scholarly journals More (of the right strategies) is better: Disaggregating the naturalistic between- and within-person structure and effects of emotion regulation strategies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Southward ◽  
Jennifer S. Cheavens
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Multilevel Factor Analysis ◽  
Emotional Outcomes ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
The Right ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Momentary Assessment

Although people often use multiple strategies to regulate their emotions, it is unclear if using more strategies effectively changes emotional outcomes. This may be because there is no clear, data-driven structure to organise which strategies people use together, so strategies with opposing impacts are modelled together. We first conducted a multilevel factor analysis of negative- and positive-emotion regulation strategies among undergraduates (n = 92) completing ecological momentary assessment three times per day for 10 days. Solutions including 3-within/3-between factors were most interpretable. Using more between-person Adaptive Engagement strategies and within-person Adaptive Engagement, Enhancement, and Behavioural strategies predicted improved mood, whereas using more between-person Aversive Cognitive and within-person Aversive Cognitive and Disengagement strategies predicted worse mood, ps < .05. Using a greater quantity of strategies may thus promote better, or worse, emotional outcomes, depending on the class of strategies used.

scholarly journals Emotions as Context: Do the Naturalistic Effects of Emotion Regulation Strategies Depend on the Regulated Emotion?

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 451-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W. Southward ◽  
Jane E. Heiy ◽  
Jennifer S. Cheavens
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Ecological Momentary Assessment ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Emotional Suppression ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
External Stimuli ◽  
Other Blame ◽  
Momentary Assessment

Introduction: Researchers have examined how several contexts impact the effectiveness of emotion regulation strategies. However, few have considered the emotion-to-be-regulated as a context of interest. Specific emotions are important contexts because they may require particular responses to internal and external stimuli for optimal regulation. Method: Ninety-two undergraduates completed 10 days of ecological momentary assessment, reporting their current mood, recent emotions, and emotion regulation strategies three times per day. Results: The frequency with which certain emotion regulation strategies were used (i.e., acceptance, positive refocusing, reappraisal, problem-solving, and other-blame) differed by the specific emotion experienced. Acceptance and positive refocusing were associated with better mood regardless of emotion, while substance use was associated with worse mood regardless of emotion. Reappraisal was associated with better mood in response to anger than anxiety or sadness, while emotional suppression and other-blame were associated with worse mood in response to anger. Discussion: These results suggest some emotion regulation strategies exhibit emotion-invariant effects while others depend on the emotion-to-be-regulated.

scholarly journals The Wisdom to Know the Difference

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1651-1659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon J. Haines ◽  
John Gleeson ◽  
Peter Kuppens ◽  
Tom Hollenstein ◽  
Joseph Ciarrochi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Adaptive Strategy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Momentary Assessment ◽  
Healthy Participants

The ability to regulate emotions is central to well-being, but healthy emotion regulation may not merely be about using the “right” strategies. According to the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis, emotion-regulation strategies are conducive to well-being only when used in appropriate contexts. This study is the first to test the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis using ecological momentary assessment of cognitive reappraisal—a putatively adaptive strategy. We expected people who used reappraisal more in uncontrollable situations and less in controllable situations to have greater well-being than people with the opposite pattern of reappraisal use. Healthy participants ( n = 74) completed measures of well-being in the lab and used a smartphone app to report their use of reappraisal and perceived controllability of their environment 10 times a day for 1 week. Results supported the strategy-situation-fit hypothesis. Participants with relatively high well-being used reappraisal more in situations they perceived as lower in controllability and less in situations they perceived as higher in controllability. In contrast, we found little evidence for an association between greater well-being and greater mean use of reappraisal across situations.

scholarly journals Negative Urgency Is Correlated With the Use of Reflexive and Disengagement Emotion Regulation Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 822-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin M. King ◽  
Madison C. Feil ◽  
Max A. Halvorson
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Negative Urgency ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Externalizing Psychopathology ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Ema Data

Negative urgency predicts both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Although it is hypothesized that urgency is characterized by reflexive responses to negative emotion that focus on immediate relief from distress, little research has addressed this hypothesis. Using data from four independent samples of adolescents and college students ( n = 1,268), we estimated the association between trait negative urgency and emotion regulation strategies that reflect either reflexive responses or disengagement. We verified these effects in two ecological momentary assessment samples (EMA; n = 198). In retrospective data, negative urgency was correlated with using more disengagement or reflexive emotion regulation strategies relative to engagement strategies, r = .39, .38, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [0.30, 0.49], [0.18, 0.57]. This finding replicated in EMA data, r = .24, 95% CI = [0.11, 0.38]. Emotion regulation may be a key mechanism of the effects of urgency on psychopathology. Interventions targeting emotion regulation among those high on urgency may be warranted.

Regulating Emotion Systems in Everyday Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-446
Author(s):  
Hayley Medland ◽  
Kalee De France ◽  
Tom Hollenstein ◽  
David Mussoff ◽  
Peter Koval
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategy ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Regulation Of Emotion ◽  
Momentary Assessment

Abstract. Researchers are increasingly using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to investigate how people regulate their emotions from moment-to-moment in daily life. However, existing self-report measures of emotion regulation have been designed and validated to assess habitual/trait use of emotion regulation strategies and may therefore not be suited to assessing momentary emotion regulation. The present study aimed to develop a brief, yet reliable, EMA measure of emotion regulation in daily life by adapting the Regulation of Emotion Systems Survey (RESS; DeFrance & Hollenstein, 2017 ), a recently developed global self-report questionnaire assessing habitual use of six emotion regulation strategies. We created an EMA version of the RESS by selecting 12 items from the original scale and adapting them for EMA. We investigated the psychometric properties of the new RESS-EMA scale by administering it eight times daily for 7 days via smartphones to a sample of undergraduates ( n = 112). Results of multilevel modeling analyses supported the within- and between-person reliability and validity of the RESS-EMA scale and suggest that it is a viable way to comprehensively assess momentary emotion regulation strategy use in daily life.

scholarly journals Negative urgency is correlated with the use of reflexive and disengagement emotion regulation strategies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Michael King ◽  
Madison C. Feil ◽  
Max Andrew Halvorson
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Negative Urgency ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Ecological Momentary ◽  
Ema Data

Negative urgency predicts both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Although it is hypothesized that urgency is characterized by reflexive responses to negative emotion that focus on immediate relief from distress, little research has addressed this hypothesis. Using data from four independent samples of adolescents and college students (n=1,268), we estimated the association between trait negative urgency and emotion regulation strategies that reflect either reflexive responses or disengagement. We verified these effects in two samples ecological momentary assessments (EMA) (n=198). In retrospective data, negative urgency was correlated with using more disengagement or reflexive emotion regulation strategies relative to engagement strategies (r=.39; .38, 95% CI =0.30–0.49; 0.18–0.57). This finding replicated in EMA data (r=.24, 95% CI =0.11–0.38). Emotion regulation may be a key mechanism of the effects of urgency on psychopathology. Interventions targeting emotion regulation among those high on urgency may be warranted.

Regulating emotions in two languages: How do emotion regulation strategies relate to physiological reactivity in emotional contexts?

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 1106-1120
Author(s):  
Laura E Quiñones-Camacho ◽  
Emily W Shih ◽  
Scott V Savage ◽  
Covadonga Lamar Prieto ◽  
Elizabeth L Davis
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Emotional Processing ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Sympathetic Arousal

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: Differences in how people regulate their emotions have been shown across cultures. Yet, whether bilinguals regulate emotions differently based on the language they are speaking is unknown, as is whether these regulatory choices relate to their physiology. The aim of this study was to assess whether self-reported use of emotion regulation strategies that promote emotional engagement would be associated with greater sympathetic arousal while describing emotional experiences for bilinguals. Design/Methodology/Approach: 99 Spanish–English bilinguals ( M = 20.8 years; SD = 2.11; 73 women) were interviewed about times they felt sad and afraid in both Spanish and English, and described what they did to regulate those emotions. Sympathetic nervous system physiology (pre-ejection period; PEP) was assessed continuously. The within-person experimental design enabled exploration of differences in regulation and physiology that were associated with talking about negative emotions in different languages. Data and Analysis: Emotion regulation strategies that indexed emotional engagement (e.g. cognitive reappraisal) were reliably coded from participant interviews. PEP reactivity was calculated as the change from a resting baseline to each language context. We used hierarchical linear regressions to test our hypotheses. Findings/Conclusions: We found that using fewer engagement strategies was associated with decreased sympathetic arousal, but only for people who were more physiologically aroused when at rest and only when participants were speaking English. Originality: This study is the first to show that bilinguals’ emotion regulatory attempts have different consequences across languages, highlighting how emotional processing is colored by cultural-linguistic lenses. Significance/Implications: These findings align with growing evidence that bilinguals’ physiological reactions to emotional events depend on the language context. Knowledge generated by this investigation contributes to our understanding of cross-cultural differences in people’s physiological arousal and emotional processing by highlighting these patterns among the understudied population of bilingual speakers.

Religiosity and Emotion Regulation

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (9) ◽  
pp. 1050-1074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allon Vishkin ◽  
Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom ◽  
Shalom H. Schwartz ◽  
Nevin Solak ◽  
Maya Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Cognitive Reappraisal ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Emotional Outcomes ◽  
Specific Emotion ◽  
Regulation Strategies

People higher (vs. lower) in religiosity differ in the emotions they typically experience, but do they also differ in how they deal with their emotions? In this investigation, we systematically tested links between religiosity and elements of emotion regulation, including beliefs regarding the controllability of emotion, the motivation to feel better, and the tendency to use specific emotion regulation strategies (e.g., cognitive reappraisal, rumination, distraction). Participants were American Catholics, Israeli Jews, and Muslim Turks ( N = 616) who were stratified sampled based on level of religiosity. All eight preregistered hypotheses were confirmed, even after controlling for demographic variables. We found that people higher (vs. lower) in religiosity were more likely to use emotion regulation strategies that are typically linked to adaptive emotional outcomes (e.g., cognitive reappraisal, acceptance) and less likely to use emotion regulation strategies that are typically linked to less adaptive outcomes (e.g., rumination). These findings suggest that people higher (vs. lower) in religiosity may deal with their emotions in more adaptive ways.

scholarly journals Unpacking the Emotional Dimension of Doctoral Supervision: Supervisors' Emotions and Emotion Regulation Strategies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Han ◽  
Yueting Xu
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Multiple Strategies ◽  
Regulation Strategies ◽  
Science Supervisors ◽  
Doctoral Supervision

Successful completion of a PhD is challenging for both the candidate and the supervisor. While doctoral students' emotional burdens received much attention, their supervisors' emotional experiences remain under-explored. Moreover, while teacher education research stressed the importance of teacher emotion regulation, empirical studies on doctoral supervisors' emotion regulation barely exist. The current qualitative study explored 17 computer science supervisors' emotions unfolding in doctoral supervision and their emotion regulation strategies. Semi-structured interviews revealed the supervisors' wide-ranging emotions, with their negative emotions more diverse and common than positive ones. The supervisors also regulated their emotions through multiple strategies within antecedent-focused and response-focused approaches. As one of the initial studies on doctoral supervisors' emotion and emotion regulation in their own right, the current study not only uncovers the complexity of the emotion-laden dimension of supervision, but also highlights the need for all stakeholders to attend to supervisors' psychological well-being in tandem with their students'.

scholarly journals Choose change: Situation modification, distraction, and reappraisal in mild versus intense negative situations

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bram Van Bockstaele ◽  
Ludovica Atticciati ◽  
Anu P. Hiekkaranta ◽  
Helle Larsen ◽  
Bruno Verschuere
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Stimulus Display ◽  
Applied Potential ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategies ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Emotional Environment ◽  
Emotion Regulation Strategy ◽  
Regulation Strategies

Abstract Despite the theoretical importance and applied potential of situation modification as an emotion regulation strategy, empirical research on how people change situations to regulate their emotions is scarce. Meanwhile, existing paradigms typically allowed participants to avoid the entire situation, thus confounding situation modification with situation selection. In our current experiments, participants could choose between partially modifying their negative emotional environment without avoiding it entirely and two well-established emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and distraction). Participants did choose situation modification (Experiments 1–2) and they did so more often for intense than for mild stimuli in Experiment 2. In addition, modifying the stimulus display effectively helped downregulating negative affect (Experiments 1–2). Finally, in both experiments, participants opted more for distraction for intense compared to mild stimuli, while they opted more for reappraisal for mild compared to intense stimuli. Presenting a first step in developing a paradigm that allows people to exert control over but to not avoid emotion-provoking situations, we thus show that changing one’s environment helps regulating one’s emotions. More generally, our findings indicate that people prefer to regulate their emotions using disengagement strategies (situation modification and distraction) with high-intensity relative to low-intensity negative situations, while they prefer engagement strategies (reappraisal) with low-intensity relative to high-intensity negative situations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document