Abstract
Past research on emotion regulation has provided evidence that cognitive reappraisal predicts reactivity to affective stimuli and challenge tests in laboratory settings. However, little is known about how trait reappraisal might contribute to affective reactivity to everyday positive and negative events. Using a large, life-span sample of adults (N = 1755), the present study addressed this important gap in the literature. Respondents completed a measure of trait reappraisal and reported on their daily experiences of positive and negative events and positive and negative affect for eight consecutive days. Results showed that trait reappraisal predicted lower increases in negative affect in response to daily negative events and lower increases in positive affect in response to daily positive events. These findings advance our understanding of the role of reappraisal in emotion regulation by showing how individual differences in the use of this strategy relate to emotional reactions to both positive and negative events outside the laboratory.
Highlights
Extant research on emotion regulation has demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal robustly predicts dampened reactivity to affective stimuli and stressful experiences in laboratory settings (Gross and John, 2003; John and Gross, 2004)
Using multilevel analyses of daily experience data from a life-span sample of adults, the present research showed that trait reappraisal predicted lower increases in negative affect in response to daily negative events
The association between trait reappraisal and negative affective reactivity to stressors held controlling for other significant predictors of negative affective reactivity
Summary
Extant research on emotion regulation has demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal robustly predicts dampened reactivity to affective stimuli and stressful experiences in laboratory settings (Gross and John, 2003; John and Gross, 2004). Whether individual differences in reappraisal predicts affective reactivity to daily life events—especially pleasant experiences—has not been much studied. Establishing the link between trait reappraisal and daily affective reactivity is important because (a) the dynamics of affect in day-to-day life are different from those that arise in laboratory tasks and (b) recent prospective studies have shown that daily affective reactivity predicts important psychological and health outcomes—such as psychological well-being (Selcuk et al, 2016), sleep efficiency
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