When and How to Regulate: Everyday Emotion-Regulation Strategy Use and Stressor Intensity.

ABSTRACT: Contextual factors shape emotion regulation (ER). The intensity of emotional stimuli may be such a contextual factor that influences the selection and moderates the effectiveness of ER strategies in reducing negative affect (NA). Prior research has shown that, on average, when emotional stimuli were more intense, distraction was selected over reappraisal (and vice versa). This pattern was previously shown to be adaptive as the preferred strategies were more efficient in the respective contexts. Here, we investigated whether stressor intensity predicted strategy use and effectiveness in similar ways in daily life. We examined five ER strategies (reappraisal, reflection, acceptance, distraction, and rumination) in relation to the intensity of everyday stressors, using two waves of experience

SUBMITTER: Blanke ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9382984 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature