Abstract
In spite of a large body of research in the field of emotion regulation, it has not yet been studied vigorously in naturalistic settings, especially not in the context of task performance. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether predominant theoretical conceptualisations of emotion regulation (e.g., Gross, 1998) can be applied to this sort of situation. In this qualitative study, we aimed to identify emotion regulation strategies of paramedic crew leaders (n = 30) in a simulated task with a sudden onset of a stressful incident. For this purpose, we analysed their emotional behaviour (i.e. facial expression, voice volume, body posture and movements, etc.) on video recorded performance, and their affective states and emotion regulation strategies based on interviews realized right after the task. Verbal reports were analysed via phenomenologically-laden template analysis. We classified emergent strategies into two basic categories: task-related (e.g., attention narrowing, mobilization to action, monitoring) and self-supportive (e.g., emotional distancing, behavioural withdrawal, detachment and selective attention). Results of our analysis suggest that regulatory strategies are often implemented on an implicit level of processing and their function might be a better criteria for their distinction than a type of mental process.
Highlights
Despite both emotion regulation and naturalistic decision making being established traditions in psychological research, the two paradigms have barely crossed their paths
We aim to identify, classify and describe emotion regulation strategies in paramedic crew leaders during stressful task on the level of mental processing and observable behavior as well
Task-related strategies are largely overlapping with macrocognitive processes such as situation awareness, uncertainty management, decision making, etc
Summary
Despite both emotion regulation and naturalistic decision making being established traditions in psychological research, the two paradigms have barely crossed their paths. The research of naturalistic decision making (Klein, 2008) and closely related non-technical skills (Flin, 2013) has been driven by an ambition to Received April 8, 2019. Several studies point to the detrimental effects of stress on both technical and non-technical skills in medicine (e.g., Crewther et al, 2016; Harvey et al, 2012; Krage et al, 2017), which is likely due to a limited acquisition of information or acceleration of pace with trade-offs for accuracy (Maule, 1997). Experts can be much more immune to losing accuracy compared to novices (Pavlidis et al, 2012) This is in line with claims of Orasanu (1997) and Klein (1997), who both theorize that experts should be least affected by stress in familiar situations where rule-based decisions are optimal, because they rely on intuitive, bottom-up processes
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