Individual differences in social power: Links with beliefs about emotion and emotion regulation

Abstract

Objective People differ in how they regulate their emotions, and how they do so is guided by their beliefs about emotion. We propose that social power—one's perceived influence over others—relates to one's beliefs about emotion and to emotion regulation. More powerful people are characterized as authentic and uninhibited, which should translate to the belief that one should not have to control one's emotions and, in turn, less suppression and more acceptance. More powerful people are also characterized as self‐efficacious and confident, which should translate to the belief that one can control one's emotions and, in turn, more reappraisal and acceptance. Method Two preregistered studies using four samples (Ntotal = 1286) tested these hypotheses using cross‐sectional and longitudinal surveys as well as diaries. Results In Study 1, power related to beliefs about emotion and emotion regulation in hypothesized ways. Study 2 also largely supported the hypotheses: The belief that one should not have to control one's emotions accounted for the links between power and suppression and acceptance, whereas the belief that one can control one's emotions accounted for the link between power and reappraisal. Conclusion Power and emotion regulation are interconnected, in part because of their links with beliefs about emotions.

Psychological Resilience: An Affect-Regulation Framework

“…Finally, it will be critical to better understand the antecedents of affect regulation, including antecedents that are biological (e.g., genes; Southwick & Charney 2012), situational (e.g., environmental affordances; Suri et al 2018, Uusberg et al 2019, and psychological (e.g., beliefs about emotions, personality, self-efficacy, or goals; Bonanno et al 2015, Carver & Connor-Smith 2010, John & Eng 2014. The beliefs people hold about their emotions might be especially impactful in that they simultaneously affect multiple aspects of affect regulation (Ford & Gross 2019, Zerwas et al 2022. For example, the belief that one can control one's emotions may shape affect regulation identification, selection, and implementation success (Ford et al 2018b, Gutentag et al 2017.…”

Differences in Emotion Expression, Suppression, and Cardiovascular Consequences Between Black and White Americans in the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Study

“…A wide body of experimental work has found that individuals in lower power roles or with lower status express emotions less intensely, consistent with the use of expressive suppression by lower power/status individuals (see Hall et al, 2005 for a meta-analysis). In daily life, individuals report using expressive suppression in situations where they feel they have less social power (Catterson et al, 2017), and individuals who feel they have low social power report using expressive suppression more frequently (Petkanopoulou et al, 2012;Zerwas et al, 2023).…”