General emotion regulation measure (GERM): Individual differences in motives of trying to experience and trying to avoid experiencing positive and negative emotions

Abstract

The present research was conducted in order to address nascent research concerning hedonic and contra-hedonic emotion motives by creating a measure that identifies individual differences in self-reported emotion motives. A sample of 833 undergraduate students reported how often they try to experience or try to avoid experiencing 24 valenced (positive or negative) emotion terms. Latent profile analysis identified three important distinct profiles: 1) a normative group in which people tried to experience positive emotions and tried to avoid experiencing negative emotions, 2) a non-normative group which exhibited an aversion to positive emotions and an attraction to negative emotions; and 3) a smaller non-normative third group which displayed an unwillingness or inability to regulate either positive or negative emotions. A MANOVA identified that the normative group reported higher levels of psychological well-being relative to the other two groups. The new General Emotion Regulation Measure (GERM) described in this research is proposed as a measure of higher order emotion regulation motives which can inform research on basic goals people use to regulate their emotions.