Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Happiness Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Habitual emotional state is a predictor of long-term health and life expectancy and successful emotion regulation is necessary for adaptive functioning. However, people are often unsuccessful in regulating their emotions. We investigated the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in 489 university students in Norway, Australia, and the United States and how these strategies related to measures of well-being (affect, life satisfaction, and depressed mood). Data was collected by means of selfadministered questionnaires. The major aims of the study were to begin to explore the prevalence of use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression across gender, age and culture, possible antecedents of emotion regulation strategies, and the influence of emotion regulation upon well-being. Results showed that the use of emotion regulation strategies varied across age, gender and culture. Private self-consciousness (self-reflection and insight) was found to be a central antecedent for the use of cognitive reappraisal. Use of emotion regulation strategies predicted well-being outcomes, also after the effect of extraversion and neuroticism had been controlled for. Generally, increased use of cognitive reappraisal predicted increased levels of positive well-being outcomes, while increased use of expressive suppression predicted increased levels of negative well-being outcomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Herein, the term emotion regulation is used consistent with John and Gross’ (2004) definition. Other researchers, e.g. Larsen and Prizmic (2004), have used different terms, for example affect regulation, to describe the same phenomenon.

  2. The law of Jante (Janteloven) represents a cultural norm or “law” that has traditionally ruled the Scandinavian, and particularly the Norwegian, mentality (Jespersen 1962).

  3. The terms private self-consciousness and self-reflection and insight are used interchangeably in the present paper. That is, when the term private self-consciousness is used it refers to both self-reflection and insight.

  4. As the present study comprised a student population, the average age was fairly low and the cut-point age used for analytic purposes was therefore quite young.

  5. Gabriel’s comparison procedure was used as the sample sizes differed slightly between cultures, and because it has been designed to cope specifically with such situations (Field 2005, p. 276).

  6. These correlations and regressions were also executed controlling for gender, and as gender was found to not confound the findings pertaining to strategies and well-being, it is not discussed herein.

  7. We also ran the same regressions with extraversion and neuroticism included as predictors, but the betas did not change substantially.

References

  • Bower, G. H. (1981). Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36, 1129–1148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, G. R. (1998). A new psychotherapy for traditional men. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. W., Smith, N. C., Erickson, E. A., & Gross, J. J. (2003). The social consequences of expressive suppression. Emotion, 3, 48–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campos, J. J., Frankel, C. B., & Camras, L. (2004). On the nature of emotion regulation. Child Development, 75(2), 377–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chioqueta, A. P., & Stiles, T. C. (2005). Personality traits and the development of depression, hopelessness, and suicide ideation. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(6), 1283–1291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeNeve, K. (1999). Happy as an extraverted clam? The role of personality for subjective well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(5), 141–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Emmons, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1992). An argument for basic emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 6, 169–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. 1971. In J. R. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 19 (pp. 207–283). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

  • Field, A. (2005) Discovering statistics using SPSS for windows (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman Barrett, L., Gross, J. J., Conner, T., & Benvenuto, M. (2001). Knowing what you’re feeling and knowing what to do about it: Mapping the relation between emotion differentiation and emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 713–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, J. P., & Bower, G. H. (1987). Mood effects on personal perception judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 140–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, A. M., Franklin, J., & Langford, P. (2002). The self-regulation and insight scale: A new measure of private self-consciousness. Social Behavior and Personality, 30(8), 821–836.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26, 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998a). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 224–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998b). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1999). Emotion and emotion regulation. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 525–552). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology, 39, 281–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1993). Emotional suppression: Physiology, self-report, and expressive behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 970–986.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., Richards, J. M., & John, O. P. (2006). Emotion regulation in everyday life. In D. K. Snyder, J. A. Simpson, & J. N. Hughes (Eds.), Emotion regulation in families: Pathways to dysfunction and health (pp. 13–35). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Helman, C. G. (2002). Culture, health, and illness (4th ed.). London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Himmelfarb, S., & Murrell, S. A. (1983). Reliability and validity of five mental health scales in older persons. Journal of Gerontology, 38(3), 333.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G. (1991). Culture and organizations: Software of the minds. London: McGrawHill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jespersen, B. F. (1962). www.bearcy.com/janteloven.html

  • John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2004). Healthy and unhealthy emotion regulation: Personality processes, individual differences, and life span development. Journal of Personality, 72, 6, 1301–1333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed., pp. 102–138). New York: Guilford Press.

  • Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (2001). Social function of emotions. In T. Mayne & G. A. Bonanno (Eds.), Emotions: Current issues and future directions (pp. 192–213). New York: Guilford Press.

  • Larsen, R. J., & Prizmic, Z. (2004). Affect regulation. In R. F. Baumeister & K. D. Vohs, (Eds.), Handbook of self-regulation. research, theory, and application. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levenson, R. W. (1994). Human emotions: A functional view. In P. Ekman & R. J. Davidson (Eds.), The nature of emotion: Fundamental questions (pp. 123–126). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mennin, D. S., Heimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L., & Fresco, D. M. (2002). Applying an emotion regulation framework to integrative approaches to generalized anxiety disorder. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 85–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miles, H. J., & Gross, J. J. (1999). Emotion suppression. In D. Levinson, J. Ponzetti, & P. F. Jorgensen (Eds.), Encyclopaedia of human emotions (pp. 237–241). New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monsen, J. T., & Monsen, K. (1999). Affekter og affektbevisshet: Et bidrag til integrerende psykoterapimodell. In Goldberg, A. (Ed.), Pluralisms in self-psychology: Progress in self-psychology, (Vol. 15, pp. 287–306). New Jersey: The analytic press.

  • Nussbaum, M. C. (2001). Upheavals of thought: The intelligence of emotions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2004). SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(4), 717–731.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radloff, L. S. (1991). The use of the center for epidemiologic studies depression scale in adolescents and young adults. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 20(2), 149–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (2000). Emotion regulation and memory: The cognitive costs of keeping one’s cool. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 410–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, J. M., & Gross, J. J. (1999). Composure at any cost? The cognitive consequences of emotion suppression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1033–1044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, R. E., & Vernon, S. W. (1983). The center for epidemiologic studies depression scale: Its use in a community sample. American Journal of Psychiatry, 140(1), 41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rottenberg, J., & Gross, J. J. (2003). When emotion goes wrong: Realizing the promise of affective science. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 227–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salovey, P., Mayer, J. D., Goldman, S. L., Turvey, C., & Palfai, T. P. (1995). Emotional attention, clarity, and repair: Exploring emotional intelligence using the trait meta-mood scale. In J. W. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, and health (pp. 125–154). Washington: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Salovey, P., Hsee, C. K., & Mayer, J. D. (1993). Emotional intelligence and the self-regulation of affect. In D. M. Wegner & J. W. Pennebaker (Eds.), Handbook of mental control (pp. 258–277). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santor, D.A., & Coyne, J. C. (1997). Shortening the CES-D to improve its ability to detect cases of depression. Psychological Assessment, 9(3), 233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schimmack, U., Oishi, S., Furr, R. M., & Funder, D. C. (2004). Personality and life satisfaction: A facet-level analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(8), 1062–1075.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweder, R. (1993). The cultural psychology of the emotions. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 417–431). New York: Guilford Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsai, J. L., & Levenson, R. W. (1997). Cultural influences of emotional responding: Chinese American and European American dating couples during interpersonal conflict. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 28(5), 600–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1094, Oslo, 0317, Norway

    Silje Marie Haga, Pål Kraft & Emma-Kate Corby

Authors
  1. Silje Marie Haga
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pål Kraft
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emma-Kate Corby
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silje Marie Haga.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Haga, S.M., Kraft, P. & Corby, EK. Emotion Regulation: Antecedents and Well-Being Outcomes of Cognitive Reappraisal and Expressive Suppression in Cross-Cultural Samples. J Happiness Stud 10, 271–291 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9080-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9080-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation