Table 2.
Questions for future research on cultivating emotional granularity.
| Mindfulness-Based Interventions | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Do mindfulness-based interventions, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, improve emotional granularity? |
| 2. | Which features of MBI practices (if any) contribute to cultivating emotional granularity (e.g., acceptance, decentering, dereification, noting)? |
| Hybrid Interventions | |
| 3. | Do hybrid interventions that include language-based categorization of emotions, such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), provide a more comprehensive approach to cultivating emotional granularity? |
| 4. | What novel, hybrid interventions may be effective in cultivating emotional granularity, especially in the context of preventing (vs. treating) psychopathology? |
| Emotional Granularity as Mediator | |
| 5. | Does training-related improvement in emotional granularity mediate beneficial changes in emotion regulation (e.g., decreased use of maladaptive coping strategies)? |
| 6. | Is training-related improvement in emotional granularity a mediator of beneficial changes in mental health (e.g., decreased mood disorder symptoms) and sustaining those changes (e.g., reduced relapse)? |
| Methods and Measurement | |
| 7. | What forms of emotional granularity are overlooked in current measurement approaches? |
| 8. | Does measuring goals help distinguish when emotional granularity is beneficial? |