Heiy Jane E, Cheavens Jennifer S
Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
Emotion. 2014 Oct;14(5):878-91. doi: 10.1037/a0037231. Epub 2014 Jul 7.
Emotion regulation research links regulatory responding to important outcomes in psychological well-being, physical health, and interpersonal relations, but several fundamental questions remain. As much of the previous research has addressed generalized regulatory habits, far less is known about the ways in which individuals respond to emotions in daily life. The literature is particularly sparse in explorations of positive emotion regulation. In the current study, we provide an assessment of naturalistic experiences and regulation of emotion, both positive and negative in valence. Using an electronic experience sampling methodology, participants reported on their use of 40 regulatory strategies in response to 14 emotions for 10 consecutive days. On average, participants used 15 different regulatory strategies in response to negative emotions over this time, most frequently relying on acceptance, behavioral activation, and rumination. Participants used a similarly large repertoire of strategies, approximately 16 total, in response to positive emotions, particularly savoring, future focus, and behavioral activation. Participants' mood ratings following strategy use, however, indicated that the most frequently used strategies were often not the most effective strategies. The results of this study provide estimates of the frequency and effectiveness of a large number of emotion regulation strategies in response to both negative and positive emotions. Such findings characterize naturalistic emotion regulation, and estimates of normative emotion regulation processes are imperative to determining the ways in which deviations (e.g., small emotion regulation repertoires, insufficient attention to regulation of positive emotions) impact emotional functioning.
情绪调节研究将调节反应与心理健康、身体健康和人际关系等重要结果联系起来，但仍存在几个基本问题。由于先前的许多研究都关注的是普遍的调节习惯，因此对于个体在日常生活中对情绪的反应方式了解得要少得多。在对积极情绪调节的探索方面，相关文献尤为匮乏。在本研究中，我们对自然主义情境下的情绪体验及调节进行了评估，包括正性和负性情绪。采用电子经验抽样法，参与者连续10天报告他们针对14种情绪所使用的40种调节策略。在此期间，参与者平均针对负性情绪使用15种不同的调节策略，最常依赖的是接受、行为激活和沉思。参与者针对正性情绪也使用了类似数量的策略，总共约16种，尤其包括品味、关注未来和行为激活。然而，参与者在使用策略后的情绪评分表明，最常使用的策略往往并非最有效的策略。本研究结果提供了大量针对负性和正性情绪的情绪调节策略的使用频率和有效性的估计。这些发现描绘了自然主义情绪调节的特征，而对规范情绪调节过程的估计对于确定偏差（例如，情绪调节策略库小、对积极情绪调节的关注不足）影响情绪功能的方式至关重要。
