Date of Graduation

5-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychology (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Psychological Science

Advisor/Mentor

Feldner, Matthew T.

Committee Member

Leen-Feldner, Ellen W.

Second Committee Member

Ham-Holm, Lindsay S.

Keywords

Approach; Avoidance; Emotion Regulation; Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

Emotion regulation and sleep have been identified as mechanisms that may be involved in the development and maintenance of many mental health disorders. However, there has been little research into the relation between sleep and emotion regulation. To address this gap in knowledge, a novel study was conducted. We hypothesized that sleep deprived individuals would demonstrate less approach behavior toward a negatively valenced stimulus, as well as increased self-reported avoidance, compared to a control group. To test this, a randomized controlled experiment using a behavioral measure of approach and a self-report measure of avoidance was conducted. Fifty-two healthy individuals ages 18-30 years old who did not meet criteria for any current mental health disorders were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to a full night of sleep deprivation or normal sleep and completed a baseline and post-manipulation behavioral avoidance task (BAT) and self-report of avoidance behavior. Repeated measures ANOVAs demonstrated there were no significant effects of sleep deprivation on approach behaviors. However, self-reported avoidance increased for the sleep deprived participants. Results highlight a discrepancy between predicted and actual behavior, specifically, the effect of sleep deprivation on behavioral approach toward a specific stimulus compared to more resource-intensive cognitive and behavioral approaches found in daily life. This may guide future work investigating top-down and bottom-up processing of emotion regulation.

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