Emotion Regulation Choice and Psychosis Proneness: A Replication and Extension Study

Abstract

Evidence shows that participants choose to disengage during emotion regulation (ER) when facing high intensity stimuli, whereas engage when the intensity is low. No study explored ER choice when participants have more than two strategies to regulate their emotions, nor the role of psychopathology on ER choice. This study aimed to replicate and extend the results of Sheppes et al. (2011) and to explore the role of psychosis-proneness in ER strategies choice. In total, 128 non-clinical participants completed two experimental tasks (a replication task and an extension task), choosing an ER strategy in two conditions. Participants favoured disengagement strategies when the emotional intensity was high and engagement strategies when the intensity was low. Psychosis-proneness seems to be associated with difficulties in adapting to the emotional context. These results expand our understanding on ER choices and provide knowledge on flexibility in ER as well as its implication in psychosis-proneness.