The Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation

Emotion dysregulation, which is often defined as the inability to modulate strong negative affective states including impulsivity, anger, fear, sadness, and anxiety, is observed in nearly all psychiatric disorders. These include internalizing disorders such as panic disorder and major depression, externalizing disorders such as conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder, and various others including schizophrenia, autism, and borderline personality disorder. Among many affected individuals, precursors to emotion dysregulation appear early in development, and often predate the emergence of diagnosable psychopathology. The Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation brings together experts whose work cuts across levels of analysis, including neurobiological, cognitive, and social, in studying emotion dysregulation. Contributing authors describe how early environmental risk exposures shape emotion dysregulation, how emotion dysregulation manifests in various forms of mental illness, and how emotion dysregulation is most effectively assessed and treated. Conceptualizing emotion dysregulation as a core vulnerability to psychopathology is consistent with modern transdiagnostic approaches to diagnosis and treatment, including the Research Domain Criteria and the Unified Protocol, respectively. This handbook is the first text to assemble a highly accomplished group of authors to address conceptual issues in emotion dysregulation research, define the emotion dysregulation construct across levels of cognition, behavior, and social dynamics, describe cutting edge assessment techniques at neural, psychophysiological, and behavioral levels of analysis, and present contemporary treatment strategies.

About the Author

Theodore P. Beauchaine , PhD, completed his clinical internship at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. He is past recipient of both the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology and the American Psychological Association Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Benefit Children, Youth, and Families. He has served on numerous editorial boards, and as Associate Editor for Development and Psychopathology and Psychophysiology . He served on the National Institute of Mental Health National Advisory Council Workgroup on Tasks and Measures for the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). His research addresses neural underpinnings of and development of behavioral impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and intentional self-injury in children, adolescents, and adults. Sheila E. Crowell , PhD, completed her clinical internship at Seattle Children's Hospital through the University of Washington Psychology Internship Program. Dr. Crowell has expertise in emotion dysregulation across the lifespan, including infants, children, adolescents, and adults. Her work on emotion dysregulation extends across a number of diverse clinical populations, such as depression, substance use disorders, trauma, personality disorders, and self-injury. Dr. Crowell is also a licensed clinical psychologists with expertise in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), an evidence-based treatment for diagnoses characterized by emotion dysregulation. Dr. Crowell has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health and as a reviewer or editorial board member for several journals. She has received funding for her research from the National Institutes of Mental Health and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. A primary goal of Dr. Crowell's research is to prevent suicide and the development of psychopathology through enhanced identification of those at risk and early intervention.