Effectiveness of extrinsic emotion regulation strategies in text-based online communication.

Abstract

In daily life, others play a key role in helping regulate an individual's emotions. Such emotion regulation occurs not only in face-to-face communication but also in text-based online communication. To date, much research has examined strategies for alleviating one's own negative emotions (intrinsic emotion regulation) based on the process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998(Gross, , 2015a. However, little is known about the effectiveness of the full range of strategies for alleviating others' negative emotions (extrinsic emotion regulation) derived from this model. This research aims to fill this gap. In study 1, participants wrote response letters to bogus pen pals who had recently experienced negative emotional events. Independent coders rated the effectiveness of these response letters in alleviating pen pal's negative emotions. In study 2, participants communicated with each other on an online forum by posting about distressing events and messages that attempted to alleviate another person's negative emotions. When participants received a reply to their posts, they rated its effectiveness in alleviating their negative emotions. The results of both studies consistently showed that strategies classified as reappraisal and empathic responding effectively alleviated others' negative emotions. Moreover, emotional intensity moderated the effectiveness of some extrinsic emotion regulation strategies. Specifically, problem-solving and reappraisal showed positive effects on the alleviation of relatively less intense negative emotions. However, these effects were neither positive nor negative in regulating relatively intense negative emotions. The present study offers novel insights into other-focused emotion regulation research by clarifying similarities and differences between intrinsic and extrinsic emotion regulation.

Extrinsic Emotion Regulation: Exploring Strategies Used by Individuals With High and low Depression Symptoms

“…The letters from the participants were coded for the type of EER strategies used, as outlined in Nozaki & Mikolajczak (2022). Besides Nozaki's strategies of reappraisal, problemsolving and empathic responding, we included acceptance.…”

“…These studies are based on the idea that people use multiple emotion regulation strategies simultaneously to regulate others' emotions, which is known as polyregulation. For example, in a study by Nozaki & Mikolajczak (2022), participants wrote letters to recipients who had recently gone through a negative emotional experience. These letters were rated by independent coders and identified six main EER strategies: problem-solving, distraction, reappraisal, suppression, relaxation, and empathic responding.…”

“…In the current study, participants with high and low depression symptoms read six vignettes describing negative events ostensibly written by another person and provided support in writing. As in previous studies (Nozaki & Mikolajczak, 2022), the support letters were coded to four EER strategies: acceptance, reappraisal, empathic responding, and problem-solving. Given the difficulties experienced by depressed individuals in using reappraisal and empathic responding (D'Avanzato et al, 2013;Garnefski & Kraaij, 2006;Joormann & Gotlib, 2010;Wen et al, 2021), we predicted that individuals with high depression symptoms would use these strategies less than their matched non-depressed counterparts.…”

Understanding the benefits of extrinsic emotion regulation in depression

“…Although this research is still in its infancy, it suggests that EER may reduce physiological stress responses, especially sympathetic-related arousal ( Inagaki and Eisenberger, 2016 ). A recent study that used text-based online communication has demonstrated that EER is most effective when people use emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and problem-solving, as well as when providing empathic responses ( Nozaki and Mikolajczak, 2022 ).…”

Other-Oriented Empathetic Concern as the Underlying Factor of Extrinsic Emotion Regulation Motives and Its Positive Application for Social Well-Being

“…Previous studies have shown that extrinsic IER significantly correlates with individual differences and results in positive implications for social relationships. 14,[25][26][27][28][29] To test the convergent validity of the EERMS, we investigated the associations of the motives of extrinsic IER with several well-being indicators (moral self-identity, peer relationships, and perceived social support). Moral identity has been described as the degree to which one holds moral concerns as important to one's identity.…”