Studies // Cited work
Reflecting on rumination: Consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination
Watkins, E. R., & Roberts, H. (2020). Reflecting on rumination: Consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination.
Level D Review doi:10.1016/j.brat.2020.103573
What this study supports
Supports the claims that rumination has been linked to prolonged negative mood, impaired problem solving and multiple disorders, and that rumination has been modelled as a learnt habit involving abstract processing of unresolved goals (the H-EX-A-GO-N model). Proposes rather than establishes the model; treatment trials described as preliminary.
- Who was studied
- Not applicable: a narrative review of the consequences, causes, mechanisms and treatment of rumination.
- Design
- Review
- Level of evidence
- Cross-sectional, observational, qualitative work and narrative reviews.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
TheoreticalLevel DConfidence LOW
Unconstructive repetitive thought is easily mistaken for processing because it concerns the problem, uses abstract questions that feel deep, and has been modelled as a habit triggered by unresolved goals; processing tends to yield new information, a decision or an action, whereas rumination usually does not.
- Scope
- An interpretation of reviews and models of repetitive thought.
- Caveat
- The subjective sense of processing was not measured in the cited sources; the habit model is a proposal.
Last reviewed · Review due · rumination-feels-like-processing