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Impaired emotion regulation and maladaptive strategies to manage distress are central to psychopathology, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anorexia nervosa (AN). Emotion regulation can be fostered or thwarted by romantic partners, and the tendency to rely on interpersonally oriented emotion regulation may vary by disorder. This study examined coregulation as a form of interpersonal emotion regulation in OCD and AN. We hypothesized that OCD is associated with exaggerated and AN with diminished coregulation, and that OCD patients have greater overall levels of emotional arousal than AN patients. Greater symptom severity was expected to exacerbate these opposing tendencies. Vocally encoded emotional arousal was measured during couple conversations in 34 AN patients, 18 OCD patients, and their partners. Two indicators of coregulation (covariation and coupling) were analyzed using cross-lagged actor-partner interdependence and coupled linear oscillator models. As hypothesized, OCD was associated with greater overall emotional arousal than AN. Symptom severity was not associated with emotional arousal or coregulation. Covariation differed in the opposite direction of the hypothesis; there was no difference in coupling. AN patients exhibited consistent coregulation, indicating high reactivity to partners' emotional arousal which may contribute to interpersonal avoidance. OCD couples showed limited predictability of patients' arousal over time, while partners were affected by the patients' emotional arousal; thus, symptom accommodation may in part be partners' attempts at managing their own distress along with the patients'. A better understanding of interpersonal emotion regulation in OCD and AN can inform treatment by targeting interaction patterns that may maintain symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record

To date, the field of emotion regulation (ER) has largely focused on intrinsic ER (i.e., regulation of one's own emotions) and has only recently started to investigate extrinsic ER (i.e., regulation of another person's emotions). This article selectively reviews current findings in order to answer the following questions: (a) What is extrinsic ER, and how can it be distinguished from related constructs such as emotion contagion, empathy, prosocial behavior, and social support? (b) How can we best model the processes through which extrinsic ER occurs as well as individual differences in extrinsic ER ability? The answers show that although extrinsic ER has much in common with intrinsic ER, the 2 cannot be equated. Research is therefore needed on the extrinsic side of ER. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Where do individual differences in emotion regulation come from? This review examines theoretical and empirical evidence describing the role that personality traits play in shaping individuals' intrapersonal and interpersonal regulation styles. We define and delineate personality traits and emotion regulation and summarize empirical relations between them. Specifically, we review research on the Big Five personality traits in relation to each stage of Gross' (2015) extended process model of emotion regulation. In doing so, we document evidence concerning the relationships between personality traits and three key stages of emotion regulation, namely, identification (i.e., choosing which emotions to regulate), selection (i.e., choosing a broad regulatory approach), and implementation (i.e., adopting specific regulatory tactics). Finally, we make recommendations for future research that we hope will guide researchers in building a systematic understanding of how personality traits shape intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In the context of research on depression, previous studies have explained relationships between excessive-reassurance seeking and mental health from the perspective of interpersonal rejection by significant others. The present study examined the mechanisms underlying these relationships from the perspective of “emotionships”, which indicates the diversity of interpersonal networks for emotion regulation. We also examined how the most significant other’s interpersonal acceptance plays a role in processes that underlie the relationship between excessive-reassurance seeking and mental health as mediated through emotionships. 118 students completed three questionnaires. First, they completed measures of excessive-reassurance seeking, depression and well-being. Second, to assess emotionships, participants nominated individuals they seek in different emotion regulation scenarios. Third, participants selected the most significant other that they nominated previously and answered questions about this individual’s acceptance tendency. Moderated mediation analysis results indicated that in a case that the most significant other did not tend to accept others, those who engaged in excessive-reassurance seeking had fewer emotionships, and fewer emotionships predicted deterioration of well-being. In contrast, when the most significant other tended to accept others, these negative effects of ERS behavior on well-being via emotionships were not found. These findings suggest that maintaining interpersonal networks for emotion regulation and the most significant other’s interpersonal acceptance may be important for preventing deterioration of mental health among excessive-reassurance seekers.

Podstawowym celem prezentowanego badania było przygotowanie polskiej adaptacji kwestionariusza Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ) autorstwa Hofmann, Carpenter i Curtiss (2016). Kwestionariusz służy do pomiaru sposobu, w jaki ludzie wykorzystują relacje międzyludzkie do regulowania własnych emocji. W badaniu wzięło udział 400 osób w wieku od 16 do 80 lat, w tym 265 kobiet i 135 mężczyzn. Badani otrzymywali do wypełnienia polską wersję kwestionariusza IERQ - KIRE, składającą się z 20 itemów podzielonych między cztery podskale: Wzmacnianie pozytywnego afektu, Zmianę perspektywy, Ukojenie i Modelowanie społeczne. Analiza rzetelności wykazała dużą spójność wewnętrzną zarówno dla podskal, jak i całego narzędzia. W celu przeprowadzenia analizy trafności skorelowano wyniki KIRE z takimi konstruktami, jak: style radzenia sobie ze stresem, defensywny pesymizm, inteligencja emocjonalna, samoocena zależna od wzmocnień, style przywiązania oraz depresyjność. Uzyskano umiarkowany związek pomiędzy KIRE a inteligencją emocjonalną oraz unikowym stylem radzenia sobie ze stresem (SSU). Wykazano również korelację o średniej sile z defensywnym pesymizmem oraz słaby związek ze stylem zorientowanym na zadanie (SSZ) i bezpiecznym stylem przywiązania. Analiza czynnikowa wykazała, iż model osiągnął satysfakcjonujące dopasowanie, co potwierdza trafność teoretyczną adaptowanego kwestionariusza. The main goal of the presented study is to prepare a Polish adaptation of the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ), by Hofmann, Carpenter and Curtiss (2016). The questionnaire is used to measure how people use interpersonal relations to regulate their emotions. The current research was conducted on 400 participants (265 female and 135 male) aged between 16-80 years old. The subjects received the Polish version of the IERQ - KIRE questionnaire, consisting of 20 items divided between four subscales: Enhancing Positive Affect, Perspective Taking, Soothing and Social Modeling. In the current study KIRE and its subscales have demonstrated strong internal consistency. In order to conduct the validity analysis, KIRE results were correlated with different psychological constructs: coping with stress, defensive pessimism, emotional intelligence, self-esteem, attachment styles and depression. The study revealed that KIRE was moderately associated with emotional intelligence and avoidance coping. The analysis have also demonstrated medium relationship between KIRE and defensive pessimism, as well as weak correlation with task-oriented coping style and secure attachment style. Factor analysis revealed satisfying goodness of model fit, which confirms the theoretical validity of the adapted questionnaire.

Ebeveyn tutumları ile ilgili gerçekleştirilen çalışmalar, ebeveynden algılanan red tutumlarının bireyin çocukluk, ergenlik ve yetişkinlik dönemlerinde çeşitli psikolojik sorunlar yaşamasına neden olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır (Khaleque ve Rohner, 2002). Bu sorunlardan biri olan sosyal kaygı bozukluğunun, bireyin kişilerarası ilişkilerini olumsuz yönde etkilediği belirtilmektedir (Wittchen ve Jacobi, 2005). Diğer yandan, sosyal ilişkilerde duygu düzenlemenin rolü oldukça önemli görülmektedir (Gross, 1998). Bu bağlamda, bu çalışmanın amacı çocuklukta algılanan ebeveyn kabul-reddi, sosyal kaygı, etkileşim kaygısı, reddedilme duyarlılığı ve kişilerarası duygu düzenleme stratejileri arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Bu amaçla, araştırmaya İstanbul ilinde lisans eğitimi alan 18-25 yaş aralığında (Ort. = 21.36, SS = 2.14) 334 kadın ve 182 erkek gönüllü katılımcı dahil edilmiştir. Çalışmada veri toplama araçları olarak Demografik Bilgi Formu, Ebeveyn Kabul-Red Ölçeği (EKRÖ), Kişilerarası Duygu Düzenleme Ölçeği (KDDÖ), Liebowitz Sosyal Kaygı Ölçeği (LSKÖ), Etkileşim Kaygısı Ölçeği (EKÖ) ve Reddedilme Duyarlılığı Ölçeği (RDÖ) kullanılmıştır. Çalışma bulgularına göre, ebeveynden algılanan reddedici tutumların, genç yetişkin bireylerde sosyal kaygı, etkileşim kaygısı ve reddedilme duyarlılığı ile ilişkili olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Bunun yanında, kişilerarası duygu düzenleme stratejilerinden bakış açısı edinme ve sosyal model alma stratejileri kullanımının sosyal durumlarda yaşanan kaygıları yordadığı araştırma bulguları arasında yer almaktadır. Mevcut çalışmada elde edilen bulgular ilgili literatür ile yorumlanmış, mevcut çalışmanın literatüre katkısı, sınırlılıkları ve güçlü yönlerine değinilmiş, ayrıca gelecekte gerçekleştirilebilecek çalışmalar için bazı önerilere yer verilmiştir., Studies conducted on parental attitudes reveal that the rejection attitudes perceived from the parents cause the individual to experience various psychological problems in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002). Being one of these problems, social anxiety disorder, is stated to negatively affect the interpersonal relations of the individual (Wittchen & Jacobi, 2005). Additionally, the role of emotion regulation seems to be very important in social relations (Gross, 1998). In this context, this study aims to investigate the relationship between perceived childhood acceptance-rejection, social anxiety, interaction anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. For this purpose, 334 female and 182 male voluntary participants between the ages of 18-25 (M = 21.36, SD = 2.14) who receive undergraduate education in Istanbul were included in the study. In this study, Demographic Information Form, Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ), Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Scale (IERQ), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Interaction Anxiety Scale (IAS) and Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ) were used as data collection tools. According to the findings of the study, it is understood that the rejection attitudes perceived from the parents are associated with social anxiety, interaction anxiety and rejection sensitivity in young adult individuals. In addition, it is among the research findings that the use of “perspective-taking” and “social modeling” as interpersonal emotion regulation strategies predict anxieties in social situations. The findings obtained in the current study were interpreted in regard to the relevant literature. The contribution, limitations and strengths of the current study to the literature are also mentioned, and some suggestions for future studies are included in the study.

Empathy often occurs when individuals witness another suffer. Researchers who study empathy have tried to identify reliable behavioral outcomes, affective responses, and physiological changes associated with its experience. However to date, these markers of empathy have remained elusive. We propose that failing to take into account the features of the suffering that elicited the empathy has contributed to this problem. We hypothesized that emotional and physical suffering generate diverging profiles of empathy with different behavioral, affective, and physiological markers. We first examined how observer's rated 75 different types of suffering. Ratings produced 2 independent clusters-primarily emotional and primarily physical, which classified 80% of suffering events (Study 1). Next we measured behavioral, affective, and physiological markers of empathy for emotional and physical suffering. In a 2-step exploratory (Study 2a) and confirmatory (Study 2b; preregistered) process, participants generated open-ended behavioral responses to suffering scenarios, which were coded, classified into thematic categories, and presented to new participants. We found that emotional suffering elicited more comforting and interpersonal emotion regulation behaviors in others, whereas physical suffering elicited more emergency mobilization behaviors. In Study 3, participants viewed pictures of suffering. Self-reports and coded expressions of compassion were stronger for emotional suffering; anxiety and distress were stronger for physical suffering. In Study 4, participants watched videos of suffering. Emotional and physical suffering elicited increased parasympathetic and sympathetic activation, though coactivation was greater for physical suffering. This work generates a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of empathy, which addresses current debates and reconciles inconsistencies in its conceptualization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Deciphering others’ affect is ubiquitous in daily life and is important for navigating social interactions and relationships. Research has found that behavioral components, such as facial expressions or body language, are critical channels by which people understand other people’s affect. In the current research, we examined how people’s perceptions of targets’ positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) are associated with targets’ physiological reactivity, and whether behavioral indices mediate these associations. A total of 94 participants (i.e., observers) watched videos of targets completing a social stress task during which targets’ physiological reactivity [i.e., changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), cardiac output (CO), and ventricular contractility (VC)] was assessed. We predicted (1) targets’ RSA reactivity would be negatively associated with observers’ perceptions of PA and NA (to a lesser magnitude than PA); (2) targets’ CO reactivity would be positively associated with observers’ perceptions of PA and unrelated to perceptions of NA; and (3) targets’ VC would be positively associated perceptions of PA or NA (VC was an exploratory hypothesis). Our hypotheses were largely supported. Mediational analyses revealed that vocal prosody was a significant mediator of the association between perceptions of targets’ affect and their physiological reactivity. The findings suggest that observers can reliably detect targets’ emotional experiences as they manifest at a physiological level and that voice is an especially useful marker of how people perceive others’ affective experience. The findings have implications for aspects of relationships involving emotion perception, including affect contagion and interpersonal emotion regulation.

Background Multimorbidity is challenging not only for the patient but also for the romantic partner. Strategies for interpersonal emotion regulation like disclosing to the partner are supposed to play a major role in the psychosocial adjustment to multimorbidity. Research has often focused on disease-related disclosure, even though disclosing thoughts and feelings related to mundane, everyday life occurrences might also play a role in coadjustment. The current dyadic study aimed at investigating the association between these two types of interpersonal regulation strategies and adjustment disorder symptoms, following the new ICD 11 criteria in multimorbid patients and their partners. Methods Shortly after being hospitalized due to an acute health crisis, N = 28 multimorbid patients (average age 70 years) and their partners filled in questionnaires on disclosure in the couple, adjustment disorder criteria of the ICD 11 ("preoccupation," "failure to adapt"), and sleep problems. Results Both patients and their partners did show similarly high levels of preoccupation and failure to adapt indicating adjustment problems to the complex health situation. The adjustment symptoms of both partners correlated between r = 0.22 and 0.45. Regression based on Actor-Partner Interdependence-Models revealed that own mundane disclosure was related to less adjustment symptoms in the patients. Beyond that, a partner effect was observed, revealing a negative association between partners' illness-related disclosure and the patients' level of preoccupation. For the partners, mundane disclosure of the partner was associated with less preoccupation, failure to adapt, and reported sleep problems above and beyond own disclosure reports. Furthermore, there was an actor effect of disease-related disclosure on less sleep problems for the partners. Conclusion These results support an interpersonal view on adjustment processes to physical disease. Disclosure as a way of regulating the relationship and emotional responses might play a relevant role here, which seems to be different for patients and their partners. Further research is needed to shed more light on the differential role of disease-related and mundane everyday disclosure for psychosocial adjustment in couples confronted with health challenges.

Interpersonal emotion regulation entails a wide array of strategies aimed at influencing others' emotions. Despite its importance for successful social interactions, only a few studies have evaluated interpersonal emotion regulation in children. In detail, the study of developmental changes in the use of emotion regulation strategies overlooked age, gender and cultural differences across different emotions. To address this gap, the present study used the serious game Emodiscovery, a simulation game targeted at 8-10-year-olds, which measures the strategies selected by children to improve the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear displayed by 3D virtual characters. One-hundred British (M = 9.10 years; 39% girls) and 108 Spanish (M = 9.04, 44% girls) 8-10-year-olds played 3 different levels or scenarios of the game. In each level, the character displayed a negative emotion (i.e., sadness, anger, and fear, respectively) and children were first asked to indicate what emotion the character was feeling and afterward to interact three times with the character to improve his or her mood. In each interaction, 4 possible regulation strategies (2 adaptive and 2 maladaptive) were displayed for children to select. Results showed that in the scenario where the character was displaying sadness, 8-year-olds chose significantly less adaptive strategies than 10-years-olds. In the scenario where the character was angry, boys who accurately recognized the emotion of anger chose more adaptive strategies than those who did not recognize the emotion. For the scenario depicting fear, boys chose less adaptive strategies than girls. The obtained results highlight the importance of looking at specific emotions when researching interpersonal emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

When individuals experience empathy , they often seek to bolster others’ well-being. But what do empathizers want others to feel? Though psychologists have studied empathy and prosociality for decades, this question has yet to be clearly addressed. This is because virtually all existing research focuses on cases in which improving others’ well-being also comprises heightening their positive affect or decreasing their negative affect and helping them reach their own emotional goals. In this review, I argue that real-life empathic goals encompass a broader range—including sometimes worsening targets’ affect or contravening their wishes in order to improve their well-being—that can be productively integrated into the framework of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). I review the empathic IER spectrum in a number of contexts, including close relationships, professional caregiving, and group-based emotions. Integrating empathy and IER provides a synthetic and generative way to ask new questions about how social emotions produce prosocial actions.

In times of need, people seek comfort and support from close others. Support provision is an integral component of attachment relationships, one that is linked with physical and psychological well-being. Successful support provision is believed to be grounded in transactions of sensitive, caring behavior between caregivers and support seekers and to serve a profound regulatory function. However, physiological processes underlying support transactions have not been previously studied. We assessed autonomic vagal regulation and coded spontaneous emotional support behaviors in N = 100 heterosexual couples involved in a support interaction. We focused on cardiac vagal activation, operationalized as the increase in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) from baseline to interaction, as an indicator of regulatory efforts. Analyses revealed a negative association between caregivers' and support seekers' regulatory efforts, which was mediated by emotional support behaviors. We found that caregivers with greater increases in RSA from baseline to interaction provided more emotional support to their partners. Such emotional support was associated with smaller increases in support seekers' RSA and with support seekers' perceptions of their partners as being more sensitive to their needs. Finally, these links were only significant among dyads in which caregivers reported lower levels of attachment anxiety. We interpret these results in the framework of interpersonal regulatory processes, suggesting that provision of support may impose regulatory demands on the side of the caregivers, which in turn could result in attenuated regulatory efforts and positive partner perceptions for the support seekers.

Interpersonal emotion regulation is important for developing and maintaining coworker relationships. Understanding what motivates this form of emotion regulation can provide insight into how interpersonal relationships influence personal and organizational outcomes. Using experimental vignettes, this thesis sought to: 1) contrast motivational tendencies for interpersonal emotion regulation (e.g., instrumental and prosocial motives), 2) examine relations between gender, emotional intelligence and interpersonal emotion regulation, and 3) explore additional motives for regulating others’ emotions. Findings suggest that between coworkers, prosocial and instrumental considerations underlie decisions to engage in interpersonal emotion regulation, with instrumental motives being stronger than prosocial motives. Moreover, emotional intelligence was found to predict the use of effective interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. An exploratory qualitative analysis suggests the existence of additional motives for interpersonal emotion regulation (e.g., identity-preserving motives and personal beliefs motives). Collectively, these findings demonstrate the operation of motives in regulating the emotions of others in the workplace.

Recent conceptual and empirical advances have directed attention toward interpersonal emotion regulation (IER). We conducted a series of autobiographical recall and daily diary studies to investigate a wide range of provider behaviors conveyed during IER interactions, ascertain the number of dimensions required to capture these behaviors, and then to examine associations of those dimensions with the outcomes of IER interactions. To do so, we created a new questionnaire, the Interpersonal Regulation Interaction Scale (IRIS), which can be used to obtain recipients’ ratings of providers’ behaviors within an IER interaction. In Study 1 (n = 390), an exploratory factor analysis of the IRIS yielded four dimensions, which we labeled responsiveness, hostility, cognitive support, and physical presence. Each dimension was uniquely associated with the perceived benefits of receiving IER. In Studies 2-4 (199-895), we collected multiple, diverse samples and found support for the replicability and generalizability of key findings from Study 1, including the factor structure and associations with perceived benefits. Finally, in Study 5, we examined concurrent (i.e., same-day) and prospective (i.e., next-day) associations between ratings of IER provider behaviors and a broader array of psychosocial outcomes using a daily diary approach. Across studies, our findings suggest that the outcomes of IER interactions are tied to the contents of IER interactions as reflected in the dimensions of provider behavior measured by the IRIS, with evidence that each of these dimensions convey unique information relevant to outcomes.

When bad things happen people often seek out close others for support to help regulate their negative emotions. The degree to which support providers are responsive to the specific needs of support seekers is associated with many outcomes, including how effective that support is in regulating emotion. The ability of support providers to accurately assess the emotions experienced by support seekers seems crucial, yet few studies have examined the role this type of accuracy plays in support provision. We predicted that individuals who accurately assessed the emotions being experienced by a support seeker would provide more responsive support. Further, we predicted that individual differences in emotion differentiation (perceiving differences between similar emotions), range (experiencing a range of emotions), and clarity (understanding the cause and effect of one's emotions) would facilitate emotional accuracy and, in turn, responsiveness. Participants read scenarios depicting their romantic partners seeking support to help regulate different negative emotions; they then wrote supportive messages and indicated which emotions they thought their partners would be experiencing. Individual differences in emotional range and clarity (but not differentiation) predicted how accurate participants were in gaging the emotions depicted in the scenarios. In turn, accuracy predicted how responsive their messages were, as rated by independent coders. These results suggest that accuracy in perceiving a partner's emotions is crucial for providing responsive support and individual differences in one's own emotional experiences are associated both accuracy and responsiveness. Our findings have implications for research on interpersonal emotion regulation, close relationships, and social support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural differences exist in the use of emotion regulation (ER) strategies, but the focus to date has been on intrapersonal ER strategies such as cognitive reappraisal. An emerging literature highlights the importance of interpersonal ER, which utilizes social cues to facilitate the regulation of emotional states. In cultures that place high value on social interconnectedness as integral to their collectivistic self-construal, including East Asian cultures, interpersonal ER strategies may be particularly effective in reducing negative affect but this has not been previously tested. In this study, two groups comprising East Asian (n = 48) and Western European (n = 38) participants were randomly assigned to receive a priming narration depicting the use of either interpersonal (e.g., social modeling, perspective taking) or intrapersonal (e.g., cognitive reappraisal) ER strategies during a stressful experience. They were then instructed to utilize similar ER strategies in an emotion reactivity task during which they viewed high arousing negative pictorial stimuli while their heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (high frequency power – HF-HRV) and subjective affective states were measured. First we found that the East Asian group reported higher use of interpersonal ER strategies of social modeling and perspective taking in daily life. During the experimental interpersonal prime exposure, the East Asian group showed elevated HF-HRV (relative to baseline) compared to the Western European group, indicating more adaptive ER, but this pattern was not sustained during the reactivity or recovery phases. Instead, the East Asian group demonstrated increased HF-HRV and decreased HR across both prime conditions. The East Asian group also showed greater decreases in positive affect across the course of the experiment. Furthermore, individual differences in social modeling and individualistic self-construal moderated the effect of the ER prime in the East Asian group at trend levels, and main effects for perspective taking and reappraisal were observed in the Western European group. The findings support the notion that engaging in interpersonal ER strategies may be more beneficial for East Asian groups when immediately exposed to a stressful situation, as these strategies are congruent with cultural context and preferences, but our priming methodology may have limited the longer-term benefits.

Why do people try to influence the way others feel? Previous research offers two competing accounts of people’s motives for attempting to regulate others’ emotions. The instrumental account holds that people use interpersonal emotion regulation to benefit their own goal pursuit. Conversely, the prosocial account holds that people use interpersonal emotion regulation to benefit others’ goals. This article juxtaposes these accounts across two studies. Study 1 demonstrates that when given the chance to benefit themselves through their interpersonal emotion regulation, people choose to do so, even when this involves making a friend feel unpleasant. Yet when given the chance to benefit a friend through interpersonal emotion regulation, with no personal gains, people also choose to do so. Study 2 reveals no overall tendencies towards either motive when people can choose between benefitting themselves or a friend through their interpersonal emotion regulation. However, people’s motives can be reliably predicted by their values: individuals with high values of care and concern for others show a greater tendency to regulate a friend’s emotions prosocially and a lower tendency towards instrumentality.

When experiencing negative emotions, individuals often reach out for social support to help regulate their emotions. In times of an acute crisis, however, close friends might not be available, and physical closeness might be impossible. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study investigated the effect of social proximity on the effectiveness of social support for regulating emotions and the underlying neural mechanisms. Participants regulated their emotions in response to negative images either alone (intrapersonal regulation), or with help of a picture and supporting sentence provided by the best friend, or by a stranger (interpersonal regulation). Regulation success was enhanced for the support of friends compared to regulating alone or with the support of strangers. This effect was accompanied by the interplay of large-scale brain networks involved in processing emotions, social cognition, and cognitive control. Interpersonal regulation appeared to be implemented by lateral prefrontal regions. The amygdala showed increased activation for strangers. The activation profile of the social cognition network suggests a role in supporting empathic and mentalizing processes. The results highlight the power of social connectedness for boosting emotion regulation ability and the different neural networks that contribute to this effect.

Across two studies, we investigated how friends’ typically used emotion regulation strategies (rumination or reappraisal) influence judgements about their vicarious emotions (sympathy, tenderness, and personal distress) when presented with a photograph of a suffering toddler. Results of both studies demonstrated that participants reporting on a ruminative friend indicated that their friend would feel greater personal distress and less tenderness and would perceive the toddler as experiencing more need and pain than participants reporting on a reappraising friend. These results are consistent with the behavioural trajectories associated with rumination and reappraisal, and are discussed in light of their implications for interpersonal emotion regulation.

Discussions of relationship transgressions-violations of relationship norms-are often difficult for couples to successfully navigate. Nevertheless, engaging in and resolving these discussions should promote intimacy. Drawing on the risk regulation model, individuals' experiences of disengagement and intimacy during transgression discussions should depend on their trust in their partner regarding the transgression and how they regulate distress related to lower trust. Attachment style represents individual differences in emotion regulation in close relationship contexts and is indicated by the risk regulation model. In contrast, mindfulness also improves interpersonal emotion regulation but is not reflected in the model. The present study proposed that the effect of trust on the experience of intimacy and disengagement during transgression discussions would depend on individuals' attachment style or mindfulness. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 81 heterosexual newlywed couples. Trust was positively associated with intimacy for individuals with higher attachment avoidance, but not for individuals with lower attachment avoidance. Trust was negatively associated with disengagement for individuals with either lower mindfulness or higher attachment avoidance. Trust was not associated with disengagement for individuals with higher mindfulness or lower attachment avoidance. Implications for theory and clinical interventions focused on increasing intimacy and decreasing disengagement in couple relationships are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Although many scholars and practitioners articulate the importance of managing employee emotions in service-based organizations, research related to the intricacies surrounding human resource (HR) practices targeted at employee emotional performance has failed to keep up. This is surprising, given the strong links established between employee emotional performance (i.e., expressive behaviors congruent with emotional expectations) and customer service outcomes such as customer satisfaction, intentions to return, and recommendation intentions. In light of this gap, in the current review we adopt a systems perspective of HR and develop an integrated model highlighting how HR practices related to three broad HR domains—skill-, motivation-, and opportunity-enhancing—should elevate emotional performance by increasing the motivation and ability of service employees to engage in intrapersonal and/or interpersonal emotion regulation. Departing from a “more is better” approach, we theorize how different combinations of the three HR domains may yield beneficial outcomes depending upon (1) the extent to which rewards are tied to emotional labor and (2) the nature of typical employee-customer exchanges. In doing so, we articulate which HR practices are likely mandatory, and which can be viewed as substitutable. Implications for measurement and applications to customer service are discussed.

Competencies to manage one's own and others' emotions are highly relevant in teacher education but to assess them in the context of a selection personality questionnaires are subject to faking. Situational judgment tests (SJTs) are considered to be less biased by faking, therefore we developed a novel SJT for emotion regulation that is implemented in the admission exam for teacher education. Often SJT development is criticized to be too a theoretical; therefore, we aimed at a theory-driven SJT of interpersonal vs. intrapersonal emotion regulation in pedagogical situations. We used a mixed approach of inductive and deductive item construction to improve test quality (item homogeneity and measurement fairness). The final test comprises 22 items with four response alternatives, each expressing one of four emotion regulation strategies. In two studies, we examined psychometric quality, fairness and validity of the test and relations with cognitive ability and personality. Results support a psychometrically sound and gender-fair measurement according to the 1PL Rasch model. Correlations with tests for emotion regulation, openness, agreeableness and the dark triad were observed. Interpersonal emotion regulation predicted higher altruistic professional motives, whereas intrapersonal emotion regulation predicted higher teacher self-efficacy. Both are (negative) predictors of the intention to quit teacher education.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between the process of identity formation, emotion regulation (intrapersonal and interpersonal), avatar identification, and gaming in adolescents and young adults. Data (from eight standardized questionnaires) were collected from 37 non-gamers (NGs), 133 non-problematic gamers (NPGs), and 37 problematic gamers (PGs). The results showed that PGs had higher scores in lack of emotional consciousness, lack of emotional clarity, and expressive suppression, while also having lower scores in cognitive reappraisal and interpersonal emotion regulation than NPGs or NGs. They also had higher scores in ruminative exploration and lower scores in exploration in depth. In addition, factors associated with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) differed by gender. In females, lack of emotional clarity, interpersonal emotion regulation, commitment, and in-depth exploration were associated with IGD. In males, however, negative emotions, lack of emotional consciousness, lack of emotional clarity, suppressive expression, and ruminative exploration were associated with the disorder. These results highlighted the need to consider gender specificities when caring for video game-players and using of therapies or psychotherapeutic techniques to improve their emotional processes and promote their identity-construction.

Although people frequently rely on others to help manage affect, it is unknown the extent to which interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) strategies are similar to intrapersonal ER or have incremental predictive power for psychopathology. Female friend dyads (N = 120) completed questionnaires assessing habitual intrapersonal and interpersonal ER strategy use and symptoms of psychopathology. We utilized multi-level models entering respondent's perceived reception of interpersonal ER, friend's perceived provision of interpersonal ER, and the interaction between the two, covarying for respondent's intrapersonal ER, to predict respondent psychopathology. There was a positive association with psychopathology for friend provision of brooding rumination and a negative association for friend provision of cognitive reappraisal, suggesting incremental effects (in the same direction) of interpersonal ER. There was an interactive effect for interpersonal expressive suppression, such that when friends provided low-to-average levels of suppression ( 50.41st percentile), there was no association between respondent report and psychopathology. Results suggest that although interpersonal ER may function similarly to intrapersonal ER, it is a unique predictor of well-being. This underscores the necessity of evaluating interpersonal ER to understand regulation processes.

According to teamwork theories, team members’ use of interpersonal emotion regulation, namely, behaviors that initiate, maintain, or change emotions in others, should influence team effectiveness. ...

Crying is a common response to emotional distress that elicits support from the environment. People may regulate another's crying in several ways, such as by providing socio-affective support (e.g. comforting) or cognitive support (e.g. reappraisal), or by trying to emotionally disengage the other by suppression or distraction. We examined whether people adapt their interpersonal emotion regulation strategies to the situational context, by manipulating the regulatory demand of the situation in which someone is crying. Participants watched a video of a crying man and provided support by recording a video message. We hypothesised that when immediate down-regulation was required (i.e. high regulatory demand), participants would provide lower levels of socio-affective and cognitive support, and instead distract the crying person or encourage them to suppress their emotions, compared to when there is no such urgency (i.e. low regulatory demand). As predicted, both self-reported and behavioural responses indicated that high (as compared to low) regulatory demand led to a reduction in socio-affective support provision, and a strong increase in suppression and distraction. Cognitive support provision, however, was unaffected by regulatory demand. When the context required more immediate down-regulation, participants thus employed more regulation strategies aimed at disengaging from the emotional experience. This study provides a first step in showing that people take the context into account when attempting to regulate others' emotions.

Attachment dimensions refer to how interpersonal emotion regulation strategies are utilised and have a profound impact in adulthood. Its measurement has attracted a large amount of research attention. The Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised (ECR-R) Questionnaire is one of the most widely used and researched self-report questionnaires to measure romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance in multiple language groups, despite inconsistent evidence regarding its factorial structure. The 20-item Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised — General Short Form (ECR-R-GSF) was developed based on the ECR-R to measure attachment experiences in all relationships (not just romantic ones) in an English-speaking sample. However, no short form of the ECR-R is available for the Chinese population. In order to cross-validate the first Chinese version of the ECR-R-GSF, specifically the proposed two-factor structure, against the English version, an Australian university student sample (n = 426) and a Chinese university student sample from China (n = 626) were recruited. The Anxiety and Avoidance scales were found to have good internal reliability in both samples. However, the proposed two-factor model only provided an acceptable fit even after adding modifications in the Australian sample, and the fit was not satisfactory in the Chinese sample. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that partial metric but not scalar invariance was achieved across cultures. Implications for relationship and cross-cultural research and practice were discussed.

Author(s): Loskot, Taylor | Abstract: Interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) happens constantly in daily life and plays a role in the success of friendships and relationships. Interpersonal ER refers to the process in which an individual makes efforts to change the emotional experience of another person. Understanding the relationship between interpersonal ER strategies and goals proves necessary towards discerning the effectiveness of different interpersonal ER strategies in various situations. Building on existing research, common strategies used to regulate others’ emotions include helping a partner to accept their emotions (acceptance), change the way they think about their emotions (reappraisal), or inhibit their emotions (suppression). However, alternative strategies may prove to be equally, if not more, common. Additionally, the goals and behaviors associated with interpersonal ER have not been extensively studied. In the present study, I examine the goals associated with interpersonal ER strategies, including the exploration of an additional strategy: distraction. To examine which strategies and goals people are likely to use in a scenario in which a friend is expressing negative feelings, 347 students wrote narratives regarding how they would respond. As expected, acceptance and reappraisal were found to be the most common, while suppression was used least frequently. Results point to the importance of distraction as a common interpersonal ER strategy. Significant relationships were found between four distinct strategies and related goals and behaviors, suggesting that individuals are motivated by specific regulatory, instrumental, and social outcomes beyond basic regulation of emotions. Discussion focuses on how these findings point to newavenues in interpersonal ER research.

The aim of this study is to examine the role of interpersonal emotion regulation on interpersonal competency when controlled for emotion dysregulation. The sample of the study consists of 342 (235 female; 107 male) undergraduate students attending to the various departments of a private university in Turkey. The average age of participants was 20.81 (SD=2.29). The Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and Interpersonal Competency Scale were used. Analyses were conducted through the SPSS 20 (IBM, 2011). Results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that interpersonal emotion regulation and emotion dysregulation seem to predict interpersonal competency. After controlling for the effect of emotion dysregulation, interpersonal emotion regulation alone explains 18% of the overall variance in interpersonal competency. Interpersonal emotion has the highest contribution on interpersonal competency followed by emotion dysregulation.

Emotion regulation is a key developmental skill, but very few studies have investigated developmental differences in how children and adolescents regulate the emotions of others (interpersonal emotion regulation). This study examined developmental differences in interpersonal emotion regulation in the context of social exclusion. Ninety-one 5- and 9-year-old children and 13-year-old adolescents were presented with two straightforward social exclusion scenarios, where a victim was excluded because of an irrelevant characteristic, and one multi-faceted scenario, where exclusion can be justified by social-conventional reasons. Participants judged social exclusion as more acceptable in the multifaceted scenario based on social-conventional and personal-choice reasons. Nine- and 13-year-olds were more likely to change the emotions of victims and excluders and most commonly used behavioural interpersonal emotion regulation strategies. Overall, children and adolescents engage in efforts to improve victims’ and worsen excluders’ emotions in social exclusion situations.

Emotional feeding is an interpersonal emotion regulation strategy wherein people provide food to others as a means of influencing the recipient's emotional response. Parental emotional feeding has been linked to higher levels of emotional eating in children and adolescents using cross-sectional, retrospective, and prospective designs; however, there is little research on emotional feeding as a developmental risk factor for emotional eating and binge-eating behaviors in adolescence and adulthood. This Idea Worth Researching article explores the rationale for studying emotional feeding as a lifespan construct and its potential implications for understanding eating disorder pathology. Specifically, it offers suggestions for examining emotional feeding as a predictor of emotional eating and binge-eating behavior across the lifespan, assessing potential intergenerational transmission pathways, and researching similarities in feeding styles and emotional eating across a variety of relationships beyond the parent-child dyad.

This study aims to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish adaption of Hofmann, Carpenter and Curtis’ (2016) Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Scale (IERS). The original scale is comprised of four sub-dimensions; namely, enhancing positive affect, perspective taking, soothing, and social modeling. The study was carried out with 326 students from various departments of Medipol University. Work on adapting the scale began with an attempt to find linguistic equivalence. After ensuring this linguistically equivalence for the scale’s original form, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was launched to examine its construct validity. The results of this confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the four-factor original structure of the scale was also valid for the Turkish sample and the goodness of fit indices of the scale was within acceptable limits. The Cronbach-Alpha internal consistency coefficient was found as .92 for the overall scale. The scale shows outstanding psychometric characteristics., This study aims to test the validity andreliability of the Turkish adaption of Hofmann, Carpenter and Curtis’ (2016)Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Scale (IERS). The original scale is comprised of four sub-dimensions; namely,enhancing positive affect, perspective taking, soothing, and social modeling.The study was carried out with 326 students from various departments of MedipolUniversity. Work on adapting the scale began with an attempt to find linguisticequivalence. After ensuring this linguistically equivalence for the scale’soriginal form, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was launched to examine itsconstruct validity. The results of this confirmatory factor analysis revealedthat the four-factor original structure of the scale was also valid for theTurkish sample and the goodness of fit indices of the scale was withinacceptable limits. The Cronbach-Alpha internal consistency coefficient wasfound as .92 for the overall scale. The scale shows outstanding psychometriccharacteristics.

The existing literature on emotion regulation strategies provides important insights with regards to intrapersonal strategies for emotion regulation. However, in pointing out the limitations of intrapersonal emotion regulation models, it has been suggested that emotion regulation is not confined to intrapersonal processes and the complex social networks that humans form are intricately connected to their emotions. The previous work on financial traders has recognized the relevance of emotions in trading, focusing only on intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies. In this chapter, drawing on the author’s previous research on emotions in trading as well as existing research on social sharing of emotions and interpersonal emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in the work of financial traders are identified. In doing so, an existing definition of interpersonal emotion regulation is extended and it is argued that while the pursuit of a regulatory goal is paramount, the benefits of interpersonal regulation may be achieved even in the absence of live social interaction, as long as labeling of the affective state takes place. The chapter concludes with a model summarizing intra–interpersonal emotion regulation processes.

Emotions often occur in the context of intimate relationships and shape individuals’ interactions with romantic partners. Consequently, the regulation of emotions is a core theme in intimate relationships. Interactions with a close partner require emotion regulation capacities for optimal functioning, and at the same time they often serve emotion regulation goals, expanding individuals’ emotion regulation resources. The current chapter focuses on intimate romantic relationships as a context of, and resource for, emotional experience and regulation. A first section centers on how emotion dynamics evolve in adaptive or maladaptive ways within couples, and how emotion regulation can facilitate sensitive emotional responses to a partner’s emotional signals. A second section explores how relationships can serve as a means to regulate one’s own and partner’s emotions, drawing upon several important theoretical frameworks. A final section of the chapter discusses possible mechanisms underlying interpersonal emotion regulation, and concludes with an outline of how intimate partners might ideally respond to each other’s emotions to benefit from the emotion regulation capacities of intimate relationships.

According to social baseline theory (Beckes & Coan, 2011), load sharing is a feature of close relationships whereby the burden of emotional distress is distributed across relationship partners. Load sharing varies by physical closeness and relationship quality. We investigated the effect of load sharing on emotional arousal via galvanic skin response, an indicator of sympathetic nervous system arousal, during a social stressor. Social stress was elicited in 66 adolescent girls (Mage = 15 years) using a spontaneous public-speaking task. Mother−daughter dyads reported their relationship quality, and physical closeness was manipulated by having mothers either touch or not touch their daughter’s hand during the performance. We found evidence of load sharing among dyads who held hands, independent of relationship quality. However, without physical contact, load sharing was only evident among dyads with higher relationship quality. Thus, high relationship quality buffers against threat in a similar way to the physical comfort of a loved one.

Everything is constantly changing. Our emotions are one of the primary ways we track, evaluate, organize, and motivate responsive action to those changes. Furthermore, emotions are inherently interpersonal. We learn what to feel from others, especially when we are children. We “catch” other people’s emotions just by being around them. We get caught in escalating response–counterresponse emotional sequences. This all takes place in time, generating complex patterns of interpersonal emotional dynamics. This review summarizes theory, empirical findings, and key challenges for future research regarding three processes that contribute to interpersonal affective dynamics: (a) Convergence of social partners’ emotional responses to the external world, (b) emotional reactivity of social partners to each other, and (c) interpersonal emotion regulation.

This article discusses contemporary social psychological approaches to (a) the social relations and appraisals associated with specific emotions; (b) other people’s impact on appraisal processes; (c) effects of emotion on other people; and (d) interpersonal emotion regulation. We argue that single-minded cognitive perspectives restrict our understanding of interpersonal and group-related emotional processes, and that new methodologies addressing real-time interpersonal and group processes present promising opportunities for future progress.

Emerging research and theory point to the importance of interpersonal emotion regulation processes in intrapersonal and social functioning. The aim of the present review is to present a definitional framework of interpersonal emotion regulation and highlight recent empirical research and novel paradigms in this area. We suggest that future work in this field would benefit from firstly, converging upon a common terminology; secondly, using innovative paradigms to adequately capture the dyadic nature of these processes; and finally, employing context-sensitive views of the adaptive and maladaptive influences of interpersonal emotion regulation across domains. In particular, further research is needed to identify patterns of interpersonal emotion regulation associated with psychopathology that could serve as targets for intervention.