Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2130, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2011 Aug;25(5):765-81. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2011.555753. Epub 2011 Jun 16.
One of the most fundamental distinctions in the field of emotion is the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation. This distinction fits comfortably with folk theories, which view emotions as passions that arise unbidden and then must be controlled. But is it really helpful to distinguish between emotion generation and emotion regulation? In this article, we begin by offering working definitions of emotion generation and emotion regulation. We argue that in some circumstances, the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation is indeed useful. We point both to citation patterns, which indicate that researchers from across a number of sub-areas within psychology are making this distinction, and to empirical studies, which indicate the utility of this distinction in many different research contexts. We then consider five ways in which the distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation can be problematic. We suggest that it is time to move beyond debates about whether this distinction is useful to a more specific consideration of when and in what ways this distinction is useful, and in this spirit, we offer recommendations for future research.
情绪领域中最基本的区别之一是情绪产生和情绪调节之间的区别。这种区别与民间理论非常吻合，民间理论认为情绪是不由自主产生的激情，然后必须加以控制。但是，将情绪产生和情绪调节区分开来真的有帮助吗？在本文中，我们首先提供情绪产生和情绪调节的工作定义。我们认为，在某些情况下，情绪产生和情绪调节之间的区别确实是有用的。我们既提到了引文模式，这表明来自心理学多个子领域的研究人员正在做出这种区分，也提到了实证研究，这些研究表明在许多不同的研究背景下，这种区分是有用的。然后，我们考虑了情绪产生和情绪调节之间的区别可能存在问题的五种方式。我们认为，现在是时候超越关于这种区别是否有用的争论，转而更具体地考虑这种区别在何时以及在何种情况下有用，本着这种精神，我们为未来的研究提出了建议。
