Flexible control in processing affective and non-affective material predicts individual differences in trait resilience

TLDR

Trait resilience is a stable personality characteristic that involves the self‑reported ability to flexibly adapt to emotional events and situations. The present study examined cognitive processes that may explain individual differences in trait resilience. Participants completed self‑report measures of trait resilience, cognitive flexibility and working‑memory capacity tasks, and a novel affective task‑switching paradigm that assesses flexible switching between affective and non‑affective qualities of affective stimuli. Cognitive flexibility and flexible affective processing uniquely predicted trait resilience, whereas working‑memory capacity did not, and these flexibility processes were not associated with other trait measures, indicating that trait resilience is linked to specific cognitive processes rather than general cognitive ability.

Abstract

Trait resilience is a stable personality characteristic that involves the self-reported ability to flexibly adapt to emotional events and situations. The present study examined cognitive processes that may explain individual differences in trait resilience. Participants completed self-report measures of trait resilience, cognitive flexibility and working memory capacity tasks, and a novel affective task-switching paradigm that assesses the ability to flexibly switch between processing the affective versus non-affective qualities of affective stimuli (i.e., flexible affective processing). As hypothesised, cognitive flexibility and flexible affective processing were unique predictors of trait resilience. Working memory capacity was not predictive of trait resilience, indicating that trait resilience is tied to specific cognitive processes rather than overall better cognitive functioning. Cognitive flexibility and flexible affective processing were not associated with other trait measures, suggesting that these flexibility processes are unique to trait resilience. This study was among the first to investigate the cognitive abilities underlying trait resilience.