Emotion Regulation Notes

Emotion Regulation

Introduction to Emotion

• Emotion is the fourth topic in the affective psychology series by Dr. Anita Deák.

Coping with Distressing Situations

• A warm-up discussion involves listing and comparing ways to cope with distressing situations.
• The aim is to identify common and different coping mechanisms among peers.

Aspects of Emotion Research

• Emotion research encompasses various aspects:
  • Subjective (phenomenological)
  • Biological
  • Evolutionary
  • Cognitive
  • Social-cultural

Social-Cultural Aspects of Emotion Research

• Emotion research includes social-cultural aspects.

Conclusion from Previous Lecture

• Universal expressions, categories, and language exist.
• Expression rules consist of:
  • Universal, biologically determined factors
  • Culture-specific, learned rules for regulation

Overview of Topics

• The lecture covers:
  • Defense mechanisms (Freud)
  • Coping (Lazarus)
  • Emotion regulation (Gross)
  • Methods for measuring emotion management

Freud's Defense Mechanisms

• Defense mechanisms, according to Freud, include:
  • Denial: Refusing to acknowledge reality.
  • Projection: Attributing one's feelings to others.
  • Displacement: Redirecting feelings to another target.
  • Reaction Formation: Behaving opposite to one's true feelings.

Taxonomy of Defense Mechanisms (S. Freud, 1937)

• Social Component: SUPEREGO
  • Conscious: Contact with the outside world.
  • Preconscious: Material just beneath the surface of awareness.
  • Moral imperatives: Contains the CONSCIENCE & the EGO-IDEAL.
• Psychological Component: EGO
  • Reality principle
  • Secondary process thinking (reality testing)
• Biological Component: ID
  • The instincts EROS & THANATOS are associated with the unconscious mind and the Id.
  • Unconscious: Difficult to retrieve material; well below the surface of awareness.
  • All psychic energy originates in the unconscious.

Drives, Instincts, and Social Rules

• Balancing drives, instincts, desires (pleasure principle, wish fulfillment) with social-cultural rules, norms, demands, and expectations.
• Ego defense mechanisms resolve the tension between id and superego.

Ego Defense Mechanisms

• Denial: Refusing to acknowledge the reality of an unpleasant situation. Example: Refusing to admit a close friend has a life-threatening illness.
• Fantasy: Retreating to fantasy or daydreaming to fulfill desires. Example: Daydreaming about falling in love with a famous actor.
• Projection: Attributing one's unacceptable desires to another person. Example: Accusing a partner of feeling bored when you are feeling restless.
• Displacement: Directing disturbing feelings toward an alternative target. Example: Yelling at a dog when angry with a supervisor.
• Intellectualization: Focusing on the abstract, logical aspects rather than emotional aspects. Example: Logically analyzing why a friend let you down instead of feeling hurt.
• Reaction Formation: Adopting attitudes/behaviors that are the extreme opposite of underlying attitudes. Example: Being excessively friendly toward someone you dislike.
• Repression: "Forgetting" or "blocking" memory of unpleasant events. Repression is automatic. Example: Blocking out memory of a car accident.
• Suppression: Consciously deciding not to think about a disturbing topic. Example: Deciding not to worry about a work deadline while watching a movie.
• Sublimation: Expressing socially unacceptable desires in a constructive manner. Example: Writing a song about anger toward a parent instead of arguing.

Vaillant's Four Categories of Defenses

• 'Psychotic': Common in young children, indicates trauma in adults. Example: Denial.
• 'Immature': Typical of adolescents, avoids dealing with reality. Examples: Fantasy, projection.
• 'Neurotic': Common in adults, socially accepted. Examples: Displacement, intellectualization, reaction formation, repression.
• 'Mature': Intentional, leads to prosocial behavior. Examples: Suppression, sublimation.

Stress and Coping (Richard Lazarus)

• What is Stress?
  • Stimulus (Holmes, 1979): An event that presents difficult demands.
  • Response (Selye, 1976): Physiological arousal elicited by troublesome events.
  • Stimulus-response transaction (Lazarus, 1990): A specific transaction when one feels threatened. Stress depends on the transaction between the situation and the person.
• Lazarus's Stress Definition: Any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten our well-being and thereby tax our coping abilities. (Threat to physical safety, long-range security, self-esteem, reputation, peace of mind, etc.)

Stress and Coping Process

• Environment: Stimuli (Stressor) → Perception Filter (Selection)
• Person:
  • Primary Appraisal: Interpretation of the stressors (positive, dangerous, irrelevant).
    • Dangerous: Challenge, threat, harm/loss.
  • Secondary Appraisal: Analysis of available resources (sufficient, insufficient).
• Stress:
  • Coping: Overcoming stress.
    • Problem-focused: Change situation itself.
    • Emotion-focused: Change relation to the situation.
  • Reappraisal: Pacing and learning.

Emotion Regulation (James Gross)

• Emotional Performance Art is a way to think about one's emotional state.

Process Model of Emotion Regulation

• Strategies
  • Situation selection
  • Situation modification
  • Attentional deployment (distraction, concentration)
  • Cognitive change (reappraisal)
  • Response modulation (suppression)
• Process
  • Situation
  • Attention
  • Appraisal
  • Response
• Types
  • Antecedent-focused strategies
  • Response-focused strategies

Emotion Regulation - Examples

• Situation-Focused
  • Situation Selection:
    • Go to party
    • Stay home
  • Situation Modification:
    • Go alone
    • Bring boyfriend/girlfriend
    • Bring friend
• Cognition-Focused
  • Attentional Deployment:
    • Worry about job
    • What to drink?
    • Notice old friend
    • Boy/girlfriend talking to attractive person
    • Person telling story
  • Cognitive Reappraisal:
    • Must be an old friend
    • Serious rival!
    • Meaningless flirtation
• Response-Focused
  • Response Modulation:
    • Drink alcohol
    • Complain to a friend
    • Pretend not to notice
• Emotion Process:
  • Experience $\rightarrow$ Expression $\rightarrow$ Physiology $\rightarrow$ Behavior

Summary of Approaches

Measuring Emotion Regulation

Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)

• EMA involves assessing mental states in real-time within the context of daily life.
• Example questions include:
  • "At the moment I am…"
  • "At the moment do you feel anxious?"
  • Contextual information: "At home, at school, in the park, shopping, on the street, somewhere else"

Questionnaires for Measuring Emotion Regulation

• Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS)
• Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ)
• Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (BERQ)
• Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)
• Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ)
• Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI)
• State Emotion Regulation Inventory (SERI)

Experimental Settings for Studying Emotions

• Experimental settings involve measuring responses to stimuli.

Example A

• A positive or negative image is shown for 2 seconds, followed by a "+" sign for 4 seconds.
• Participants rate how negative or positive the image was after a 6-second delay.

Example B

• The process is repeated with instructions to decrease the emotional response.

Experimental Setup

• The experiment involves different conditions and scans.

  • Control Condition 1
  • Emotion 1
  • Emotion 2
  • Scrambled (Control Condition 2)

• Total of 61 blocks:

  • 15 emotion 1
  • 15 emotion 2
  • 15 control 1
  • 15 control 2
  • 1 Intro

Suggested Readings

• Shiota, M. N. & Kalat, J. W. (2012). Emotion. Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning. (Chapter 6.)