Emotion Regulation Instructions Research Articles

Reining in regret: emotion regulation modulates regret in decision making

ABSTRACT Whereas the influence of regret on decision making is well-established, it remains unclear whether emotion regulation may modulate both the affective experience of regret and its influence on decisions. To examine this question, participants made decisions about options involving uncertainty using two different, instructed emotion regulation strategies. In one case, they were instructed to treat each choice individually, while in the other they were encouraged to treat a series of decisions as a portfolio. The present experiment demonstrates that approaching a series of decisions as a portfolio led to less extreme affective reactions to outcomes and lowered physiological arousal levels compared to focusing on each decision in isolation. However, the different emotion regulation strategies did not alter the influence of anticipatory regret on choices. The results indicate that these different emotion regulation strategies can be used to alter the experience of regret. These findings support a role for cognitive strategies in mitigating the affective experience of regret and suggest a means to encourage consumer welfare.

The effect of cognitive reappraisal and early-life maternal care on neuroendocrine stress responses

Early-life adversity (ELA) is related to profound dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, reflected in both, blunted or exaggerated cortisol stress responses in adulthood. Emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal might contribute to this inconsistent finding. Here, we investigate an interaction of early-life maternal care (MC), where low MC represents a form of ELA, and instructed emotion regulation on cortisol responses to acute stress. Ninety-three healthy young women were assigned to a low (n = 33) or high (n = 60) MC group, based on self-reported early-life MC. In the laboratory, participants received regulation instructions, asking to cognitively reappraise (reappraisal group, n = 45) or to focus on senses (control group, n = 48) during subsequent stress exposure, induced by the Trier Social Stress Test. Salivary cortisol and subjective stress levels were measured repeatedly throughout the experiment. Multilevel model analyses confirmed a MC by emotion regulation interaction effect on cortisol trajectories, while controlling for hormonal status. Individuals with low MC in the control compared with the reappraisal group showed increased cortisol responses; individuals with high MC did not differ. These results highlight the significance of emotion regulation for HPA axis stress regulation following ELA exposure. They provide methodological and health implications, indicating emotion regulation as a promising target of treatment interventions for individuals with a history of ELA.

EMOTION REGULATION SUCCESS IN A LABORATORY TASK IN YOUNG ADULTS AND COGNITIVELY DIVERSE OLDER ADULTS

Abstract Age is associated with declines in cognitive resources viewed as important for emotion regulation, and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are expected to experience difficulty with emotion regulation. The present study examines how providing support through emotion regulation instructions might contribute to improved emotional well-being using different indices of emotion regulation success. Young adults (age 21–34, n = 66) and older adults with MCI (age 70–84, n = 60) and cognitively normal older adults (age 70–84, n = 90) completed a laboratory task in which they viewed high-arousal negative emotional film clips under instructions to regulate prohdonically (a) using any emotion regulation strategy, and (b) using an instructed strategy based on condition: distraction or reappraisal. We examined three indices of emotion regulation success: self-perceived emotion regulation success, self-reported experience of the target emotion, and behaviorally-coded expression of the target emotion. Overall, there were no group differences in experience or expression, but older adults with MCI perceived that they regulated with less success compared with younger adults and cognitively normal older adults. Younger adults reported experiencing less of the target negative emotion on instructed versus self-selected strategy trials, whereas older adults with MCI expressed less of the target negative emotion on instructed versus self-selected strategy trials. Findings suggest that younger adults and older adults with MCI might benefit more from support with regulating emotions compared with cognitively normal adults, who are theorized to have expertise in this domain.

The mindful gaze: trait mindful people under an instructed emotion regulation goal selectively attend to positive stimuli

ABSTRACT Trait mindfulness confers emotional benefits and encourages skillful emotion regulation, in part because it helps people more deliberately attend to internal experiences and external surroundings. Such heightened attentional control might help skillfully deploy one’s attention towards certain kinds of stimuli, which may in turn help regulate emotions, but this remains unknown. Testing how trait mindful people deploy attention when regulating their emotions could help uncover the specific mechanisms of mindfulness that confer its emotional benefits. The present study aimed to determine whether high trait mindfulness is associated with sustained attention biases to (i.e. longer gaze at) emotional scenes, when all participants are given the emotion regulation goal of staying in a positive mood. To measure this, we used eye tracking to assess selective attention to positive, neutral, and negative photographs. Higher trait mindfulness was associated with both a stronger attention bias for positive (vs. neutral and vs. negative) images, as well as greater success staying in a positive mood during viewing. Surprisingly, this attention bias towards the positive images did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness and maintenance of positive mood. Future work should compare visual attention to other emotion regulation strategies that may maximise positive affect for mindful people.

Emotion regulation in old and very old age.

Prominent life span theories have suggested that the ability to downregulate negative emotions remains stable or even increases well into old age. However, past evidence for continued growth during old age is mixed. In this laboratory study, 130 young old individuals (Mage = 66.72 years, SD = 1.03, range = 65 to 69 years, 48% female) and 59 very old individuals (Mage = 86.03 years, SD = 1.44, range = 83 to 89 years, 58% female) watched negative emotion evoking film clips under different emotion regulation instructions. Subjective feelings, cardiovascular reactions, and facial behavioral expressions were assessed in response to each film. Emotion regulation competence was operationalized as difference in the intensity of negative emotions during a trial with no regulation instruction versus three trials with regulation instruction, asking participants to engage in detached reappraisal, behavioral suppression, or positive reappraisal. In comparison to young old individuals, very old individuals were less able to regulate their self-reported negative feelings. These age-related deficits were partly associated with age differences in fluid cognitive abilities. Notably, however, emotion regulation deficits in very old individuals observed in self-reports of emotions were not evident at the levels of cardiovascular arousal and facial expressivity. Together this evidence speaks against one-sided views on emotional aging as uniform process of either growth or decline, even in old and very old age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Coming out under fire: The role of minority stress and emotion regulation in sexual orientation disclosure.

Minority stress is hypothesized to interfere with sexual orientation disclosure and sexual minority wellbeing. In this study, we investigated whether minority stress is causally linked to reduced disclosure in sexual minorities, and whether emotion regulation, a potentially adaptive form of stigma coping, can intervene to promote disclosure even following exposure to minority stress. Sexual minority adults in the US (N = 168) were recruited online and randomized to a 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design, where they: 1) received either emotion regulation instructions that asked them to either distance themselves from an emotionally evocative film clip or immerse themselves in the clip, and then 2) viewed either an affirming or a minority stress film clip. Following the film clip, participants completed a written reflection task in which they reflected on the film clip they viewed, which allowed research assistants to subsequently code for participants' spontaneous disclosures of sexual orientation. Participants who viewed the minority stress clip were significantly less likely to spontaneously disclose their sexual orientation in the written task compared to those who viewed the affirming film clip, OR = 3.21, 95% CI [1.14, 9.05], p = .03. Although the emotion regulation manipulation was successful, there was no effect on sexual orientation disclosure. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a causal link between minority stress and disclosure in sexual minorities, and thus highlights an important mechanism underlying minority stress's effects on sexual minority wellbeing. Results demonstrate the importance of interventions that affirm marginalized identities and promote safe sexual orientation disclosure. Future research is needed to determine the circumstances under which effective emotion regulation can buffer against the negative emotional effects of minority stress to promote healthy approach behaviors like disclosure in safe contexts.

Linking Emotion Regulation Capacity and the Frequency of Daily Stressors in Old and Very Old Age

Lifespan theories and lab-based research both suggest that the ability to downregulate negative emotions is often well preserved into old age, but becomes increasingly fragile in very old age. However, little is known about factors that may alleviate such age differences. Here, we ask whether exposure to daily stressors helps very old adults to maintain effective emotion regulation skills. We used data from 130 young-old (65-69 years, 48% women) and 59 very-old adults (83-89 years, 58% women) who watched negative emotion evoking film clips in the lab under emotion regulation instructions and also reported stress situations they experienced in everyday life (42 occasions across seven days). Initial results indicate that very-old adults were indeed less successful in regulating sadness than young-old adults, but those very-old adults who reported many daily stressful situations were as capable of emotion regulation as young-old adults. We discuss possible factors contributing to our age-differential findings.

Age-group differences in instructed emotion regulation effectiveness: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Several theories of emotional development in adulthood provide the rationale for anticipating enhanced emotion regulation effectiveness (i.e., successful, goal-consistent regulation of emotions) with age. However, the existing empirical evidence is ambiguous. The aims of the present systematic review and meta-analysis were to investigate age-group differences in instructed emotion regulation effectiveness, and to explore whether age-group differences in instructed emotion regulation effectiveness vary according to person factors (i.e., age gap between age groups, gender distribution), the specific strategy (i.e., type of emotion regulation strategy), and situational factors (i.e., intensity and type of emotion to-be-regulated, emotion regulation goal, experimental context). PsycINFO and PubMed were searched for studies assessing age-group differences in instructed emotion regulation effectiveness in physically healthy adults. The literature search yielded 18 relevant studies conducted in laboratories (n = 1,366) and no relevant studies conducted in naturalistic settings. The meta-analyses indicated no statistically significant overall age-group differences (g = -0.01, p = .878). A statistically significant small effect favoring older adults was identified in a subgroup meta-analysis of studies assessing attentional focusing (g = -0.22, p = .027), while no other statistically significant results were identified. Together, these findings, albeit limited to a laboratory setting, indicate that instructed emotion regulation effectiveness remains largely stable in adulthood. The findings are discussed with reference to theoretical work emphasizing age-related changes in motivation (e.g., Socioemotional Selectivity Theory) and resources (e.g., Strength and Vulnerability Integration model). Limitations include the small number of studies and the limited generalizability of the findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Cognitive reappraisal is not always successful during pain anticipation: Stimulus-focused and goal-based reappraisal effects on self-reports and peripheral psychophysiology

The present study aims at comparing the effects of two subtypes of cognitive reappraisal (i.e., stimulus-focused vs. goal-based reappraisal) to reduce anticipatory anxiety of pain. Affective ratings, startle reflex, and autonomic measures (electrodermal and heart rate changes) were used as a measure of emotion regulation success. A total of 86 undergraduate students completed an anticipatory task in which they had to regulate their negative emotions or react naturally when faced with the possibility of receiving a painful thermal stimulus. Participants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups to compare the stimulus-focused and goal-based strategies explored here. Our results revealed enhanced self-reported anxiety, electrodermal activity and eyeblink response when participants tried to voluntarily down-regulate their negative emotions, compared to the control instruction. Differences between both cognitive reappraisal groups were not found. These unexpected findings suggest that brief reappraisal instructions may not necessarily be favorable for regulating emotions during anticipation of aversive events. Moreover, these results are further explained in terms of the pain expectation, the painful stimuli modality, and emotion regulation instructions.

Cognitive reappraisal mitigates affective valence declines during exercise at the ventilatory threshold

ABSTRACT Affective valence during exercise is thought to switch from positive to negative at the ventilatory threshold (VT). The emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal (CR) can be used to reevaluate emotional stimuli to reduce negative and increase positive emotional experience. We investigated if CR applied during endurance exercise at VT would increase self-reported positive affect and reduce self-reported arousal and perceived exertion during a 60-min run. 26 young recreational runners (n = 13 women, age 25.4 ± 4.3 years old; BMI 21.3 ± 2.3 kg/m2; peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) = 55.02 ± 7.31 ml/kg/min, 58 ± 17 km/week) performed three sessions each separated by one week. On the first session, runners completed a maximal incremental test to determine their ventilatory threshold. During the next two sessions, runners completed a 60-min run at their VT on a treadmill while applying either CR or unregulated (UR) instructions in counterbalanced order. Participants were reminded of the emotion regulation instructions every five minutes and reported exertion, affective valence, and arousal every 10 min. Similar levels of exertion were reported during the CR and UR sessions. However, they reported marginally higher arousal during CR than UR (p=0.076). They also reported more positive valence during CR than UR (p<0.001). Post-hoc analysis showed that affective valence was higher during CR than UR (p<0.01) after 30, 40 and 50 min of exercise. During endurance exercise at the ventilatory threshold, cognitive reappraisal attenuates the decreases in affect after 30 min in recreational runners.

Sadness regulation strategies and measurement: A scoping review.

Accurate measurement and suitable strategies facilitate people regulate their sadness in an effective manner. Regulating or mitigating negative emotions, particularly sadness, is crucial mainly because constant negative emotions may lead to psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety. This paper presents an overview of sadness regulation strategies and related measurement. Upon adhering to five-step scoping review, this study combed through articles that looked into sadness regulation retrieved from eight databases. As a result of reviewing 40 selected articles, 110 strategies were identified to regulate emotions, particularly sadness. Some of the most commonly reported strategies include expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, distraction, seeking social or emotional support, and rumination. The four types of measures emerged from the review are self-reported, informant report (parents or peers), open-ended questions, and emotion regulation instructions. Notably, most studies had tested psychometric properties using Cronbach's alpha alone, while only a handful had assessed validity (construct and factorial validity) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha or test-retest) based on responses captured from questionnaire survey. Several sadness regulation strategies appeared to vary based on gender, age, and use of strategy. Despite the general measurement of emotion regulation, only one measure was developed to measure sadness regulation exclusively for children. Future studies may develop a comprehensive battery of measures to assess sadness regulation using multi-component method.

Spontaneous and instructed emotion regulation in dysphoria: Effects on emotion experience and use of other emotion regulation strategies

Spontaneous and instructed emotion regulation in dysphoria: Effects on emotion experience and use of other emotion regulation strategies

Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative: Reducing ambivalence through instructed emotion regulation.

Ambivalence, the simultaneous experience of positivity and negativity, is a conflicting, uncomfortable, arousing state but is a necessary catalyst for behavior change. We sought to examine whether feelings of ambivalence can be reduced using instructed emotion regulation of positive and negative affect, the components of subjective ambivalence. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were collected while participants played 3 blocks of mixed gambles, in which each trial involved losing or winning the lesser or greater of 2 amounts. In the 1st block participants responded naturally, and in the 2nd and 3rd blocks they were instructed to focus on either the positive or negative aspects of the outcome. Disappointing wins (e.g., winning $5 instead of winning $12) and relieving losses (losing $5 instead of losing $12) reliably elicited ambivalence; focusing on either the negative or positive aspects of the outcome reduced ambivalence as well as the magnitude of the late positive potential (LPP), indicating successful regulation. Both self-reported affect and ERPs indicated that emotional responses to losses were more difficult to regulate than responses to wins, consistent with a negativity bias in affective processing. Results are interpreted in the framework of theories of affect, and implications for changing behavioral motivation to support healthy behaviors are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Supplemental Material for Age-Group Differences in Instructed Emotion Regulation Effectiveness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Supplemental Material for Age-Group Differences in Instructed Emotion Regulation Effectiveness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Emotion regulation in social interaction: Physiological and emotional responses associated with social inhibition

Social inhibition may be associated with individual differences in emotion regulation. Mechanisms relating emotion regulation to social inhibition are largely unknown. We therefore examined how social inhibition is associated with emotional, sympathetic, and parasympathetic responses during sadness induction, and while employing emotion regulation strategies during social interaction after sadness induction. Undergraduate students (N = 216; 72% female) completed the Social Inhibition Questionnaire and participated in a sadness induction and emotion regulation (i.e., suppression and reappraisal) social interaction task, while emotional states, and sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity were assessed. Repeated measures ANCOVAs showed that during sadness induction, social inhibition was unrelated to the emotional response, but social inhibition was associated with a blunted parasympathetic withdrawal response, due to an already withdrawn parasympathetic tone at rest. This may be suggestive of increased allostatic load with higher social inhibition, and may contribute to stress-related health risks. Both suppression and reappraisal tasks successfully diminished sadness, and this reduction was smaller with increasing levels of social inhibition. Physiological responses to emotion regulation efforts were independent of social inhibition. Elevated sadness in response to instructed emotion regulation in socially inhibited individuals may indicate more emotional distress during social interaction due to heightened threat sensitivity they experience.

Effects of Emotion Regulation Strategies on Mothers’ Self-Reported, Physiological, and Facial Expressive Responses to Infant Laughing

SYNOPSIS Objective. Mothers’ affective responses to infant laughing are essential in parent-child interaction. This experimental study examined whether instructing mothers to employ emotion regulation strategies can change their self-reported, physiological, and facial expressive responses to infant laughing. Design. Using a within-subjects design, mothers (N = 100, age M = 30.87 years) were exposed to infant laughing sounds while receiving enhancement, suppression, and no emotion regulation instructions. Positive affect, perception of laughing, intended sensitive and insensitive caregiving responses, skin conductance level, and facial expressions in response to infant laughing were measured. Results. Enhancement resulted in increased positive affect, a more positive perception of the laugh, more intended sensitive caregiving responses, and, compared to suppression, fewer intended insensitive caregiving responses. Moreover, enhancement resulted in lower sad and, compared to suppression, higher happy facial expressi-vity. In contrast, suppression resulted in a less positive perception. Enhancement did not affect skin conductance level. Conclusions. Enhancement can have beneficial effects on mothers’ self-reported and facial expressive responses to infant laughing in an experimental setting. Enhancement instructions may be used to increase mothers’ positive feelings in response to infant laughing and to promote sensitive caregiving behaviors and positive facial expressions, which may benefit affective mother-child interchanges.

Supplemental Material for Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative: Reducing Ambivalence Through Instructed Emotion Regulation

Supplemental Material for Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative: Reducing Ambivalence Through Instructed Emotion Regulation

Effectiveness of emotion regulation instruction on interpersonal problems among female high school students

Aim: This study was conducted to observe the effectiveness of emotion regulation instruction on interpersonal problems among 10th-grade female students in 2016–2017. Methodology: We used the quasi-experimental method and conducted pretests and posttests on the control group. Statistical population of this study is comprised of all 10th-grade female students of Neyshabur (Khorasan Razavi Province). In this study, 30 female students were selected by multistage randomized cluster sampling. Then, they were randomly placed in the central and experimental groups (15 students in each group). Inventory of interpersonal problem questionnaire was used to measure the level of interpersonal problems among the students. The results of this questionnaire were confirmed and its Cronbach's alpha value was 0.88. We performed our emotion regulation instruction for the experimental group during 8 sessions that each lasted 90 min; these instruction sessions were held once a week, and the control group was also included in the list. At the end of these sessions, both the groups were reassessed. Results: The results of this study showed that there is a significant difference (P

Cognitive Reappraisal as an Emotion Regulation Strategy for Shame: Comparing Self-Distancing to Changing Self-Evaluations

The study aimed to investigate the effect of two emotion regulation strategies targeting self-evaluative processes on state-shame. Participants were 113 students who were randomly assigned to three conditions: self-distancing, cognitive reappraisal, and a control group. The study compared the impact of the emotion regulation instructions on experimentally induced shame. Cognitive reappraisal significantly reduced state-shame compared with a control group. No differences were found compared to the self-distancing group or between the control group and the self-distancing group. Also, negative self-appraisals significantly decreased in the cognitive reappraisal group, and were significantly lower compared with the other two groups. Finally, changes in negative self-evaluations mediated the impact of group on changes in state-shame. This is one of the very few studies investigating the regulation of state-shame. Our study indicates that a short reappraisal task is not as effective in regulating shame as it is in regulating basic emotions.

Performance-based assessment of distraction in response to emotional stimuli: Toward a standardized procedure for assessing emotion regulation performance

In studies examining the consequences of emotion regulation, emotion regulation is primarily measured with self-report questionnaires but it is uncertain how accurately such measures capture emotion regulation ability. The present study aims to test a procedure for assessing individual differences in distraction as an emotion regulation strategy. The procedure should satisfy three conditions: (1) Stimulus material should induce emotions; (2) The regulation instruction should alter emotion response; (3) Performance scores should differentiate individuals on other measures of emotional functioning. Study Part 1, two sets of affective images were validated in a sample of younger and older adults (n = 57). Study Part 2, unregulated and regulated experiential and physiological emotion responses were recorded during an experimental procedure using affective images to induce negative affect in a younger (n = 68) and an older sample (n = 32). Results showed that negative affective states were induced in both age groups and the emotion regulation instruction significantly altered experiential and physiological emotion responses. Study Part 3 showed that the distraction performance score could differentiate between individuals differing in anxiety, experiential avoidance, and self-reported use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Although further validation is needed, the tested procedure may provide a framework for assessing emotion regulation performance.