Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Emotion regulation is a critical human capability.
• Gross's (1998) process model differentiates strategies based on timing in emotion generation.
• Common emotion regulation strategies include reappraisal and suppression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the effectiveness of reappraisal and suppression for down-regulating emotion.
• To examine the differential consequences of early versus late emotion regulation strategies.

Main Methods:

• Review of experimental and individual-difference studies.
• Focus on reappraisal (changing situation construal) and suppression (inhibiting outward signs).

Main Results:

• Reappraisal effectively decreases emotional experience and behavioral expression without affecting memory.
• Suppression reduces behavioral expression but not emotional experience and impairs memory.
• Suppression increases physiological arousal in individuals and their social partners.

Conclusions:

• Reappraisal is generally more effective than suppression for emotion regulation.
• The timing of emotion regulation strategies significantly impacts their outcomes.
• Future research should explore further directions in emotion regulation processes.