The regulation of negative and positive affect in daily life.

Abstract

Emotion regulation has primarily been studied either experimentally or by using retrospective trait questionnaires. Very few studies have investigated emotion regulation in the context in which it is usually deployed, namely, the complexity of everyday life. We address this in the current paper by reporting findings of two experience-sampling studies (Ns = 46 and 95) investigating the use of six emotion-regulation strategies (reflection, reappraisal, rumination, distraction, expressive suppression, and social sharing) and their associations with changes in positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) in daily life. Regarding the relative use of emotion-regulation strategies, a highly similar ordering was found across both studies with distraction being used more than sharing and reappraisal. While the use of all six strategies was positively correlated both within- and between-persons, different strategies were associated with distinct affective consequences: Suppression and rumination were associated with increases in NA and decreases in PA, whereas reflection was associated with increases in PA across both studies. Additionally, reappraisal, distraction, and social sharing were related to increases in PA in Study 2. Discussion focuses on how the current findings fit with theoretical models of emotion regulation and with previous evidence from experimental and retrospective studies.

Beyond positive and negative trait affect: Flourishing through music engagement

“…These results were consistent with past research that reported the frequent use of music to enhance mood (Juslin and Laukka, 2004;North et al, 2000) and cope with symptoms of stress (Bradt and Dileo, 2009). Despite finding that greater negative affect predicted increased use of emotion regulation strategies, Brans et al (2013) also reported that use of adaptive strategies such as reappraisal did not predict subsequent change in negative affect. The latter finding is in contrast to several other reports, which have linked the use of cognitive reappraisal with diminished negative affect and lower levels of psychopathology symptoms (Aldao et al, 2010;Gross and John, 2003;Haga et al, 2009;John and Gross, 2004).…”

“…This suggests that observed beneficial mental health outcomes were uniquely accounted for by music use for cognitive and emotional purposes, through the use of cognitive reappraisal emotion regulation strategy, and not the disposition to experience positive feelings and moods. In addition, Brans et al (2013) found that high levels of positive affect predicted lesser use of cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy. By including trait positive affect as a covariate in the current mediation analysis, this allowed us to clearly distinguish unique contributions of music use for cognitive and emotional regulation on both cognitive reappraisal as an emotion regulation style and mental health outcomes, from the potential influence of trait positive affect.…”

“…Just as individuals with high trait negative affect may experience both positive and negative affective states, individuals with high trait positive affect may also experience both affective states (Watson and Clark, 1984). More recently, trait affect has been demonstrated to predict change in the use of emotion regulation strategies, with negative affect predicting a significant increase, and positive affect predicting a significant reduction, in the use of emotion regulation strategies (Brans et al, 2013). Given that positive and negative affective states are used as indicators of subjective well-being, and have respectively been linked to positive and negative mental health outcomes (Brown et al, 1997;Fredrickson and Joiner, 2002;Lyubomirsky et al, 2005;Watson et al, 1995), trait affect should be controlled if the contribution of behavioural strategies (such as music use) to mental health outcomes is of interest.…”

Work Stressors, Perseverative Cognition and Objective Sleep Quality: A Longitudinal Study among Dutch Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) Pilots

“…A possible explanation for why distressing shifts elicited higher levels of perseverative cognition is that distressing shifts are more emotionally charged than workload and induce a higher degree of negative affect. Research has shown that daily events that evoke a higher degree of negative affect induce a higher level of perseverative cognition too 34) . In line with our third hypothesis, perseverative cognition was associated with delayed sleep onset.…”

Emotional self-control, coping with stress and psycho-physical well-being of prison officers

“…Jej natężenie reguluje poziom dobrostanu u funkcjonariuszy służby więziennej. Zdolność do kontrolowania emocji wpływa na funkcjonowanie psychospołeczne i rozwój zawodowy [18].…”