Regulation of Emotion

Synonyms

Emotion control; Emotion management; Emotion regulation; Emotional self-regulation; Self-regulation of emotion

Definition

Regulation of emotion refers to the processes whereby individuals monitor, evaluate, and modify their emotions in an effort to control which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express those emotions.

Description

Before discussing regulation of emotion, it is important to first define emotion. Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus among affect researchers as to the one best definition of emotion. Instead, research and theory on emotion have been characterized by much conceptual and definitional confusion [4]. This confusion is due, in part, to the fact that emotion has been studied from a diverse set of disciplinary perspectives, including, for example, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and philosophy [7]. However, in terms of organization and association with other constructs, emotion