The current categorical diagnostic system is problematic.

A dimensional approach may improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment efficacy.

Identifying transdiagnostic commonalities is an important step toward such improvement.

Emotional reactivity may be one such commonality.

It is now well accepted among psychologists and clinical researchers that the official categories we use to diagnose mental disorders, those familiar labels such as major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, etc., are inadequate in that they do not “carve nature at the joints.” In other words, our current categories are not discrete but highly overlapping, so that many disorders share diagnostic features and symptoms.

Moreover, treatment modalities are often effective across diagnostic labels. Medications, too, tend to work for multiple diagnoses. Our current categories, finally, are not based on biological or etiological similarities but on committee consensus regarding co-occurring symptoms and clinical courses.

This fact has given rise in recent decades to an alternative, dimensional approach, which involves a search for transdiagnostic commonalities, both at the level of treatment and coping (techniques that work for multiple psychological problems) and at the diagnostic level (i.e., vulnerabilities that predispose individuals to a vast array of potential dysfunctional manifestations). We know, for example, that cognitive restructuring, psychological flexibility, and experiential engagement (exposure) are transdiagnostic coping........

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