The field of emotion regulation has now come of age. However, enthusiasm for the topic continues to outstrip conceptual clarity. In this article, I review the state of the field. I do this by ...asking-and attempting to succinctly answer-10 fundamental questions concerning emotion regulation, ranging from what emotion regulation is, to why it matters, to how we can change it. I conclude by considering some of the challenges that confront this rapidly growing field.
Emotion regulation (ER) refers to attempts to influence emotions in ourselves or others. Over the past several decades, ER has become a popular topic across many subdisciplines within psychology. One ...framework that has helped to organize work on ER is the process model of ER, which distinguishes 5 families of strategies defined by when they impact the emotion generation process. The process model embeds these ER strategies in stages in which a need for regulation is identified, a strategy is selected and implemented, and monitoring occurs to track success. Much of the research to date has focused on a strategy called cognitive reappraisal, which involves changing how one thinks about a situation to influence one's emotional response. Reappraisal is thought to be generally effective and adaptive, but there are important qualifications. In this article, we use reappraisal as an example to illustrate how we might consider 4 interrelated issues: (a) the consequences of using ER, either when instructed or spontaneous; (b) how ER success and frequency are shaped by individual and environmental determinants; (c) the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that make ER possible; and (d) interventions that might improve how well and how often people use ER.
Digital Emotion Contagion Goldenberg, Amit; Gross, James J.
Trends in cognitive sciences,
04/2020, Volume:
24, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
People spend considerable time on digital media, and are thus often exposed to expressions of emotion by other people. This exposure can lead their own emotion expressions becoming more similar to ...those of others, a process we refer to as ‘digital emotion contagion’. This article reviews the growing literature on digital emotion contagion. After defining emotion contagion, we suggest that one unique feature of digital emotion contagion is that it is mediated by digital media platforms that are motivated to upregulate user emotions. We then turn to measurement, and consider the challenges of demonstrating that digital emotion contagion has occurred, and how these challenges have been addressed. Finally, we call for a greater focus on understanding when emotion contagion effects are likely to be strong versus weak or nonexistent.
People are spending increasing time on digital media, during which time they are exposed to the emotion expressions of others. This can lead their own emotion expressions becoming more similar to those of others.One distinction between digital and nondigital emotion contagion is that digital emotion contagion is mediated emotion contagion. The goals of digital media companies – to increase the frequency and intensity of user emotions – likely increase emotion contagion.Another distinction between digital and nondigital contagion is that the size and the character of digital networks may amplify contagion. However, increased exposure may also contribute to habituation and fatigue, which may serve as a counterweight, thus decreasing emotion contagion.Given that many factors contribute to changes in the emotion of a person from moment to moment, and the typical absence of information regarding user exposure to emotional content produced by others, it is challenging to determine when digital emotion contagion has occurred.
Other than talent and opportunity, what makes some people more successful than others? One important determinant of success is self-control—the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior ...in the presence of temptation. A second important determinant of success is grit—the tenacious pursuit of a dominant superordinate goal despite setbacks. Self-control and grit are strongly correlated, but not perfectly so. This means that some people with high levels of self-control capably handle temptations but do not consistently pursue a dominant goal. Likewise, some exceptional achievers are prodigiously gritty but succumb to temptations in domains other than their chosen life passion. Understanding how goals are hierarchically organized clarifies how self-control and grit are related but distinct: Self-control entails aligning actions with any valued goal despite momentarily more-alluring alternatives; grit, in contrast, entails having and working assiduously toward a single challenging superordinate goal through thick and thin, on a timescale of years or even decades. Although both self-control and grit entail aligning actions with intentions, they operate in different ways and over different timescales. This hierarchical goal framework suggests novel directions for basic and applied research on success.
Emotion Regulation Flexibility Aldao, Amelia; Sheppes, Gal; Gross, James J.
Cognitive therapy and research,
06/2015, Volume:
39, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
How do people flexibly regulate their emotions in order to manage the diverse demands of varying situations? This question assumes particular importance given the central role that emotion regulation ...(ER) deficits play in many forms of psychopathology. In this review, we propose a translational framework for the study of ER flexibility that is relevant to normative and clinical populations. We also offer a set of computational tools that are useful for work on ER flexibility. We specify how such tools can be used in a variety of settings, such as basic research, experimental psychopathology, and clinical practice. Our goal is to encourage the theoretical and methodological precision that is needed in order to facilitate progress in this important area.
Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology Sheppes, Gal; Suri, Gaurav; Gross, James J
Annual review of clinical psychology,
03/2015, Volume:
11, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Emotional problems figure prominently in many clinical conditions. Recent efforts to explain and treat these conditions have emphasized the role of emotion dysregulation. However, emotional problems ...are not always the result of emotion dysregulation, and even when emotional problems do arise from emotion dysregulation, it is necessary to specify precisely what type of emotion dysregulation might be operative. In this review, we present an extended process model of emotion regulation, and we use this model to describe key points at which emotion-regulation difficulties can lead to various forms of psychopathology. These difficulties are associated with (
a
) identification of the need to regulate emotions, (
b
) selection among available regulatory options, (
c
) implementation of a selected regulatory tactic, and (
d
) monitoring of implemented emotion regulation across time. Implications and future directions for basic research, assessment, and intervention are discussed.
The world is complicated, and we hold a large number of beliefs about how it works. These beliefs are important because they shape how we interact with the world. One particularly impactful set of ...beliefs centers on emotion, and a small but growing literature has begun to document the links between emotion beliefs and a wide range of emotional, interpersonal, and clinical outcomes. Here, we review the literature that has begun to examine beliefs about emotion, focusing on two fundamental beliefs, namely whether emotions are good or bad and whether emotions are controllable or uncontrollable. We then consider one underlying mechanism that we think may link these emotion beliefs with downstream outcomes, namely emotion regulation. Finally, we highlight the role of beliefs about emotion across various psychological disciplines and outline several promising directions for future research.
The neural bases of emotion regulation Etkin, Amit; Büchel, Christian; Gross, James J
Nature reviews. Neuroscience,
11/2015, Volume:
16, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Emotions are powerful determinants of behaviour, thought and experience, and they may be regulated in various ways. Neuroimaging studies have implicated several brain regions in emotion regulation, ...including the ventral anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortices, as well as the lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices. Drawing on computational approaches to value-based decision-making and reinforcement learning, we propose a unifying conceptual framework for understanding the neural bases of diverse forms of emotion regulation.
It is widely acknowledged that emotions can be regulated in an astonishing variety of ways. Most research to date has focused on explicit (effortful) forms of emotion regulation. However, there is ...growing research interest in implicit (automatic) forms of emotion regulation. To organise emerging findings, we present a dual-process framework that integrates explicit and implicit forms of emotion regulation, and argue that both forms of regulation are necessary for well-being. In the first section of this review, we provide a broad overview of the construct of emotion regulation, with an emphasis on explicit and implicit processes. In the second section, we focus on explicit emotion regulation, considering both neural mechanisms that are associated with these processes and their experiential and physiological consequences. In the third section, we turn to several forms of implicit emotion regulation, and integrate the burgeoning literature in this area. We conclude by outlining open questions and areas for future research.
People's beliefs about emotions may be grouped into two main categories: beliefs about the controllability of emotions and beliefs about the usefulness of emotions. These beliefs influence emotion ...regulation efforts and mental health, so the assessment of these beliefs is important. However, few psychometric measures are available, particularly for assessing the usefulness dimension. In this study (N = 161), we address this issue by developing and conducting an initial validation of a 16-item self-report measure called the Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ). Confirmatory factor analyses found its structure to consist of three first-order factors: a controllability factor spanning both negatively and positively valenced emotions (General-Controllability), and two valence-specific usefulness factors (Negative-Usefulness, Positive-Usefulness). All first-order factors also loaded together on a higher-order factor, representing an overall maladaptive beliefs about emotions construct. All subscale and composite scores had good levels of internal consistency. Correlational and regression analyses found that EBQ scores related in expected ways with other measures, and were significant predictors of emotion regulation abilities and psychopathology. We conclude that the beliefs about emotions construct is multidimensional, and the EBQ appears to be a promising new tool to assess it.
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