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An experimental manipulation of validating and invalidating responses: Impact on affect, motivation, and cognitive flexibility.

Benitez, Cinthia
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1527879719432638

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Validating responses refer to the process of communicating to an individual that his or her experiences make sense and are understood, while invalidating responses convey to the individual that his or her experiences are inaccurate, misunderstood, or inappropriate (Linehan, 1993, 1997). In prior research, invalidating responses have been linked with increases in negative affect (Shenk & Fruzzetti, 2011), aggression (Herr, Jones, Cohn, & Weber, 2015), decreases in positive affect (Benitez, 2014, 2017; Edmond & Keefe, 2015; Stigen, 2011), and decreases in overall mood (Benitez, 2014, 2017). Further, invalidating responses have been theorized to affect individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) to a greater degree than others due to their already heightened emotional reactivity and likely increased sensitivity to invalidation. Despite the recent increased attention to the impact of validating and invalidating responses, there are still many theoretical questions that remain unanswered. In the present study, we aimed to expand the literature in the following ways: (1) further understand the direct impact of validating and invalidating responses on theoretically relevant outcomes such as motivation and cognitive flexibility; (2) identify constructs that might explain the relationship between validation/invalidation and relevant outcomes; (3) understand the ways in which individuals with heightened BPD features might be differentially impacted by validation and invalidation. We utilized an experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to either a validation or invalidation condition. Participants in the study engaged in a task during which they recalled a time they had been angry and were then either validated or invalidated during the recounting of the event. We then examined the effects of these responses on cognitive performance, self-reported invalidation, overall engagement in study procedures, degree to which they considered the experimenter likeable, and affect/mood. Participants in the invalidation condition reported feeling significantly more invalidated and found the experimenter less likeable than those in the validation condition. They also reported greater decreases in positive affect and declines in positive mood over the course of the experiment, compared to the participants in the validation condition. Further, those participants in the invalidation condition reported feeling less motivated, putting forth less effort, and finding less value in the tasks they completed when compared the participants in the validation condition. We also found that invalidation predicted cognitive performance such that those participants in the invalidation condition experienced more distractibility, longer response times, and overall less efficient performance in the cognitive tasks compared to the participants in the validation condition. These results also support the model in which decreases in positive affect, resulting from validation/invalidation, function as a mechanism through which cognitive flexibility is impacted. Finally, we found that at higher levels of BPD features, participants reported more invalidation when invalidated and were more sensitive to interpersonal judgments. The findings from this study identify a broader range of outcomes that validation/invalidation can impact and potential underlying mechanisms through which these responses influence outcomes. Further, this study has important implications for the differential impact of validation/invalidation for individuals with heightened BPD features.
Jennifer Cheavens (Advisor)
137 p.
Psychology
validation, invalidation, positive affect, BPD, DBT, motivation, engagement

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Benitez, C. (2018). An experimental manipulation of validating and invalidating responses: Impact on affect, motivation, and cognitive flexibility. [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1527879719432638

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Benitez, Cinthia. An experimental manipulation of validating and invalidating responses: Impact on affect, motivation, and cognitive flexibility. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1527879719432638.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Benitez, Cinthia. "An experimental manipulation of validating and invalidating responses: Impact on affect, motivation, and cognitive flexibility." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1527879719432638

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.