The Regulation of Emotion

Pierre Philippot, Robert S. Feldman

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781135635756
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The main goal of this volume is to present, in an integrated framework, the newest, most contemporary perspectives on emotion regulation. The book includes empirically-grounded work and theories that are central to our understanding of the processes that constitute emotion regulation and their consequences. This volume has several secondary aims, as well. One is to highlight several newer subareas in the domain of emotion regulation that hold much promise, such as the relationship between psychopathology and emotion regulation. The book also presents data and theory that have applied value that may be useful for people working in such fields as communication, psychotherapy, and counseling. Finally, the volume gathers contributions across a variety of subfields and includes authors working not just in North America but in other areas of the world. To help achieve these goals, the volume has been organized to begin with the presentation of the most molecular aspects of emotion regulation and to end with the most molar ones. It comprises four parts, each integrating different lines of research from related domains. Part I is devoted to basic processes in emotion regulation, such as neurological, physiological or cognitive processes; part II examines the interplays between emotion regulation and individual regulation; part III presents work on individual differences and developmental processes in emotion regulation; and part IV examines the social functions and constraints of emotion regulation.

IV
Individual Differences and the Development of Emotion Regulation

11
Emotion-Related Regulation: Its Conceptualization, Relations to Social Functioning, and Socialization

Nancy Eisenberg, Tracy L. Spinrad, and
Cynthia L. Smith Arizona State University

The purpose of this chapter was threefold: (a) to consider important conceptual distinctions in regard to different types of emotion-related regulation and control, (b) to selectively review empirical research on the role of emotion-related regulation in children’s socioemotional development and adjustment, and (c) to examine theory and research on the role of parents’ emotion-related socialization in children’s emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. We begin with a discussion of important conceptual distinctions, including between effortful and reactive control. Next, research on relations between regulation and control, and children’s social functioning and adjustment, is reviewed; findings indicate that children with poor emotion-related regulation display more negative emotions, more behavior problems, and less social competence. Finally, research on the socialization of emotion and related behavior is discussed. In general, sensitive, supportive parenting behaviors, parental expression of positive (rather than negative) emotion, and the discussion of emotion have been associated with the development of regulation and well-regulated social behavior.

In the past decade, the topic of emotion-related regulation has been a topic of considerable interest to developmental scientists. This is partly due to the resurgence of interest in emotion among psychologists in the past two decades, and partly due to the purported role of emotion regulation in children’s socioemotional development and adjustment. In this chapter, we first discuss conceptualizations of emotion-related regulation or control and their predicted relations with social competence and adjustment. Next, we selectively review research on the relation between emotion-related regulation or control and social functioning during infancy and toddlerhood, as well as childhood. Finally, the potential role of parental socialization in the development of regulation and regulated behavior (e.g., social competence and adjustment) is discussed, and illustrative research is reviewed. Throughout, research from the laboratories in which the authors have worked is emphasized, although other related work sometimes is reviewed.

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF EMOTION-RELATED REGULATION

In the last decade, a variety of definitions of emotion regulation have been proposed and these differ in their focus on the mechanisms involved, the domains of functioning affected, the timing of the regulatory activities, and the role of other people in the process. Given the complexity of the phenomena of interest and changes with regulation with age, it is not surprising that investigators do not always focus on the same variables. For example, Kopp and Neufeld (2003) suggested that “emotion regulation during the early years is a developmental process that represents the deployment of intrinsic and extrinsic processes—at whatever maturity level the young child is at—to (1) manage arousal states for effective biological and social adaptations, and (2) achieve individual goals” (p.). Thompson (1994) defined emotion regulation as the “extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporal features, to achieve one’s goals” (pp. 27–28). Building on the work of Ross Thompson (1994), Pamela Cole and colleagues (Campos, Mumme, Kermoian, & Campos, 1994; Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994), and others, we define emotion-related regulation rather broadly, as the process of initiating, avoiding, inhibiting, maintaining, or modulating the occurrence, form, intensity, or duration of internal feeling states, emotion-related physiological processes, emotion-related goals, and the behavioral concomitants of emotion, generally in the service of accomplishing one’s goals.

We have found a variety of distinctions to be helpful when thinking about the nature of emotion-related regulation. Consistent with the thinking of Campos, Mummne, Kermoian, and Campos (1994), it has proved useful to differentiate between the regulation of internal states and processes and the regulation of overt behaviors associated with emotion. Work with infants has focused primarily on the regulation of emotional arousal, whereas work with older children focuses as much or more on the regulation of behavior associated with the experience of emotion. The regulation of internal feeling and physiological states is believed to be accomplished with mechanisms such as orienting, self-comforting, avoidance, and communicative behaviors in infancy and the toddler years (e.g., Kopp & Neufeld, in press; Rothbart, Ziaie, & O’Boyle, 1992; Stifter & Braungart, 1995); voluntary control of attentional processes such as the abilities to shift and focus attention as needed are deemed more important with age (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988; Windle & Lerner, 1986). Moreover, cognitive strategies such as cognitive distraction—thinking of something else to alleviate emotional arousal or distress—and positive cognitive restructuring— refraining the situation to highlight positive aspects of it, are believed to be important mechanisms for regulating emotion in childhood and adulthood (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Sandler, Tein, & West, 1994). In addition, the modification of one’s goals or their relative valuation (e.g., by devaluing the importance of sports if one is a poor athlete) is another way to alter or prevent the experience of emotion (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995; Skinner; 1999).

The regulation of the behavioral concomitants of emotions includes control or modulation of facial and gestural reactions and other overt behaviors or action patterns that stem from, or are associated with, internal emotion-related psychological or physiological states and goals (Eisenberg, Fabes, Guthrie, & Reiser, 2000). Such regulation often is assessed with measures of inhibitory or activational control, that is, the abilities to voluntarily inhibit or activate behavior as required by the situation (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997; Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000; Rothbart & Bates, 1998).

In our view, emotion-related regulation is a process that can occur prior, during, or after the elicitation of emotion. Usually, investigators have studied regulation of emotion while it is being elicited or after it has occurred. Regulation prior to its elicitation has been called proactive coping or antecedent emotion regulation (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997; Gross, 1999; Thompson, 1994). Unfortunately, little is known about how children actively avoid emotion-eliciting events or use attentional and cognitive strategies to inhibit, initial, or modulate emotional reactions prior to their occurrence.

In thinking about the relation of emotion-related regulation to developmental outcomes, it is especially important to differentiate between regulation and control, with the latter defined as inhibition or restraint, Successful regulation likely involves optimal levels of control, as well other capacities such as the ability to initiate action as needed. We, like Block and Block (1980) and Cole et al. (1994), believe that well-regulated individuals are not overly controlled or undercontrolled; they have the capacity to respond to the varying demands of experience with a range of responses that are socially acceptable and sufficiently flexible to allow for spontaneity in behavior as well as the inhibition of spontaneous reactions as required in the given context.

The notion of voluntary control is very similar to Rothbart’s concept of effortful control, “the ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response” (Rothbart & Bates, 1998, p. 137). Effortful control is reflected in effortful attentional regulation—the abilities to voluntarily focus or shift attention as needed in a given situation—as well as in inhibitory and activational control—or the abilities to effortfully inhibit behavior or activate behavior as needed, even if the person doesn’t really want to do it. Effortful control is believed to involve executive functioning in the prefrontal cortex (Mirsky, 1996) and associated areas—including the anterior cingulate gyrus— which appears to be directly related to awareness of one’s planned behavior, correction of errors, and the control of thoughts and feelings (Posner & DiGirolamo, 2000; Posner & Rothbart, 1998).

In contrast to effortful regulation, there are aspects of control, or the lack thereof, that appear to be relatively involuntary, such as impulsivity and interested approach or rigidity and overcontrol as in children who are timid, constrained, and lack flexibility in novel or stressful situations (behaviorally inhibited children; Kagan, 1998; see also Derryberry and Rothbart, 1997; Nigg, 2000). Jeffrey Gray (Pickering & Gray, 1999) and others have argued that overly inhibited and impulsive (uncontrolled) behaviors are associated with subcortical systems such as Gray’s (1975, 1987) Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), which is activated in situations involving novelty and stimuli signaling punishment or frustrative nonreward, and the Behavioral Activation System or BAS, which involves sensitivity to cues of reward and cessation of punishment.

THE RELATION OF EMOTION-RELATED REGULATION TO QUALITY OF SOCIAL FUNCTIONING

It is logical to expect effortful control (or regulation) and less voluntary types of control to relate differently to children’s social competence, adjustment, and resiliency. Such a notion is evident in current work in personality as well as in developmental psychology.

Theoretical Framework

Based on the ideas of Block and Block (1980), Pulkkinen (1982), and other early work on regulation-related constructs, Eisenberg and Fabes (1992) argued that individual differences in emotionality (especially negative emotionality; Eisenberg, Fabes, et al., 2000) and regulation jointly predict the quality of children’s social functioning. They suggested that children who are high in negative emotionality and unable to modulate their arousal are prone to undercontrolled interactions with others and to behave in socially unconstructive ways. In contrast, children who can optimally and voluntarily modulate their level of emotional arousal and behavior through regulatory processes (e.g., the abilities to effortfully shift and focus attention and the abilities to inhibit or activate behavior when so r...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
• PREFACE
• I. BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN THE REGULATION OF EMOTION
• II. SOCIAL AND MOTIVATIONAL ASPECTS OF EMOTIONAL REGULATION
• III. SELF-PRESENTATION AND EMOTION REGULATION
• IV. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTION REGULATION