- Emotion regulation
- The processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express them. Can be automatic or effortful, conscious or unconscious, and directed at oneself or others.
- Gross's Process Model
- A framework organising emotion regulation strategies by the stage of the emotion-generative process at which they intervene: situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. The first four are antecedent-focused; the fifth is response-focused.
- Cognitive reappraisal
- Reinterpreting the meaning of a situation to change its emotional impact — for example, reframing a job interview as an interesting conversation rather than a threat. An antecedent-focused cognitive change strategy. Associated with better wellbeing, positive affect, and social outcomes than suppression.
- Expressive suppression
- Inhibiting the outward expression of an emotion while the internal experience continues. A response-focused strategy. Does not reduce the emotional experience or physiological arousal, may amplify cardiovascular reactivity, and is associated with worse wellbeing and relationship quality than reappraisal.
- Affect labelling
- Putting feelings into words. Shown by Lieberman and colleagues (2007) to reduce amygdala activation and attenuate negative affect. A proposed mechanism for therapeutic effects of CBT journalling and talk therapy.
- Antecedent-focused regulation
- Strategies that intervene early in the emotion-generative process, before the full emotional response has formed (e.g., situation selection, attentional deployment, cognitive reappraisal). These strategies can modify both the subjective experience and the physiological components of emotion.
- Response-focused regulation
- Strategies that intervene after the emotional response has begun to develop (e.g., expressive suppression). These strategies can alter the expression of emotion but typically do not reduce the underlying experience or physiological arousal.
- Mindfulness-based regulation
- Cultivating non-judgmental, present-moment awareness of emotional states. Reduces rumination and increases distress tolerance. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) reduces depressive relapse by ~40–50% in high-risk patients and is recommended in NICE guidelines.
- Emotion dysregulation
- Difficulty managing one's emotional responses — including emotional hyperreactivity, low distress tolerance, difficulty returning to emotional baseline, and impulsive behaviour driven by emotions. Central to DBT's biosocial model of borderline personality disorder and a transdiagnostic factor in many conditions.
- Rumination
- Perseverative, repetitive negative thinking about one's emotional distress, its causes, and its consequences. A maladaptive form of self-focused attention that prolongs and amplifies negative emotion, and is a major risk factor for depression. Distinguished from reflective pondering, which involves problem-solving.