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The Only Way Out Is Through: Development and Validation of the Multidimensional Executive Emotion Processing Schedule (MEEPS)
Emotions are part and parcel of human motivation and behavior and are central to our understanding of psychopathology and conceptualization of treatment. The concept of emotion processing has emerged in various schools of psychology and been shown to be crucial to understanding the nature of emotion and its role in psychopathology. However, current measures of emotion processing are inadequate in how they conceptualize and/or operationalize the construct. Using insights from psychoevolutionary theory and the extant literature on emotion processing, I propose a conceptual model of emotion processing according to which affect, conceptualized as a reaction about environmental exigencies that affect basic needs, is processed to inform context-responsive, adaptive action in multiple parallel stages including awareness, acceptance, experiencing, and expression. Next, to address the lack of a comprehensive and psychometrically sound measure of emotion processing, I report on two studies that aimed to develop and validate a new integrative measure: The Multidimensional Executive Emotion Processing Schedule (MEEPS). The pilot study used an undergraduate student sample (N=371), whereas the primary study used a larger and more diverse MTurk sample (N=450). In both studies, exploratory factor analyses revealed a robust factor structure with three underlying factors: Rejection, Embracing, and Expression. The MEEPS scales showed high internal consistency (i.e., Cronbach’s alpha), and their convergent and discriminant validity were supported. Finally, the MEEPS scales predicted internalizing psychopathology symptoms (i.e., depression, social anxiety, panic, and traumatic intrusions) more strongly than externalizing symptoms (i.e., ill-temper) and over and above all convergent measures (i.e., EACS, MEAQ, and KIMS/FFMQ) combined. Overall, the results indicate that the MEEPS measures emotion processing with excellent reliability and promising validity, including predictive power for psychopathology, particularly internalizing domain symptoms.
History
Date Modified
2020-12-16CIP Code
- 42.2799
Research Director(s)
K. Lira YoonCommittee Members
Dave Smith David WatsonDegree
- Master of Arts
Degree Level
- Master's Thesis
Alternate Identifier
1226779612Library Record
5950503OCLC Number
1226779612Program Name
- Psychology