User:BrookeCarr01/Rumination (psychology)

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'''Rumination is characterized by internalization of depressive or negative thoughts and feelings. Rumination may manifest over long periods of time and it may also be recurring. Rumination combines continuous negative thoughts, anxiety, and obsession. Rumination often accompanies depression maintenance, but research has also demonstrated it is often comorbid with other conditions such as generalized disorder (GAD) and anorexia nervosa.'''

Tasks:

- there is further explanation needed in gender differences. (First Priority)

- measurements of rumination:

- ruminative responses scale

- rumination on sadness scale

- repetitive thought questionnaire

- rumination-reflection scale

- citation needed for worry relationship with rumination

- add examples and more information about the three different types of rumination

- Add information about the CONTROL THEORY to the Theories section (Last priority)

Sex differences[ORIGINAL TEXT]
[According to Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, women tend to ruminate when they are depressed, whereas men tend to distract themselves. This difference in response style was proposed to explain the higher rates of depression in women compared to men. Researchers have confirmed the greater likelihood of rumination in women[further explanation needed], though the prediction that men are more likely to distract themselves has not been consistently supported. ]


 * A meta-analysis was performed on both the sex differences in rumination of adults and the rumination subtypes "brooding" and "reflection." Studies show that women's chances of experiencing depressive symptoms or depression was twice that of men. The response styles theory (RST) suggests this may be due, to some extent, to higher rates of rumination in women. Brooding can be operationalized as continuous, passive, negative internalized thoughts. It is highly connected to worsening depression. Reflection is neutral, rather than negative, more active observation of self. In the meta-analysis, women showed statistically significant increases in levels of both brooding and reflection, supporting RST. Interestingly, there was a much smaller sex difference in reflection than brooding. The meta-analyses found similar results across multiple study designs.

Measurement[ORIGINAL TEXT]
[The tendency to ruminate can be assessed with the Ruminative Responses Scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire. On this measure, people are asked to indicate how often they engage in 22 ruminative thoughts or behaviors when they feel sad or blue.]

There are multiple tools for measuring rumination. These include the following:

Ruminative Responses Scale
[The tendency to ruminate can be assessed with the Ruminative Responses Scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire.  On this measure, people are asked to indicate how often they engage in 22 ruminative thoughts or behaviors when they feel sad or blue.]

Rumination On Sadness Scale
The Rumination On Sadness Scale is a self-report tool consisting of 13 items that uses the Likert Scale to measure rumination of sadness.

Repetitive Thought Questionnaire/Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire
The 31-item Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire (RTQ) measures worry, rumination, and post-event processing with the purpose of controlling for effects associated with a psychological diagnosis or disorder. It includes two subscales, Repetitive Negative Thinking (RNT) and Absence of Repetitive Thinking (ART). RNT is associated with anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions as it influences metacognitive beliefs, cognitive avoidance strategies, and maladaptive though control strategies.

Rumination-Reflection Scale
The Rumination-Reflection Scale involves 24 items. Half of the questions look for adaptive reflective thought while the other half note self-rumination focus. This scale incorporates the Likert Scale.

 Goal-Progress Theory 

Goal progress theory (GPT), sometimes referred to as Control Theory, seeks to explain rumination as a function of goal progress. Specifically, GPT views rumination as an example of the Zeigarnik Effect, which suggests that individuals are more likely to remember information from unfinished tasks than from finished tasks. From this understanding, GPT defines rumination as "the tendency to think recurrently about important, higher order goals that have not yet been attained" or towards which sufficient progress has not been made.

GPT predicts that individuals for whom goal-related information is highly accessible should be more likely to ruminate. Various studies have provided support for this prediction. However, the rumination experienced is focused more towards problem solving than rumination described by RST.