Differential Antecedents and Consequences of Affective and Cognitive Ruminations

Adopting the information processing perspective, the current study aims to investigate the differential effects of affective and cognitive ruminations on individuals’ affective states and learning behavior, and to further explore their differential mediating roles in transmitting effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on affect and behavior. A two-wave survey, in which stressors and ruminations were measured in the first wave and affective states and learning behavior were measured in the second, was conducted to obtain responses from 410 employees. As expected, affective and cognitive ruminations were differently associated with challenge stressors (i.e., cognitive job insecurity) and hindrance stressors (i.e., interpersonal conflict), and yielded different effects in terms of positive affect, negative affect, and learning behavior. Specifically, the results showed that: (a) cognitive job insecurity was significantly and positively related to cognitive rumination, while interpersonal conflict was significantly and positively related to affective rumination; (b) affective and cognitive ruminations were significantly associated with positive or negative affect, but in the exact opposite direction; (c) cognitive rumination, but not affective rumination, was significantly related to learning behavior; and (d) cognitive rumination mediated the effect of cognitive job insecurity on positive affect and learning behavior, while affective rumination mediated the effect of interpersonal conflict on negative affect. The current study contributes to the literature on rumination by introducing a new perspective, and sheds new light on the understanding of how and why affective and cognitive ruminations may lead to different affective states and behaviors.