Gross (2010). Emotion regulation.” – Article summary

Emotions may facilitate adaptation by readying behavioural responses (1), enhancing memory for important events (2) and guide interpersonal interactions (3). However, emotions are maladaptive when they are of the wrong type (1), at the wrong time (2) or at the wrong intensity level (3). Emotions consist of three key features:

1. Emotions arise when an individuals attend to a situation and understands it as being relevant to one’s current goals (i.e. the meaning a person assigns to a situation).
2. Emotions are multifaceted and involve changes in subjective experience (1), behaviour (2) and peripheral physiology (3) (e.g. it gives rise to subjective feeling).
3. Emotions are malleable (i.e. it gives rise to response tendencies that can be changed).

The behavioural changes as a result of emotions are associated with autonomic and neuroendocrine changes that anticipate the associated behavioural response with an emotion.

The modal model of emotion states that emotion arises four steps:

1. There is an inter-personal situation.
2. The situation demands some form of attention.
3. The situation is appraised.
4. There is a response (e.g. anger).

Emotions can change the environment which, in turn, alters the probability of experiencing a certain emotion.

Emotion regulation refers to how one attempts to influence the emotions one has, when one experiences them, how one experiences them and how one expresses these emotions. Intrinsic emotion regulation refers to regulating one’s own emotions. Extrinsic emotion regulation refers to regulating the emotions of somebody else (e.g. regulating the emotions of a child). Emotions can be down-regulated (i.e. lower intensity of emotions) but also up-regulated (i.e. greater intensity of emotions).

Emotion regulatory acts may have their primary impact at different points in the emotion generative process. Each of the parts of the modal model of emotion may be influenced by emotion regulation. There are five points at which individuals can regulate emotions:

1. Situation selection
   This refers to the subset of choices that are taken with a view to the future consequences of the actions for the emotional responses (i.e. actively taking steps to influence emotions). This affects the situation to which a person is exposed. It involves taking actions to make it more likely to be in a situation which gives rise to desired emotions or vice versa (e.g. actively seek out situations that provide us with contact with friends). This process is difficult as people often show duration neglect where they are not good at estimating how long one would feel a certain way as a result of a situation. It is difficult to balance the short- and long-term effects of situation selection and thus often requires the perspective of others.
2. Situation modification (i.e. problem-focused coping)
   This refers to efforts to modify the situation (i.e. external physical environments) directly to alter the emotional impact. This can take many forms, including emotion expression as a form of extrinsic emotion regulation form.
3. Attentional deployment
   This refers to influencing emotional responding by re-directing attention within a given situation. This is an internal version of situation selection. It includes physical withdrawal of attention (1), internal redirection of attention (2) and responding to external redirection of intention (3). It includes distraction and rumination.
4. Cognitive change
   This refers to changing one or more appraisals in a way that alters the situation’s emotional significance (e.g. change about how one thinks about the situation; change how one thinks about one’s capacity to manage the demands of the situation). This includes reappraisal.
5. Response modulation
   This refers to influencing physiological, experiential or behavioural response relatively directly. It includes expressive suppression.

Antecedent-focused emotion regulation refers to emotion regulation focused before appraisals give rise to emotional responses (e.g. control situation before you get mad). Response-focused emotion regulation refers to emotion regulation which occurs after the responses are generated (e.g. feel less mad).

Distraction refers to a shift in attention from either the emotional aspect of the situation or from the situation altogether. Rumination refers to a perseverative focus on thoughts and feelings associated with an emotion-eliciting event.

Reappraisal refers to changing a situation’s meaning in such a way that there is a change in the person’s emotional response to that situation. It typically leads to decreased negative emotion experience and expressive behaviour. It does not interfere with other ongoing cognitive processes as it occurs early in the emotion-generative process.

Expressive suppression refers to attempts to decrease ongoing emotion-expressive behaviour. Behavioural expressions of emotion may discharge emotion (i.e. hydraulic model). In this case, not allowing behaviour to discharge emotions will lead to a spillage of the effects of emotion somewhere else (e.g. heightened physiological response). However, behavioural expressions of emotion may also amplify the experience of the emotion. This means that suppressing the behavioural expression leads to a less intense experience. Suppression has cognitive and social costs (e.g. worse memory of the event; partners of suppressors report less comfort and ease with interaction partners).

People may differ in emotion regulation strategies because they differ in their emotion regulation goals. People may also differ in their beliefs regarding emotion and emotion regulation. This may shape emotion regulation strategies. Individuals with incremental beliefs make flexible, contextual interpretations of events. In case of challenge, they make assertive attempts at self-regulation which often leads to succesful behaviour. Individuals who hold entity beliefs view attributes as fixed and make fewer attempts at self-regulation. This leads to self-regulation failure. Emotion regulation may be unconscious and automatic or conscious and effortful.

There are three theories as to how depression disrupts emotional responding:

1. Depression involves diminished emotional reactivity to positive situations (i.e. positive attenuation).
2. Depression involves increased negative emotional reactivity (i.e. negative potentiation).
3. Depression leads to pervasive disengagement which leads to diminshed levels of positive and negative emotional reactivity (i.e. emotion context insensitivity).