From the laboratory to daily life: Preliminary evidence that self-distancing training buffers vulnerable individuals against daily rumination and depression over time.

Abstract

Experimental research indicates that self-distancing helps vulnerable individuals to cope with negative experiences. However, whether these fi ndings generalize outside the laboratory is unknown. Here, we report the results of a proof-of-principle study ( N = 111) that assessed whether teaching people how to self-distance during a brief (i.e., ∼ 1 hr) computer-delivered, in-laboratory training session would facilitate adaptive coping in the short term and over time compared to a no treatment control and active control (relaxation) condition. Ten days following the intervention, vulnerable participants in the self-distancing group (but not the active control or no treatment control groups) displayed levels of rumination and negative affect that were on par with their less vulnerable counterparts. At 3 and 6 months after the training, vulnerable participants in both the self-distancing group and the active control group reported lower levels of depressive symptoms (but not rumination) compared to vulnerable participants in the no treatment control group. These fi ndings provide preliminary evidence indicating that training vulnerable individuals to self-distance is bene fi cial. Future research is needed to replicate these fi ndings with larger samples and to examine whether they generalize to clinical samples.