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Web End = Motiv Emot (2015) 39:553562 DOI 10.1007/s11031-014-9467-5
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Web End = Is emotion suppression benecial or harmful? It depends on self-regulatory strength
Fay C. M. Geisler Michela Schrder-Ab
Published online: 22 January 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015
Abstract The emotion regulation strategy of expressive suppression intervenes late in the process of emotion generation and encompasses two self-control tasks: the inhibition of the experience of emotion and the inhibition of the expression of emotion. Thus, expressive suppression requires effortful self-control, and therefore the consequences of expressive suppression may differ depending on self-regulatory strength. We examined the inuence of trait self-regulatory strength on the outcomes of spontaneous expressive suppression in 102 participants who discussed a topic of conict with their partners. Self-regulatory strength was assessed via high-frequency heart rate variability measured at rest (HF-HRV). As expected, expressive suppression was positively associated with negative affect in participants with low (but not high) HF-HRV. Furthermore, expressive suppression was positively associated with the partners relationship satisfaction and constructive social behavior in participants with high (but not low) HF-HRV. To conclude, the present research demonstrates how considering expressive suppression as an act of self-control can yield a more differentiated perspective on the outcomes of expressive suppression.
Keywords Emotion regulation Expressive suppression
Self-regulatory strength Vagal tone Heart rate variability
Introduction
Quite often we suppress the expression of negative emotions (Brans et al. 2013). However, regulating emotions by suppressing them may be an especially demanding emotion regulation strategy. According to the process model of emotion regulation, emotions evolve in a person-situation transaction (Gross 2014). Expressive suppression impacts a late stage of information processing in which emotion-regulatory processes compete with emotion-generative processes, the latter having gained strength and causing strong behavioral tendencies (Sheppes and Gross 2011). It is not clear whether the consequences of suppressing these strong tendencies by enacting self-control are benecial or harmful. Expressive suppression may have no effect on negative emotional experience (Egloff et al. 2006; Gross and Levenson 1993), may be effective for reducing negative feelings (Webb et al. 2012), or...