Successful mood repair (i.e., attenuating sad, dysphoric affect) is a critical form
of emotion regulation that is necessary for healthy functioning. Laboratory-based
studies have examined how well individuals can reduce sadness and how this process
is affected by psychopathology like depression and cognitive mechanisms like attentional
control. However, the extent to which laboratory-based findings inform about the regulation
of sadness in daily life is unknown. To examine the ecological validity of laboratory-based
mood repair paradigms, we compared mood repair success in the laboratory and daily
life (assessed via ecological momentary assessment) among young adults remitted from
depression (n = 126) and those never depressed (n = 104). Participants completed an
experimental mood repair task followed by a 7-day ecological momentary assessment
protocol during which they reported the responses they used to regulate sadness throughout
the day. We expected that history of diagnosed depression and attentional control
(assessed via a self-report questionnaire) would moderate the relationship between
mood repair success in the two settings. Overall, more successful mood repair in the
laboratory predicted more successful mood repair in daily life, supporting the ecological
validity of laboratory-based information about affective processes. Depression history
(but not attentional control) moderated this relationship: Mood repair in the laboratory
predicted mood repair in daily life among never-depressed participants, while the
association was only at a trend level among those with remitted depression. Thus,
the findings raise questions about how the laboratory-based mood repair performance
of depression-prone individuals can inform depression-focused conceptual and treatment
development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
