Emotion regulation in daily life: Context matters

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Thomas Kubiak; Dr. Mario Wenzel
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 513283998

Emotion regulation (ER) is the ability of an individual to respond to demands in a sufficiently flexible manner. A prominent model to describe ER is the process model of ER. This model proposes that individuals employ ER strategies (ERS) to regulate unpleasant emotions at different stages of the emotion generation process. Furthermore, it assumes that ERS at earlier stages (e.g., reappraisal) are more effective than ERS at later stages (e.g., suppression). This model spawned many studies that investigated single ERS and compared their effectiveness. However, laboratory research on the instructed use of single ERS in single, controlled situations only found relatively small and heterogenous mean effect sizes. Moreover, it did not find compelling evidence for the earlier-is-better assumption. We argue that there are multiple reasons for the small effect sizes. First, most evidence is from laboratory research, thereby focusing on short ER efforts and on the instructed use of an ERS. However, participants may not have been proficient enough in using these ERS effectively. Second, ERS are often assessed using single instructions or items, which does not only limit the reliability of ERS use but also reduces the complexity of an ERS given that a single ERS can be divided into different ER tactics. Third, ER research has shown that individuals rarely choose only one ERS to deal with their emotions. Instead, they often use multiple ERS to regulate their emotions within a single emotional episode. However, research regarding the concurrent use of multiple ERS is scarce. Fourth, recent accounts of ER moved away from the general adaptiveness of ERS and instead highlight the role of the situation, in which ER takes place. In these accounts, ER is particularly effective when participants flexibly select an ERS that fits the current situation. However, evidence for this notion is limited. Thus, in the proposed research proposal, we want to capture ER and its context in daily life. Specifically, we will (1) synthesize prior evidence on the effectiveness of ERS in daily life, (2) develop and validate a novel ERS questionnaire that captures all stages of the process model of ER with multiple tactics/items, (3) investigate the role of situation selection in reducing the need to engage in subsequent ER efforts, and examine the interplay (4) between different ERS as well as (5) between ERS and situational factors. The proposed project has the potential to have substantial scientific impact on the field of ER by contributing both to theoretical (polyregulation, strategy-situation fit, and ER flexibility,) and methodical advances (a novel ER questionnaire and a novel EMA framework that allows for the investigation of ER and its situational factors over time in daily life). In terms of societal impact, project outcomes will be of use in devising interventions to facilitate adaptive ER use.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Australia
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Zarah Rowland
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Peter Koval