Mix It to Fix It: Emotion Regulation Variability in Daily Life

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are often categorized as universally adaptive or maladaptive. However, it has recently been proposed that this view is overly simplistic: instead, adaptive ER involves applying strategies variably to meet contextual demands. Using data from four experience-sampling...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emotion (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2020-04, Vol.20 (3), p.473-485
Main Authors: Blanke, Elisabeth S, Brose, Annette, Kalokerinos, Elise K, Erbas, Yasemin, Riediger, Michaela, Kuppens, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living - psychology
Adolescent
Adult
Emotional Regulation
Emotional Regulation - physiology
Female
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Negative Emotions
Sampling (Experimental)
Young Adult
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are often categorized as universally adaptive or maladaptive. However, it has recently been proposed that this view is overly simplistic: instead, adaptive ER involves applying strategies variably to meet contextual demands. Using data from four experience-sampling studies (Ns = 70, 95, 200, and 179), we tested the relationship between ER variability and negative affect (NA) in everyday life. The constantly changing demands of daily life provide a more ecologically valid context in which to test the role of variability. We calculated 2 global indicators of variability: within-strategy variability (of particular strategies across time) and between-strategy variability (across strategies at one time-point). Associations between within-strategy variability and NA were inconsistent. In contrast, when controlling for mean strategy endorsement, between-strategy variability was associated with reduced NA across both individuals and measurement occasions. This is the first evidence that variably choosing between different strategies within a situation may be adaptive in daily life.
ISSN:1528-3542
1931-1516
DOI:10.1037/emo0000566