Kozubal Magdalena, Szuster Anna, Wielgopolan Adrianna
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 14;14:1218694. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1218694. eCollection 2023.
Emotion regulation is an adaptive ability affecting people's physical and mental health, quality of life and functioning. In the present study we focused on the influence of the intensity of experienced emotions on emotion regulation strategies (ERS) that are applied in everyday life.
For 7 days the participants kept an online diary where every day they described the situation which had aroused their strongest negative emotions. Next, they identified the emotions, their intensity and the type of applied strategies (acceptance vs. reappraisal vs. rumination vs. distraction vs. suppression). The study involved 88 people = 88, which gives 538 observations.
The obtained results indicate that the intensity of emotions affects the choice of regulation strategies. When the intensity increases, people are more likely to choose the rumination strategy and less likely to choose the reappraisal strategy. However, the expected relationship between the intensity and the number of regulation strategies was not confirmed. In turn, it was gender (male) that turned out to be associated with a greater number of strategies used.
The concern of this research was to look at making regulatory decisions in personally relevant and complex everyday situations. Although the emotions experienced in response to a difficult situation were varied, the intensity of the emotional experience was an important factor determining the choice of a regulation strategy. It indicates that this emotional dimension is a basic and determining aspect in people's regulatory capabilities. These results also indicate that perhaps men in a situation perceived as stressful and worthy of emotional involvement use more regulatory strategies than women. These findings may find an application in all kinds of psychological interventions (e.g., psychotherapy, anger management therapies).
情绪调节是一种影响人们身心健康、生活质量和机能的适应性能力。在本研究中，我们聚焦于日常生活中所体验到的情绪强度对情绪调节策略（ERS）的影响。
参与者连续7天记录在线日记，每天描述引发其最强烈负面情绪的情境。接下来，他们识别情绪、情绪强度以及所采用策略的类型（接受、重新评价、沉思、分心、抑制）。该研究涉及88人（共88人），产生了538条观察记录。
所得结果表明情绪强度会影响调节策略的选择。当强度增加时，人们更有可能选择沉思策略，而选择重新评价策略的可能性较小。然而，情绪强度与调节策略数量之间的预期关系未得到证实。相反，结果显示性别（男性）与更多的策略使用相关。
本研究关注的是在个人相关且复杂的日常情境中做出调节决策。尽管面对困难情境时所体验到的情绪各不相同，但情绪体验的强度是决定调节策略选择的一个重要因素。这表明这个情绪维度是人们调节能力中的一个基本且决定性的方面。这些结果还表明，在被视为有压力且值得投入情感的情境中，男性可能比女性使用更多的调节策略。这些发现可能在各种心理干预（如心理治疗、愤怒管理疗法）中得到应用。
