The self-regulation of emotion or emotion regulation is the ability to respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed.[1] It can also be defined as extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions.[2] The self-regulation of emotion belongs to the broader set of emotion regulation processes, which includes both the regulation of one's own feelings and the regulation of other people's feelings.[3][4][5]
Emotion regulation is a complex process that involves initiating, inhibiting, or modulating one's state or behavior in a given situation — for example, the subjective experience (feelings), cognitive responses (thoughts), emotion-related physiological responses (for example heart rate or hormonal activity), and emotion-related behavior (bodily actions or expressions). Functionally, emotion regulation can also refer to processes such as the tendency to focus one's attention to a task and the ability to suppress inappropriate behavior under instruction. Emotion regulation is a highly significant function in human life.[6]
Every day, people are continually exposed to a wide variety of potentially arousing stimuli. Inappropriate, extreme or unchecked emotional reactions to such stimuli could impede functional fit within society; therefore, people must engage in some form of emotion regulation almost all of the time.[7] Generally speaking, emotion dysregulation has been defined as difficulties in controlling the influence of emotional arousal on the organization and quality of thoughts, actions, and interactions.[8] Individuals who are emotionally dysregulated exhibit patterns of responding in which there is a mismatch between their goals, responses, and/or modes of expression, and the demands of the social environment.[9] For example, there is a significant association between emotion dysregulation and symptoms of depression, anxiety, eating pathology, and substance abuse.[10][11] Higher levels of emotion regulation are likely to be related to both high levels of social competence and the expression of socially appropriate emotions.[12][13]
^Cole, Pamela M.; Michel, Margaret K.; Teti, Laureen O'Donnell (1994). "The Development of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation: A Clinical Perspective". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. 59 (2/3): 73–100. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01278.x. JSTOR1166139. PMID7984169.
^Aldao, A.; Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2010). "Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: a transdiagnostic examination". Behaviour Research and Therapy. 48 (10): 974–983. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.06.002. PMID20591413.
^Fabes, R. A.; Eisenberg, N.; Jones, S.; Smith, M.; Guthrie, I.; Poulin, R.; Shepard, S.; Friedman, J. (1999). "Regulation, emotionality, and pre-schoolers' socially competent peer interactions". Child Development. 70 (2): 432–442. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00031. PMID10218264.
^Pulkkinen, L. (1982). Self-control and continuity from childhood to late adolescence. In P. B. Bakes & O. Brim Jr. (Eds.), Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 63-105). New York: Academic Press.