EXPLORING EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES ACROSS FOUR EMOTIONS: ANGER, DISGUST, FEAR AND SADNESS

What strategies do individuals employ to regulate anger, disgust, fear and sadness? How does the use of different strategies vary based on the type of emotion experienced? The use of six emotion regulation strategies (Distraction, Rumination, Reappraisal, Expressive Suppression, Expressive Engagement, Arousal Control) is analysed in relation to four emotions. One hundred and thirteen participants (Males = 41.6%; 44.6% of participants were aged between 20 and 29) were involved in this study. Guided by a concise description of the above mentioned six emotion regulation strategies, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they used each strategy when feeling angry, scared, sad or disgusted. A repeated measures ANOVA was run. Overall, participants were most likely to employ Rumination, whereas Arousal Control emerged as one of the least frequently utilized strategies for regulating anger, fear, sadness, and disgust. The ANOVA results unveiled significant differences in the use of the six strategies depending on the emotion experienced (except for fear). Participants exhibited significantly higher usage of Rumination compared to other strategies when feeling anger and sadness. When experiencing feelings of disgust, Expressive Engagement and Distraction were among the most used emotion regulation strategies, whereas Reappraisal was among the least frequently used. Expressive Suppression was significantly less utilised when feeling anger, and Arousal Control showed reduced usage during experiences of sadness. Collectively, among the four emotions, disgust emerged as the least regulated emotion. Results will be discussed according to the literature.