Emotion Regulation Theory Research Articles

Emotional labour in the parenthood

This study introduces the concept of emotional labour, the theoretical underpinnings of its delineation and connections to emotion regulation and brings it into the context of parenthood. Emotional labour was originally described by sociologists in the context of a work environment which requires one to consciously influence one’s emotions when interacting with a customer or a client. The connection of emotional labour with psychological theories of emotion regulation allowed for a better understanding and grasp the mechanisms through which emotional labour can lead to “burning out” or stress. Currently, parents are exposed to a great amount of information about how to “correctly” parent their children, which together with their own idea of a good parent, the influence of their family and close friends as well as other people, creates high demands precisely in the area of experiencing and expressing emotions in their interactions with their children. Today, the parent role approaches that of the job in several aspects. Its demands for emotional labour can be linked to negative impacts on mental health. The concept of emotional labour can be considered to be appropriate for a better understanding of what a parent experiences with the child in mundane situations and how parents handle the emotions. The perspective of emotional labour can therefore bring important information about emotions in parenthood and about the influence of intentionally working with these emotions on the mental functioning of parents even beyond the explanatory confines of emotion regulation. This study also introduces measurement instruments used to capture emotional labour and its dimensions. For future research of emotional labour in parenthood, creating a valid and reliable instrument, which has so far been lacking both in the Czech and international contexts, is a necessity.

Perceived Stress and Internet Addiction Among Chinese College Students: Mediating Effect of Procrastination and Moderating Effect of Flow.

Perceived stress, Internet addiction and procrastination are common issues among college students. Based on the Compensatory Internet Use (CIU) model and emotion regulation theory, this study aims to explore two possible mechanisms for the connection between perceived stress and Internet addiction: mediating effect of procrastination and moderating effect of flow experience on the Internet. Cross-sectional design and questionnaire survey were used in this study. Data were collected from 446 college students who voluntarily completed self-reporting of perceived stress, internet addiction, procrastination and flow. Potential relationship structure and moderation model between variables was calculated during the process. The results revealed that there were significant associations among perceived stress, Internet addiction, procrastination and flow. The results also showed that procrastination plays a mediating role between perceptual stress and Internet addiction, flow plays a moderating role between them. The results emphasized the importance of the intention behind college students’ overuse of the Internet. These results also provided a perspective of finding the possible causes of Internet addiction in college students, that is, individuals use the Internet to avoid stress and procrastinate, and the mobile experience on the Internet also affects the process.

Enhancing International Buyer-Seller Relationship Quality and Long-Term Orientation Using Emotional Intelligence: The Moderating Role of Foreign Culture

Building on Emotion Regulation Theory, we examine the role of an exporter’s emotional intelligence (EI) in enhancing the quality and boosting the long-term orientation of the working relationship with its import buyers. Using data gathered from 262 Greek exporters, we confirm that the proper use of EI helps to improve trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction in the relationship with their importers, which subsequently contribute to its long-term orientation. This favorable effect of EI on relationship quality dimensions is amplified when exporters deal with importers located in countries with cultures characterized by low power distance, low individualism, low masculinity, high uncertainty avoidance, and high (national) long-term orientation.

A computational model of emotion based on audio‐visual stimuli understanding and personalized regulation with concurrency

AbstractThe target of Emotion modeling is to establish an system that can perceive, recognize, and express emotions with concurrency which humanity have by proper mathematical models. A big challenge in Emotion modeling is to establish the complex personal system of an intelligent agent or machine in a quasi‐physical and quasi‐sociological way, so that it rationally responds to emotions and behaviors by different internal and external stimuli with concurrency. For this purpose, an emotion classification model is presented for the audio‐visual external stimuli based on an improved long short‐term memory network. Then, based on Gross's emotional regulation theory, a hidden Markov model is constructed to imitate the process framework of human emotional cognition and personalized emotional regulation and expression, so as to realize the machine's intuitive and reasonable response to stimuli with concurrency. In this article, a framework of machine personalized artificial emotion simulation is preliminarily constructed, which provides a new model for human–computer interaction, in order to provide a reference solution for machine emotion understanding and expression.

Examining emotional tool use in daily life.

Emotions such as anger, gratitude, envy, and pride can be thought of as tools: They tend to serve context-specific functions in daily life. Prior work has shown that people can use emotions as tools in laboratory contexts, yet it is unclear whether people do use emotions as tools in daily life by intentionally trying to feel or express emotions that could yield context-specific beneficial outcomes. We examined this issue in 6 studies (total N = 1,409) in which participants (a) identified scenarios where specific emotions typically function as tools, (b) recalled episodes of emotional tool use, and (c) reported on emotional tool use in daily life via experience-sampling under experimental instructions. We found that people regularly used emotions as tools in daily life, but that people used positive emotions as tools much more frequently than negative emotions. Yet, when people used positive emotions as tools, this led to less beneficial outcomes than when participants felt positive emotions reactively-in part because using positive emotions as tools felt inauthentic-whereas using negative emotions as tools led to more beneficial outcomes than feeling negative emotions reactively. These findings point to a fascinating paradox: Although people are more willing to use positive (vs. negative) emotions as tools, these choices may not lead people to garner maximal possible benefits of positive emotions, while preventing people from capitalizing on the benefits of using negative emotions as tools. We discuss implications of this work for incorporating emotional tool use into theories of emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Influence of suppression and reappraisal on eating-related symptoms and ruminative thinking in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

The goal of the present study was to investigate the influence of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal on eating-related symptomatology in anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). Secondly, on the background of theoretical models proposing a reciprocal relationship between suppression and rumination, we sought to understand whether inhibition of emotional expression also affects ruminative thinking in eating disorders.Women with AN (n = 39), BN (n = 37) and a control group (CG, n = 41) were randomly assigned to either engage in suppression or reappraisal during a sadness-eliciting film clip. Levels of drive to eat, anticipated loss of control over eating and ruminative thoughts were rated before and after the induction of emotion regulation.Induced expressive suppression led to a decrease of reported drive to eat in AN and an increase of anticipated loss of control over eating in BN. All groups responded to suppression with greater rumination, whereas no significant changes were found for reappraisal. Mediation analyses on trait questionnaires pointed to rumination as a partial mediator of the correlation between suppression and eating disorder pathology.Results are discussed in line with recent empirical research and current emotion regulation theories.

Being the Weather Gauge of Mood: Demystifying the Emotion Regulation of Kindergarten Principals

The study examined how emotion regulation strategies were utilised by kindergarten principals to fulfil their leading roles. In-depth interviews and document analysis were conducted with five kindergarten principals in Hong Kong. The principals linked their emotions to the psychosocial climate of the kindergartens, highlighting that emotion regulation is essential for the flourishing of the kindergartens. In line with the process model of emotion regulation, principals employed both antecedent-focused and response-focused emotion regulation strategies throughout their work to maintain a positive and rational outlook. In addition, the study also identified that the principals employed interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to facilitate their emotion regulation through social interactions. Together, these strategies contributed to the emotional well-being of the principals, thus optimising their interactions with teachers and parents, so that the children would also benefit. Implications for emotion regulation theory and kindergarten principal leadership are discussed.

Impacts of Job Standardisation on Restaurant Frontline Employees: Mediating Effect of Emotional Labour

Managers of food service operations standardise various aspects of operations to sustain consistent service quality. Frontline employees in these operations are expected to carry out tasks as per standards. Standards demand that frontline employees regulate their behaviours and emotions to complete their duties. Therefore, referring to the organisational role theory and the emotion regulation theory as the directing basis, this study examined the impact of job standardisation on emotional labour, as well as the effect of emotional labour on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction of frontline employees in the hospitality sector. This study also examined the mediating effect of emotional labour on the relation between job standardisation, on one hand, and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction on the other hand. The data collection was carried out in food service operations in Lebanon. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the relations. The results showed that job standardisation negatively affected emotional labour and that emotional labour had a positive effect on emotional exhaustion and a negative effect on job satisfaction. Furthermore, emotional labour mediated the relation between job standardisation and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Practical and theoretical implications and directions for future research are also provided.

A General Model of Dissonance Reduction: Unifying Past Accounts via an Emotion Regulation Perspective.

Cognitive dissonance has been studied for more than 60 years and many insightful findings have come from this research. However, some important theoretical and methodological issues are yet to be resolved, particularly regarding dissonance reduction. In this paper, we place dissonance theory in the larger framework of appraisal theories of emotion, emotion regulation, and coping. The basic premise of dissonance theory is that people experience negative affect (to varying degrees) following the detection of cognitive conflict. The individual will be motivated to alleviate these emotional reactions and could do so by reducing dissonance in some manner. We argue that detection of dissonance will follow the same principles as when people interpret any other stimuli as emotionally significant. Thus, appraisal theory of emotion, which argues that emotions are generated via the cognitive evaluation of surrounding stimuli, should be applicable to the dissonance-detection process. In short, we argue that dissonance-reduction strategies (attitude change, trivialization, denial of responsibility, etc.) can be understood as emotion-regulation strategies. We further argue that this perspective contributes to reconciling fragmented (and sometimes contrary) viewpoints present in the literature on dissonance reduction. In addition to proposing the general model of dissonance reduction, we illustrate at the hand of empirical data how research on dissonance reduction can be performed without relying on experimental paradigms that focus on a specific reduction strategy.

Drinking to cope mediates the link between work-family conflict and alcohol use among mothers but not fathers of preschool children

Based on the assumptions of emotion regulation theory, this study tests whether drinking to cope mediates the association between work-family conflict (WFC) and alcohol use; an important link missing in previous studies. Based on a sample of 144 fathers and 165 mothers of pre-schoolers in Switzerland, Poisson regression mediation models were estimated. Models were adjusted for other drinking motives, age, and employment level. The results revealed that, among mothers, coping motives fully mediated the effect of WFC on frequency of risky single occasion drinking (IRR direct effect = 0.969, p > .05; IRR indirect effect = 1.043, p < .05) and partially mediated the link between WFC and usual quantity per drinking day (IRR direct effect = 1.181, p < .01; IRR indirect effect = 1.035, p < .05). Among fathers, no effect of WFC on alcohol use was found and consequently no mediation of coping motives. The findings suggest that mothers who drink to cope are at risk of excessive drinking, particularly when experiencing WFC. This puts them at risk for long-term health consequences when the stress and negative affects resulting from WFC are not adequately addressed. Intervention efforts should focus on women who drink for coping motives by providing them with support and non-drinking alternatives.

Effortful Emotion Regulation as a Unique Form of Cybernetic Control

Emotion regulation is important for psychological well-being, yet we know relatively little about why, when, and how hard people try to regulate emotions. This article seeks to address these motivational issues by considering effortful emotion regulation as a unique form of cybernetic control. In any domain of self-regulation, emotions serve as indices of progress in regulation and inform the expected value of regulation. In emotion regulation, however, emotions also serve as the very target of regulation. This interdependence gives rise to ironic processes that may render people less likely to exert effort in emotion regulation, precisely when they need it most. The proposed analysis complements and extends existing theories of emotion regulation, sheds new light on available findings, carries implications for psychopathology and well-being, and points to new hypotheses that could lead to theoretical and applied advances in the field.

Maternal comforting behavior, toddlers' dysregulated fear, and toddlers' emotion regulatory behaviors.

Developmental theories of emotion regulation suggest that influences from both extrinsic (e.g., from caregivers) and intrinsic (i.e., temperament) sources contribute to children's displays of emotion regulatory behaviors. Very few studies have examined specific caregiver behaviors in relation to specific regulatory behaviors. Further, few empirical investigations have tested theoretical notions that temperament may be an important context in which to understand the nature of the relation between caregiver behavior and toddlers' regulatory behaviors. The current study examined the specific maternal behavior of physical comfort in relation to three regulatory strategies exhibited by toddlers (attention-shifting, caregiver-focused behavior, and self-focused behavior) in 117 pairs of mothers and their 24-month-old toddlers. Further, we tested the temperament dimension of dysregulated fear, a more recent derivation of behavioral inhibition, both in relation to regulatory efforts and as a moderator of relations between maternal comforting and toddler regulatory behaviors. Dysregulated fear related directly and positively to attention-shifting, and it moderated the relation between maternal comforting and both caregiver-focused and self-focused behaviors. This study provides new evidence of the importance of both extrinsic and intrinsic correlates of emotion regulation in early childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Digital Emotion Regulation

People routinely regulate their emotions in order to function more effectively at work, to behave more appropriately in social situations, or simply to feel better. Recently, researchers have begun to examine how people shape their affective states using digital technologies, such as smartphones. In this article, we discuss the emergence of digital emotion regulation, both as a widespread behavioral phenomenon and a new cross-disciplinary field of research. This field bridges two largely distinct areas of enquiry: (a) psychological research into how and why people regulate their emotions, which has yet to systematically explore the role of digital technology, and (b) computing research into how digital technologies impact users’ emotions, which has yet to integrate psychological theories of emotion regulation. We argue that bringing these two areas into better contact will benefit both and will facilitate a deeper understanding of the nature and significance of digital emotion regulation.

A Dual Route Model for Regulating Emotions: Comparing Models, Techniques and Biological Mechanisms.

The aim of this article is to present recent applications of emotion regulation theory and methods to the field of psychotherapy. The term Emotion Regulation refers to the neurocognitive mechanisms by which we regulate the onset, strength, and the eventual expression of our emotions. Deficits in the regulation of emotions have been linked to most, if not all, psychiatric disorders, with patients presenting either dysregulated emotions, or dysfunctional regulatory strategies. We discuss the implications of regulating emotions from two different theoretical perspectives: the Cognitive Emotion Regulation (CER), and the Experiential-Dynamic Emotion Regulation (EDER) model. Each proposes different views on how emotions are generated, dysregulated and regulated. These perspectives directly influence the way clinicians treat such problems. The CER model views emotional dysregulation as due to a deficit in regulation mechanisms that prioritizes modifying or developing cognitive skills, whilst the EDER model posits emotional dysregulation as due to the presence of dysregulatory mechanisms that prioritizes restoring natural regulatory processes. Examples of relevant techniques for each model are presented including a range of cognitive-behavioral, and experiential (including both dynamic and cognitive) techniques. The aim of the paper is to provide a toolbox from which clinician may gain different techniques to enhance and maintain their patient’s capacity for emotional regulation. Finally, the biological mechanisms behind the two models of emotion regulation are discussed as well as a proposal of a dual route model of emotion regulation.

Fight, Flight, - Or Grab a Bite! Trait Emotional and Restrained Eating Style Predicts Food Cue Responding Under Negative Emotions.

In today’s society, obesity rates are rising as food intake is no longer only a response to physiological hunger signals that ensure survival. Eating can represent a reward, a response to boredom, or stress reduction and emotion regulation. While most people decrease food intake in response to stress or negative emotions, some do the opposite. Yet, it is unclear who shows emotional overeating under which circumstances. Emotion regulation theories describe emotional overeating as a learned strategy to down-regulate negative emotions. Cognitive theories, by contrast, attribute emotional overeating to perceived diet breaches in individuals who chronically attempt to diet. After consuming “forbidden foods”, they eat more than individuals who do not restrict their food intake. This laboratory study investigated emotional overeating by exposing individuals to a personalized emotion induction while showing images of palatable foods. Outcome variables indexed cue reactivity to food images through picture ratings (valence, desire to eat), facial expressions (electromyography of the corrugator supercilii muscle), and brain reactivity by detecting event-related potentials (ERPs) by means of electroencephalography (EEG). The influence of emotion condition (negative, neutral) and individual differences (self-reported trait emotional and restrained eating) on outcome variables was assessed. Valence ratings and appetitive reactions of the corrugator muscle to food pictures showed a relative increase in the negative condition for individuals with higher emotional eating scores, with the opposite pattern in lower scores. Desire to eat ratings showed a similar pattern in individuals who showed a strong response to the emotion induction manipulation, indicative of a dose-response relationship. Although no differences between conditions were found for ratings or corrugator activity with restrained eating as a predictor, an ERP at P300 showed increased activation when viewing food compared to objects in the negative condition. Findings support emotion regulation theories: Emotional eaters showed an appetitive reaction in rating patterns and corrugator activity. EEG findings (increased P300) suggest a motivated attention toward food in restrained eaters, which supports cognitive theories. However, this did not translate to other variables, which might demonstrate successful restraint. Future studies may follow up on these findings by investigating eating disorders with emotion regulation difficulties.

Inter-Individual Differences in Multivariate Time-Series

Abstract. Theories of emotion regulation posit the existence of individual differences in emotion dynamics. Current multi-subject time-series models account for differences in dynamics across individuals only to a very limited extent. This results in an aggregation that may poorly apply at the individual level. We present the exploratory method of latent class vector-autoregressive modeling (LCVAR), which extends the time-series models to include clustering of individuals with similar dynamic processes. LCVAR can identify individuals with similar emotion dynamics in intensive time-series, which may be of unequal length. The method performs excellently under a range of simulated conditions. The value of identifying clusters in time-series is illustrated using affect measures of 410 individuals, assessed at over 70 time points per individual. LCVAR discerned six clusters of distinct emotion dynamics with regard to diurnal patterns and augmentation and blunting processes between eight emotions.

Decreased Theory of Mind Abilities and Increased Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescents With ASD and ADHD.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the possible relationship theory of mind (ToM) and emotion regulation (ER) skills in adolescents diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study comprised 60 individuals with ADHD and 60 individuals with ASD according to DSM-5 and between the ages of 12-16, and 60 adolescents without any psychiatric diagnosis. The Turkish version of the schedule for affective disorders and schizophrenia for school-age children, both present and lifetime versions, was applied to assess psychopathology and comorbidity. The intelligence level of the patients was assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Reading the mind in the eyes test, the Faux Pas Test, and the hinting task were given to patients to evaluate the ToM skills. The difficulties in ER Scale were also used to evaluate the skills of regulating emotions. Adolescent patients with ADHD and ASD have difficulties in ToM and ER skills. Adolescents diagnosed with ASD had more difficulty in ToM and ER than adolescents with ADHD. This study supports the idea that ADHD and ASD are related to deficits in ToM and ER skills. Therefore, further studies are required to confirm the findings of this study.

Emotion regulation and resilience in parent–adolescent interactions among families of harmful versus non-harmful parental alcohol use

ABSTRACTThis study applied emotion regulation theory to examine parental communication that predicts possible markers of adolescent resilience in families of harmful versus non-harmful parental alcohol use. Parent-adolescent dyads (30 with and 30 without harmful parental alcohol use) participated in video-taped interactions rated for parents' emotion coaching and emotion dismissing communication and adolescents' emotion regulation and behavioral impulsivity. Emotion coaching was positively associated with adolescent emotion regulation and behavioral impulsivity. Emotion dismissing was only positively associated with adolescent behavioral impulsivity. Adolescents in families of harmful alcohol use demonstrated more impulsivity but also showed more emotion regulation in the presence of emotion dismissing communication. Findings suggest that dimensions of parental communication are uniquely associated with potential markers of adolescent resilience. For families of harmful parental alcohol use, results point to a need for greater consistency in parental communication behavior and efficacy in modeling desired expressions of emotions to foster adolescent resilience.

Performance feedback interviews as affective events: An exploration of the impact of emotion regulation of negative performance feedback on supervisor–employee dyads

Emotion has been treated as merely an underlying and implicit phenomenon in organizational performance feedback scholarship and has yet to be examined in its own right. This paper conceptualizes negative performance feedback interviews as affective events that elicit negative emotions in both employees (as feedback receivers) and supervisors (as feedback givers). We argue that both employees and supervisors cope with these emotions, utilizing emotion regulation strategies, which differently impact employees' engagement in learning behaviour through psychological safety, and supervisors' satisfaction with giving negative performance feedback. Drawing on affective events theory (AET), appraisal theory of emotion, emotion regulation and performance feedback literature, we offer theoretical insights that may encourage empirical studies to explore the role emotion regulation plays in performance feedback interviews. Theoretical and human resource management implications are discussed.

Associations between Theory of Mind and Emotion Regulation in Argentinean Adults

Theory of Mind is a construct closely related to the cognitive aspect of human empathy, which refers to the ability to represent and interpret mental states in others. The term Emotion Regulation includes all processes aimed to modulate the intensity and duration of different aspects of emotional experience. Clinical evidence suggests that theory of mind alterations and emotion regulation difficulties co-occur in several psychiatric disorders. In addition, it has been suggested that both abilities might be developmentally related, with theory of mind deficits leading to emotional dysregulation. The present study is the first to examine the associations between performance in a theory of mind experimental task (the “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” test) and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale scores, in a non-clinical sample of argentinean adults. We found small, but significant associations between Theory of Mind and Emotion Regulation, indicating that those subjects with higher Theory of Mind scores were better at inhibiting impulsive reactions and identifying their own emotions. In addition, these associations were indepedent of sex, age and education level. These results are congruent (although they do not confirm) with the hypothesis of a developmental link between Theory of Mind and Emotion Regulation.