Interoceptive attention facilitates emotion regulation strategy use

BackgroundPerception of bodily signals—or interoception—has been suggested to facilitate individuals’ habitual use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies and to guide the flexible deployment of specific ER strategies. Previous research has shown that the emotional intensity of stimuli modulates regulatory choice between disengagement (i.e., distraction) and engagement strategies (i.e., reappraisal).MethodThis study used experience-sampling methods to investigate the role of interoceptive attention in dynamic changes in ER strategies. Healthy participants first completed one-time measurements of ER strategies, emotional awareness and interoceptive attention in the lab and then reported on negative events and use of strategies including reappraisal and distraction, throughout daily life.ResultsResults showed that interoceptive attention was positively associated with habitual use of several ER strategies, and emotional awareness mediated the relations between interoceptive attention and these ER strategies. Results also suggested an interaction between interoceptive attention and intensity of negative events; individuals with higher interoceptive attention used distraction rather than reappraisal only during high intensity negative life events, but those with lower interoceptive attention used more distraction than reappraisal, regardless of event intensity.ConclusionsOverall, these findings suggest interoceptive attention may increase emotional awareness, which in turn facilitates application of certain ER strategies but also the flexible deployment of appropriate strategies tailored to a given situation. Training interoceptive attention may provide a promising way to improve ER and promote mental health.     

Service with style and smile. How and why employees are performing emotional labour?

IntroductionThree main emotion regulation strategies (naturally felt emotions, reappraisal and emotion suppression) have been identified among customer service agents. Each has an important impact on employees’ attitudes. Yet, employees are likely to combine these strategies in what we call emotion regulation styles.ObjectivesTwo studies aimed at identifying the emotion regulation styles used by customer service employees and at linking these styles to organizational consequences and motivation to perform emotional labour.MethodTwo studies (n₁ = 147 and n₂ = 195) evaluated the use of these strategies. Measures of job attitudes (satisfaction, affective commitment and intention to quit) were taken, as well as measures of motivation to perform emotional labour.ResultsSix styles were identified; four were common to both studies. Globally, employees classified as suppressors (use of emotion suppression only) or as non-regulators (no strategy used) reported lower levels of job satisfaction and affective commitment toward their organization compared to employees who used a flexible style (use of all three strategies) or an authentic style (use of reappraisal and expression of the naturally felt emotions). Employees adopting an acting style (use of emotion suppression and reappraisal) or a reappraising style (marked by preferential use of reappraisal) obtained results located between the non-regulating and the suppressing styles on one hand, and the authentic and the flexible styles on the other hand. Employees adopting a suppressing or a non-regulating style also manifested lower levels of motivation to regulate their emotions.ConclusionResults suggest that employees use a dynamic range of styles, which differ in their associated consequences.     

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。     

Emotion regulation and risk taking: Predicting risky choice in deliberative decision making

Only very recently has research demonstrated that experimentally induced emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) affect risky choice (e.g., Heilman et al., 2010). However, it is unknown whether this effect also operates via habitual use of emotion regulation strategies in risky choice involving deliberative decision making. We investigated the role of habitual use of emotion regulation strategies in risky choice using the “cold” deliberative version of the Columbia Card Task (CCT; Figner et al., 2009). Fifty-three participants completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) and—one month later—the CCT and the PANAS. Greater habitual cognitive reappraisal use was related to increased risk taking, accompanied by decreased sensitivity to changes in probability and loss amount. Greater habitual expressive suppression use was related to decreased risk taking. The results show that habitual use of reappraisal and suppression strategies predict risk taking when decisions involve predominantly cognitive-deliberative processes.     

Are expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal associated with stress-related symptoms?

Emotion dysregulation is thought to be critical to the development of negative psychological outcomes. Gross (1998b) conceptualized the timing of regulation strategies as key to this relationship, with response-focused strategies, such as expressive suppression, as less effective and more detrimental compared to antecedent-focused ones, such as cognitive reappraisal. In the current study, we examined the relationship between reappraisal and expressive suppression and measures of psychopathology, particularly for stress-related reactions, in both undergraduate and trauma-exposed community samples of women. Generally, expressive suppression was associated with higher, and reappraisal with lower, self-reported stress-related symptoms. In particular, expressive suppression was associated with PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms in the trauma-exposed community sample, with rumination partially mediating this association. Finally, based on factor analysis, expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal appear to be independent constructs. Overall, expressive suppression, much more so than cognitive reappraisal, may play an important role in the experience of stress-related symptoms. Further, given their independence, there are potentially relevant clinical implications, as interventions that shift one of these emotion regulation strategies may not lead to changes in the other.     

An experience sampling approach to emotion regulation: Situational suppression use and social hierarchy

Whereas past research has examined the use of emotion regulation strategies in terms of individual differences or responses to experimental manipulations, this research takes a naturalistic and repeated-measures approach to examine suppression use in specific situations. Using an experience sampling design, we find evidence across two samples (total N = 215) that (1) there was substantial within-person variation in suppression use, (2) the situational use of suppression was explained by situational differences in extraversion and social hierarchy, and (3) when used in contexts in which people felt they were low in social hierarchy, the negative relationship between suppression and well-being was attenuated. These findings suggest there are contexts in which suppression use may not be maladaptive, and demonstrate the benefits of studying emotion processes in real-life.     

Experiential Avoidance as an Emotion Regulatory Function: An Empirical Analysis of Experiential Avoidance in Relation to Behavioral Avoidance,Cognitive Reappraisal,and Response Suppression

The purpose of the present study was to empirically test the suggestion that experiential avoidance in an emotion regulation context is best understood as an emotion regulatory function of topographically distinct strategies. To do this we examined whether a measure of experiential avoidance could statistically account for the effects of emotion regulation strategies intervening at different points of the emotion-generative process as conceptualized by Gross' (1998) process model of emotion regulation. The strategies under examination were behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression. The specific hypotheses to be tested were (1) that behavioral avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and response suppression would statistically mediate the differences in measures of psychological well-being between a clinical and nonclinical sample, but that (2) these indirect effects would be reduced to nonsignificant levels when controlling for differences in experiential avoidance. The results provide clear support for the first hypothesis with regard to all the studied strategies. In contrast to the second hypothesis, the results showed the predicted outcome pattern only for the response-focused strategy “response suppression” and not for cognitive reappraisal or behavioral avoidance. The results are interpreted and discussed in relation to theories on experiential avoidance and emotion regulation.     

Regulating emotions under exposure to negative out-group-related news material results in increased acceptance of out-groups

ABSTRACT

Negative emotions affect the acceptance of out-groups. Here, we investigated whether modifying negative emotions would affect perceptions of out-groups. We experimentally manipulated the use of two emotion regulation strategies: suppression of emotional expression and cognitive reappraisal, the latter involving reframing a situation to mitigate its emotional impact. Using a population-based sample (N = 317), we conducted an online randomized controlled trial. Participants regulated their emotions while reading threatening news about out-groups. Not only reappraisal, but also suppression increased immediate acceptance of out-groups. The effect of reappraisal was partly mediated by decreased disgust, suggesting unique effects of reappraisal on this emotion. In the suppression condition acceptance decreased at high levels of habitual emotion regulation, whereas reappraisal showed an opposite tendency. Previous research may have underestimated the importance of different emotion regulation strategies on prejudice, and that relatively simple interventions can affect prejudice. The findings are of interest to prejudice prevention programs.     

不同情绪调节方式对记忆的影响

个体的情绪调节与其认知的关系是近年来情绪和认知领域中一个重要的前沿研究热点。本研究则通过两个阶段的实验,较系统地探讨了两种情绪调节分类下的四种情绪调节方式（原因调节——评价忽视和评价重视,反应调节——表情抑制和表情宣泄;减弱调节——评价忽视和表情抑制,增强调节——评价重视和表情宣泄）对记忆（视觉和听觉记忆）及记忆评价（即元记忆,视觉和听觉元记忆）的影响。结果表明：(1)评价忽视和评价重视对记忆没有影响;表情抑制和表情宣泄对记忆影响显著（表情抑制影响了听觉记忆,表情宣泄影响了视觉和听觉记忆）;(2)评价忽视、评价重视和表情宣泄对元记忆没有影响;而表情抑制影响听觉元记忆;(3)不同情绪调节方式对记忆的影响无性别和专业上的差异,但对元记忆虽无性别差异上的影响,却存在专业上的差异。总之,个体不同的情绪调节方式会对记忆和元记忆产生不同影响     

聋生心理健康与成就动机、行为方式的相互影响

以苏州市聋生这一特殊群体为研究对象,运用问卷调查和半结构式访谈的方法,探讨其心理健康状况及影响因素。结果发现,聋生的心理健康程度不及正常学生,表现在总分以及躯体症状、焦虑担忧、抑郁三个分量表上的得分均高于正常学生。学业压力、应对方式、内部成就动机和外部成就动机是影响聋生心理健康的重要因素,聋生所感受到的社会支持程度要高于正常学生,聋生的成就动机也高于正常学生,而面对压力,他们的行为应对方式却较多退缩性的。造成这种矛盾的原因是家庭和学校教育中对聋生自强、自立、自理能力培养不到位,助长了聋生因残疾而产生的惰性和依赖性行为,对聋生的心理健康产生了消极影响。社会应提倡更多的正常人学习手语,让聋生有更好的社会交往环境     

Gross情绪调节模型及对心理健康的影响

Gross的情绪调节理论指出,在情绪发生过程中的情绪调节主要有情景选择、情景修正、注意分配、认知改变和反应调整五个方面。其中情景选择、情景修正、注意分配、认知改变是在情绪反应趋势形成之前发生,属于先行关注情绪调节;反应调整是在情景反应形成之后发生,属于反应关注情绪调节。同时Gross还提出了两种最常用的情绪调节策略——认知重评和表达抑制,并分析了它们对心理健康的影响。     

Spontaneous emotion regulation to positive and negative stimuli

The ability to regulate one’s emotions is an integral part of human social behavior. One antecedent emotion regulation strategy, known as reappraisal, is characterized by cognitively evaluating an emotional stimulus to alter its emotional impact and one response-focused strategy, suppression, is aimed at reducing behavioral output. People are capable of using these specific emotion regulation strategies when instructed to do so; however, it is equally important to investigate natural and self-selected strategy use. This study was designed to determine to what extent people spontaneously regulate their emotions and the emotion regulation strategies they choose to achieve their regulatory goals. Participants were given no instructions to regulate their emotions before they were shown a negative and a positive film clip, but were instead asked afterwards about the specific strategies that they had used. Participants reported regulating their emotions more to the negative film than to the positive film. Reappraisal was more frequently selected as an emotion regulation strategy than suppression. As expected, participants with high baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) adopted reappraisal strategies more than those with low RSA but, surprisingly, RSA was not associated with facial expressivity. Suggestions for future research in this relatively young field of spontaneous emotion regulation are offered.     

Calibrating Use of Emotion Regulation Strategies to the Relationship Context: An Attachment Perspective

This research tested whether adult attachment orientations predict use of emotion regulation strategies in theoretically consistent ways, and whether associations among attachment orientations and emotion regulatory strategies are moderated by critical features of the relationship context. Ninety‐six couples (192 individuals) reported on their attachment orientations, habitual use of emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, negative emotion expressivity), and perceptions of relationship closeness and negative partner behaviors. Highly secure individuals reported greater use of cognitive reappraisal, especially when they felt closer to their partners, and engaged in less suppression when their partners behaved more negatively toward them. Highly avoidant individuals reported greater use of suppression, especially when they perceived more negative partner behaviors, and when their partners were more avoidant. Highly anxious individuals also used more suppression when their partners were more avoidant, but they expressed more negative emotions when they were paired with less avoidant partners. Fearful‐avoidant individuals' emotion regulation patterns resembled those of both highly secure and dismissive‐avoidant individuals. This study illustrates how attending to moderating effects within specific relationships and testing joint effects of both partners' personality characteristics can help identify contextual boundaries of emotion regulation strategies and clarify emotional response patterns in couples.     

Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: implications for affect,relationships, and well-being

Five studies tested two general hypotheses: Individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression, and these individual differences have implications for affect, well-being, and social relationships. Study 1 presents new measures of the habitual use of reappraisal and suppression. Study 2 examines convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 shows that reappraisers experience and express greater positive emotion and lesser negative emotion, whereas suppressors experience and express lesser positive emotion, yet experience greater negative emotion. Study 4 indicates that using reappraisal is associated with better interpersonal functioning, whereas using suppression is associated with worse interpersonal functioning. Study 5 shows that using reappraisal is related positively to well-being, whereas using suppression is related negatively.     

Interoception and gender: What aspects should we pay attention to?

Interoception is involved in both somatic and mental disorders with different prevalence between genders; however, gender differences are often neglected. To examine the potential gender differences in interoceptive awareness, we recruited 376 healthy subjects (51% males, aged 17–30 years), to fill in the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA). Of that sample, in a subgroup of 40 subjects (50% males), interoceptive accuracy was assessed by heartbeat counting task (HCT).The results on interroceptive awareness suggest that females tend to notice bodily sensations more often, better understand relations between bodily sensations and emotional states, worry or experience more emotional distress with sensations of pain or discomfort and see body as less safe. The results of interoceptive accuracy further suggest that females are less efficient in consciously detecting heartbeats. Therefore, gender should be considered when interoceptive evaluation is performed in disorders associated to bodily sensations and to the emotional/mood states.     

Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples

Habitual emotional state is a predictor of long-term health and life expectancy and successful emotion regulation is necessary for adaptive functioning. However, people are often unsuccessful in regulating their emotions. We investigated the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in 489 university students in Norway, Australia, and the United States and how these strategies related to measures of well-being (affect, life satisfaction, and depressed mood). Data was collected by means of selfadministered questionnaires. The major aims of the study were to begin to explore the prevalence of use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression across gender, age and culture, possible antecedents of emotion regulation strategies, and the influence of emotion regulation upon well-being. Results showed that the use of emotion regulation strategies varied across age, gender and culture. Private self-consciousness (self-reflection and insight) was found to be a central antecedent for the use of cognitive reappraisal. Use of emotion regulation strategies predicted well-being outcomes, also after the effect of extraversion and neuroticism had been controlled for. Generally, increased use of cognitive reappraisal predicted increased levels of positive well-being outcomes, while increased use of expressive suppression predicted increased levels of negative well-being outcomes.

The Situational Test of Emotional Management – Brief (STEM-B): Development and validation using item response theory and latent class analysis

This study uses a 3-Parameter Logistic item response theory (IRT) model to develop an 18-item short-form of the Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM). In a sample of 900 people, the short form showed acceptable reliability (reliability index = .87; Cronbach’s alpha = .84) and a meaningful correlation with another indicator of emotional intelligence (i.e., r = .30 with the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding). Latent class analysis of the short-form detected two classes. For all items, participants in Class 2 had a higher probability of selecting the best option than Class 1. When response options were coded to represent different emotion regulation strategies, Class 2 had a higher probability of endorsing “situation modification” and Class 1 had a higher probability of endorsing “no regulation”. These results provide validity evidence for the STEM-B as an assessment of emotion regulation.     

Strategies actually employed during response-focused emotion regulation research: Affective and physiological consequences

Addressing internal validity concerns in emotion regulation research, the present experiment was primarily designed to determine whether research participants are compliant when asked to use a response-focused strategy during emotional film viewing or whether these individuals incorporate the use of antecedent strategies. The influence of antecedent vs. response-focused strategy use on self-reported affect, physiological, and behavioural data were additionally investigated. A total of 82 healthy undergraduate participants were asked to use one of two response-focused emotion regulation techniques—suppression or exaggeration—while watching a 2 minute positive or negative movie. Following the movie, participants self-reported their affective response to the film, described how they tried to suppress or exaggerate their reaction (i.e., strategies used to regulate their response), and estimated the percentage of time they used each strategy. Representing “antecedent” and “response-focused” techniques, the strategies reported by participants were coded as “cognitive” or “muscular” in nature. Relative to exaggerators, participants in the suppression condition were significantly more likely to self-report using an antecedent (cognitive) strategy for at least some portion of the film (65% vs. 38%). During the suppression condition, greater use of antecedent strategies did not influence sympathetic reactivity to either movie but did result in significantly less self-reported negative affect to the negative movie.     

Trait Meta-Mood,gender and EEG response during emotion-regulation

Effective emotion-regulation is central to emotional intelligence. Relationships between the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS) and wellbeing may reflect individual differences in the strategies used for regulating negative emotions. The present study (N = 136) manipulated emotion-regulation strategy during viewing of a fear-inducing film clip. EEG response was assessed across five frequency bands in reappraisal, suppression and control conditions. The TMMS predicted higher power in theta and gamma bands, a pattern of response that may represent directed attention to emotional processing. Gender differences included elevated theta in females in the reappraisal condition, but effects of gender and Trait Meta-Mood appeared to be dissociable.