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Sighing is a common nonverbal everyday behavior thought to signal the experiencing of negative emotions. Prior research from a small-scale study suggests that observed daily expressions of sighing is associated with subclinical depression (Robbins, Mehl, Holleran, & Kasle, 2011). This paper replicates and extends these findings, hypothesizing that individual differences in negative emotionality are associated with frequency of spontaneous sighing. Study 1 (N = 320) documents a strong lay assumption that frequent sighing signals dispositional negative emotionality. Study 2 estimates the actual association between daily sighing, assessed naturalistically using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), and negative emotionality in a large, diverse, pooled sample (N = 469). Bayesian tests across six measures (neuroticism, depression, anxiety, stress, fatigue, loneliness) strongly support the null model. Together, results suggest the common intuition that people who sigh frequently experience more negative emotionality is inaccurate. Assessing whether an individual sighs more (or less) than others cannot be used to infer that they experience more negative emotions.

Mindfulness-based interventions are increasingly recognized for their efficacy in clinical settings. Because of the historical and social associations of mindfulness-based interventions with spirituality and religion, individual differences in religiosity are likely to play a role in how people perceive these interventions, and may ultimately impact the acceptability and implementation of mindfulness-based techniques. Mindfulness-based interventions’ religious associations are often left unspecified, but when they are stated, they are typically represented as either 1) secular and neutral to religious concerns, or as 2) religiously influenced. Dichotomously presenting MBIs as either religious or secular can undermine the delivery of these interventions, as can failing to address religion or spirituality altogether. We present theory and research that explicates the likely ways in which religion influences the acceptability of mindfulness-based interventions, and provide recommendations for researchers and interventionists that enable them to respond to religious concerns about mindfulness-based interventions.

OBJECTIVE Maladaptive repetitive thought (RT), the frequent and repetitive revisiting of thoughts or internal experiences, is associated with a range of psychopathological processes and disorders. We present a synthesis of prior research on maladaptive RT and develop a framework for elucidating and distinguishing between five forms of maladaptive RT. METHOD In addition to the previously studied maladaptive RT (worry, rumination, and obsession), this framework is used to identify two additional forms of maladaptive RT (yearning and interoceptive RT). We then present a review of extant psychotherapy intervention research targeting maladaptive RT, focusing both on specific empirically based treatment strategies, and also constructs within treatments that impact maladaptive RT. CONCLUSION The paper concludes with recommendations for future basic and intervention research on maladaptive RT and related psychopathologies.