BRIEF REPORT

Abstract

This study examined the distinctiveness of thought suppression and the suppression of emotional expression. This study also examined the validity of measures of these constructs in predicting self-reported emotional, physical, and cognitive reactions to disgust-eliciting film segments. A total of 156 participants watched one of three disgust-eliciting films. After watching the film, participants rated 16 items derived from instruction sets used in past studies of thought suppression, and past studies of emotional regulation. They also completed measures of emotional, physical, and cognitive reactions to the films. Exploratory factor analyses of 16 emotion regulation items identified thought suppression and the suppression of emotional expression as relatively distinct constructs. We also examined how well the resulting scales predicted subjective disgust, and physical and cognitive reactions to the films. These findings and their implications for integrating emotion regulation frameworks are discussed.