scholarly journals Effort beats effectiveness in emotion regulation choice: Differences between suppression and distancing in subjective and physiological measures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Scheffel ◽  
Sven-Thomas Graupner ◽  
Anne Gärtner ◽  
Josephine Zerna ◽  
Alexander Strobel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Heart Period ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Emotional Responding ◽  
Subjective Arousal

Emotion regulation (ER) can be implemented by different strategies which differ in their capacity to alter emotional responding. What all strategies have in common is that cognitive control must be exercised in order to implement them. The aim of the present preregistered study was to investigate whether the two ER strategies expressive suppression and distancing require different amounts of cognitive effort and whether effort is associated with personality traits. Effort was assessed subjectively via ratings and objectively via pupillometry and heart period. In two studies, N = 110 and N = 52 healthy adults conducted an ER paradigm. Participants used suppression and distancing during inspection of positive and negative pictures. They also had the choice to reapply either of the strategies at the end of the paradigm. Although distancing was more effective in downregulation of subjective arousal (Study 1: p < .001, ηp² = .20; Study 2: p < .001, ηp² = .207), about two thirds reapplied suppression, because it was perceived as less effortful. Effort was rated significantly lower for suppression compared to distancing (Study 1: p = .042, ηp² = .04; Study 2: p = .002, ηp² = .13). However, differences in effort were not reflected in pupillary data or heart period. Broad and narrow personality traits were neither associated with the preferred strategy, nor with subjective or physiological effort measures. Findings suggest that people tend to use the ER strategy that is perceived as less effortful, even though it might not be the most effective strategy.

Individual Differences in Irony Use Depend on Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 675-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoritaka Akimoto ◽  
Shiho Miyazawa
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Social Abilities ◽  
The Relationship

We investigated individual differences in irony use depending on context. In Study 1, we manipulated contextual factors, including the speaker’s emotion and the listener’s emotion, and assessed the likelihood of irony use. In Study 2, we manipulated the relationship between the speaker and the listener and assessed the rate of irony use with free description. Correlations between participants’ responses to various measures of personality traits and differences in irony use between conditions and mean irony use across conditions were examined. Regulation of interpersonal relationships and preference for supportive humor predicted the differences in irony use between conditions, whereas expressive suppression, self-control, and preference for playful humor predicted irony use regardless of condition. These results confirmed our hypothesis that the speaker’s social abilities about management of interpersonal relationship and tendency toward emotion regulation were associated with individual differences in irony use depending on context and in general, respectively.

scholarly journals For Body and Mind: Practicing Yoga and Emotion Regulation

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. e25502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorota Kobylińska ◽  
Karol Lewczuk ◽  
Marta Marchlewska ◽  
Aneta Pietraszek
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Big Five ◽  
Cognitive Reappraisal ◽  
Yoga Practice ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Big Five Model ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Low Levels

The purpose of the present study was to examine if the length of yoga training may influence the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression (as emotion regulation strategies) and whether this relationship may be moderated by personality traits. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that the link between the length of yoga practice and emotion regulation can rely most heavily on participants’ conscientiousness and extraversion levels. Ninety women in two groups participated in the study: those who have been practicing yoga for over a year and those who have been practicing for a shorter period of time. An Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was applied to measure the use the strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Moreover, personality traits, based on the Big Five model were assessed. The results of the study provided support for our prediction: participants who engaged in yoga practice for a longer period of time (as compared to participants who practiced yoga for a shorter duration), reported using cognitive reappraisal more often. Furthermore, longer yoga practice was more beneficial than shorter practice especially for individuals with low levels of conscientiousness and extraversion. Thus, extraversion and conscientiousness seem to facilitate the process of drawing benefits from practicing yoga.

Explaining the Link between Personality and Relationship Satisfaction: Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Behaviour in Conflict Discussions

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Vater ◽  
Michela Schröder–Abé
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Relationship Satisfaction ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Interpersonal Processes ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Interpersonal Behaviour

Past research has shown that personality traits predict relationship quality in romantic couples. However, very little research has investigated psychological processes that underlie the link between personality and relationship satisfaction. The present study focused on the mediating role of spontaneous emotion regulation and positive interpersonal behaviour. This study applied a dyadic design with 137 couples who completed self–report questionnaires assessing Big Five personality traits at baseline. Subsequently, couples were asked to discuss a current relationship conflict during a laboratory session. Emotion regulation and relationship satisfaction were assessed via self–report directly after the discussion. Relationship satisfaction was additionally assessed at 6–month follow–up. Interpersonal behaviour during the conflict discussion was videotaped and coded by independent raters. As expected, emotion regulation (expressive suppression, perspective taking and aggressive externalisation), positive interpersonal behaviour and state relationship satisfaction during the conflict discussion mediated the relation between personality and long–term relationship satisfaction. In sum, this study provides evidence that personality is linked to relationship satisfaction through intrapersonal and interpersonal processes during social interactions. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

Prediction of dark personality traits and self-destruction based on emotion regulation among adolescent females

2020 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Risky Behaviors ◽  
Adolescent Females ◽  
Dark Triad ◽  
Cluster Sampling ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Difficulties In Emotion Regulation ◽  
Academic Year

Background and Aims: Temperament is determined as a relatively constant, basic, and innate position that underlies and modifies the expression of activity, emotionality, and sociability among people. The current study aimed to investigate the prediction of dark personality traits and self-destruction based on emotion regulation among adolescent females. Materials and Methods: This correlational study included 250 adolescent females using a cluster sampling method in the academic year of 2018-19 in Shiraz, Iran. The participants were asked to complete Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Dark Triad Scale, and Chronic Self-Destructiveness Scale. Results: The results of the regression analysis showed that emotion regulation with beta coefficients was able to predict significant and positive dark personality traits (0.25), narcissism (0.49), Machiavellianism (0.39), psychopathy (0.32), sadism (0.35), and self-destructiveness (0.49) (P<0.05). Conclusion: Directly targeted interventions to regulate emotion may be useful in addressing risky behaviors of adolescents with self-destructive and dark personality traits.

Smiling won’t make you feel better: Response-focused emotion regulation strategies have little impact on cognitive, behavioural, physiological, and subjective outcomes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Bahl ◽  
Allison Ouimet
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Adaptive Strategy ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Memory Accuracy ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
The Common ◽  
Subjective Outcomes

Background and Objectives. Response-focused emotion regulation (RF-ER) strategies may alter people’s evoked emotions, influencing psychophysiology, memory accuracy, and affect. Researchers have found that participants engaging in expressive suppression (ES; a RF-ER strategy) experience increased sympathetic nervous system arousal, affect (i.e., higher subjective anxiety and negative emotion), and lowered memory accuracy. It is unclear, however, whether all RF-ER strategies exert maladaptive effects. Expressive dissonance (ED; displaying an expression opposite from how one feels) is a RF-ER strategy, and thus likely considered “maladaptive”. As outlined by the facial feedback hypothesis, however, smiling may increase positive emotion, suggesting it may be an adaptive strategy. We compared the effects of ED and ES to a control condition on psychophysiology, memory accuracy, and affect, to assess whether ED is an adaptive RF-ER strategy, relative to ES. Methods. We randomly assigned 144 female participants to engage in ED, ES, or to naturally observe, while viewing negative and arousing images. We recorded electrodermal activity and self-reported affect throughout the experiment and participants completed memory tasks. Results. There were no differences between groups across outcomes. Conclusion. Engaging in ES or ED may not lead to negative or positive impacts, shedding doubt on the common conclusion that specific strategies are categorically adaptive or maladaptive.

Neural mechanisms of the cognitive control of emotion

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 144-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa J. Green ◽  
Gin S. Malhi
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Psychological Health ◽  
Emotion Dysregulation ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Cognitive Strategies ◽  
Emotion Perception ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Emotion Generation

Background:Emotion regulation involves the initiation of new emotional responses and continual alteration of current emotions in response to rapidly changing environmental and social stimuli. The capacity to effectively implement emotion regulation strategies is essential for psychological health; impairments in the ability to regulate emotions may be critical to the development of clinical levels of depression, anxiety and mania.Objective:This review provides a summary of findings from current research examining the neural mechanisms of emotion regulation by means of conscious cognitive strategies of reappraisal. These findings are considered in the context of related concepts of emotion perception and emotion generation, with discussion of the likely cognitive neuropsychological contributions to emotion regulation and the implications for psychiatric disorders.Results:Convergent evidence implicates an inhibitory role of prefrontal cortex and cingulate regions upon subcortical and cortical emotion generation systems in the cognitive control of emotional experience. Concurrent modulation of cortical activity by the peripheral nervous system is highlighted by recent studies using simultaneous physiological and neuroimaging techniques. Individual differences in emotion perception, generation of affect and neuropsychological skills are likely to have direct consequences for emotion regulation.Conclusions:Emotion regulation relies on synergy within brain stem, limbic and cortical processes that promote the adaptive perception, generation and regulation of affect. Aberrant emotion processing in any of these stages may disrupt this self-sustaining regulatory system, with the potential to manifest in distinct forms of emotion dysregulation as seen in major psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Concurrent and Lagged Relations between Emotion Regulation and Affect in Adolescents’ Daily Life

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliana Silva ◽  
Teresa Freire ◽  
Susana Faria
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Sampling Method ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Cognitive Reappraisal ◽  
Expressive Suppression ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Trait Level

AbstractA better understanding of emotion regulation (ER) within daily life is a growing focus of research. This study evaluated the average use of two ER strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and concurrent and lagged relationships between these two ER strategies and affect (positive and negative affect) in the daily lives of adolescents. We also investigated the role of the same strategies at the trait level on these within-person relationships. Thirty-three adolescents provided 1,258 reports of their daily life by using the Experience Sampling Method for one week. Regarding the relative use of ER strategies, cognitive reappraisal (M = 2.87, SD = 1.58) was used more often than expressive suppression (M = 2.42, SD = 1.21). While the use of both strategies was positively correlated when evaluated in daily life (p = .01), the same did not occur at the trait level (p = .37). Multilevel analysis found that ER strategies were concurrently related to affect (p < .01), with the exception of cognitive reappraisal-positive affect relationship (p = .11). However, cognitive reappraisal predicted higher positive affect at the subsequent sampling moment ( β = 0.07, p = .03). The concurrent associations between cognitive reappraisal and negative affect vary as function of the use of this strategy at the trait level (β = 0.05, p = .02). Our findings highlighted the complex associations between daily ER strategies and affect of a normative sample of adolescents.

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