What is Emotion Regulation?
Emotions are fascinating phenomena. They are elicited quickly and intensely in response to things going on in ourselves and our environment. They are an important source of information, as they signal to us where to find nourishment and support and warn us of potential dangers. As such, they play an important role in our every day experiences: they influence what we have for lunch, with whom we have lunch, what products we buy, what relationships we maintain, what type of person we like to date, and even what type of career choices we make.
However, exciting as they can be, emotions can sometimes also be the source of many difficulties. This is the case when they become too intense and start interfering with our ability to interact with the environment in a way that is beneficial to us. For example, think of the last time you experienced so much anger at a friend that you got into a heated argument? Or, the last time you felt too nervous about work, school, or a relationship and had difficulty carrying out important tasks? Or, the last time you were feeling so sad that you had difficulties motivating yourself to do things?
From these every day examples, it is clear that emotions can be both, very adaptive and useful. as well as highly problematic. The trick is in how we manage them. Or, as we psychologists say, how do we regulate them?
The process of emotion regulation consists of modifying our emotions or the emotion-eliciting events in order to respond to environmental demands and pursue our goals.
The idea of regulating emotions is not new by any means. For centuries, philosophers from Plato to Sartre have been fascinated by how we could change our thoughts to change our feelings. This complex interaction between thoughts and feelings has naturally been the source of much disagreement. On one hand, philosophers like the 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume have argued that reason exists to serve and obey emotions. On the other hand, other philosophers, such as Descartes, have emphasized the use of self-control to master our emotions. If you are interested in the philosophy of emotions, check out the Research Resources Section . But for now, let’s focus on the psychology of emotion regulation.
Emotion Regulation and Psychology
Emotion regulation became a very popular topic among psychologists and the current approach has been heavily influenced by the work of James Gross and his colleagues. Under his model, emotion regulation is the process by which we modify our emotional experiences or the emotion-eliciting situations so that we can appropriately interact with the environment. In relation to the examples above, emotion regulation would consist of not letting the anger, fear, or sadness (as well as any other emotion) “get in the way” of our goals.
There are many ways of regulating emotions. One way is to consciously attempt to impact our emotional experience in a specific manner. We refer to this process as an emotion regulation strategy. A strategy like cognitive reappraisal can help us think of a situation differently in order reduce its emotional intensity. For example, if we are angry with our friend, we can remind ourselves that she or he is a good friend and likely has no intention to do us any harm in this particular situation. Or we could use the strategy of acceptance and try to accept such anger as part of our internal experience without necessarily acting on it by lashing out at our friend. These strategies are usually considered adaptive ways of regulating our emotions (the emphasis on usually, as there are instances in which too much cognitive reappraisal or acceptance can be detrimental). The basic rationale is that, although sometimes they might be difficult to use in the short run, they produce benefits in the long run. In other words, it might be difficult to disengage from angry thoughts about our friend, yet if we can do it, we might be able to discuss the situation with them with a cool head, reach a good understating of what happened, and hopefully continue building that friendship. Similarly, it can be difficult to accept a feeling and not act on it, yet doing so can give us flexibility to choose other behaviors that might be less disruptive than lashing out.
Conversely, there are other strategies that might sometimes produce momentary relief in the short run, but also result in more difficulties in the long run. Such strategies are usually considered maladaptive. One such strategy is avoidance. For example, if you avoid doing a task at work or school because you are afraid you might not do a good job, this would result in an immediate relief of the anxiety, but will not allow you to “face your fears” and learn how to perform such task. Another strategy, suppression, also allows you to decrease the intensity of your emotions, but because it does not allow you to fully process the emotions, they are likely to “pop up” in other contexts. For example, if you suppress your anger at your friend, it might come back later when you less expect it.
These examples are by no means exclusive and there is a whole range of strategies that individuals use on a regular basis with various degrees of success. If you want more information, check out a meta analysis I recently conducted with my colleagues examining the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and symptoms of mental disorders in the About Section .
Emotion Regulation and Well-Being
The ability to regulate emotions adaptively has been associated with physical and psychological well-being. Of particular interest, difficulties regulating emotions have been found to characterize a wide range of mental difficulties, including mood, anxiety, eating, substance abuse, and impulse control disorders in adults and children. Psychotherapy treatments focus on the identification of emotion regulation difficulties and the development of skills to appropriately use emotion regulation strategies to better interact with the environment. If you are interested in learning more about treatments, visit the Get Help Section .
Would You Like to Contribute?
I created this website as a one-stop place for a wide range of resources on emotion regulation: for researchers, clinicians, and the general public. This site is **very** new and I am looking for contributions and suggestions on the fascinating topic of emotion regulation. If you would like to learn more about opportunities to volunteer, click on the bubble to the right.