Glossary // Glossary term Empirical

Brooding

A form of rumination involving passive, evaluative dwelling on one's situation and its shortfalls, often in abstract questions such as why something keeps happening. It is usually contrasted with reflection, a more purposeful attempt to understand or solve a problem. In an experience-sampling study, brooding but not reflective pondering was associated with higher negative affect.

Where the site uses it

Rumination and repetitive thought: why going over it again can feel like processing
Repetitive thought about a problem can be constructive or can sustain distress. This note reviews experiments, experience sampling and trials on rumination, the difference between abstract and concrete thinking, and why brooding feels like work.
Interrupt rumination by changing how you think, not by thinking harder
Going over a problem again can feel like processing, yet abstract brooding worsens interpretation and problem solving. Concrete questions, distance, a bounded worry time and absorbing activity change the loop instead of feeding it.

Studies behind it

The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at.

Moberly, N. J., & Watkins, E. R. (2008). Ruminative self-focus and negative affect: An experience sampling study. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.117.2.314

Level C Longitudinal study

Supports the claims that momentary ruminative self-focus and negative affect predicted each other at the next occasion, and that brooding but not reflective pondering was associated with higher negative affect. Experience sampling; reciprocal association, not causation.
Watkins, E. R. (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163

Level D Review

Supports the claim that the consequences of repetitive thought depend on valence, context and level of construal, with abstract processing tending to be unconstructive. Narrative review; the advice built on it has not been trialled as such.