Emotion regulation choice: the role of orienting attention and action readiness

Publication date: February 2018 Source:Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 19 Author(s): Reza D Ghafur, Gaurav Suri, James J Gross People frequently do not regulate their emotions even when doing so would be adaptive. Further, people often use maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, despite knowledge of more adaptive strategies. We propose that such anomalies can be explained at least in part by the orienting attention/action readiness (OAAR) framework according to which people are more likely to implement a particular emotion regulation strategy when (1) they direct a sufficient level orienting attention towards initiating it, and/or (2) they have a sufficient level of action readiness with respect to that strategy because they have recently/frequently implemented it in similar contexts. We provide evidence for the OAAR framework and discuss how it might be leveraged to promote more effective regulation of undesirable emotions.

Source: Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences - January 3, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research