Annotated Bibliography of Rumination

Ruminating.
Most individuals have at one time or another ruminated over an upsetting event or a negative feelings. While most have ruminated, people do differ on the degree they ruminate (Brown,1998) For some, it is a brief period of time, and yet for others, they seem to get lost in their ruminations.   Over the past twenty years, a significant amount of research has explored the act of ruminating.   This current essay will endeavour to explore a small sample of the current trend in rumination research, discuss areas in which the research may have neglected to examine and to explore possible future research.
One criticism of rumination research has been that there is no unifying definition for rumination.   Rumination, in general, is viewed as passive, maladaptive coping strategy whereby an individual primarily focuses on internal negative emotional states.   It is not clear what the distinction is between daydreaming and rumination.   For example, one definition of rumination is that it is involuntary, involves repetitive thoughts, and does not requiring external cues.   Yet daydreaming has been defined as a spontaneous mental event that requiring no-stimulus and is not responding to a specific situation. To “muddy the waters” even further, research on rumination is generally on negative affect, such as anger or depression.   Yet, in a study by Selby, Anestis, and Joiner, the focus was on daydreaming about suicide.   Even in rumination literature, there seems to be a blurring between daydreaming and rumination.   For example, Allen and Berkos, explored aggressive-rumination through imagined-interactions (II), which they defined as a self-controlled daydream.
Another element of contention in defining rumination is the notion that rumination as a voluntary or involuntary act.   According to Taylor and Schneider, rumination is an involuntary thought of an upsetting event. Yet, as previously stated, Vaital described daydreaming as a spontaneous act, whereas Koole...