Review: Defining Positive Emotion Dysregulation: Integrating Temperamental and Clinical Perspectives

Although emotion dysregulation has been defined as a maladaptive process of emotional experiences, there is no specific reference to the emotional valence of the dysregulation. To date, child psychiatry has focused primarily on dysregulation of negative affect. Here, we suggest that positive emotion dysregulation requires additional clinical and research attention.

First, we present a developmental approach to the study of positive emotion regulation within a temperament framework. Second, we describe emerging research findings regarding dysregulation of positive emotion in early childhood. Third, we integrate neuroscientific approaches to positive emotion regulation and introduce a framework for future investigations and clinical applications.

Dysregulation in positive affect can be examined from temperamental, developmental, clinical, and neuroscientific perspectives. Both temperamental surgency, which includes positive affect, and the proposed clinical extension, excitability, are associated with increased risk of externalizing symptoms and clinical impairment in youth.

Studying the role of both temperamental surgency and clinically impairing positive affect, or excitability, in developmental psychopathology will help to elucidate the full spectrum of emotion dysregulation and to clarify the neural basis of dysregulation. A more comprehensive conceptualization of positively valanced emotion dysregulation will provide a more nuanced understanding of developmental risk and potential targets for intervention.

One or more of the authors of this paper self-identifies as a member of one or more historically underrepresented sexual and/or gender groups in science.