Relationship between thinking styles, emotion regulation and death anxiety among clinical population

Abstract

This study is aimed to explore the relationship between emotional regulation, thinking style and death anxiety among clinical population. The sample of the study consists of 200 individuals whom were cluster into four groups including cancer patients (N = 50), cardiac patient (N = 50), depression patients (N = 50) and anxiety patients (N = 50). This study used correlational cross-sectional study designs and the instruments used in the present study include; Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Gross and John (2003), Thinking Style Inventory by Sternberg and Wagner (1992) and Death Anxiety Scale by Afzal and Pervez (2000). The participants for the study were selected on the basis of convenient sampling, whereas, data was analysed by using SPSS (Version 21). Findings of the study revealed that there was significant positive relation between emotion regulation and thinking styles among clinical population. Emotion regulation and its subscale cognitive reappraisal were significantly positively related with thinking styles. Moreover, emotional regulation and its subscale expressive suppression were significantly positively related with conservative thinking style .19*, a subscale of thinking style. A subscale of death anxiety, 'subjective proximity' is significantly positively related with overall emotion regulation and its subscale expressive suppression .16*. Independent sample ttest analysis showed that there is significant difference between physiological diseases and psychological disorder over emotional regulation .16*. Limitations and suggestions for the study are also provided.