Emotion, Emotion Regulation, and Psychopathology

Many psychiatric disorders are widely thought to involve problematic patterns of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. Unfortunately, it has proven far easier to assert the centrality of “emotion dysregulation” than to rigorously document the ways in which individuals with various forms of psychopathology differ from healthy individuals in their patterns of emotional reactivity and emotion regulation. In the first section of this article, we define emotion and emotion regulation. In the second and third sections, we present a simple framework for examining emotion and emotion regulation in psychopathology. In the fourth section, we conclude by highlighting important challenges and opportunities in assessing and treating disorders that involve problematic patterns of emotion and emotion regulation.