Washington University in St. Louis, MO, USA.
Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2024 May;28(2):209-224. doi: 10.1177/10888683231199140. Epub 2023 Sep 20.
This paper aims to motivate research on emotion regulation success in naturalistic settings. We define emotion regulation success as achieving one's emotion regulation goal and differentiate it from related concepts (i.e., maladaptive regulation and dysregulation). As goals vary across individuals and situations, it is insufficient to conceptualize emotion regulation success as maximizing positive affect and minimizing negative affect. Instead, emotion regulation success can be measured through novel approaches targeting the achievement of emotion regulation goals. In addition to utilizing novel data analytic tools (e.g., response surface analyses), future research can make use of informant reports and observing ambulatory behavior or physiology. Considering emotion regulation goals when measuring daily emotion regulation success has the potential to answer key questions about personality, development, and mental health.
People differ in how they want to feel in daily situations (e.g., excited) and why they want to feel that way (e.g., to make others feel better), depending on factors such as culture or age. Although people manage their emotions to reach these goals, most research assessing emotion regulation success has not taken individual goals into account. When assessing if people successfully regulate their emotions, most research in daily life has been focused on whether people feel more positive or less negative. To help study emotion regulation success in a more thoughtful and inclusive way, we propose a new approach to conceptualizing emotion regulation success that incorporates individual differences in what motivates people to regulate and discuss future research directions and applications.
本文旨在推动自然情境下情绪调节成功的研究。我们将情绪调节成功定义为实现个体的情绪调节目标，并将其与相关概念（即适应性调节和失调）区分开来。由于目标因个体和情境而异，将情绪调节成功概念化为最大化积极情绪和最小化消极情绪是不够的。相反，可以通过针对实现情绪调节目标的新方法来衡量情绪调节成功。除了利用新颖的数据分析工具（例如，响应面分析）之外，未来的研究还可以利用信息报告和观察动态行为或生理学。在衡量日常情绪调节成功时考虑情绪调节目标，有可能回答有关个性、发展和心理健康的关键问题。
人们在日常情况下（例如，兴奋）想要感觉如何，以及为什么想要有这种感觉（例如，为了让别人感觉更好），取决于文化或年龄等因素。尽管人们会管理自己的情绪以达到这些目标，但评估情绪调节成功的大多数研究都没有考虑个体目标。在评估人们是否成功调节情绪时，日常生活中的大多数研究都集中在人们是否感觉更积极或更消极上。为了以更周到和包容的方式帮助研究情绪调节成功，我们提出了一种新的概念化情绪调节成功的方法，该方法纳入了激励人们进行调节的个体差异，并讨论了未来的研究方向和应用。
