Integrating Diverse Developmental Perspectives on Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation has been studied in diverse ways within different subdisciplines of psychology—most notably social development, personality and individual differences, social psychophysiology, interpersonal relationships, and stress and coping. The goal of this Special Issue is to demonstrate the value of integrating these diverse approaches for building multilevel, lifespan models of emotion regulation. We review each of the contributions to this special issue, highlighting recurring themes and previewing our own perspective on directions for future theory and research.     

Studying Children's Intrapersonal Emotion Regulation Strategies from the Process Model of Emotion Regulation

The authors relied on the Process Model of Emotion Regulation (PMER; J. J. Gross, 2007 Gross, J. J. (2007). Handbook of emotion regulation. New York, NY: Guilford Press. [Google Scholar]) to investigate children's abilities to regulate their emotions and to assess how distinct emotion regulation strategies are used by children of different ages. In Study 1, 180 parents of children aged between 3 and 8 years old reported about a situation in which their child had been able to change what she or he was feeling. In Study 2, 126 children 3–8 years old answered 2 questions about how they regulate their own emotions. Results from both studies showed age differences in children's reported emotion regulation abilities and the strategies they used. As expected, strategies such as situation selection, situation modification, and cognitive change were used more frequently by 5–6- and 7–8-year-olds, whereas attention deployment was mainly used by 3–4-year-olds. No age differences were found for response modulation. The present research contributes to the existing body of literature on emotion regulation by adding more information about the developmental patterns for each specific emotion regulation strategy.     

Conceptions of the Transition to Adulthood: Perspectives From Adolescence Through Midlife

Conceptions of the transition to adulthood were examined among adolescents (age 13–19, N = 171), emerging adults (age 20–29, N = 179), and young-to-midlife adults (age 30–55, N = 165). The focus was on whether conceptions of the transition to adulthood would be different among young-to-midlife adults compared to the younger age groups. In all age groups, individualistic criteria were the most likely to be considered important markers of the transition to adulthood, specifically accepting responsibility for one's actions, deciding on one's beliefs and values, establishing an equal relationship with parents, and becoming financially independent. However, young-to-midlife adults were less likely than adolescents to consider biological transitions to be important, and more likely than adolescents or emerging adults to view norm compliance (such as avoiding drunk driving) as a necessary part of the transition to adulthood. In all three groups, role transitions (e.g., marriage) ranked lowest in importance.     

中学生情绪调节能力的发展特点

本研究选取北京、河南、重庆、浙江和新疆五个地区的 1 3所中学 ,从初一到高三的中学生 1 1 855人作为被试 ,采用《中学生情绪调节能力问卷》对我国中学生的情绪调节能力的状况和发展特点做了测查。研究结果表明 :(1 )中学生的情绪调节能力随着年级的升高呈现上升的趋势 ,但到高二以后趋于平稳 ;(2 )在高二时 ,女生的情绪调节能力逐渐超过了男生 ,在高三时 ,男生和女生的情绪调节能力没有差异。     

Gratitude From Early Adulthood to Old Age

Are there age differences in gratitude from early adulthood to old age? The current studies tested several ways by which an association between age and dispositional gratitude may present, by considering multiple measures on both fronts. We used data from three cross‐sectional studies (total N = 1,736; total age range: 19–94). The results indicated that (a) age effects in gratitude are more likely to occur for subjective age in terms of future time perspective (i.e., people's perceptions of their remaining opportunities and time) than chronological age; (b) chronological age effects are more domain specific than general in nature; and (c) they are more likely to occur for the instrumental domain as compared to the interpersonal domain. Finally, the results indicated that (d) perceived future time, particularly with respect to remaining opportunities, mediates the relation between chronological age and general gratitude. Overall, the findings suggest that gratitude is subject to a variety of developmental influences across adulthood.     

情绪调节内隐和外显态度在青少年阶段的发展特点

采用情绪调节版内隐联想测验以及情绪调节外显态度问卷对134名初中生、高中生和大学生进行测验,考察情绪调节内隐态度和外显态度在青少年阶段的发展特点以及二者之间的关系。研究结果表明：（1）对情绪调节的内隐态度随年龄的增长,其积极程度逐渐下降;（2）情绪调节外显态度表现出不依赖于年龄发展的稳定性,同时情绪调节外显态度的性别差异显著;（3）情绪调节外显态度与内隐态度呈较低程度的正相关。研究结果表明,情绪调节内隐态度和外显态度是两个既有联系又存在差异的心理结构,具有不同的发展特点。     

Selection,Optimization, and Compensation in the Domain of Emotion Regulation: Applications to Adolescence,Older Age,and Major Depressive Disorder

Emotions often are well calibrated to the challenges and opportunities we face. When they are not, we may try to regulate our emotions. Interestingly, there seems to be considerable variation both in the strategies people use to regulate emotions and in the success of these emotion regulation efforts. The Selection, Optimization, and Compensation with Emotion Regulation framework suggests that variation in the resources required for particular emotion regulation strategies may be a crucial determinant of emotion regulation use and success within individuals across situations, between individuals, and between groups of individuals. In this review, we consider the ways in which two resources for emotion regulation (working memory and social support) might differ among three groups, namely adolescents, older adults, and adults with major depressive disorder. We link these between‐group differences in resources to differences in emotion regulation and make suggestions for future research.     

青少年抑郁及其自动情绪调节的研究概述

本文旨在梳理近年来国内外青少年抑郁及其自动情绪调节在相关研究领域的研究成果,以进一步促进青少年抑郁的自动情绪调节研究。首先,阐明了青少年脑发展与抑郁之间的关系,并概括了三种青少年抑郁模型。然后,澄清了自动情绪调节的内涵和经典范式,而且从时间和空间方面,总结了青少年抑郁的自动情绪调节的神经机制的相关文献。最后,未来要加强功能连接研究,采用经颅直流电刺激(t DCS)、重复经颅磁刺激(r TMS)技术开展干预研究。     

The Impact of Experienced Emotion on Evaluative Judgments: The Effects of Age and Emotion Regulation Style

ABSTRACT

Adults aged from 24 to 79 were exposed to four commercial advertisements within the context of television programs designed to induce either a positive or negative mood. Although age was associated with memory for the content of the commercials, it did not moderate the impact of mood on evaluations of the advertized products. Instead, participants who reported engaging in expressive suppression as a common emotion regulation strategy were more likely to make evaluations that were biased by moods than those individuals who reported low use of this strategy. The results suggest that the maintenance of emotion regulation ability in later adulthood may help people control certain affective influences on thought.     

Risk Taking in Adolescence: New Perspectives From Brain and Behavioral Science

ABSTRACT— Trying to understand why adolescents and young adults take more risks than younger or older individuals do has challenged psychologists for decades. Adolescents' inclination to engage in risky behavior does not appear to be due to irrationality, delusions of invulnerability, or ignorance. This paper presents a perspective on adolescent risk taking grounded in developmental neuroscience. According to this view, the temporal gap between puberty, which impels adolescents toward thrill seeking, and the slow maturation of the cognitive-control system, which regulates these impulses, makes adolescence a time of heightened vulnerability for risky behavior. This view of adolescent risk taking helps to explain why educational interventions designed to change adolescents' knowledge, beliefs, or attitudes have been largely ineffective, and suggests that changing the contexts in which risky behavior occurs may be more successful than changing the way adolescents think about risk.     

Differences in Emotion Regulation Difficulties Across Types of Eating Disorders During Adolescence

Emotion regulation appears to play a key role in eating disorders. However, prior attempts to associate specific emotion regulation abilities with specific types of eating disorders resulted in inconsistent findings. Moreover, far less is known about emotion regulation in eating disorders during adolescence, a critical period of emotional development. The current study addresses this gap, comparing emotion regulation characteristics between adolescents with restrictive types of eating disorders and those with binge eating or purging types of eating disorders. Ninety-eight adolescents with eating disorders (49 with restrictive and 49 with binge eating/purging eating disorders) completed a set of questionnaires including the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). The results revealed that binge eating/purging types of eating disorders were associated with greater difficulties in a variety of emotion regulation dimensions including impulse control, goal-directed behavior and access to effective emotion regulation strategies. Awareness and clarity of emotions were also worse in the binge eating/purging types of eating disorders, but this difference did not remain when comorbid psychopathology measures were controlled for. Moreover, the emotion regulation profile of adolescents with anorexia nervosa-binging/purging type was more similar to that of adolescents with bulimia nervosa than to that of adolescents with anorexia nervosa-restrictive type. While both restrictive and binge eating/purging eating disorders have been associated with emotion regulation difficulties, the current study shows that the presence of binge eating or purging episodes is linked with greater severity of emotion regulation deficits among adolescents with eating disorders.     

Appraisal of Emotions in Media Use: Toward a Process Model of Meta-Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Over the past 20 years, research on meta-emotion and related concepts such as meta-mood and need for affect has become fruitful and prominent across a variety of disciplines, including media psychology. This paper reviews the literature on meta-emotion and considers problems regarding the definition and operationalization of this construct. We propose a process model of meta-emotion and emotion regulation to integrate and extend existing work. Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we understand meta-emotion as a process that monitors and appraises emotions and recruits affective responses toward them, which results in a motivation to maintain and approach emotions, or to control and avoid them. This meta-emotion process plays an important role in media users' selection or rejection of specific media offerings and their invitation to experience emotion. We discuss how this framework may integrate previously unrelated findings on the role of emotions in guiding selective media use and conclude with directions for further research.     

From Adolescence to Later Adulthood: Femininity, Masculinity, and Androgyny in Six Age Groups

We drew from developmental theory regarding the timing of historical events in individuals’ lives to examine age-related differences in self-reported masculine, feminine, and androgynous personality traits in a cross-sectional sample of American men (N?=?357) and women (N?=?404) representing six age groups (adolescents [12–17 years], younger [18–29 years], middle-aged [40–59], young-old [60–69], old-old [70–79], and oldest-old [80 and older] adults). Oldest-old women were less likely than younger and middle-aged women to endorse masculine and androgynous traits. Men in their 70s (old-old) were more likely than adolescents and younger men to endorse androgynous traits. Discussion of the results emphasizes the implications of the second wave of the women’s movement for understanding life-span gender development.     

Gross情绪调节过程与策略研究述评

Gross提出情绪调节产生于情绪发生的过程之中。在情绪发生过程中的情绪调节主要有选择情景、修正情景、注意分配、认知改变、反应调整等五个方面。选择情景、修正情景、注意分配、认知改变是在情绪反应趋势形成之前进行,属于先行关注情绪调节;反应调整是在情绪反应趋势形成之后进行,属于反应关注情绪调节。在情绪调节过程中,有两种普遍的具体策略：认知重评与表达抑制。这两种不同情绪调节策略对情感、认知与社会行为产生不同的影响。     

情绪调节内隐态度对个体情绪调节的影响

研究使用内隐联结测验,序列递减任务以及中国情绪图片系统(CAPS)中的情绪图片为实验材料,比较了负性情绪诱发情境下,不同情绪调节内隐态度个体的情绪体验差异.研究结果表明,对情绪调节持积极内隐态度的个体,在负性情绪诱发情境下,会自动化的调节和控制自己的情绪;而对情绪调节持消极内隐态度的个体,则未对自已的情绪进行自动化的控制和调节.     

Cognitive Emotion Regulation: Insights From Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

ABSTRACT— Recent developments in the study of cognitive emotion regulation illustrate how functional imaging is extending behavioral analyses. Imaging studies have contributed to the development of a multilevel model of emotion regulation that describes the interactions between neural systems implicated in emotion generation and those implicated in emotional control. In this article, we review imaging studies of one type of cognitive emotion regulation: reappraisal. We show how imaging studies have contributed to the construction of this model, illustrate the interplay of psychological theory and neuroscience data in its development, and describe how this model can be used as the basis for future basic and translational research.     

Daily Peer Hassles and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Avoidance-Focused Emotion Regulation Processes

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of rumination, experiential avoidance, dissociation and depressive symptoms in the association between daily peer hassles and non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents. Additionally, this study explored gender differences in these associations and tested whether the proposed model was invariant across genders. The sample consisted of 776 adolescents, of them 369 are males (47.6%) and 407 are females (52.4%), aged between 12 and 18 years old from middle and high schools in Portugal. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess daily peer hassles, rumination in its severe component (i.e., brooding), experiential avoidance, dissociation, depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury. Path analysis showed that daily peer hassles indirectly impact on non-suicidal self-injury through increased levels of brooding, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and depressive symptoms. Results indicated significant gender differences in mean scores and path analysis. Male adolescents were more likely to engage in brooding and experiential avoidance in response to external distress (particularly, daily peer hassles), whereas female adolescents were more likely to engage in non-suicidal self-injury in response to internal distress (particularly, depressive symptoms). These findings suggest relevant preventive and intervention actions to address emotion dysregulation in adolescence, by teaching them acceptance and mindfulness skills as a way of coping with stressful experiences and internal distress.