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7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
1/24
EMOTION
REGULATION
IN EVERYDAY L IF E
JAMES ]. GROSS,
IANE
M .
RICHARDS,
FAND OLIVER P . J O H N
. ~'-
- i
JP' .-
Somet imes, our emotions lead u s to do th e oddest things. Grown m en
pull over s o _ they
can brawl
over which driver is th e
bigger
idiot. Parents lose
their
coo l
and bark
hateful
things
a t
their children
that th ey la te r regret.
Adolescents who
were
best
fr iends
before
a
jealous
spat
vow
never
to
speak
again.
And children throw tantrums a s
if on cue a t th e
supermarke t candy
displav.
Moments such a s these are
reminders
of the fundamenta l
role
that
e m o -
tion regulat ion plays
in
civi l ized
life.
Emotions ca n be
helpful,
providing
crucia l in format ion
about the state
of
ones in teract ions
with th e
world (Clore,
I994)
or speed ing ones responses in
l if e - t h 1 ; e ' a ' te r ii n g
situations (Erijda, 1986) .
However , people frequently experience st rong emotions
that need
to be man-
aged if thev are to keep their appo in tments, careers, and fr iendships. Indeed,
successful
emot ion
regulat ion is a prerequisite fo r adapt ive functioning. To
get along with others , one must be able to regulate which emot ions one has
and how one exper iences and expresses these emotions.
O v e r the past Z decades, emot ion regu la t ion
has
become th e focus of
in tense
research activity
in both child (e.g.,
Thompson ,
19 91 ) a nd adul t
(e.g., Gross,
1998) l i teratures, a s d e m o ns tra te d b y
th e
chapters
in this vol-
1 3
_ u _ _ _
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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._-..-
..,._.
--__-_--\_-;--- - ------ --- --- - - -=-
-._-__-,_s=-_--
- -___-__________ _ _____ _ __ _ _ . . ___ __ _________ _ _ ___
ume. What is not
ye t
clear,
however,
is (a ) how to best
conceptual ize
th e
potentially overwhelming array ofemot ion
regulatory
processes,
and
(b ) h ow
peop le actual ly
regulate their
emotions in
everyday l i fe. In this
chapter,
we
first
discuss
ho w we are
using the
sl ippery terms emotion and
emotion
regulat ion. Ne x t ,
we present
a
process
mode l of
emot ion
regulat ion
and
rev iew experimen ta l and ind ividual-d i fference data re le va nt t o
tw o
impor-
tant
forms of emot ion regulat ion. Then , we
examine
th e question of how
peop le regula te their emot ions
in
everyday l i fe, present ing new data from
studies that represent th re e m a jo r empir ica l approaches to this issue. W e
conclude by consider ing what these f indings might
tell
u s
about
the larger
issues related
to emot ion regulat ion
a s
it
occurs
in
everyday l i fe.
W concsrruat,
T H E O R E T I C A L ,
. : _ _
AND
METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES
Our.
start ing
point
is a concept ion of emot ion that is shared
with
a
number
of prior
theorists (e.g., Ekman, 1972; Fri jda, 1986).
According
to
this concept ion ,
th e
emot iomgenerat ive process
begins
when an
external
or
internal event signals to the
individual that
something importantm a y be
a t
stake. Wlren
attended to
and
evaluated
in
certa in ways, these
emot ion
cues
tr igger
a
coordinated se t
of
response tendencies
that
involve exper ient ia l ,
behavioral , and
centra l and
per iphera l physio log ica l
systems. O n c e these
emot ion
response tendencies arise, they
m ay
be modulated
in
various ways,
thereby shaping
th e indiv idual s observable
responses.
Emotion regulation
refers to attempts indiv iduals
make
to influence
which
e m o ti on s t he y
have,
w h en th ey
have
them,
and
how
these
emotions
are
e x
per ienced and expressed.
Such
efforts m ay be
relat ively
automat ic or con-
trol led, conscious
or unconscious. It ha s also been asserted
(but
not empiri
cally demonstrated)
that
emotion regulation
m ay
involve
the
up or
down-regulat ion of
various
aspects ofnegat ive or posi t ive emot ions (Patrott ,
1993). Thus conce ived ,
emot ion
regulat ion
is on e of
several forms
of
affect
regulat ion, all ofwhich involve attempts t o a lte r some aspect of the in terp lay
between th e individual and th e environment that is coded
by
th e individual
in
-afvalenoed (gopd or
bad)
manner.
Emot ion
regulat ion m ay be dist inguished
from three other
forms
of
affect regulat ion:
c op in g, m o od regulat ion, and
psychological
defenses
(fora
more
deta il ed expos i ti on of these differences,
s e e
Gross,
1998).
Coping refers to th e organisnfs
efforts
to manage it s relat ions with an
env i ronment that taxes
it s
ability
to respond
(Lazarus 8 1 -
Folkman, 1984).
Cop ing and emot ion
regulat ion over lap,
but
coping includes
nonemot iona l
act ions takento
achieve
nonemot iona l
goals
(e.g., studying
h ard to pass
an
important exam), whereas emot ion
regulat ion
is concerned
with emotions
in
whatever context
they
m ay arise. M o o d
regulation refers
to attempts to
1 4 o R o s s , R I c 1 ~ m R o s , r i r r v o J o 1 - Ir v
____.__ __ _ I
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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-.
alter a second important
class
of affective responses, which,
compared
with
emotions, are typically of longer duration and
lesser
intensi ty and are . _ l e s s
likely toinvolve
responses
to
specif ic
objects (Parkinson, Totterdell,
Briner,
< 3 1
Reynolds,
1996) . Thus, th e focus
in
mood regulat ion research is typically
the activ i t ies people engage
in to
reduce -negative mood states (e.g., running,
sleeping
well). A third
type
of
affect
regulat ion is psychological
defense, long
a
focus
of
psychodynamic
theorizing
and
research.
As
with
coping,
th e d o m a in
of -psychological defenses overlaps with th e d om a in of emot ion
regulat ion,
but
defenses typically refer to
relat ively stable
characterist ics
of a n individual
that
opera te outs ide
of
awareness
to
decrease
th e
subject ive exper ience
of
anxiety and
other
negat ive af fect.
Studies of
emot ion regulat ion, by contrast,
have a s
their focus th e
full
range of
emotions a n d c on si de r
both stable i n d i - F
vidual differences
and
the-basic processes
that operate
across
ind ividuals.
A
P R O C E S S
MODEL O F EMOTION REGULATION
If
emot ions
are seen
a s
involving
a
coordinated
se t
of
responses
that
arise during an organ ismeenvi ronment in terac ti on , emot ion regula ti on strat
egies m ay be different iated
a long
th e
timeline
of th e
u n fo ld i n g e mo t io n a l
responses
(Gross, 1998,
1999', ZOOI;
]ohn
8r Gross , Z004 ).
That
is ,
e-motion
regulat ion strategies m ay be dist inguished
in
terms
of
when they have their
p r ima r y i mp a c t on
the emot ion-generat ive process.
W e have
proposed a
pro
c e s s
mode l of emot ion regulat ion that
embodies
this approach, shown in
Figure 1.1.
At th e
broadest level ,
this
m o d e l d i st in gu is he s b et we e n
antecedent-
focused
and responseefocnsed
emotion regulat ion
strategies. Antecedent-e
_focusle d trategies refer to th in gs one does before th e e m o tio n
response
ten
dencies
have
become fully act ivated and have changed ones behavior and
oneis peripheral
physio log ica l
responding. The goal of such antecedent-fo-
cused
strategies
is th e modification of future emot iona l responses. Fo r e x *
ample,
on
hear ing
a noxious c o mme n t from a n
acquaintance,
one might
- cogni t ively. reevaluate
th e c om m e n t (e.g.,
a s
a sign of insecurity)
and
thereby 6
alter th e
ent ire
emot ion
trajectory,
feelingpity
fo r
theacquain tance rather M
than
a ng er. B y
contrast ,
response-focused. strategies refer
to
things
one does
once an
emot ion is already
underway, a f ter the response t endencies have
a lre a d y b ee n
generated.
The focus
of
such response-focused
strategies
is the
management
of
exist ing emotions. Fo r example ,
one might try
to
appear
unfazed
by
a noxious c o mme n t despite underly ing feelings of
anger.
A s s ho wn in
Figure 1.1, five
fami l ies
of
more spec ifi c
strategies
ca n be
lo cat ed a lo n g t he
timeline of
th e e m o ti on
process
(Gross , 1998 ,
Z001) .
S i t n -
at ion selection, denoted in Figure 1 . 1
by
the s oli d l ine toward one si tuat ion
(SI) rather than a n oth er (S 2 ) , refers to a p p ro a chi ng o r a vo id i ng c e rt a in
people, places, or act ivi t ies s o
a s
to regulate emot ion. O n ce
a
situation is
E M O T I O N R E G U L A T IO N I N
svssmar
use
1 5
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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_ g _ _ E _
g
U w fi m g
:
m _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ' w _ _ n _ D n _
_ g _ _ m B
E O N
E m I _ _ a O O
m _ _ N
% _ L _ % w
m % Q _ 2 % _ _ _% _ _ w _ _ E
E _ _ H _ _ _ _ 6
_ I _ O O N _ g O \ _ on_ _ _ m C E I ? _ > _ w2C _ _ E I | I | I _ U O O I _ _ I _ _ _ _ I v
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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|.
1-
J
selected
(e.g.,
S1) , situation modificat ion acts on it s o - . a s - t o _ modi fy it s
emo-
tional impact ,
creat ing
dif ferent
si tuat ions (Slx,
Sly,
or Slz
in th e
f igure).
Third, si tuat ions
have
many
dif ferent
aspects (e.g., al, a2) , a nd attentional
deployment
can be us ed to
pickwhich aspects
to
focus
on. O n ce one
is focused
on a part icu lar aspect of the si tuat ion, cognitivecliange
constructs
one
of
th e
ma n y poss ib le mean ings
(e.g., ml, m 2,
m 3)
that
may-be attached
to that
aspect.
Final ly,
response
modulat ion
refers
to
attempts
t o i nfl ue n c e
emot ion
response
tendencies
once they a lready have been el ic i ted. Response modula-
tion is i l lustrated in Figure
1.1 by
decreasing (+ ) rather
than
increasing (+)
expressive behavior
but m ay also
involve
alter ing
experience or physiology.
-
.
-at ,|
Jul
T W O
srscmc S T R A T E G I E S :
CO G N I T I V E REAPPRAISAL AND
EXPRESSIVE
SUPPRESSION
Rather than
studying
all
types of e mo t io n re g ul a ti o n a t once, our re-
search
strategy ha s been to
focus on a
smal ler
number of
well-defined strate-
gies.
W e
considered three fac tors
when
selectingwhich
strategies
to
study:
(a ) strategies
should be used
-commonly in everyday
l ife;
(b ) strategies
should
lend themselves to
both
exper imental manipula t ion
and
indiv idual-di f ference
analyses; and
(c )
because
the distinction between antecedent- focused and
response-focused
strategies
is
so c e nt ra l t o o ur m o d e l, we w a nte d to in clud e
o ne e x em p la r of each in our studies. Two
specif ic
strategies
m et
these crite-
r ia: cognit ive reappraisal and expressive
suppression.
Cognitive
reappraisal
is a
form
of
cognit ive change
that
involves con-
struing
apotentially emotion-eliciting si tuat ion in a way that
changes it s
emot iona l
impact .
This
form
of emot ion
regulat ion wa s
th e
subject
of
early
work by-llazams
and
colleagues,
who showed that
leading par ti c ipan ts to v iew
a
potentially
upsett ing surgical procedure
in
more analyt ical -and detached
terms decreased their subjective and physiological responses (Lazarus
8 1 Alfert,
1964).
Cognitive
reappraisal a ls o w as imp l ica ted
in
Mischel s early work on
delay
of
g ra t ifi ca ti o n, wh ich showed that
leading
children to think about
food treats in
ways
that made them
more
abstract
(e.g.,
putting a menta l
picture frame around a
cookie)
decreased ,_r;hildrens
impulse
to eat th e
cookie, al lowing
them
to
obta in
a
preferred
but delayed
reward
(Mischel 8 1
Moore,
1973).
l
Expressive suppression
is a form of response
modula t ion
that
involves
inhibiting ongoing emot ion-expressive
behavior (Gross
8 1 Levenson, 1993 ).
It ha s been
observed
repeatedly
that
outwardly inexpressive ind iv idua ls are
often
more
physiological ly responsive than their more
expressive
counter-
parts
(e.g.,
lones, 1950).
Along
s imi lar
l ines,
behavioral
inhibition
associ-
ated
with
i n terpersonal decept ion leads to
heightened
physiological responses
(DePaulo, Kashy, K i rk e n d o l, Wy e r,
8 1
Epstein, 1996). Until recently, how-
e ve r, fe w
studies
have exper imenta l ly man ipu la ted expressive
suppression
3
suonou xsoutarrou I N
svsaroar use
1 7
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6/24
- -'1-\-Ir -'\-U P
1< - -n '-| -1 - -= _--=---'-'-'-;ll' ___.__._.....'_ ._..'_::_'_'__' .. _ _ _ . _
____ ____________
_ _____ __ ___
__
_ p
'-
F - ' 1 '
i;
.-
and
observed
how suppression actual ly
affects th e components of th e
unfold-
in g
emot iona l
response.
AFFECTIVE, COGNITIVE,
AND
SOCIAL C O N S E Q U E N C E S
O F
REAPPRAISAL AND S U PPR E S S I O N
Because reappraisal occurs early
in th e
emotion-generat ive process,
we
hypothesized that it should be able to m o d ify th e e ntire
emot iona l sequence
before emot ion response tendenc ies have
been
fully generated. This
suggests
that
reappra isa l may lead to reductions
in
negat ive
emot ion
experience
and
expression,
require
relat ively few add i t i ona l cognit ive resources to
imple-
ment ,
and
produce
in terpersonal behavior that is
appropr ia te ly
focused on
th e interaction par tner and is
perceived
b y s uc h
partners a s
emot ional ly en -
gaging and responsive . Suppress ion, by
contrast,
comes
relatively
late
in
th e
emotion-generat ive process and
primarily modif ies
the behavioral aspect of
th e
emot ion
response
tendencies,
without reducing th e
experience
of
nega-
tive
emot ion.
Because suppression
comes
late in
the emo t ion-generat ive pro-
c e s s ,
it
requires th e
individual to effortfully
manage emot ion response
ten-
dencies a s they
continually
arise. These repeated efforts should
consume
cognit ive
resources
that could otherwise be used fo r
opt ima l
performance in
th e social
contexts in
which the
emot ions
arise.
Moreover ,
suppress ion may
create a
sense
of
d iscrepancy between inner experience and outer
expression,
leading
to feelings
of inauthenticity and
impeding
the development of emo-
tionally close
relat ionships. _ _
In a
series
of
exper imenta l and
ind ividual-d i fference studies, we
have
tested
these hypotheses regarding the af fect ive , cognit ive,
and
socia l conse-
quences ofreappra isa l and suppression
(for
a review of these
studies,
s e e Gross,
Z 0 02 ; G ro ss
81]ohn,
Z003;
john
8 1
Gross,
Z 0 0 4). A cro ss
exper iments, we
have found
that reappraisal
effectively decreases emotion experience
and
expressive
behavior in
negat ive-emot ion-e l ic i t ing
contexts, and it
does s o
without
appreciable cognit ive, phys io log i ca l , o r i n te rpersona l costs.
In indi-
vidual-d i fference studies,
we
have found evidence
that ind iv iduals who make
more frequent use of reappraisalshow enhanced functioning
in
th e domains
of emot ion
and in terpersonal functioning,
without
any detectable cognit ive
or soc ia l cos ts . _
.Su'ppression, by contrast, is effective in down-regulat ing
expressive
be -
havior
but
fai ls to p ro vid e
subjective
relief
in
the context of negat ive emo-
t ions. Moreover, suppression
has substant ia l
physiological and
cognit ive
costs.
Speci f ical ly,
exper iments show
that
suppression leads to increased sympa-
thetic
activation
of th e
cardiovascular
system, worse memory fo r socia l
infor-
mation such a s names
or
facts
about
ind iv idua ls seen on slides (Richards 8 1
Gross,
Z000) ,
and
socia l
interact ions that
are
l e s s
satisfying for both
suppres-
n
1 8 ososs, arcuaxos, awn J O H N
-L K
J.-
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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v s . 1-
- 1
.
sors and their interaction partners (Butler et
al.,
Z 0 03 ). O v e r the longer term,
i nd iv i dua ls who make more frequent
use
of
suppression
show worse function-
in g
in
emot iona l , interpersonal, -and well-being domains. In add i t i on , sup-
pressors show worse
memory
fo r conversations, - a s well
a s
fo r emot ion-e l ic i t ing
events previously
described in
a .
da i ly diary.
EMPIRICAL FOUNDATIONS:
EMOTION REGULATION
IN EVERYDAY LIFE
These studies
demonstrate
th e d iv erg en t i m p a ct o_f,differing_fonns of
emot ion
regulat ion
such
a s reappraisal
and
suppression. Now
what is needed
is a
broader understanding
of when
and
how ind iv iduals actual ly
regulate
their
emot ions
in everyday l ife. A number of pressing
questions
need
to be
addressed. First,
which
emotions
are
a c tu a ll y the ta rg et
of regulation? Intu-
itively, negat ive emot ions such a s anger seem
likely
candidates. Parrott ( 1993)
ha s suggested
that
p o s it iv e e m o ti on s a lso a re regulated, although
th e
evi-
dence for thi s p ropos i ti on
is
not y et in .
Second,
given
that
emot ions have
many aspects (e.g., behavioral , exper ientia l , phys io log ica l ),
which
aspects
are
typically targeted?
I-Iedonic
accounts
suggest
that
people generally want
to
feel
good, not bad. These accounts suggest that peop le wa n t to change the
inner experience
of
emot ion.
Ekmans
(1972)
notion of
d isplay
rules
high-
l ights
another important
target fo r regula ti on, name ly expressive behavior.
Third,
what strategies
are
actual ly
used to
regulate
emot ion
in everyday-life?
W e have
focused
on tw o
part icular
forms
of
regulation,
but
we do
not
ye t know
how frequently
these
and rela ted strategies
are
used in everyday
l i fe.
To
i l lus-
tra te h o w such quest ions might be addressed,
we
describe recent work that
represents
three complementary
approaches
to studying
emot ion
regulat ion.
Approach
1:
The
Semistructured
Interview
O ne approach to s tu dy in g e mo t io n r eg u la t io n
is
to ask people about
their emot ion regulatory efforts. To i ll us tra te thi s approach, we present a
study based on
semistructured
interviews in
which
young
adults described
a
t ime in
th e past
2
weeks
when
they regulated
their
emotions. This
approach
is attractive fo r several reasons. First, although emot ion regulat ion
includes
nonconscious
aspects, it s conscious
aspects
are sal ient a nd important (Gross,
1999),
and
an
interview
format
provides
ins ight into peoples regulatory
goals
and act ivi t ies.
Second , using a relat ively recent t ime f rame makes i t_possib le
to
capture
events while
they
are still fresh. Third, a
semistructured interview
format
permits
part ic ipants to
describe
events
in
their
own
words
but
also
makes it possible
to c ov er ro ug hly th e same ground
with each part ic ipant .
Our questions
were
a s fol lows:
E M O T I O N
R E G U L A T I O N
a v svssroar
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I. Would each participant recall an emot ion regulatory episode?
Z . If so, which emoti ons wou ld be selected fo r
regulat ion?
3 . Vfhich aspects of these emot ions would be
targeted,
and would
participants
be
trying
to
up -
or
down-regulate?
4.
Vl fh ich emot ion
regulat ion
strategies
would
be used?
5. Would these
emot ion
regulatory efforts
va ry by s oc ia l con-
text?
To answer these questions, we interviewed 91 part ic ipants (7 0 women) ,
using th e fo l lowing prompt:
I would l ike yo u
to think
of
_ a _ t i r n e
in th e pas t week or tw o when yo u tr ied
to alter your emot ions.' .Go ahead and
take a
few moments to think of
a
t ime
when
yo u tr ied to alter your
emot ions.
Wlren youre ready, Id like
yo u
to
describe this time
to
me in a s much deta i l a s
yo u
can.
Part icipants
were
videotaped
a s
they described
the
episode
in
their
own
words.
In terv iews typ ica lly lasted
about
1 5 minutes. Prompts were used
a s
needed
to
ensure that
our
core
questions
were
answered.
'
Transcr ipts
of th e
in terviews
were coded independent ly by tw o tra ined
raters.
Cod ing
categories
included (a ) the
primary
target emot ion
(e.g., an-
ger, amusement);
(b) the
response system
primarily
targeted (e.g., behav-
ioral,
exper ient ial ,
physiological)
and th e direct ion of
regulation
(up-
or down-
regulat ion);
and (c) th e strategy used.
In
add i t ion, coders
rated
the social
context (social
or
nonsoc ia l ) ,
and,
for socia l emot ion
regulat ion
episodes,
coders i nd ica ted who wa s with the participant
(e.g.,
stranger, fr iend). Target
emot ions were subsequently coded independent ly by the f irst tw o authors. In
a
f irst
step,
the
35
target emot ions
collectively
generated by
the par ti c ipan ts
were
combined
into Z 4 distinct
emot ions by
combin ing highly overlapping
terms
(e.g.,
anger included
mad , irritated, and
angry).
In a second
step,
emot ions
were coded a s
negat ively valenced, posi t ively valenced,
or
neither.
. Our f irst
question wa s
w h e th e r p a rt ic ip a n ts w o ul d be a ble to describe
recent emot ion
regulat ion episodes.
Indeed,
we -found that
a ll
of our
91 par-
t ic ipants were able
to
describe a t ime in th e past
Z
weeks
when they ha d
tried
to regulate their emot ions. _
I
Regulation
Episodes and
Target Emotions
The episodes described
by
part ic ipants varied substant ia lly . Some
par-
t ic ipants
described
episodes
in wh ich the y changed their thinking
to decrease
negative emotion:
Yesterday I wa s
life
guarding . . . and . . . I fell into the pool
wearing
all
my
clothes . . .
[I ]
could-ve got ten real ly ma d
but
I just decided
to
laugh
it off
. . . I
suppose
[I]
altered
m y anger into-amusement. [I wa s trying to_change]
m y response
to the s i tuat ion.
Changing -my
outlook
on
what
happened
throughout
the day
when I
couldve
been
angry about everything.
But I
i-
2 0
cross,
srcuasos, A N D J O H N
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
9/24
-
dec ided
to
laugh
about i t ju.st_kind of
blow
it off.
S o
basically I thought
about it
and
put it in
perspective.
Other part ic ipants described episodes involving
posi t ive
emotions. Fo r
e xam p le , o ne participant concentrated his
efforts
on changing
his-expressive
behavior:
'- - '
'
We
ha d a paper that wa s
given
back in m y class and m y ro o m m ate
actu-
al ly
is
in that class also. Andwe go t
very
conflicting grades.
H e go t
a very
ba d grade,
and
I got
a
very
good
grade. . . I d idn t work
very
hard on this
paper, so
ll . . I wa s
surprised.
My
roommate
actual ly
d id
some work
and
didnt get
a
good grade, so he wa s
very,
very d o wn a bo ut it. So I kind
of
ha d
to
c ov er m y e m o tions . Instead
of acting happy
and--surprised,
.,.
ha d to
kind of
cover
up I wa s
very happy
inside-, but a t th e
same t ime,
I
didnt
w a nt to show up
m y ro om m a te because
hes
m y
friend
too.
So I
kind
of
p ut o n m y depressed face a nd yo u know,
m y
academic sa d face
and said, Oh well, I
d_idnt
do wel l
either.
I guess I wa s trying
to
[change]
my
express ions on my
face
more than anything.
Across the '91 respondents
regulat ion episodes,
2 4 typ es of emot ion
were represented.
The
th re e m o s t
common
were anger
(23%),
sadness
(22%) ,
and
a n xi ety (1 0 % ). T og eth er,
these
accounted
for more
than half
of
th e
emot ion regulat ion
episodes.
The majority of th e episodes described con-
cerned negat ive emot ions
(81%).
However, a s predicted by Parrot t (1993) ,
there
were also instances of
re g ula t in g p o s it iv e e m o ti on s (9%), including
three
instances of
regulat ing happiness,
tw o instances each of
regulat ing
ro -
mantic attraction
and
exc i tement , and
one
of regulat ing
interest, a s
wel l a s a
number of
episodes
involving the regu la t ion of l e s s
clearly
valenced
emo-
tional
states
(10%), with tw o instances each -of
regulat ingsurpr ise,
t iredness,
a n d a p a th y, a s well a s
one
instance
each of
boredom, confus ion, and
shock.
Emot ion
Response
Systems
and t h e
Direction of
Regulation -
Emot ions
involve
changes
across mult ip le
systems, including behav-
ioral ,
exper ient ia l , and
physiological response
systems
(Lang,
Greenwa ld ,
Bradley,
8 1 I -Iamm, 1993) . It is
not
clear,
however,
which
aspects
of-the
emo-
tional
response people typically regulate. Our f indings
show
that regulat ion
efforts
focused
a lmost equally on expressive
behavior and
subject ive exper i -
ence.
Forty-eight percent
of
episodes
invo-lvedichanges
to expressive behav-
ior ( 3 7 % involved nonverba l behavior alone, 1% involved verba l behavior
a lo ne , a nd 10% involved changes to both nonverba l and verbal behavior).
Fifty-three percent -of episodes involved changes to
subject ive exper ience.
Only 2% of
episodes
involved changes
to physio log ica l responses. These
per-
centages
total
more
than
100%
because some
episodes
involved
changes
to
more
than
one response
system. In terms of th e
direction
of change, all but
o n e i ns ta n ce of emot ion regula ti on
(which involved
behavioral regulat ion)
primarily i n vo lv ed e m o t io n down-regulat ion.
EMOTION
REGULATION IN EVERYDAY LIFE 21
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7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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Emotion
Regulation Strategies
Our
process mode l
of emot ion regulat ion
(Figure
1.1)
suggests
that
emot ion
regulatory processes can be
categorized o n the
basis
ofwhen
a given
emot ion regulation strategy ha s it s pr imary impact on the emoti on-genera t ive
process
(Cross,
2001). Within the broader rubric
of
antecedent-focused
and
response-focused emot ion
regulat ion we
have
argued that five
more speci fi c
fami l ies
of
emot ion regu la t ion
strateg ies may
be
discerned.
How frequently are these five
emot ion
regulat ion strategies
used in
ev-
eryday
life? W e
found that whereas
si tuat ion
select ion and
si tuat ion
modi f i -
cat ion were rare , each represented
by
only one
exemplar,
the other
three
types of
regulat ion
were much
more
common.
Attention
dep loyment
was
used
in
39%
of episodes. Cogni t ive change
wa s
used
in 33%
of episodes, and
a full
83%
of these i nvo lved cogn i ti ve reappraisal
(Z5-/30),
including the f irst
example given earlier.
Final ly,
response
modula t ion was used in
53%
of
epi-
sodes, a nd 4 0%
of these
(19/48)
involved expressive suppression, inc lud ing
the
second example
given
earlier.
Although
si tuat ion
select ion
and
modifi-
cat ion m ay be less prototyp ic , or
m ay
occur outs ide
of
awareness,
these find-
ings
nonetheless provide st rong ev idence fo r
th e
common use
of
three
major
fami l ies
of
emot ion
regulat ion
strategies
(at tent ional
deployment , cognit ive
change,
response modulat ion) in everyday
l ife.
Social Context
Emotion
researchers have
long
emphas ized the social
ernbeddedness
of
emot iona l
respond ing (Scherer, Summerf ie ld, Gt
Wallbott, 1983).
Consis-
tent with t hi s v ie w , we found that
98%
of th e emot ion regulat ion
episodes
took
place
in th e
presence
of
other people,
and
in
only
2% of episodes were
th e
respondents
clearly
alone.
Furthermore,
episodes
that
occurred
in
a
so-
c ia l context
appeared
to
follow a closeness grad ient. Regula tion
episodes
that were descr ibed
by
part ic ipants in the
interviews most
commonly
in-
volved
fr iends (19%), romant ic
interests
(14%),
roommates
(11%),
or fam-
ily
members
(10%), and
were
leastlikely to
involve mere
acquaintances (3%)
or
dis l iked others (2%).
Approach 2 :
The
Survey
F
The
interview
data
der ived
from our
first approach
suggest
that emo-
tion
regulat ion
in everyday life
predominant ly involves
negat ive emot ions
(e .g ., anger,
anxiety ,
sadness),
whose
behavioral
and
exper ient ia l
aspects
par t ic ipants try to
'down-regulate.
However, there
were
also instances of the
up-regulat ion
of emot ion : and
th e regulationuof pos i ti ve emot ion . The rich-
nessof the emot ion regulat ion episodes
captured
by these interviews
suggests
th e need
to
cast a
very broad
ne t
indeed when
-examining emotion regulat ion
in everyday l i fe, even when one focuses as we have
done
here pr imar il y
on
consciously
accessible
emo t ion regula ti on processes. ll
2 2 o a o s s . arcnasns,
r u v o
J O H N
_
__
In - -K_---?
--- - --__
____
__
______ __ _ _ __ y
_ _ _)___.
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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O ne limitation
of
our in terview-based approach, however, is
that we
did
not
standardize
th e
emotions
we
asl
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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. . _ , _ . . _ , . . .
-H
- _ - - | -
_ ,_7- ,..
, . . . . . . _ . . _ _ m i
. _ . . _
J
when someone insults you. Another example
is
concealing
your
happiness
with a
poker
face a fte r be in g d e a lt an unbeatab le hand of cards.
For both
reappraisal
and suppression, separate rat ings were
made
fo r nega-
tive emot ions
and
pos i t ive emotions.
W e also wished to learn
about
th e
specif ic
emotions that
were
being
regulated
a nd
which of the components
(experience
a nd expression) of each
emot ion was
targeted
for regula ti on. We
d id th is
by
asking:
To what
extent
do
you genera l ly try
to alter the
experience
of th e following
emot ions? This
wa s fol lowed
by
a
l ist of the
1 5
emot ions.
Then part ic ipants were asked
To
what
extent
do yo u
general ly try to
a lte r th e expression of th e
following
emot ions? This wa s fol lowed
by th e
same
1 5
emotions presented in
a differ-
ent order.
Both
th e
regulate-experience
and
regulate-expression
items were
rated on 7-point
scales (0 %
Not
at
a ll to 6
=
A great
deal).
We
focused
on
these
tw o
aspects
of
emot iona l respond ing (experience
and
expression) be -
cause our
f irst
a p p ro a ch h ad previously shown that these
tw o components
were overwhelmingly
favored a s
targets
f or e mo t io n r eg u la ti o n.
Frequency
of Emotion Regulation
How
f requent ly d id pa r ti ci pan ts
report
regulating their emot ions? The
mean frequency
ofemot ion
regulat ion wa s
6.6
ti m es p e r w ee k,
that
is,
a lmost
once
a day.
However , the re wa s considerable variability
in
responses,
a s
re-
flected in
a
standard deviation of 12.5, and
a
range of O to 100.
Nonetheless ,
most part ic ipants re p o rte d a t
least
some use
of
emot ion regu la t ion ;
only 4%
of
part ic ipants reported
that
th ey d id not regulate their e m o ti on s a t
all
(regu-
lation
of
O ti m es p e r week).
Given
this substant ial
variability, we
also com-
puted measures
of centra l
tendency less sensit ive to outl iers,
including
the
5% t r immed m e an (4 .6
t imes
p e r w e ek ) and th e med ian (3.5 per week).
Social Context fo r Regulating Emot ion
We found
that
th e frequency
of
emot ion regu la t ion var ied by context ,
with frequency rat ings of 3.1 fo r strangers, 2.5 fo r friends, 2.3 for fami ly, and
1.7 for alone. O ne noteworthy finding
is
that these survey data ind icated
that emot ion regulat ion wa s more frequent with strangers than with better-
known partners. This finding is a t
odds with
th e closeness
grad ient de-
scribed in thejnterview approach, which
found
that emo t ion regu la t ion epi -
sodes
w ere m o re likely to be reported in the context of close
relat ionships
than
in more dis tant
relat ionships.
O ne possible
exp lanat ion for
this discrep-
ancy
is that
emot ions
m ay
be
more
frequent
and intense
in
close than in
d is tant re l a ti onsh ips , l ead ing to a la rger absolute number of
effortful
and
sa-
lient regulat ion episodes in close than d is tant relat ionships (interview
ap-
proach)._ However,
when
expressed
a s
a
fraction
of th e total number of emo-
t ions experienced,
a s
in
th e survey approach,
emot ion
regulationmaybe
more likely to occur in dis tant than in close
relat ionships.
2 4
o a o s s ,
R I C H A R D S ,
A N D
J O H N
-.
'
1
- _ . .
_ . . _ _ - _ _ _ _ . _ _ . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . .
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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L
L
-r._.
i
Valence of th e Emotion Being Regulated n
We expected
part icipants
to regulate
negat ive emot ions
more
frequently
than posi t ive
emot ions.
Indeed, 84%. of
participants_sa-id they
tried to
al ter
negat ive
emotions more frequently than posi t ive emotions,-and only 16 %
ind icated greater regulat ion
of
posi t ive emot_ions.- _ '
Us e ofReappraisal and Suppression
Both
reappraisal
and
suppression were
used
quite frequently,
with
mean
ratings of
3.8 for
each. Consistent with part ic ipants
genera l reports
ofgreater
regulat ion
of
n'egativ'e
t h a n - - p o _ s i _ t i v e
emot ions,
n e g a t i v - e ' -
iegulat l ion wa s more
frequent than pos i t ive regula t ion
fo r
both reappraisal '(M
negat ivereappraisal
= 4.2,
M posi t ive 5.3.3) and
for
suppression (M negat ive
suppr'ession=
4.6,
M
posi t ive
=
3-.0).
Specific Emotions
Being
Regulated, Separately fo r Experience and Expression
- Par t ic ipants
i nd i ca te d th e
e xte nt to
whichthey
regulated
t he e xp e ri -
ence
and
e x p r e s s _ i - o n of
15.-specific
emotions.
Table
1 . - 1 shows th e
mean
rat-
ings of
controliof
experience and Table 1.2'_shows -the means fo r
expression.
The
most
striking finding
was th e
difference
between negat ive and posi t ive
emotions:
Even
th e most-regulated posi t ive
emot ion
(pr ide) wa s regulated to
a lesser e x te n t tha n the least-regulated
negat ive
emot ion (disgust). A second
finding is that the survey approach repl icated th e results of th e
interview
approach for
the
specif ic
emotions most
often
targeted for regulat ion. The
top fi ve regulated
emot ions
were
sadness,
anger, embarrassment, anxiety,
and
fear. Among-- the posi t ive
emot ions,
the tw o most regula ted were pr ide and
-love. A
third
noteworthyfinding
is
ho w closely rat ings of regulat ing emot ion
experience
and emot ion expression-traveled
together. 'Mean
levels of
control
of
experience
a nd control of expression differed
in
only
2
of 15
instances,
with
expressive
behavior being regulated more tightly than
experience
in
each
case.
Group
Dif ferences: Sex and
Ethnicity
S ex and ethnicity are
both factors
that
have
been associated with dif-
ferences in
emot iona l responding
in pr ior
research (Gross
{ S t ]ohn,
2003 ). To
e xa m ine the im p a ct
of
ethnicity on emotion-,regulat ion,
we selected th e tw o
largest ethnic groups ( As i a n A m e r ica n
a n d E uro p ea n American) a n d re vi s-
i ted each
of
the aspects.of
emot ion
regulat ion described
in th e
previous
sect ion.
W e fo un d no
effect
of sex
or
ethnicity fo r overa l l frequency of
emot ion
regulat ion. With
respect
to the social context fo r regulating emot ion, we
found
that with
strangers,
Asian
Amer icans
(M
=
3.0, S D
=
1.4)
reported
levels of emot ion regu la t ion s im i la r to those
re p o rte d b y E uro p ea n
Ameri-
cans
(M
=
3.2,
S D = 1.1).
Fo r
th e
other three socia l
contexts,
however,
As ian
EM O T IO N REGULATION IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
25
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.-u
Amer icans
reported
signif icantly
greater emot ion regu la t ion than European
Amer icans with
friends
(M = 2 .7 , S D = 1 . 1 vs. 2 .3 , S D = 0.9), fami ly (M =
2.6, SD = 1 . 1 vs. M = 2.1, S D
= _
1.0), and
alone
(M = 1.9, S D =
1.3
vs. M =
1.5, SD =
0.8).
There were no sex effects.
W e
also
considered
whether
sex
and
ethnicity
affected
th e
valence
of
th e
emot ion being
regulated.
W e
found no
sex
differences: 82% of
m en
and
85% of
w o m e n r ep o rte d
controlling
negat ive
emotions to
a
greater
extent
than
posi t ive emot ions.
However, we
d id
find ethnic differences:
90%
of
European Amer icans
reported controlling
negat ive emot ions more than
p o s i -
tive emot ions, whereas
only 76% of A sia n A m e ric a n
p a r ti ci p a nt s d i d so.
That is ,
only
10 % of
European Amer icans
reported controlling posi t ive emo-
t ions more
than
negat ive
emotions, versus 24%
ofAs ian
Amer icans.
In terms
of
th e specif ic emot ion
regulat ion
strategies
that
part ic ipants used, we found
no sex differences, b ut A s ia n Amer icans
d id
make
greater use
of
suppression
(3.3) than European Amer icans (2.7) fo r pos it ive emotions.
Fo r
control
of
emot ion
experience,
As ian
Amer icans
reported
signif i -
cant ly
greater
contro l of five of th e
six
posi t ive
emotions (all except pr ide,
which still showed
the same t rend toward
relat ively
greater
control by As ian
Amer icans ) . There
were
no ethnic differences fo r the negat ive
emot ions.
As
shown
in
Table 1.1,
there
wa s only one sex difference:
Wo m e n
reported less
control of amusement experience than m e n. Fo r control of emot ion express
sion,
ethnic
effects
paral le led those found in the
experience
doma in : Asian
Amer icans again
reported
greater control of five of th e si x posi t ive emotions
(all except pr ide, which,
a s
with emot ion experience, showed th e
same
trend
toward greater control
by
As ian Amer icans ) . There were no ethnic differi-
ences fo r the
nega tive emot ions .
As shown in Table
1.2,
sex differences
were
more
pronounced:
Wo m e n
reported
l e s s
control
of
amusement expression
than men,
but
greater control of anger,
contempt ,
and sadness expression.
This general pattern of
women
exert ing l e s s control over posi t ive emotions
than m en is born out by the s ign i fi can t difference in mean control ofposi t ive
emot ion, which is
2.1 for
women and 2.4 fo r men. The
tendency for women
to
report
more
control of negat ive emoti ons than m en wa s not signif icant,
reflected in
an
overal l mean
difference of
3.2 for
women
a nd 3 .0 fo r men.
Approach 3: The LaboratoryExperiment
.
A
.
|. .
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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I n
press their emotion-expressive
behavior unde-r
controlled condi t ions.
By
dint
of their
prior accumu la ted experi ence with suppressing -posit ive emotions,
Asian
Amer icans should
find
it less difficult to inhibit posi t ive emot ions
than
European
Amer icans. Given -that ethnic differences
seem
to be evident
only for posi t ive emotions, no such differences in emot ion regulat ion d i f f i -
culty
should
emerge
in o t he r e mo t io n a l contexts
(e.g.,
in negat ive
or
neutral
emot iona l
contexts).
-
To
test
this
hypothesis,
an exper imenta l
approach
is needed. To
illus'-
trate
this
method ,
we present secondary analyses of Ia
data se t
examined
e a r -
lier
by
Gross and Levenson-(1997),
focusing
on a subset
of
12 7 women who
were either
European
-American (58) o r A s ia n American
_ (
69).-
In
this study,
par t ic ipants h ad w a tc he d f i lms drawn from a se t
of
standardized
film
stimuli
(Gross Sr
Levenson,
1-995)
in
individual exper imenta l
sessions.
O ne
-film
elicited a
relatively neutra l affective
state, whereas th e o th er f i lms el ici ted
either amusement (a s tand-up comedy routine)
or
sadness (a funeral
scene).
Of
in terest here
is th e
viewing
condition, in which part ic ipants had been
told
to
watch th e
film
carefully
and
also told if
you h a ve a n y fe e li ng s
a s
yo u
watch th e
film
cl ip ,
please
try
your
best
not
to
let
those feelings
show
(the Suppression
condition). After each
film, part ic ipants rated ho w
d i f f i -
cult it had
been to suppress
their
behavioral
responses: On a
scale from
1
to
10 ,
where
1 is n ot a t
a l l d i f fi cu lt and 10
is very difficult,
how difficult wa s
it
fo r
yo u to
hide
your feelings during
th e film
clip yo u
just
saw?
Us ing these
suppression difficulty
rat ings,
we
no w
testedwhether,
rela-
tive to European Amer ican part icipants,
As ian
Amer icans
would
find
it
easier
to suppress their
emotions during a positive-emotion-eliciting
film, but
not
in-the
negat ive
or
neutral film contexts
(reflecting a
prac ti ce e ffec t due to
prior
experience
suppressing posi t ive
e m o ti o ns ). A s
predicted, we
found
that
for
th e
posi t ive film,
As ian
Amer icans indeed reported less
difficulty (M =
6 .0 , S D =
3.1)
than
European Amer icans
(M = 8.0,
S D _ = 2.0).
It is
important
to
note
that
this
effect
of
ethnicity wa s specif ic to the posi t ive emotion con-
dition: There were
no
ethnic
differences foreither
th e
Neutral film
(M =
2.6,
S D
=-2.4 vs.M = 2.8, SD = 2.3) , or th e Sadness
film (M
= 4.0,
SD-=
2.9
vs.
M
= 4.9,
S D
=
2.8). These
f indings
are consistent with
th e
hypothesis
that ev-
eryday pract ice in regula ti ng pos i ti ve
emotipn makes
it easier for Asian
Ame r ic a n s t o regulate a posi t ive
emotion
such a s amusement when ca ll ed on
to
d o
so
in
a
speci f ic
si tuat ion.
I
FUTURE DIRECTIONSAND
POLICY
IMPLICATIONS
Considered together,
these
three
studies
i l lustrate ho w
multiple
m e t h
od s (interview,
survey,
and exper iment)
are
need-ed
to
achieve
a
more com
plete
understanding
of
emot ion regulat ion.
Our
f indings converged
in
show
in g
that in
genera l peop le
tr y to
regulate negat ive emot ions (especially
anger,
E M O T I O N R E G U L A T I O N a v
svsaroar
use
2 9
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
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sadness,
and anxiety) m u ch m o re
f requent ly than
posi t ive emot ions,
with a
part icular focus on regulating both
exper ient ial
and
behavioral,
but not
physi-
ological , aspects
of
emot ion.
Although. a large
number
of
emot ion regu la t ion
strategies
m ay
be d iscemed,
tw o of th e
most
common
ones
are
cognit ive
reappra isa l and
expressive suppression.
Results
from
these
three studies
also
showed
that
emot ion regulat ion ef for ts vary
by
contex t (occurr ing
more
fre-
quently in close than d is tan t re la t ionsh ip contexts) and by ethnicity (with
greater regulat ion
of
posi t ive emotions
in
Asian Amer icans than European
Amer icans). Although these stud ies represent an initial step t ow a rd e lu ci -
dat ing the ways emotions are regulated by young adults
in
everyday l i fe, they
nonetheless
have
several limitations.
In
the sections that fo l low, we
cons ider
these limitations and suggestdirections
fo r future
research
and imp l ica t ions
fo r
pol icy.
. _
Implications for Health
and
Dysfunction
O ne
notable limitation of th e
present
studies is that we asked partici-
pants to recal l
a _ single recent emot ion regulat ion
episode
(Approach
1) , to
make genera l ratings
concerning
their
typ ica l
emot ion regu la t ion
(Approach
2 ),
or
to regulate
on command in a
specif ic laboratory
co n te x t ( Ap p r o a ch
3).
O ne direction fo r future research
will
be to use other methods t o b e tt er char-
acterize
emot ion
regulation. in everyday l i fe.
This
will make it possible
to
address
th e
important
question of wha t
h e a lt h i mp li ca t io n s
chronic
use
of
par t icular
emot ion regulat ion strategies
might
have.
In
a
series
of individual-
difference
studies
(Gross
( S t Iohn,
2003) ,
w e h ave be gun
to link use
of
reap-
p ra is a l a n d suppression to
various
indicators of health and dysfunct ion, in-
c lud ing emot ion ,
social support, depression,
l ife
sat is fact ion, and
well-being.
Our f indings suggest
that everyday
use
of reappraisal is
related
to
greater
experience
of
posi t ive emot ion and lesser experience
of negat ive emot ion.
Reappraisers also have
closer
relat ionships
with
their
fr iends
and
are
better
liked
thanindividuals using reappra isa l
less frequently. In terms
ofmaladap-
t ive symptoms,
ind ividuals
who -habitually
use
reappraisal
show fewer
symp-
toms
of depression.
They a re a lso more
satisf ied with their
live s a nd m ore
optimistic.
In terms
of
Ryffs (1989) doma ins
of psycholog ica l
health,
reappraisers
have
higher
levels
of
envi ronmenta l
mastery,
personal growth,
and self-acceptance,
a
clearer
purpose in
l i fe,
a greater
sense
of
autonomy,
and better relat ions with others. ,
By
contrast ,
everyday
use
of
suppression
is
related
to
lesserexperience
of posi t ive emot ion -and -greaterexperience of negative emot ion . These el-
evat ions
in
negat ive emot ion -appear to be due to suppressors greater feelings
of
- inauthentici ty.
Greater
use
of
suppression
is also l inked to
lesser
social
support
in genera l , and to lesser
emot iona l s u p p o r t - _ in
part icular. In terms of
symptoms,
suppression
is related to
elevated
levels of depressive symptoms.
Suppressors
have
lower levels of sat isfact ion and well-being,- a s one would
30 o s o s s , R I C H A R D S , awn J O H N
r
. ,t-.
Q
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
19/24
. _ . , ;
-7 - I -= . I .
.- '- ,
1.
: . - _ -
.- 1
expect from
their
keen
awareness
of
-their
inauthenticity,
less l ife
satisfac-
tion, and
a
less
optimistic
att i tude about th e future , consis tent with
their
avo idance and lack ofclose socia l relat ionships and support .
In
terms ofRyffs
(1989) six
doma ins
of psychological health, suppressorsshowed lowe-r
leve-ls
of
well-being
across
th e board, with th e biggest
effect
-for posi t ive
relat ions
with
others.
O v er a ll , t hi s p a t te rn
of
f indings
shows
that
-the
use
of
reappraisal
is associated
with
multiple
indicators
of healthy functioning,
and
that the
use
of
suppression
is associated with multiple ind icators of unheal thy func-
tioning. lllfhat is needed now,
however,
are prospective -studies in which ini-
tial patterns in
emot ion
regulat ion
use
pred ic t s u b s e q u ; -1 - , , n _ t , , fu n c t io n in g - a c ro s s
multiple life dpmains. T '
Development:
Stability
a nd C ha ng e
A second impor tan t direction fo r future research is to
examine
stability
a nd change
in emot ion
regulat ion processes. There is growing
evidence
that
emotion
regulat ion
varies
over
th e
course
of
childhood
(e.g.,
Eisenberg St
Morr is , 2002 )
and
adul thood (e.g., lohn
< 8 1 . Gross,
2-004), and
that
there are
both individual
and
group
differences (e.g.,
Gross
8 1 .
]ohn, 2003;
Tsai et
al.,
2002 )
in emot ion
regulation. The
present studies focused
on normat ive
var ia-
tion
in
emotion regulat ion
in
a part icular age group, namely college-aged
adults.
However, our work on ind iv idua ld if fe rences suggests that, even within
th e
norma l
range of
functioning, ind ividuals vary
greatly in
how
much
they
use
emot ion regulat ion strategies such
a s
reappraisal
and suppression.
Thus, although
we sometimes summarize o u r fi nd i ng s
by referring to
reappra isers and suppressors, we
d o
not
conceive
of these
patterns
of typical
emotion regulat ion a s f ixed. Indeed,
in
our college samples,
th e 3-month
test retest
stability of
reappra isa l and
suppression is
about
.7 0
(Gross
Gt
]ohn,
2003) , which suggests substant ial
room
fo r
change,
especially over
longer
periods
of
t ime.
If nothing
else, increasing life experience and wisdom re -
garding
th e
relat ive costs and benefi ts
of dif ferent
forms
of
emot ion regula-
tion suggest
that changes
will
take
place
with
age (Gross
G t john,
2002) .
In
part icular, a s ind iv idua ls mature and
gain
life experience, they might in-
creasingly learn to make greater use ofhea l thy emot ion regu la t ion
strategies
(such
a s
reappraisal)
and
lesser use
of l e s s heal thy emot ion regulat ion
strate-
gies
(such a s
suppression).
This speculat ion
is
broad ly cons i sten t with the fact that
emot ional ly ,
older
ind iv idua ls fare
surprisingly well
in later years, despite a
host
of
unde-
sirable changes
to
physical health and
social networks (Carstensen,
Gross,-
S t
Fung,
1998). This hypothesis
is
also
consistent with
data that
suggest that
re la t i ve to younger
adults, older adults report
considerably
l e s s negat ive
emo-
tion (e.g., Helson 8 1
Klohnen,
I998),
and
with cross-sectional
research
show-
in g that o lde r i nd iv idua ls report
greater
emot ional control than younger adults
(Gross
et al., 1997) .
E M O T I O N R E G U L A T IO N I N svsarn-u use 3 1
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
20/24
_ - . .
- i n - _ _ _ i
__ - : t w -i -L
-.-
-+_-_-= -;w:_,+,+--.1:'. -:--t
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-==-=-
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- -
.I*
In a recent test of the idea
that there
is
a normat ive shift
toward
healthier
emotion regulat ion
in
la ter adul thood, we used retrospect ive and cross-
sect ional designs to
examine
individual differences
in
reappra isa l and sup-
pression (]ohn 8 1 . Gross, 2004). 'Us ing a retrospective design, th e
same older
adul ts ra ted
their
use
of
reappra isa l and
suppression
twice,
once
with
respect
to how
they were
now
(early
60s), a nd o nce
with respect
to
-how
they
ha d
been
in their
early 20s. W e found
that
use
of reappra isa l increased
from
th e
20s
to th e
60s, whereas use
of
suppression decreased from
th e
20s to
th e 60s.
Using
a
cross-sectional
design,
we repl icated
these effects
by -compar ing
use
of
reappra isa l and suppression in
this
older-adul t
sample
to
that of individu-
als
now in their
20s. Here, too,
we found that
compared with younger partici-
pants, o lder pa r ti c ipan ts reported greater use
of
reappraisal and lesser
use
of
suppression.
Together,
these f indings are consistent
with th e idea that ,
with
age,
ind iv idua ls
make
increasing
use
of
reappraisal
a s
an
emot ion
regulat ion
strategy
and decreasing
use
of
suppression;
that
is , they show an increas ing ly
hea l thy pa t te rn
of
emot ion
regulat ion.
What
is
needed
now
are
longitudinal
studies in
-which emot ion regulat ion use
i s a s s e s s e d
a t multiple t ime points-
using th e same instruments.
Interventions and Policy Implications
A third
important
di rect ion is
a p p l yi ng o ur emerging understanding
of
emot ion
re g u la t io n t o rel ieve
exist ing
human
suffering (Gross
8 1 .
Munoz ,
1995).
For it is on e thing
to
make the
cla im Ithatmany forms
of
psychopa-
thology
are
characterized by
emot ion
dysregula tion, and
qu ite another thing
to
actual ly w o rk o ut th e
precise nature
of the def ic i ts (Rot tenberg ( S t Gross,
2003) .
The challenge is
to
describe
how
these
cond i t ions develop ,
clarify the
underly ing
mechan isms,
and
use
this
knowledge
to
fashion
better
interven-
t ions to
help those
in
need of assistance.
In
part icular, ifnatural changes in typ ica l use ofdif ferent emot ion regu-
lation strategies
can be documented
in
adul thood,
then we ought
to be a ble
to
harness
the se s am e
change processes
in
targeted
intervent ions. O ne cru-
c ia l early pointof
intervention m ay
be
inf luencing
ho w parents shape
their
chi ldrens
early
emot ion regulat ion. For examp le , pa ren ts differ in their meta-
emot ion
phi losophies,
def ined
a s a n organized J s e t
of
fee lings and thoughts
about ones
own
emot ions
a n d o ne s ch il d ren s emot ions (Go t tman , Katz,
8111-Iooven,
I-9 96 , p .
243) .
The
emotion-coaching phi losophy
is
held hy
par-
ents
who
attend to and posi t ively evaluate emotions, and discuss explicitly
with their
children
how to
best
manage
_ o n _ e s
emot ions,
This
parenta l
phi-
losophy,
we predict ,
s h o _ u l d _ _
encourage
children to rely
more
on reappraisal to
regulate
their
emotions. The dismissing phi losophy, contrast,
is held
by
parents who view emot ions
as
dangerous andfocus on avoid ing and
min im iz-
ing the m. H ere w e suggest a link to using _ s u p p r e s s i o n _ .
a s
the , _ h a b i _ t u a l regula-
tion
strategy. The finding that emot ion coaching byparents
wa s
related to
3 2 oaoss,
R I C H A R D S ,
syn
J O H N
l
3 %
-r -
.-
-
- -- -4 . gt
-i-
|
i I i._
-: ,--
1--
-
7/25/2019 Emotion Regulation in Everyday Life
21/24
1
. 5| 1 0 ;
-
x
1.1, .
-'4
children showing
l e s s
stress during emot ional ly challenging-situations
is
con-
sistent with our f ind ings regarding -the well-being and heal th consequences
of
us ing reappra isa l ra th e r t ha n
suppression
(Gottman et al.,
I996).
In th e
context
of
our-studies of yoim-g adults,
we
have
found that
for
m a n y y o un g
adults,
thinking explicitlyabout their own emotion regulat ion
goals
a nd thestrategies
they: use
t o a c h ie ve these
goalswas
a nove l experi-
ence.
This
observat ionsuggests
that
o ne s im p le
form
of
preventive
inter-
vention would
be to
increase
awareness and offer information about emo-
tion
regulation,
-for
example,=us ing
contemporary
research on -
emotion
regulation to inform
-and
enrich curr icula in high s cho o l a n d co lle ge
that
typically do not include information on emotion and prpotion regulat ion.
An a lo g o us t o Writing
101,
l l / lathemat ics
1 01, a nd
Psychology 101;--it m ay
be time to o ffe r Emot ion
101---an
introductory course on the
nature
and
regulat ion of emot ion.
Individuals who are at e levated r isk fo r undesirable well-being and heal th
outcomes
might
benefi t f rom targeted
emot ion
regulat ion
in_terven_tion_s_tud-
ies. Fo r
example,
intervent ions could be designed that
teach
i nd i vi d ua ls t o
increase
their
use
of
reappraisal
or
decrease
their
rel iance
on
suppression.
Such
interventions could be
modeled
after a study
(Giese-Davis
et al.,
2002)
that randomly assigned breast cancer
pat ients to
either a
control group
or
a
group
that encouraged th e expression
of
emot iom and then fol lowed
pa-
t ients
to a s s e s s
subsequent outcomes.
Through
such
in tervent ions whether
during
early
chi ldhood in th e fa m i ly ,
dur ing later
chi ldhood
or
adul thood a t
school, or
in
support groups a t the
cliniclit m ay
be possible to shape indi-
viduals emot ion regulatory
tendencies
in
ways
that powerful ly and
benefi -
cially
affect
their subsequent menta l
and
physical
heal th.
'
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