emotion regulation Flashcards
(10 cards)
What is emotion regulation?
“Processes by which indivs influence which emotions they have, when they have them and how they experience and express these emotions” Gross, 1998
Occurs when there is a discrepancy between current and desired emotions
What are different emotion regulation strategies?
Intrapersonal strategies
- managing own emotions
- deep breathing / reappraisal
Interpersonal strategies
- managing and influencing the emotions of others
- motivational talks by coach, teammates’ encouragement
What are theories of emotion regulation?
Process model of emotion regulation
What is the process model of emotion regulation?
Can experience different things along the emotion regulation process
Involes situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, response modulation
situation selection -> actively approaching
Situation modification -> withdrawal / help-seeking
Attentional deployment -> seeking distraction / ignoring / rumination / positive refocusing
Appraisal -> catastrophising, cognitive reappraisal, refocus on planning
Response - expressive suppression
Evaluate evidence on links between emotion regulation and sport
Outside of sport - Paul et al., 2023 called it the strategy-situation fit. Found reappraisal used more frequently when being alone, suppression occured more among ‘non-close’ othersm and social sharing increased with closeness
More suppression linked to higher depressive symptoms when used in presence of close others, but using suppression when alone was linked to lower depressive symptoms
Emotion regulation flexibility was assessed in sport was assessed ‘kim and tamminen, 2022
Reappraisal is frequently considered adaptive for mental health (Webb et al., 2012). Including being a beneficial strategy for badminton players when attempting to control competitive anxiety (Stanger et al., 2018)
Troy et al., 2013 found that congitive reappraisal was postiviley associated with depressive symptoms if the stressors were controllable, suggesting that if the stress-inducing situation is modifiable, it may be more adaptive to attempt to actively modify the situation than to reappraise it
Lane et al., 2011 examined emotions and emotion regulation strategies used by 305 runners. 15% reported beliefs that strategies aimed at increasing anxiety and/or anger would help performance, and used strategies to increase the intensity of these emotions
85% reported beliefs that strategies that intended to reduce same emotions before competition would help performance
Found more likely to try to regulate an emotion if there is believed performance benefit
What research is there around emotion regulation and mental health in sport
Bird et al., 2021:
- Underpinned by PMER - different patterns of association of antecendent-focused versus response-focused
-Practitioners working with athlets could target those who habitually suppress and support them to reappraise effectively to improve their well-being
Found no relationship between ER strategies and depression. Athletes displayed ‘normal’ levels of depression. Strategies employed to promote well-being may not be effective at reducing depressive symptoms
no sport specific measures, research outside of sport context has found the relationships
Quan et al., (2025)
- investigated role of cognitive reappraisal in high risk sports
- Found that cognitive reappraisal negatively mediates the relationship between both state and trait anxiety and perceived stress
- athletes who use cognitive reappraisal are better able to manage their anxiety, leading to lower levels of perceived stress
no sport specific measures, research mainly outside of sport context, cross-sectional
Xin et al., 2024
- investigated relationship between coach-athelte attachment, emotion regulation and burnout
- athlets with secure attachment to coaches more likely to use cognitive appraisal - which helps them to see situations in a more positive light
- athletes with avoidant attachment to coaches were more likely to expressive suppression leading to accumulation of negative emotions and increasing risk of burnout -
- however, no measure of well-being, no sport specific measures used and no measure of wellbeing
aldao & nolen-hoeksema (2010) investigated relationship between emotion regulation and psychopathologies
- maladaptive strategies like rumination and suppression are more strongly associated with EDs than adpative strtegies like reappraisal and problem-solving
(no sport specific measures, research outside of sport context)
Loneliness
- Kim & Tamminen (2022) investigated the relationship between emotion regulation strategies and social and emotional loneliness in 448 youth Canadian athletes
○ Both associated with social loneliness, only suppression associated with emotional loneliness
○ Conducted recently after COVID-19 pandemic - importance of time
What is the effect of coaches on emotion regulation?
Santi et al., 2021 explored how COVID-19 lockdown affected coaches’ stress perception and emotion regulation strategies
Both male and female coaches reported higher stress levels compared to normative data
Coaches used more emotion regulation strategies than in prev studies
Gender: men used more suppression while women experienced more negative stress
No sig diff in competitive level
Discuss how interpersonal emotion regulation strategies may be risk or protective factors for athlete mental health
E.g. motivational talks by coach, teammates’ encouragement
- creates supportive environment, reduced isolation, boost confidence, reduces anxiety
- however, dependency on others, stress if support is not as expected
- Frieson et al. (2012), Tamminen et al., (2021)
Discuss how intrapersonal emotion regulation strategies may be risk or protective factors for athlete mental health
Reappraisal has protective effect on loneliness burnout and results in positive wellbeing whereas suppression has been found to lead to risk of loneliness and burnout and reduces wellbeing (Kim and Tamminenm 2022; Xin et al., 2024; Bird et al., 2021 and Hu et al., 2014)
Reappraisal and problem solving are protective against eating disorders whereas suppression and rumination further risk of eating disorders (Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2010)
Reappraisal, problem solving and acceptance are protective against anxiety and depression, whereas suppression, rumination and avoidance further risk of anxiety and depression (Quan et al., 2025 (anxiety); Schafer et al., 2017 (both), Aldao & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2010, (both), Hu et al., 2014)
Explain how emotion regulation maps onto Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT model to understand athelte mental health?
Emotion regulation ties in with someones mental and emotional resources (person factor)
Can have adaptive - suggests that the emotion regulation strategy will have beneficial effects
Can be maladaptive - suggests that the strategy will have harmful effects
Can’t assume one size fits all so have to consider interactions between individual and their environment
May alter how an athlete expresses their emotions depending on their microsystem
Coaches own emotion regulation can be an important factor in the exosystem
