Glossary // Glossary term Theoretical

Emotion regulation

The processes by which people influence which emotions they have, when they have them and how they experience and express them. Gross's process model groups strategies by the point at which they act: situation selection and modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change and response modulation. Meta-analyses indicate that strategies differ in effectiveness and that habitual reliance on rumination, avoidance and suppression is associated with symptoms across several disorders.

Where the site uses it

Clinical perspectives: emotional processing, exposure and the lesson of debriefing
What clinical psychology learned about emotional release: emotional processing theory and exposure, the Cochrane evidence against single-session psychological debriefing, and meta-analyses of regulation strategies across psychopathology.
Change the interpretation before trying to release the emotion
Cognitive reappraisal, reconsidering what a situation means, changes emotional experience more reliably than suppressing it or dwelling on it. How to practise it and when it is not the right tool.

Studies behind it

The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at.

Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

Level D Review

Supports definitions and the five-point process model used across the library. A conceptual framework, not a test of which strategies work.
Webb, T. L., Miles, E., & Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. doi:10.1037/a0027600

Level A Meta-analysis

Supports the claims that cognitive change had a small-to-medium effect, distraction was effective, concentration on feelings was not, and suppressing the experience of emotion was ineffective. Effects come from short laboratory inductions and vary with moderators.
Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.11.004

Level D Meta-analysis

Supports the claim that rumination shows the largest association with symptoms, with avoidance and suppression also associated. It pools correlational studies, so it is graded D and cannot establish causation.