L8 Regulating Emotion Flashcards
What is emotion regulation?
Ways in which people try to shape and influence their emotions
Consists of extrinsic/intrinsic processes (intrapersonal/interpersonal)
Monitoring, evaluating and modifying emotions - can also maintain the emotion
Intensive and temporal features - can change the intensity and duration of emotion
These can all occur explicitly or implicitly
Why do people regulate emotions?
They’re often problematic and unbeneficial. But may also want to change them for hedonic reasons e.g. people want to maximise immediate pleasure
Why do we decrease emotional responses?
We decrease emotions that are inappropriate, that result from an overly simplistic appraisal of the situation e.g. thinking fluff is a spider, that are redundant and interfere with other behaviour
Why do we increase emotional responses?
We increase those that are lacking and when we want to change the emotion you want to feel in a situation
Why might we also regulate emotions?
For instrumental reasons, wanting to experience emotions that are useful and avoid unhelpful ones
But sometimes people want to feel unpleasant emotions such as anger and fear when these emotions promote the attainment of their long term goals
What did Tamir et al. (2008) find in a computer game study?
Either played confrontational game where aim was to kill as many enemies or non-confrontational game where aim was to serve as many customers
Then expressed preferences about whether they would like to listen to exciting, neutral or angry music, or recall events that made them feel excited, neutral or angry before the game
PPs preferred anger-inducing activities when anticipating playing a confrontational game
People don’t always want to feel good
What is a real world example of Tamir et al.’s findings?
A greater use of strategies to increase unpleasant emotions was associated with the belief that increasing anger or anxiety helps performance
How did Parkinson and Totterdell (1999) investigate how people regulate their emotions?
Had UG students describe most recent strategy used to improve their feelings when experiencing unpleasant mood or emotion
Did this with office workers and volunteers using a diary study
Why did Parkinson and Totterdell (1999) find?
162 strategies were identified and categorised (behavioural and cognitive)
There are a host of different strategies that can be used to control emotions which can be broadly categorised
How can distraction be used?
Focusing attention on different aspects of the situation or moving attention away from the situation all together
May also involve changing internal focus, invoke thoughts or memories that are inconsistent with the undesirable emotional state
How can reappraisal be used?
Modifying how we appraise the situation to alter its emotional significance - either by changing how we think about it or our capacity to manage the demands it poses
Is it always possible
Been found that 73% of people who recently lost someone could find something positive in the situation
What can you reappraise?
The emotional stimulus
The situation - increase sense of objective distance
The emotional experience
How can suppression be used?
Inhibit ongoing negative or positive emotion expressive behaviour but rarely changes the emotional experience
However it may decrease positive emotion
How did Parkinson and Totterdell (1999) organise the different ER strategies?
PPs engaged in card matching task to group them. Categorised in terms of HOW they are implemented Behavioural strategies (e.g. distraction): - Actions that help you feel better, doing something enjoyable, e.g. listen to the radio
Cognitive strategies (e.g. reappraisal): - Positive thoughts to make me feel better, thinking positively, deep thoughts and memories e.g. 'could be worse'
How did Gross (1998) categorise the strategies?
In terms of WHEN they are implemented
2 different categories:
1. Antecedent-focused strategies: occur before the emotional response has actually taken place
2. Response-focused strategies: occur after the emotional response
