Anxiety, emotional reactivity, and attachment as predictors of embedding dimensionality of affect

In this study we investigated individual differences in emotionality and affect dynamics in couples over 21 days using a modified version of the False Nearest Neighbors method to estimate the embedding dimensionality of positive and negative affect. We estimated the number of dynamic degrees of freedom contributing to changes observed in time series' of affect. Patterns in daily affect may reflect an additive impact of stimuli (attending to many unique influences, high dimensionality) or a coordinative process that recruits stimuli (hyper-focus, low dimensionality). We examined the relationship between the embedding dimensionality of affect and macroscopic descriptors of emotionality that bear on affect regulation and appraisal processes. Associations were found for negative affect only. Higher levels of trait anxiety, emotional reactivity, and attachment anxiety were associated with lower dimensionality, regardless of the occurrence of daily negative events. The findings were consistent with the hyper-focus hypothesis. Individuals low in negative emotionality had high dimensionality except when they reported greater frequency of daily negative events. The pattern of results is discussed with respect to flexibility in affect regulation.