Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Dealing With Weak and Strong Negative Emotion: Self-report, Heart Rate Variability, and Electromyography Data release_okufd5swrfeu7ilqjyhoiylkcm

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> We investigated how emotion regulation (ER) effectiveness – both on a level of self-reported rating as well as emotional expression (<jats:italic>corrugator supercilii</jats:italic> muscle activity) – is affected by the characteristics of the situation (low <jats:italic>vs.</jats:italic> high negativity), the strategy used (reappraisal, distraction, suppression, no regulation control condition) and individual dispositions (low <jats:italic>vs.</jats:italic> high baseline Heart Rate Variability) as well as their interaction. For this 69 adult women participated in a laboratory study. All the included factors significantly influenced both corrugator activity and appraisals of pictures' negativity (in specific experimental conditions). For example, for high HRV participants, (1) distraction, suppression and reappraisal significantly decreased corrugator activity compared to the control condition, and (2) distraction as well as reappraisal decreased appraised picture negativity for high negativity photos. For low HRV participants, distraction and suppression were most effective in decreasing corrugator responses, while suppression was more effective than reappraisal in decreasing perceived picture negativity in the low negativity condition. Subjectively reported effort and success in applying ER strategies were also dependent on manipulated and dispositional factors. Overall, our results lend support to the flexible emotion regulation framework, showing that emotion regulation effectiveness relies on situational context as well as individual dispositions and their interaction.
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