Emotion regulation strategies and psychosocial well-being in adolescence

To study whether and how emotion regulation strategies are associated with adolescents' well-being, 633 Italian adolescents completed a survey that measured, using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003), the strategies of cognitive reappraisal (CR) and expressive suppression (ES), and their relationship with several well-being measures. Factor analysis and reliability results confirmed the validity of ERQ to assess adolescents' regulation strategies. Correlation and regression results showed that a greater reliance on CR was positively associated with better well-being outcomes for most indicators, especially Life satisfaction, Social support perception and Positive affect; greater preference for ES conversely was associated with lower well-being level for all indicators, including Psychological health, Emotional loneliness, and Negative affect. Neither gender nor age differences were observed for CR nor ES; CR and ES were positively correlated with each other. Both analysis of variance and regression results showed gender to be a significant factor for well being indicators (e.g., males' higher Positive affect and Life satisfaction than females'), whereas age was associated with differences in Psychological health only, with 16-year olds reporting the lowest health, and 14-year olds the highest. The findings overall show that adolescents' well-being is related to preferred emotion regulation strategies, mirroring associations found in the adult population. The study results also suggest the need to further explore this relationship in adolescence

Men's and women's lay theories of emotion

The chapter discusses the extent to which emotion stereotypes and norms, as reflected in lay theories of emotion, vary according to gender. It will be argued that two sets of stereotypes (and associated norms) are activated when people conceptualize how and why men and women experience, express, and regulate (specific) emotion(s). On the one hand people have emotion(s) scripts that specify likely or typical causes of felt emotion(s), event appraisal, regulation processes, etc.; on the other hand, people have stereotypical beliefs about men and women, masculinity and femininity. It is the interaction between the two sets of theories that might result in the stereotypical belief that women are emotional and men are rational, or in other, more specific gendered-emotion beliefs. The study of lay theories of emotion --i.e., the complex set of beliefs that people have about emotion, both in general and in relation to specific situational contexts-- allows us to investigate how this interaction works. The chapter discusses lay theories of emotion as they emerge from a set of studies that focused on various emotion constellations --jealousy, envy, anger, pride, joy, sadness. In these studies, women and men were asked to imagine, for a member of their own sex, which “reactions” are elicited by a (specified) emotion antecedent, and which reactions are “adequate” in that context. In sum, the studies focused on (a) ‘descriptive’ and (b) ‘prescriptive’ emotion norms. The chapter will focus on: (i) which norms emerge, and what (c) discrepancies exist between a and b; (ii) to what extent, and for what specific emotion component or aspect, a,b, and c are gender-stereotyped (e.g., are women attributed more intrapunitive emotions than men are?; is expression of felt emotions thought to be more adequate for women than for men?); (iii) whether men and women endorse different norms. The congruency between subjects’ theories, and gendered stereotipic beliefs (e.g., in comparison to men, women are expected to be less apt to regulate their felt emotions, to have a greater knowledge of emotion, to express less socially sanctioned emotions) will be discussed. The conclusions to be drawn from these comparisons are extended by a discussion of other results obtained both in the same set of studies (e.g., subjects answered questions about the extent to which one feels conflicting or unclear emotions), and in other studies, including various intra- and inter-cultural replications (e.g., reactions were attributed to a member of the opposite sex; subjects reported actual events rather than judging vignettes) that addressed relevant questions for the issue of lay theories

Emotion regulation and its correlates in bank service jobs

To what extent, in what context and with what psychological consequences do service workers regulate their emotions so that they are in line with their job requirements? To answer these questions 112 Italian men and women working at various banks at the counter or as consultants were administered a questionnaire comprising several scales, and questions on sociodemographic and work-related variables. The results showed that Emotional labour (Hochschild 1983; Grandey 2000) is a relevant variable of bank service jobs: Workers perform both (a) surface acting, i.e., control the expression of their emotions vis-à-vis a client so that they are contextually appropriate (for example, they smile to an annoying client), and (b) deep acting, i.e., try to actually feel the required emotion; (c) feeling genuine emotions, i.e., effortlessly feeling the required emotions, also is a frequent experience of bank employees. Emotional exhaustion was correlated positively with surface acting, and negatively with genuine emotions; it implied less Life satisfaction, and Positive affect, but more Negative affect. Workers that reported enjoying a role balance were more satisfied with their life than those who experienced role overload, and were less emotionally exhausted. No significant differences between men and women were observed on most measures, whereas job-experience, and duration and frequency of client-interactions influenced Deep acting, Emotional exhaustion, and Role overload

Strategies and expectations in parents' socialization of children's emotion expression

The study analyzed parents' emotion socialization strategies when their children express negative emotions (sadness and anger) in situations in which the child’s expression could hurt other individuals that are present. Influence of parent’s and children’s gender on socialization strategies, and of children’s age were the independent variables considered. Subjects were 267 Italian adults, 141 mothers and 126 fathers, whose children - attending local schools - were 4/5 or 8/9 years-old (N = 107 and 160), both male and female (N= 131 and 136). Data were collected by means of a questionnaire that presented Ss with two hypothetical stimulus events, one assumed to elicit sadness, the other one anger in a child protagonist C - e.g., in the presence of C’s mother/father, a friend of C unintentionally drops C’s ice-cream; C feels angry. Subjects - asked to assume that C would be their child, and to identify themselves with the parent in the event - answered 2 open and 1 closed question related to their predictions about C's expressive behavior, and their reactions toward C's expression of negative emotions. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses showed that parents tend to adopt a variety of strategies - e.g., ‘explaining’ the event to C; suggesting a solution to the problem (e.g., getting another ice-cream); asking C to change attitude toward the event; soothing C; etc. Both parents’ predictions, and their reactions, proved to be influenced by gender (both child’s and parent’s), and by the child’s age. For instance, parents expected older children to express negative emotions less frequently than younger children, but also expected girls to show anger much less than boys; fathers (but not mothers) suggested a solution more often for anger than for sadness events. A comparison of these results with those obtained in a previous study (Cigala & Zammuner 1998) shows that some socialization process aspects are emotion-specific, i.e. due to the nature of the elicited emotion rather than to the stimulus-event kind. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their implications as regards emotion socialization practices, and their impact on a child's well-being

Joy, Pride, Envy, Jealousy, and Sadness: are they 'sincerely' shared?"

The paper will present results obtained in five parallel studies of the emotion-constellations of Jealousy, Pride, Sadness, Joy and Envy. Five independent samples of Italian men and women (N total = 1.156) answered a questionnaire that presented a typical constellation antecedent as a personal narrative, in a story format ---e.g. for Envy, a colleague of the story protagonist P, less capable than P, is promoted to a higher position. Subjects were asked to answer a few (both open and closed) questions about which emotions the protagonist P was likely to feel with respect to the described event, and which ones P was likely to share with someone else (e.g., partner, friend, rival), and why. The analysis of subjects' emotion attributions showed that a discrepancy between felt and verbally shared emotions is the norm rather than the exception: felt emotions that have (social or personal) negative implications will be 'toned down' or not shared at all, whereas those that are normative or carry positive implications will be shared. Subjects' explanations indicated that sharing behaviours are most often strategically oriented: the sharing person tries to convey a positive self-image, to conform to emotional standards, to steer the interpersonal relationship with the sharing partner in the desidered direction, and so forth. In general, there were not many significant differences in the sharing behaviors associated with the different constellation types; the key factor was instead the normative status of the emotions comprised in each constellation in relation to the specific event that elicited them

Teorie ingenue: L'esperienza emotiva di tristezza

Naive theories about emotional experiences elicited by the death of a significant other were studied by analyzing subjects' (N= 240; 24 yrs-old) answers to a set of open questions. A data-driven analysis of the protocols showed that Ss listed several emotions as immediate reactions (e.g. sadness, pain, depression) rather than as 'adequate' behaviors. Few Ss listed physiological and expressive responses (e.g. crying) in either case. Cognitive reactions (e.g. remembering the other) but not actual behaviors (e.g. comfort others involved in the loss) were frequently mentioned. The most frequent cognitive 'adequate' reaction was attempting to control one's emotions. Most Ss mentioned at least one cause for the elicitation of emotions (e.g. loss of a significant other). Most Ss expected conflict and uncertainty over the felt emotions (e.g. because felt emotions are ambiguous; of opposite nature; discrepant with respect to the situation). Finally, Ss listed reasons for sharing emotions with others (e.g. to be comforted). However, emotions are not always expected to be sincerely shared. The significance of the lost other, and the sex variable, influenced the frequency and type of many attributed features of the emotional experience

The regulation of emotions, life satisfaction, and burnout in post-office service- job employees

To what extent, in what context and with what psychological consequences do service workers regulate their emotions so that they are in line with their job requirements? To answer these questions 30 Italian men and 71 women (22-61 years of age) mostly working at the counter at various branches of the Post Office located in the Veneto region were administered a questionnaire comprising several scales, as well as questions on sociodemographic and work-related variables. The results showed that Emotional labour (Hochschild 1983; Grandey 1999) is a relevant variable of post office service jobs: Workers perform both (a) surface acting, i.e., control the expression of their emotions vis-a-vis a client so that they are contextually appropriate (for example, they smile to an annoying client), and (b) deep acting, i.e., try to actually feel the required emotion; (c) feeling genuine emotions, i.e., the employee effortlessly feels the required emotions, is however also a frequent experience in these service jobs. Surface acting, not surprisingly, is negatively related to feeling genuine emotions. As regards the correlates of emotional labour that were measured in this study, the following main results were obtained. Feeling genuine emotions was found to be related positively to Life satisfaction (Diener 1984), but negatively to Job realization, Emotional exaustion, and Depersonalization (i.e., the burnout components; older subjects tend to report higher burnout levels). Subjects who feel frequently genuine emotions also reported a lower frequency of Negative affect (measured by a modified version of Panas; Watson et al. 1988) in their life in the past two weeks, and a greater frequency of Positive affect - the latter in turn was positively related to Life satisfaction. Surface acting was instead positively related to Emotional exaustion and Depersonalization (similar results were obtained for deep acting, but it should be noted that in this study there was a high positive correlation between deep and surface acting). Emotionally exausted and depersonalized subjects felt a low level of Job realization, and reported little life satisfaction, a high frequency of Negative affect, and a low frequency of Positive affect. In general no significant differences between men and women, or as a function of civil status and number of children were observed - there were exceptions to this trend; for instance, women feel genuine emotions more than men, whereas the opposite is true for surface acting; women with children perform more deep acting than women without children; older subjects perfom less surface acting than younger ones). Not supported, too, were the hypotheses that feeling genuine emotions is less likely the longer the interactions with clients, or the more frequent they are. Finally, the higher the number of years spent in the present job position the greater their Job Involvement and Work Realization, but coupled with a higher depersonalization feeling. Finally, the results showed that subjects who report high social desirability scores tend to report feeling more often genuine emotions, performing more deep acting, and being more satisfied with their life than subjects who obtain low social desirability scores. Implications of this study for future research on the construct of emotional labour, and on its correlates, will be discussed