Effective regulation of affect: An action control perspective on emotion regulation |
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Authors: | Thomas L Webb Inge Schweiger Gallo Eleanor Miles Peter M Gollwitzer Paschal Sheeran |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , UK t.webb@sheffield.ac.uk;3. Departamento de Psicología Social , Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Madrid , Spain;4. Department of Psychology , University of Sheffield , Sheffield , UK;5. Department of Psychology , New York University , New York , USA;6. Department of Psychology , University of Konstanz , Konstanz , Germany |
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Abstract: | The present review adopts an action control perspective on emotion regulation, contextualising the gap between emotion control goals (e.g., I want to remain calm) and emotional outcomes (e.g., anger, anxiety, and aggression) in terms of the broader literature on goal pursuit. We propose that failure to effectively regulate emotions can result from difficulties with the self-regulatory tasks of (i) identifying the need to regulate, (ii) deciding whether and how to regulate, and (iii) enacting a regulation strategy. Next we review evidence that a technique traditionally associated with regulating behavioural goals (forming implementation intentions or “if-then” planning) can help to overcome these difficulties. Meta-analysis indicated that forming implementation intentions is effective in modifying emotional outcomes, with a large effect relative to no regulation instructions (k = 21, N = 1306 d + = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.61 to 1.20) and a medium-sized effect relative to goal intention instructions (k = 29, N = 1208, d + = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.65). Our conclusion is that research on emotion regulation might benefit from an action control perspective and the interventions that this perspective offers. |
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Keywords: | Emotion regulation Affect regulation Action control Implementation intentions |
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