Sheri L Johnson

• PhD
• Managing Director at University of California, Berkeley

Introduction Epidemiological research has shown those with bipolar disorders (BD) are more likely to work in creative professions. The current work is the first to examine ambition, exploration versus exploitation ratio, and insensitivity to effort/rewards among individuals with and without BD in an Asian cultural context. Methods Writers and visu...

Objectives The interpersonal‐psychological theory of suicide identifies three risk factors for suicidal behaviours: perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and acquired capability. We sought to clarify relationships between the interpersonal‐psychological risk factors and two individual difference factors, emotion‐related impulsivity (ERI...

Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) shows robust longitudinal associations with psychiatric disorders, aggression, and suicidality, yet a parsimonious account of its neurocognitive correlates has not been offered. We connect ERI with the glutamate-amplifies-noradrenergic-effects (GANE) model, a framework describing how norepinephrine tunes “hotspots”...

Background Cognitive rigidity and working memory impairment are established features of internalizing syndromes. Growing evidence suggests that deficits in affective control –cognitive control in the context of emotion – may underpin elevated emotion-related impulsivity in various psychiatric disorders. Objective This study examines two components...

Misophonia is a disorder involving sensitivity to certain sounds and related stimuli. Here, we explore the relationship between misophonia and affective flexibility, which describes cognitive shifting abilities in the face of emotion-evoking stimuli. Previous evidence suggests impaired subjective cognitive flexibility in misophonia, but this relati...

Misophonia is a disorder involving sensitivity to certain sounds and related stimuli. Here, we explore the relationship between misophonia and affective flexibility, which describes cognitive shifting abilities in the face of emotion-evoking stimuli. Previous evidence suggests impaired subjective cognitive flexibility in misophonia, but this relati...

Background: Impulsivity is a multidimensional construct reflecting poor constraint over one's behaviors. Clinical psychology research identifies separable impulsivity dimensions that are each unique transdiagnostic indicators for psychopathology. Yet, despite this apparent clinical importance, the shared and unique neuroanatomical correlates of the...

Background The primary objective of this trial is to examine the mechanisms of time-restricted eating (TRE) as an adjunct to psychiatric care for people with bipolar disorder (BD) with sleep or circadian disruptions. This study builds on prior studies of circadian disruption in BD as well as growing evidence that TRE improves circadian functioning....

Prior theory and research offer competing predictions for associations between intrapersonal emotion (dys)regulation and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). One possibility is that difficulties recognizing, accepting, or managing one’s emotions might tend to interfere with seeking or benefiting from IER. Alternatively, people who struggle to re...

Introduction Urgency has been defined as the tendency towards rash speech and behavior in the context of emotion. Measures of Urgency have been found to have robust predictive power for psychopathologies and problematic behaviors. In the current study, we question whether emotions are unique drivers of urgency, or if emotions are potent exemplars o...

Journal website link: www.frontiersin.org I n r e v i e w Scope Statement Emotion-related impulsivity and internalizing conditions both implicate cognitive control deficits, particularly in "hot" emotional contexts (i.e., affective control). Here, we report the results of preregistered and secondary analyses to examine the role of affective flexibi...

Background The primary objective of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to establish the effectiveness of time-restricted eating (TRE) compared with the Mediterranean diet for people with bipolar disorder (BD) who have symptoms of sleep disorders or circadian rhythm sleep–wake disruption. This work builds on the growing evidence that TRE has...

Drawing on literature linking bipolar disorder (BD) to both creativity and heightened motivation, our aim was to examine whether heightened motivation might contribute to creativity in those with and without BD. To examine this, we recruited persons with (n = 49) and without diagnoses (n = 37) of BD, oversampling those from creative occupations. We...

Objectives Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental disorder characterized by persistent and intrusive thoughts accompanied by repetitive mental or physical acts. While both intolerance of uncertainty and emotion‐related impulsivity have been consistently evidenced as cognitive risk factors of OCD, no studies have considered the...

Background Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) describes the trait-like tendency toward poor self-control when experiencing strong emotions. ERI has been shown to be elevated across psychiatric disorders and predictive of the onset and worsening of psychiatric syndromes. Recent work has correlated ERI scores with the neuroanatomy of the orbitofrontal...

According to SAMHSA (2023), approximately 16,600,000 American adults and teens reported having serious thoughts of suicide in 2022. While suicide prevention has primarily focused on suicide deaths and attempts, we contend that suicidal ideation (SI) deserves more in-depth investigation and should be an essential intervention target on its own. In s...

Background Recent work highlights the role of emotion dysregulation in the pathology of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As such, emotion-related impulsivity (ERI), the trait-like tendency toward disinhibited thoughts (Pervasive Influence of Feelings, PIF) and actions (Feelings Trigger Action, FTA) during heightened emotional states...

Most research on interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) has focused on nonclinical samples. On one hand, people with clinically significant emotion, mood, or interpersonal difficulties may encounter more challenges with IER. On the other hand, IER could potentially be a useful resource for addressing challenges related to intrapersonal emotion dysr...

Background: The primary objective of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to establish the effectiveness of time-restricted eating (TRE) compared with the Mediterranean diet for people with bipolar disorder (BD) who have symptoms of sleep disorders or circadian rhythm sleep-wake disruption. This work builds on the growing evidence that TRE has...

BACKGROUND Inhibitory deficits are common in psychopathology. Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) and rumination are general risk factors for psychiatric distress that are similarly associated with dysfunctional inhibition—particularly in affective contexts. A number of cognitive remediation procedures have been developed to improve inhibitory contro...

Background Researchers have increasingly differentiated trait-like tendencies toward impulsivity occurring during emotional states (emotion-related impulsivity [ERI]) from impulsivity not tied to emotion (non-ERI). Relative to non-ERI, ERI has shown robust correlations with psychopathology and mild to moderate associations with physical health par...

Objective: Suicidal ideation and suicidal behaviors are major public health concerns in the United States and are difficult to treat and predict. Risk factors that are incrementally informative are needed to improve prediction and inform prevention of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Uncontrollability of suicidal ideation, one parameter of suicida...

Emotion-related impulsivity is an important behavioural phenotype in clinical psychology and public health. Here, we test the hypothesis that emotion-related impulsivity moderates the effects of arousal on cognition using pharmacological manipulation. Participants completed a measure of emotion-related impulsivity, four cognitive tasks tapping onto...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

Objective: Several dimensions have received attention for their potential role in explaining shared variance in transdiagnostic symptoms of psychopathology. We hypothesized emotion-related impulsivity, the trait-like tendency toward difficulty restraining responses to emotion, would relate to symptoms of psychopathology, with two separable dimensi...

Background: Suicide treatment research has placed major emphasis on preventing behavior, an observable phenomenon. Suicidal ideation (SI), however, is a distressing experience that annually impacts >15 million Americans; yet the construct validity of SI has not been well established, limiting empirical attention. Method: We compared the coherenc...

Drawing on literature linking bipolar disorder to both creativity and heightened motivation, our aim was to examine whether heightened motivation might contribute to creativity in those with and without bipolar disorder. To examine this, we recruited persons diagnosed with bipolar disorder (n = 49), and persons with no diagnosis of bipolar disorder...

The theory of depressive realism holds that depressed individuals are less prone to optimistic bias, and are thus more realistic, in assessing their control or performance. Since the theory was proposed 40 years ago, many innovations have been validated for testing cognitive accuracy, including improved measures of bias in perceived control and per...

Overreliance on disengagement emotion regulation strategies (e.g., emotion avoidance, emotion suppression) has been shown to relate to poor clinical outcomes. Two traits characterized by difficulties in goal-directed responses to emotion-urgency and distress intolerance-may help explain who is likely to disengage from emotion and when. These traits...

Objectives: Suicidal ideation is a pervasive and painful experience that varies considerably in its phenomenology. Here, we consider how one key risk variable might inform our understanding of variation in suicidal ideation: emotion-related impulsivity, the trait-like tendency towards unconstrained speech, behaviour, and cognition in the face of i...

Background Emotion-related impulsivity (ERI) refers to chronically poor self-control during periods of strong emotion. ERI robustly predicts psychiatric disorders and related problems, yet its neuroanatomical correlates are largely unknown. We tested whether local brain morphometry in targeted brain regions that integrate emotion and control could...

Recent theory and research have drawn attention to interpersonal dimensions of emotion regulation. Yet, few empirical investigations of the outcomes of interpersonal emotion regulation have been conducted. We propose that one negative affective outcome of received interpersonal emotion regulation of conceptual and practical interest is shame. In th...

Recent research has highlighted that emotion regulation strategy use varies both between and within people, and specific individual and contextual differences shape strategy use. Further, use of specific emotion regulation strategies relates to a wide array of differential outcomes, including mental health and behavior. Emotion goals (desire for a...

Introduction: Rumination and emotion-related impulsivity predict suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Because rumination and emotion-related impulsivity, though, are highly correlated, we consider their unique vs. conjoint influence on suicidal ideation and self-harm. Method: Across two samples of adults (N's...

The trait-based tendency to respond rashly to emotions is robustly tied to many forms of psychopathology and poor behavioural outcomes, including aggression and suicidality. Researchers have found associations between response inhibition and emotion-related impulsivity; however, effect sizes are often small. Because emotion-related impulsivity emer...

Introduction Emotion-related impulsivity, defined by poor constraint in the face of emotion, is related to internalizing symptoms, cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Internalizing symptoms, though, are profoundly tied to stress reactivity, and little is known about how emotion-related impulsivity relates to stress reactivity. Method Taking adva...

Objective: Adjunctive psychological interventions improve outcomes in bipolar disorder (BD), but people in latter stages likely have different clinical needs. The objective here was to test the hypothesis that for people with ≥10 episodes of BD, a brief online mindfulness-based intervention (ORBIT 2.0) improves quality of life (QoL) relative to a P...

Background The primary objective is to test the effectiveness of a novel online quality of life (QoL) intervention tailored for people with late stage (≥ 10 episodes) bipolar disorder (BD) compared with psychoeducation. Relative to early stage individuals, this late stage group may not benefit as much from existing psychosocial treatments. Methods...

Introduction The dominance behavioral system (DBS) is a biologically-based multi-faceted system guiding motivation, behavior, self-perceptions, and responsivity to social experiences related to dominance. Evidence has indicated that DBS facets differentially relate to specific psychopathologies. In the present research, we attempt to replicate Tang...

Background: Burgeoning evidence suggests that loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic is tied to high levels of depression and anxiety. The current study is unique, though, in examining which facets of social behavior and perceived social quality are most tied to internalizing symptoms using longitudinal data, including a pre-pandemic baseline, co...

Background Theory and research suggest that social dominance is important for multiple forms of psychopathology, and yet few studies have considered multiple dimensions of psychopathology simultaneously, and relatively few have used well-validated behavioral indices. Method Among 81 undergraduates, we used a well-validated experimental approach of...

Recent theory and research have drawn attention to interpersonal dimensions of emotion regulation. Yet, few empirical investigations of the outcomes of interpersonal emotion regulation have been conducted. We propose that one negative affective outcome of received interpersonal emotion regulation of conceptual and practical interest is shame. In th...

Recent conceptual and empirical advances have focused on interpersonal dimensions of emotion regulation and, more specifically, to the features of attempted support transactions that shape the outcomes of enacted support. We conducted 2 autobiographical recall studies to investigate receivers' evaluations of intrinsic interpersonal emotion regulati...

There has been extensive discussion about gender gaps in representation and career advancement in the sciences. However, psychological science itself has yet to be the focus of discussion or systematic review, despite our field's investment in questions of equity, status, well-being, gender bias, and gender disparities. In the present article, we c...

Trait-like tendencies to respond impulsively to emotion, labelled emotion-related impulsivity, are robustly related to aggression. We developed and tested an online intervention to address emotion-related impulsivity and aggression. The 6-session intervention focused on behavioral techniques shown to decrease arousal and aggression, supplemented wi...

As mass shootings increase in frequency, they continue to baffle public officials and the media who often portray such incidents as random and senseless acts of violence. Abundant evidence points to a co-occurrence or association of violence and anger; yet, anger is inadequately examined in mass shootings. Objective This study was designed to dete...

Although aggression is related to manic symptoms among those with bipolar disorder, new work suggests that some continue to experience elevations of aggression after remission. This aggression post-remission appears related to a more general tendency to respond impulsively to states of emotion, labelled emotion-related impulsivity. We recently deve...

Clinical science has benefited tremendously from taking seriously the proposition that putatively maladaptive behaviors serve psychological functions, prominently among these affect regulation (AR). These functionalist accounts have not only advanced basic clinical science, but also formed the bedrock for the development of effective treatments. Dr...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine gender differences in personality traits of people with and without entrepreneurial intent to assess whether women who intend to become entrepreneurs exhibit particular tendencies that can be fostered. Design/methodology/approach Participants completed an online battery of well-established questionna...

Background Involuntary mental imagery is elevated among people with bipolar disorder, and has been shown to shape biases in interpretation of ambiguous information. However, it is not clear whether biases in interpretation of ambiguous scenarios can be observed in those at risk for bipolar disorder, or whether involuntary imagery is related to such...

This book provides an overview of key processes relevant to disturbances in positive valence systems; discusses cutting-edge advances on positive emotion disturbance in key clinical disorders, translational applications, and targeted treatment foci; discusses conceptualizations of psychopathology and models of positive emotion disturbances; and sug...

Although neurocognitive deficits and emotion regulation are closely linked within unipolar depression, little research has tested links between these two variables within bipolar disorder. The present study tested whether working memory is related to individual differences in emotion regulation strategies in bipolar disorder and whether working mem...

Theory about the conceptual basis of psychiatric disorders has long emphasized negative emotionality. More recent ideas emphasize roles for positive emotionality and impulsivity as well. This review examines impulsive responses to positive and negative emotions, which have been labeled as urgency. Urgency is conceptually and empirically distinct fr...

Objective: Dysfunction in positive affect is a defining symptom of bipolar I disorder (BD), both during and between mood episodes. We hypothesize that helping people with BD learn skills to create balance in their affective experiences by engaging in strategies that increase low activation positive emotion (LAP; e.g., relaxation) could help to imp...

Exposure to adverse environments during childhood is robustly linked to future aggressive behavior. In this study we tested a model of emotional and neurocognitive mechanisms related to aggressive behavior in the context of childhood adversity. More specifically, we used path analysis to assess the distal contribution of childhood adversity and the...

Background: Maladaptive perfectionism is a transdiagnostic risk and maintaining factor for a range of mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder (BD). Self-compassion represents a potential protective factor against maladaptive perfectionism, however no studies to date have examined the relationship of these constructs in BD. The aim of t...

Reward functioning in animals is modulated by the circadian system, but such effects are poorly understood in the human case. The aim of this study was to address this deficit via a systematic review of human fMRI studies measuring one or more proxies for circadian function and a neural reward outcome. A narrative synthesis of 15 studies meeting in...

This article considers self and self-concept in bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder, defined on the basis of manic symptoms, is a highly debilitating psychopathology. It is heavily grounded in biology but symptom course is still very responsive to psychological and social forces in the lives of persons who have the disorder. This review assumes an o...

Impulsiveness has been studied as an aspect of personality and psychopathology for generations. There are longstanding disagreements about how to define it and whether it should be viewed as one construct or several. This article begins by briefly reviewing some earlier and some more recent work on impulsiveness. Several approaches have recently co...

The normative interplay between circadian and reward function is well understood in animal models, and is of growing interest as an aetiological explanation in psychopathologies. While circadian modulation of reward function has been demonstrated in human behavioural data, a key gap is lack information at the neural level. In 2017, we published res...

Prior research suggests that a traitlike tendency to experience impulsivity during states of high emotion is robustly associated with many forms of psychopathology. Several studies tie emotion‐related impulsivity to response inhibition deficits, but these studies have not focused on the role of emotion or arousal within subjects. The present study...

Perseverance toward long-term goals has been tied to diminished depression. Few studies have considered mechanisms that might underlie the effects of perseverance. We tested the hypothesis that perseverance pro- motes greater resilience to depressive symptoms by enhancing positive self-conscious emotions (e.g., authentic pride) and positive self-va...

Background: The primary objective of this randomised controlled trial (RCT) is to establish the effectiveness of a novel online quality of life (QoL) intervention tailored for people with late stage (≥ 10 episodes) bipolar disorder (BD) compared with psychoeducation. Relative to early stage individuals, this late stage group may not benefit as muc...

Prior research has indicated that ideal affect (i.e., the affective states that people value and would ideally like to experience) may be relevant to mental health outcomes. Studies to date, however, have not used comprehensive multivariate models that account for covariation among facets of ideal affect and incorporate multiple clinical outcomes....

Objectives Both sleep disruption and impulsivity are important predictors of the course of bipolar disorder (BD). Although sleep disruption has been shown to intensify impulsivity, little research has considered how these two important domains interact within BD. Adolescence is a critical period for the onset of BD, and is often associated with inc...

Introduction People with bipolar disorder often show more approach-related behavior and positive appraisals of others during social interactions. This may be due to an increased sensitivity to positive contexts or to tendencies toward positive affectivity. In this study, we investigated the influence of reward versus prosocial positive contexts on...

Introduction: Impulsivity is a core characteristic of bipolar disorder and it was observed as elevated in individuals with the disorder and in their relatives. Both impulsivity and history of maltreatment are risk factors for suicide attempts, however, these two key variables may not be independent, given the fact that parental impulsivity and asso...

Prominent cognitive deficits have been documented in bipolar disorder, and multiple studies suggest that these deficits can be observed among non-affected first-degree relatives of those with bipolar disorder. Although there is variability in the degree of cognitive deficits, these deficits are robustly relevant for functional outcomes. A separate...

Reward function appears to be modulated by the circadian system, but little is known about the neural basis of this interaction. Previous research suggests that the neural reward response may be different in the afternoon; however, the direction of this effect is contentious. Reward response may follow the diurnal rhythm in self-reported positive a...

More than a dozen recent studies have shown that bipolar disorder and key outcomes within bipolar disorder are related to heightened willingness to pursue extremely ambitious life goals, as measured by the Willingly Approached Set of Statistically Unlikely Pursuits (WASSUP). Although it has been argued that this willingness to pursue difficult life...

Evidence indicates the existence of a superordinate factor of general psychopathology, which has been termed p. Among the issues raised by this discovery is whether this factor has substantive meaning or not. This article suggests a functional interpretation of the p factor, based in part on a family of dual process models, in which an associative...

Background: Comorbid psychiatric symptoms in bipolar disorder (BD) predict poorer course of illness and treatment outcome. The sheer number of comorbid symptoms has thwarted developing treatments to address these comorbid concerns. The goal of this study was to develop a more parsimonious approach to understanding clusters of comorbid symptoms wit...

Objectives: A growing empirical literature indicates that emotion-related impulsivity (compared to impulsivity that is unrelated to emotion) is particularly relevant for understanding a broad range of psychopathologies. Recent work, however, has differentiated two forms of emotion-related impulsivity: A factor termed Pervasive Influence of Feeling...

Current adjunctive psychosocial interventions for bipolar disorder (BD) aim to impact illness course via information sharing/skill development. This focus on clinical outcomes contrasts with the emergent recovery paradigm, which prioritises adaptation to serious mental illness and movement towards personally meaningful goals. The aim of this review...

Positive urgency, defined as a tendency to become impulsive during positive affective states, has gained support as a form of impulsivity that is particularly important for understanding psychopathology. Despite this, little is known about the emotional mechanisms and correlates of this form of impulsivity. We hypothesized that positive urgency wou...

A growing body of research suggests that impulsive responses to emotion more robustly predict suicidality than do other forms of impulsivity. This issue has not yet been examined within bipolar disorder, however. Participants diagnosed with bipolar I disorder (n = 133) and control participants (n = 110) diagnosed with no mood or psychotic disorder...

Research has yielded mixed findings regarding whether bipolar disorder is related to attentional bias for emotionally relevant stimuli, yet little research has utilized advances in eye-tracking technology to study attention in this population. The current study used a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm to test whether people with remitted bipolar d...

Objectives: Due to the serious and recurrent nature of bipolar disorder, continuous long-term medication treatment is typically recommended. Little is known about whether these treatment recommendations are effectively implemented for Hispanics. This study examined differences in mood stabilizer use and mental health service utilization between ad...

Positive urgency, the tendency to respond impulsively to positive affective states, has been linked to many psychopathologies, but little is known about mechanisms underpinning this form of impulsivity. We examined whether the Positive Urgency Measure (PUM) related to higher scores on performance-based measures of impulsivity and cognitive control...

Bipolar I disorder (BD) is related to overly valued and ambitious goal setting. The purpose of this study was to assess whether people with BD would express highly ambitious goals and show greater arousal when asked to describe their goals, and whether indices of ambition and arousal during goal narratives would predict follow-up symptom severity....

BACKGROUND: Despite the rapid growth in the sophistication of research on bipolar disorder (BD), the field faces challenges in improving quality of life (QoL) and symptom outcomes, adapting treatments for marginalized communities, and disseminating research insights into real-world practice. Community-based participatory research (CBPR)-research th...

Genetic polymorphisms relevant to behavioral approach and behavioral inhibition are examined, using a polygenic approach while also considering the role of early adversity. Undergraduates (N. =. 343) completed the well-validated Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales and provided blood for genotyping. The BDNF me...

Bipolar disorder (BD) has been related to heightened creativity, yet core questions remain unaddressed about this association. We used qualitative methods to investigate how highly creative individuals with BD understand the role of symptoms and treatment in their creativity, and possible mechanisms underpinning this link. Twenty-two individuals se...

A large body of work suggests that impulsivity is a core predictor of aggression, but impulsivity has been conceptualized as an umbrella term encompassing many separable traits (Derefinko, DeWall, et al., 2011). 100 undergraduates (Mn age = 20.22, 68% female) took a three-factor impulsivity scale, designed to assess emotion- (Pervasive Influence of...

A growing body of research suggests that the social environment exerts a powerful influence on the course of bipolar depression. This article reviews longitudinal research to suggest that trauma, negative life events, social support deficits, and family difficulties are common and predict a more severe course of depression when present among those...

Background and objectives: People prone to mania use emotion regulation (ER) strategies well when explicitly coached to do so in laboratory settings, but they find these strategies ineffective in daily life. We hypothesized that, compared with control participants, mania-prone people would show ER deficits when they received implicit, but not expl...

A polymorphism in the mu opioid receptor gene OPRM1 (rs1799971) has been investigated for its role in sensitivity to social contexts. Evidence suggests that the G allele of this polymorphism is associated with higher levels of sensitivity. This study tested for main effects of the polymorphism and its interaction with a self-report measure of child...

Despite the centrality of emotion disturbance in neurobiological models of bipolar disorder, the behavioral literature has not yet clearly identified the most central aspects of emotion disturbance in bipolar disorder. Toward this aim, we gathered a battery of emotion-related measures in 67 persons diagnosed with bipolar I disorder as assessed with...

Recent evidence suggests that anger and aggression are of concern even during remission for persons with bipolar I disorder, although there is substantial variability in the degree of anger and aggression across individuals. Little research is available to examine psychological models of anger and aggression for those with remitted bipolar disorder...

Two of this chapter’s authors (Charles Carver and Michael Scheier) have used the term self-regulation for well over three decades, after having adopted a viewpoint on behavior that depends heavily on the principles of feedback control. The broad outlines of that viewpoint remain much the same today. However, the state of knowledge in neuroscience a...