Chapter 9: Emotion Regulation Flashcards
What is emotion regulation?
The ways that people influence the intensity, duration, and type of emotions they do/do not experience and how and whether they eventually express those emotions.
What is the hedonic motive for emotion regulation?
The want to change a state after identifying it as undesirable.
What is an antecedent-focused emotion regulation strategy?
Controlling or modulating an emotion before it has been elicited.
What is a response-focused emotion regulation strategy?
Modifying of the expressive, subjective, or physiological aspects of an emotion that is already occurring.
What are the antecedent-focused emotion regulation strategies? (4)
- Situation Selection. 2. Situation Modification. 3. Attentional Deployment. 4. Cognitive Change.
What is the situation selection emotion regulation strategy?
Find desirable experiences and avoid undesirable ones.
What is the situation modification emotion regulation strategy?
Alter the features of a situation to modify emotional impact.
What is the attentional deployment emotion regulation strategy?
Affecting the impact of the situation by altering what information you take in.
What is the cognitive change emotion regulation strategy?
Modifying how you think about a situation (your appraisal) to change its emotional meaning.
What are the response-focused emotion regulation strategies? (4)
- Regulation of expressive behavior. 2. Regulation of physiological arousal. 3. Regulation of experience. 4. Social Sharing of Emotions.
What is the regulation of expressive behavior emotion regulation strategy?
Suppressing and amplifying of facial, bodily, and vocal expressions of emotion.
What is the regulation of physiological arousal emotion regulation strategy?
Using medications, exercise, or relaxation to reduce physiological arousal.
What is the regulation of experience emotion regulation strategy?
Focusing on or suppressing intense thoughts accompanying emotion (e.g. rumination, thought suppression).
What is the social sharing of emotions emotion regulation strategy?
Talk about positive or negative feelings with others.
What is cognitive reappraisal?
Changing how you think about an upcoming or ongoing emotional experience.
Can cognitive reappraisal diminish the intensity of negative feelings? How?
Yes, through reframing in less emotional/negative ways.
Are people often able to suppress expressions linked to intense emotional experiences?
No.
What is the evidence that suppressing expressions is effortful?
Participants suppressing their expressions show increased sympathetic arousal activation.
What are the psychological costs of expression suppression? (3)
- Increased cognitive load. 2. Attention towards self and away from others. 3. Increases verbal monitoring, so it reduces verbal memory.
Does expression suppression impair memory?
Yes.
What are the social costs of expression suppression? (2)
- Impairs social responsiveness. 2. Low expressiveness is associated with lower marriage satisfaction.
Why is cognitive reappraisal less costly than expression suppression?
Because once the event is reappraised, it does not require further effort.
What are the mental health correlates to chronic suppression of emotion? (4)
- More depressive symptoms. 2. Lower life satisfaction. 3. Lower self-esteem. 4. Lower well-being.
What are considered maladaptive emotion regulation strategies? (4)
- Rumination. 2. Catastrophizing. 3. Self-blame. 4. Other-blame.
What are considered adaptive emotion regulation strategies? (4)
- Positive reappraisal. 2. Putting into perspective. 3. Acceptance. 4. Refocus on planning.
What is a cultural difference between Westerners and East Asians in reference to social sharing?
Westerners are more likely to disclose distress and ask for support.
Why don’t Asians report asking for support as much as Westerners?
Because they believe it will lead to relationship disharmony.
Is expression suppression more prevalent in Westerners or Asians?
Asians.
Do Asians have as many negatives to suppressing emotion as Westerners? Why?
No, negative effects are more prevalent in cultures emphasizing the expressions of emotions.
Why do Asians not have as many repercussions to emotion suppression?
Because they down-regulate other components of emotions during expressive suppression (less wear and tear).
Which gender suppresses expressions more?
Males.
Do older people tend to be more likely to reappraise a situation or suppress expressions?
They are more likely to reappraise a situation.
What is the instrumental motive for emotion regulation?
Regulating one’s emotions because there is a belief that certain emotions are appropriate to the task you need to perform.
According to the study done by Tamir et al. 2008 on instrumental motives for emotion regulation and video games, what was found? (2)
- Participants asked to play a video game involving confrontation with enemies, participants involved in activities that inspired anger. 2. Participants did not engage in these activities before playing an empire building game.
What is the prosocial motive for emotion regulation? (2)
- When people express different things determined by concerns involving the expected interpersonal consequences of displaying certain emotions. 2. Regulating one’s emotions to protect the feelings of others.
What is the self-protection motive for emotion regulation?
Suppressing or feigning an emotion in order to protect their personal safety or to elicit helpful reactions from others.
What is the impression management motive for emotion regulation?
Regulating emotions due to the fear of being judged negatively by others because expressing an inappropriate emotion.
Tomaka et al 1997 study on cognitive reappraisal and how college student think about exams found what?
College students can reduce feelings of worry and stress by thinking of the situation in a more detached or positive way (ex. thinking of the exam as an occasion to show what they know (a challenge) rather than the possible revelation of their ignorance).
A study on the reappraisal of amusement where participants were asked to increase or decrease their amusement before they watched an amusing clip found what?
Reappraisal allowed participants to successfully modify many aspects of their emotional responses in the intended direction.
Does cognitive reappraisal consume cognitive resources or impair memory?
No.
What is the most effective strategy for preventing unwanted emotions?
Reappraisal. Distracting oneself or reinterpreting the emotion eliciting situation.
What is the rebound effect?
The idea that attempting to suppress a thought makes it more likely to occur.
In the study by Wegner on the rebound effect (white bear) found what?
Participants who had been told not to think of a white bear were more likely to have the idea of the white bear come to mind.
According to Wegner’s model of mental control, what two processes are involved in thought suppression?
- Automatic monitoring process. 2. Controlled operating process.
What is the automatic monitoring process? (3)
- Effortless and involuntary. 2. Functions outside of conscious awareness. 3. Doesn’t require cognitive resources.
What is the controlled operating process? (2)
- Conscious, intentional. 2. Requires cognitive resources.
What does the monitoring process serve to do? What does the operating process do?
Searches mental content for instances of the unwanted thought. The operating process is activated with the goal to seek out other so-called distractor thoughts that capture conscious attention and serve to keep unwanted thoughts out of mind.
Do emotions have the same kind of rebound effect that thoughts do?
No.
Does suppressing emotions prevent the person from experiencing the emotion?
It may “calm the mind, but not the body.”
Mendes et al 2003 found out what about suppressing emotions and physiological arousal?
Participants who had to suppress thoughts about emotional topics exhibited greater physiological arousal compared to baselines arousal and to the non emotional suppressors.
Accepting, rather than avoiding emotion thoughts leads to what?
Habituation.
What is the expression discharge hypothesis? Is there evidence for this hypothesis?
- Social sharing of emotion contributes to emotional recovery. 2. There is no evidence.
What is assimilation?
Integrating an emotional event in their existing emotional schema and scripts.
What is accommodation?
Modifying an existing schema or script based on an emotional event.
What is Pennebaker and colleagues’ inhibition theory?
The conscious effort to inhibit one’s emotional thoughts, feelings, and emotion-related behavior generates physiological arousal.
