Definition
Rumination is both a state and trait tendency to focus on negative events, emotions, and symptoms and their occurrence, causes, and consequences (Nolen-Hoeksema 1991; Rydstedt et al. 2011). Multiple conceptualizations of rumination exist, each having its own measure, and tested in different contexts. The majority of research has tested and shown rumination to play a key role in the onset and maintenance of depression. However, some research also shows that it causes and maintains distress in physically ill patients (see review by Soo et al. 2009). Rumination is a marker of poor adaptation, since it is thought to prolong one’s psychophysiological response to a stressor even long after it has ended. In a review of this domain, Brosschot (2010) views rumination as part of perseverative cognitions, where people have a sustained cognitive representation of past stressors, beyond their mere existence. Brosschot also contends that much of the effects of rumination could also be...
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References and Further Readings
Brosschot, J. F. (2010). Markers of chronic stress: Prolonged physiological activation and (un)conscious perseverative cognition. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 35, 46–50.
Hanstede, M., Gidron, Y., & Nyklícek, I. (2008). The effects of a mindfulness intervention on obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a non-clinical student population. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 196, 776–779.
Jones, N. P., Papadakis, A. A., Hogan, C. M., & Strauman, T. J. (2009). Over and over again: Rumination, reflection, and promotion goal failure and their interactive effects on depressive symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 254–259.
Klein, M., Weksler, N., Gidron, Y., Heldman, E., Gurski, E., Smith, O. R., & Gurman, G. M. (2012). Do waking salivary cortisol levels correlate with anesthesiologist’s job involvement? Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing, 26, 407–413.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1991). Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 100(4), 569–582.
Rydstedt, L. W., Cropley, M., & Devereux, J. (2011). Long-term impact of role stress and cognitive rumination upon morning and evening saliva cortisol secretion. Ergonomics, 54, 430–435.
Soo, H., Burney, S., & Basten, C. (2009). The role of rumination in affective distress in people with a chronic physical illness: A review of the literature and theoretical formulation. Journal of Health Psychology, 14, 956–966.
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Gidron, Y. (2016). Rumination. In: Gellman, M., Turner, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_140-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_140-2
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