Embedded Files
Below, you’ll find my articles organized by publication type and year. For questions on any specific publication, feel free to message me, and I will respond as soon as possible.
Below, you’ll find my articles organized by publication type and year. For questions on any specific publication, feel free to message me, and I will respond as soon as possible.
2025
2025
Waugh, C.E., Schieber, M., Zhao, Y. (2025). Feeling good about the bad: Making positive appraisals of predominantly negative stressors. Emotion. Article Link
This article explores how people can find and feel good even during overwhelmingly negative situations. The research demonstrates that by breaking down a stressor into its different parts, individuals can identify positive aspects and, by focusing on these "bright spots," can improve their overall mood and cope more successfully.
Kardosh, N., Waugh, C.E., Mikels, J.A., & Mor, N. (2025). The Influence of Pre- and Intra-task Emotional Experiences on Affective Working Memory Maintenance. Emotion. Article Link
This research examines how experiencing an unrelated, or "incidental," emotion affects our ability to hold onto a different target emotion in our working memory. The studies found that experiencing either a positive or negative incidental emotion actually improved the ability to maintain a separate negative emotion, suggesting that our emotional context can intensify negative feelings.
2024
2024
Luo, J., McRae, K., & Waugh, C.E. (2024). Committing to Emotion Regulation: Factors Impacting the Choice to Implement a Reappraisal after Its Generation. Emotion. Article Link
Kardosh, N., Waugh, C.E., Mikels, J.A., & Mor, N. (2024). Simultaneous Maintenance of Emotions in Affective Working Memory. Cognition & Emotion, 38(4), 624-634. Article Link
This research investigates how people hold onto multiple feelings at once, a process called Affective Working Memory. The study found that individuals can successfully maintain two emotions simultaneously and confirmed that people are generally better at sustaining positive emotions than negative ones.
Vlasenko, V.V., Tucker, W.K., & Waugh, C.E. (2024). Temporal orientation of positive reappraisal. Emotion, 24(5), 1286-1298. Article Link
This article investigates whether it is more effective to reframe a stressful situation by thinking about the past or the future. The research found that people tend to use future-oriented reappraisals more often and that looking toward the future is slightly more effective at increasing positive emotions when coping with stress.
Vlasenko, V.V., Hayutin, I., Pan, C., Michael-Varakis, J., Waugh, C.E., Admon, R., & McRae, K. (2024). How do people use reappraisal? An investigation of selection frequency and affective outcomes of reappraisal tactics. Emotion,24(3), 676-686. Article Link
This research investigates the specific tactics people use for cognitive reappraisal, examining how often different tactics are selected and how effective they are at changing emotions. The study found that while people use reappraisal more when instructed, they also use it spontaneously, with certain tactics like "change current circumstances" being chosen more frequently and proving more successful at reducing negative feelings.
2023
2023
Waugh, C.E. & Sali, A.W. (2023). Resilience as the ability to maintain well-being: An allostatic active inference model. Journal of Intelligence, 11(8), 158. Article Link
This article reframes resilience as a learnable, emotional-intelligence-related ability to maintain well-being in the face of threats. It presents a new model that explains how resilient people monitor their well-being and flexibly adapt their actions, highlighting the crucial role of positive emotions in this process.
Kako, N., Waugh, C.E., & McRae, K. (2023). The Future of Immersive Mood Induction in Affective Science: Using Virtual Reality to Test Effects of Mood Context on Task Performance. Affective Science, 4(3), 570-579. Article Link
This article proposes using Virtual Reality (VR) as a superior method for studying how mood affects our thoughts and behavior. The research demonstrates that VR can create a powerful and immersive mood that is sustained even while a person is performing another task, offering a more effective tool for affective science.
Minton, A.R., Waugh, C.E., Snyder, J.S., Charles, S.T., Haase, C.M., & Mikels, J.A. (2023). Falling Hard, but Recovering Resoundingly: Age Differences in Stressor Reactivity and Recovery. Psychology & Aging, 38(6), 573-585. Article Link
This research explores how age influences our emotional and physiological responses both during and after a stressful event. The study investigates the differences in how younger and older adults react to stress and how quickly they recover from it.
Leslie-Miller, C.J., Cole, V.T., & Waugh, C.E., (2023). Positive distraction in daily activities as a predictor of good coping: A ‘day in the life’ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology: Positive Psychology, 14:1142665, Article Link
This study used a "day in the life" diary method to explore coping strategies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that engaging in positive distraction was linked to better emotional well-being in the moment, and that a person's intention to distract was a more reliable predictor of positive outcomes than the specific activity they chose.
Waugh, C.E., Leslie-Miller, C.J., & Cole, V.T. (2023). Coping with COVID-19: The efficacy of disengagement for coping with the chronic stress of a pandemic. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 36(1), 52-66. Article Link
This study examines how people coped with the chronic stress of the COVID-19 pandemic by disengaging from the stressor. The findings show that strategic distraction was a popular and effective way to get a temporary boost in well-being, whereas habitual avoidance was associated with worse outcomes overall.
Older relevant articles
Older relevant articles
Waugh, C.E., Vlasenko, V.V.*, & McRae, K. (2022). What parts of reappraisal make us feel better? Dissociating the generation of reappraisals from their implementation. Affective Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00129-2
Vlasenko, V.V.*, Rogers, E.G.^ & Waugh, C.E. (2021). Affect labeling increases the intensity of positive emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 35(7), 1350-1364. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2021.1959302
Leslie-Miller, C.J.^, Waugh, C.E., & Cole, V.T. (2021). Coping with COVID-19: The benefits of anticipating future positive events and maintaining optimism. Frontiers in Psychology: Personality and Social Psychology, 12 (646047), 1-9.
Waugh, C.E., Leslie-Miller, C.J.^, Shing, E.Z.*, Furr, R.M., Nightingale, C.L., & McLean, T.W. (2021). Adaptive and maladaptive forms of disengagement coping in caregivers of children with chronic illnesses. Stress and Health, 37, 213-222.
Waugh, C.E., Shing, E.Z.*, & Furr, R.M. (2020). Not all disengagement coping strategies are created equal: Positive distraction, but not avoidance, can be an adaptive coping strategy for chronic life stressors. Anxiety, Stress & Coping, 33(5), 511-529.
Waugh, C.E. (2020). The roles of positive emotion in the regulation of emotional responses to negative events. Emotion, 20(1), 54-58.
Waugh, C.E., Running, K.E.^, Reynolds, O.C.*, & Gotlib, I.H. (2019). People are better at maintaining positive than negative emotional states. Emotion, 19(1), 132-145.
Song, Y.*, Jordan, J.I.^, Shaffer, K.A., Wing, E.K., McRae, K., & Waugh, C.E. (2019). Effects of incidental positive emotion and cognitive reappraisal on affective responses to negative stimuli. Cognition and Emotion, 33(6), 1155-1168.
Yang, X.*, Garcia, K.^, Jung, Y., Whitlow, C.T., McRae, K., & Waugh, C.E. (2018). VMPFC activation during a stressor predicts positive emotions during stress recovery. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13(3), 256-268.
Tobia, M.J., Hayashi, K*., Ballard, G., Gotlib, I.H., & Waugh, C.E. (2017). Dynamic functional connectivity and individual differences in emotions during social stress. Human Brain Mapping, 38 (12), 6185-6205.
Waugh, C.E., Shing, E.Z.*, Avery, B.M.*, Jung, Y., Whitlow, C.T., & Maldjian, J.A. (2017). Neural predictors of emotional inertia in daily life. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 12 (9), 1448-1459.
Shing, E.Z.*, Jayawickreme, E., & Waugh, C.E. (2016). Contextual positive coping as a factor contributing to resilience after disasters. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 72 (12), 1287-1306.
Waugh, C.E., Zarolia, P., Mauss, I.B., Luman, D., Ford, B., Davis, T., Ciesielski, B.G., Sams, K.V.^, & McRae, K. (2016). Emotion regulation changes the duration of the BOLD response to emotional stimuli. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11(10), 1550-1559.
Waugh, C. E., & Koster, E. H. W. (2015). A resilience framework for promoting stable remission from depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 41, 49-60.
Waugh, C.E., Shing, E.Z.*, & Avery, B.M.* (2015). Temporal dynamics of emotional processing in the brain. Emotion Review, 7(4), 1-7.
Monfort, S.S.*, Stroup, H.E.*, & Waugh, C.E. (2015). The impact of anticipating positive events on responses to stress. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 11-22.
Waugh, C. E., Lemus, M. G.^, & Gotlib, I. H. (2014). The role of the medial frontal cortex in the maintenance of emotional states. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 2001-2009.
Sherdell, L. A.*, Waugh, C. E., & Gotlib, I. H. (2012). Anticipatory Pleasure Predicts Motivation for Reward in Major Depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 51-60.
Waugh, C. E., Chen, M. C., Hamilton, J. P., Joormann, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2012). Neural Temporal Dynamics of Stress in Comorbid Major Depressive Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder, Biology of Mood and Anxiety Disorders 2 (11). doi:10.1186/2045-5380-2-11
Waugh, C. E., Thompson, R. J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2011). Flexible emotional responsiveness in trait resilience. Emotion, 11(5), 1059-1067.
Johnson, K. J., Waugh, C. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2010). Smile to see the forest: Facially expressed positive emotions broaden cognition. Cognition & Emotion, 24(2), 299-321.
Waugh, C. E., Hamilton, J. P., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). The neural temporal dynamics of the intensity of emotional experience. Neuroimage, 49, 1699-1707.
Waugh, C. E., Panage, S.^, Mendes, W., & Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Cardiovascular and affective recovery from anticipatory threat. Biological Psychology, 84, 169-175.
Wager, T. D., Waugh, C.E., Lindquist, M., Fredrickson, B.L., Taylor, S. F., & Noll, D. C. (2009). Brain mediators of cardiovascular responses to social threat, Part I: Reciprocal dorsal and ventral sub-regions of the medial prefrontal cortex and heart-rate reactivity. Neuroimage, 47, 821-835.
Waugh, C.E. & Gotlib, I.H. (2008). Motivation for reward as a function of required effort:
Dissociating the 'liking' from the 'wanting' system in humans. Motivation and Emotion, 32, 323-330.
Waugh, C. E., Taylor, S. F., & Fredrickson, B. L., (2008). Adapting to life’s slings and
arrows: Individual differences in resilience when recovering from an anticipated threat. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1031-1046.
Waugh, C. E., Wager, T. D., Fredrickson, B. L., Noll, D. N., & Taylor, S. F. (2008). The
neural correlates of trait resilience when anticipating and recovering from threat. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 3, 322-332.
Waugh, C. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2006). Nice to know you: Positive emotions, self-other overlap, and complex understanding in the formation of a new relationship. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 93-106.
Waugh, C. E., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2006). Nice to know you: Positive emotions, self-other overlap, and complex understanding in the formation of a new relationship. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 93-106.
Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M, Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. (2003). What Good Are Positive Emotions in Crises? A Prospective Study of Resilience and Emotions following the Terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 365-376.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse