Relationships between dysfunctional attitudes, cognitive flexibility and cognitive emotion regulation: The role of demographic variables and psychosocial factors

The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between dysfunctional attitudes, cognitive flexibility, and cognitive emotion regulation, as well as how these variables vary across demographic and psychosocial characteristics. The research was conducted with 603 adult participants, including 411 (68.16%) women and 192 (31.84%) men. The participants completed the Demographic Information Form, the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS-17), the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS), and the Short Form of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) online. T-tests, One-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that the research variables were associated with various demographic and psychosocial characteristics and differed accordingly. It was found that as dysfunctional attitudes increased, cognitive flexibility and adaptive cognitive emotion regulation decreased, while maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation increased. It was found that as the level of cognitive flexibility increases, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation increases; maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation decreases. Another focus of the study was the relationship between the nine cognitive emotion regulation strategies and dysfunctional attitudes, cognitive flexibility, and various variables. Analyses revealed that that the main effect on adaptive cognitive emotion regulation is due to cognitive flexibility; and the most important effect on maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation is due to dysfunctional attitudes. Since it was observed that there was no study in which the three variables were considered together, this finding was considered valuable in this sense. In conclusion, the variables were found to be interrelated, and these relationships were interpreted within the framework of cognitive theory and through a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy perspective. This study is expected to guide the planning of both clinical and non-clinical interventions.