The Emotional Cascade Model
At times the way people act can appear “self-sabotaging” or “self-destructive,” especially when from an outside perspective it would seem clear that their behavior is only going to make a bad situation worse. Common examples of such “dysregulated” behaviors might include binging and purging, self-injury, “self-medicating” bad moods with drugs or alcohol or impulsive shopping. So why would people engage in these self-sabotaging of self-damaging behaviors to “feel better?” The Emotional Cascade Model (Selby & Joiner, 2009) is a complex dynamic systems model that proposes that people engage in dysregulated behaviors in response to a process called an “emotional cascade.” In an emotional cascade, people think repetitively and intensely about an event that makes them feel negative emotions, and in this process, they become more and more upset. The end result is a self-amplifying positive feedback loop of intense rumination and negative emotion, which creates an emotional state which is extremely aversive, painful, and difficult to tolerate. Dysregulated behaviors, as viewed by the Emotional Cascade Model, are then used to distract from emotional cascades through intense physical sensations. These physical sensations may vary according to the behavior, but potential examples could include feelings of pain or the sight of blood in self-injury, or the tastes or textures of food or feeling of fullness in binge-eating. Due to their potency, these sensations short-circuit the emotional cascade, decrease rumination and negative emotion, and result in subsequent, immediate feelings of relief. However, dysregulated behaviors lead to severe negative consequences over time.
Selected Publications
Selby, E. A., Kondratyuk, S., Lindqvist, J., Fehling, K., & Kranzler, A. (2021). Temporal Bayesian Network modeling approach to evaluating the emotional cascade model of borderline personality disorder. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 12(1), 39.
Selby, E. A., Kranzler, A., Panza, E., & Fehling, K. B. (2016). Bidirectional‐compounding effects of rumination and negative emotion in predicting impulsive behavior: Implications for emotional cascades. Journal of Personality, 84(2), 139-153.
Jungmann, S. M., Vollmer, N., Selby, E. A., & Witthöft, M. (2016). Understanding dysregulated behaviors and compulsions: An extension of the emotional cascade model and the mediating role of intrusive thoughts. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 994.
Gardner, K. J., Dodsworth, J., & Selby, E. A. (2014). Borderline personality traits, rumination, and self-injurious behavior: An empirical test of the emotional cascades model in adult male offenders. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 14(5), 398-417.
Selby, E. A., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2013). Emotional cascades as prospective predictors of dysregulated behaviors in borderline personality disorder. Personality disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 4(2), 168.
Selby, E. A., Franklin, J., Carson‐Wong, A., & Rizvi, S. L. (2013). Emotional cascades and self‐injury: Investigating instability of rumination and negative emotion. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(12), 1213-1227.
Selby, E. A., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2009). Cascades of emotion: The emergence of borderline personality disorder from emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Review of General Psychology, 13(3), 219-229.
Selby, E. A., Anestis, M. D., Bender, T. W., & Joiner Jr, T. E. (2009). An exploration of the emotional cascade model in borderline personality disorder.Journal of Abnormal Psychology,118(2), 375.