EPPP Cognitive-Affective Bases 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Rumination differs from worry primarily in that rumination is more focused on:
- Future uncertain events and 'what if' scenarios
- Past events, losses, and possible causes of current distress (Correct answer)
- Somatic sensations associated with arousal
- Interpersonal conflict and relational threat
Correct answer: Past events, losses, and possible causes of current distress
Rumination is repetitive, passive focus on distress and its causes/consequences in the past, whereas worry is future-oriented cognitive activity.
Question 2: The concept of 'affective forecasting error' refers to the tendency of people to:
- Accurately predict the duration and intensity of future emotional states
- Overestimate the hedonic impact and duration of future events (Correct answer)
- Underreport current emotional experience due to social desirability
- Misattribute arousal from one source to an unrelated stimulus
Correct answer: Overestimate the hedonic impact and duration of future events
Affective forecasting errors (especially impact bias) reflect systematic overestimation of how intensely and how long future events will affect well-being.
Question 3: In the Lazarus transactional model of stress, secondary appraisal involves evaluating:
- Whether a situation is relevant and potentially threatening
- What coping options are available and how effective they may be (Correct answer)
- The intensity of the physiological stress response
- Whether the stressor is acute or chronic in nature
Correct answer: What coping options are available and how effective they may be
Secondary appraisal follows primary appraisal and involves the individual's assessment of their coping resources and options.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes the 'default mode network' (DMN) and its cognitive-affective relevance?
- A task-positive network active during focused external attention
- A network active during mind-wandering, self-referential thought, and mentalizing (Correct answer)
- The primary network supporting explicit memory consolidation during sleep
- A subcortical network governing automatic threat detection
Correct answer: A network active during mind-wandering, self-referential thought, and mentalizing
The DMN is most active when the mind is not focused on external tasks and is involved in self-referential processing, future thinking, and understanding others' mental states.
Question 5: Emotional schema therapy (Leahy) targets maladaptive beliefs about emotions. Which belief is considered most problematic?
- Emotions are transient and will pass naturally
- Emotions provide useful information about the environment
- Emotions are permanent, uncontrollable, and unique to oneself (Correct answer)
- Emotions should be validated by significant others
Correct answer: Emotions are permanent, uncontrollable, and unique to oneself
Leahy's model targets beliefs that emotions are lasting, shameful, and that only the individual experiences them—beliefs that drive avoidance and escalation.
Question 6: The phenomenon of 'hot cognition' in social psychology refers to:
- Cognitive processing that is entirely cold and dispassionate
- Thinking influenced by motivational and affective states (Correct answer)
- Accelerated processing speed under high cognitive load
- The use of heuristics in the absence of emotional involvement
Correct answer: Thinking influenced by motivational and affective states
Hot cognition refers to mental processes that are driven or colored by emotion, motivation, or desire, as contrasted with purely rational cold cognition.
Question 7: According to the polyvagal theory (Porges), the ventral vagal complex primarily supports:
- The freeze/collapse response to extreme threat
- Social engagement, calm communication, and connection (Correct answer)
- Sympathetic fight-or-flight mobilization
- Homeostatic regulation of digestion and basic vegetative functions
Correct answer: Social engagement, calm communication, and connection
Porges proposed that the evolutionarily newest vagal pathway (ventral vagal) underlies the social engagement system, enabling calm states and prosocial communication.
EPPP Cognitive-Affective Bases 5
Rumination differs from worry primarily in that rumination is more focused on: