect: structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 820–838.
Watson, D., Gamez, W., & Simms, L. J. (2005). Basic dimensions of temperament and their relation to anxiety and depression: a symptom based perspective. Journal of Research in Personality, 39, 46–66.
Watson, D., O’Hara, M. W., Simms, L. J., Kotov, R., Chmielewski, M., McDade-Montez, E. A., et al. (2007). Development and validation of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety (IDAS). Psychological Assessment, 19, 253–268.
Watson, D., O’Hara, M. W., Chmielewski, M., McDade-Montez, E. A., Koffel, E., Naragon, K., et al. (2008). Further validation of the IDAS: evidence of convergent, discriminant, driterion, and incremental validity. Psychological Assessment, 20, 248–259.
Werner, K., & Gross, J. J. (2010). Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A conceptual framework. In A. M. Kring & D. M. Sloan (Eds.), Emotion regulation and psychopathology: A transdiagnostic approach to etiology and treatment. New York: Guilford Press.
Wolf, E. J., Miller, M. W., Krueger, R. F., Lyons, M. J., Tsuang, M. T., & Koenen, K. C. (2010). Posttraumatic stress disorder and the genetic structure of comorbidity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 119, 320–330.
Wonderlich, S. A., Crosby, R. D., Engel, S. G., Mitchell, J. E., Smyth, J., & Miltenberger, R. (2007). Personality-based clusters in bulimia nervosa: differences in clinical variables and ecological momentary assessment. Journal of Personality Disorders, 21, 340–357.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Robert F. Krueger, Stephanie Larson, Andrew Jopp, Tyler Hunt, James LeBreton, and Howard Weiss for assistance with this manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
South, S.C., Miller, M.L. Measuring Momentary Stress, Affect, and Cognition: Relationships with the Internalizing and Externalizing Spectra. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 36, 93–104 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-013-9365-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-013-9365-2