Summary

Emotion regulation is the activation of a goal to modify an unfolding emotional response. It involves changes in how emotions are experienced or expressed. As specified in the process model of emotion regulation, emotion regulation occurs across several stages: identification of whether or not to attempt to regulate the emotion; selection of an emotion regulation strategy; implementation of the regulation strategy; and monitoring of the impact of the strategy to inform decisions on whether to maintain, switch, or stop the emotion regulation attempts. Successful emotion regulation requires strong functioning at all these stages, with the capacity to flexibly use regulation strategies that fit one’s context. Emotion regulation is important for well-being and interpersonal functioning, and difficulties in emotion regulation are a key mechanism for the development and maintenance of a range of psychopathologies. Emotion regulation can be validly assessed via a variety of methods, including psychometric questionnaires, ecological momentary assessment, and laboratory-based experimental paradigms. Evidence-based psychotherapy approaches, such as cognitive behavior therapy, commonly focus on the teaching of emotion regulation skills. Thus, emotion regulation has high clinical relevance and is central to healthy functioning.