Emotional Regulation: What is it?

Welcome to the Emotional Regulation Series!

In this series of posts, we will discuss in depth what emotions are, why it is essential to understand them, and how to best regulate them when they overwhelm us. We will start by trying to understand, in simple terms, what ‘emotions’ and ‘emotional regulation’ are and how they come to be. Emotions can be defined as a ‘multi-faceted, whole-body response’ to subjective experiences resulting in behavioural reactions. In straightforward terms, emotions are physical and psychological responses to events.

According to Iris B. Mauss in her paper entitled ‘Automatic Emotion Regulation’ (2007), emotions develop in three steps. First, we experience a real or imagined situation. Second, we take note of and evaluate that situation (this is called appraisal). Third, and finally, we experience an emotional response. 

Emotion regulation refers to a person’s ability to manage or respond to an emotional experience. There are several ways we can achieve this subconsciously, some of which may be adaptive or healthy responses, while others are maladaptive or unhealthy.

Mauss offers us three examples of automatic emotional regulation, all of which can be either adaptive or maladaptive depending on the situation.

First is the positivity effect. While this is more often observed in older adults, it refers to the tendency to prefer or focus on positive rather than negative information in memory processing. However, this function may also affect younger people who are attempting to avoid situations that might elicit a strong negative emotional response. 

The second is an automatic function called ‘action orientation’, which is called upon in moments of high stress. Action orientation essentially refers to the mindset of finding solutions in times of emotional overwhelm. This can be great for resolving a stressful situation, limiting the exposure one might have to it; however, if the automatic response is to fix the problem rather than ever allowing the feelings to be felt, it can become maladaptive.

The third that Mauss mentioned is repressive coping. This is a process in which a person inhibits the experience of negative feelings and thoughts to avoid potential cognitive repercussions, such as lasting trauma, or to prevent one’s positive self-image from being threatened. As an avoidant defence mechanism, it can be adaptive in acute situations—helping individuals stay focused and clear-headed by keeping disruptive emotions at bay. Nevertheless, when overused, repressive coping becomes maladaptive, since consistently avoiding negative emotions prevents individuals from addressing them, potentially leading to deeper issues over time.

The author suggests that many of these measures are subconscious reactions called ‘automatic emotional regulation’. She explains that while we may not yet know how these processes become automatic, we do know they exist. However, they can at times become maladaptive or unhealthy in response to frequent stressors or learned behaviour. In this case, we need to learn how to identify when an emotional regulation technique is not benefiting us, be conscious of our automatic response style and move towards a more conscious regulation technique suited to the situation. 

According to Naragon-Gainey et al. (2017), ‘healthy’ and purposeful emotional regulation can be categorised as the ability to disengage from intense emotions when they arise, to interrupt the cycle of thought, and to adapt to and re-engage with the situation with a more level emotional setting.

When the emotional response is disproportionate to the emotional trigger, we call this ‘emotional dysregulation’. In times of emotional overwhelm, a person with good emotional regulation will employ a series of strategies to calm their emotions. Whereas someone who doesn't have a healthy emotional regulation response will become overwhelmed, take it out on others, or completely ignore them, bottling it up until it explodes.

Some examples of healthy emotional regulation responses include:

• Education: learning about emotions and being able to identify them.

• Reframing your thoughts.

• Effectively communicate your feelings and needs with others.

Overwhelming emotions can influence your behaviour and ability to deal with the situation appropriately or in a way that is beneficial to your long-term well-being, so it is vital that we learn to identify them and determine what works best for us.

Over the next few months, we will share tips and tricks to help you identify and understand your emotions, along with strategies to manage them. 

In the next Emotional Regulation Series post, we will consider the types of emotions and begin outlining how to identify them.

Eleanor Baldwin

28 October 25

Resources:

Mauss, I. B. (2005). Automatic Emotion Regulation.

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Naragon-Gainey, K., McMahon, T. P., & Chacko, T. P. (2017). The structure of common emotion regulation strategies: A meta-analytic examination. Psychological bulletin, 143(4), 384–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000093

Psychology Today Staff. (2019). Emotion Regulation. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/emotion-regulation