Resolving anger via two different emotion regulation strategies
Abstract
Anger is characterized by three appraisal dimensions, harm, responsibility, and choice
(Lazarus, 1991) and can be regulated through reappraisal or suppression (Gross, 1998).
Previous research has suggested that reappraisal is a successful down-regulating strategy
for negative emotions such as anger (Mauss, Cook, Cheng & Gross, 2007), whereas
suppression may increase unpleasant emotional experiences and increase further attempts
to avoid emotions and stimuli that elicit specific negative emotions (Boden, Westermann,
McRae, Kuo, Alvarez, Kulkami, & Bonn-Miller, 2013). However, no study so far has
investigated the effect of these two regulation strategies on anger appraisals. The current
study sought to investigate differences in cognitive appraisals between anger events that
were resolved through reappraisal and suppression emotion regulation techniques.
Participants were made angry and then half of them were given an apology letter and the
other half received no apology letter. Half of the participants were then asked to regulate
their emotions via reappraisal (i.e., to look at the situation from a different perspective),
while the other half were asked to suppress their emotions (i.e., to not show what they
felt). Analyses indicated that both reappraisal and suppression techniques indeed reduced
anger over time. Further analyses revealed that participants who were asked to suppress
their emotions after they did not receive an apology letter were significantly angrier than
participants in the other three conditions. Cognitive appraisals of anger were not affected
by the experimental manipulations. The current study proposes a new methodological
approach for measuring anger intensity and anger appraisals, and suggests that the
difference in outcomes of the two regulation techniques is more complex than prior
research suggested.
Subject
Conflict management
Anger
Conflict psychology
Behavior modification
Permanent Link
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/69759Description
A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Science in Psychology
Cognitive Affective