Emotion regulation strategies including distraction, suppression, and reinterpretation significantly decreased corrugator muscle activity compared to control, with effectiveness varying by baseline heart rate variability and stimulus negativity.
Do different emotion regulation strategies improve emotion regulation effectiveness in adult women depending on baseline HRV and situational negativity?
Emotion regulation effectiveness is flexible and depends on the specific strategy used, the situational context, and the individual's baseline heart rate variability.
We investigated how emotion regulation (ER) effectiveness-on both a self-reported rating as well as emotional expression (corrugator supercilii muscle activity) level-is affected by the characteristics of the situation (low vs. high negativity), the strategy used (reinterpretation, distraction, suppression, no regulation control condition) and individual dispositions (low vs. high baseline Heart Rate Variability) as well as their interaction. For this purpose, 54 adult women participated in a laboratory study. All the included factors significantly influenced both corrugator activity and appraisals of pictures' negativity (in specific experimental conditions). For example, for high HRV participants, (1) distraction, suppression and reinterpretation significantly decreased corrugator activity compared to the control condition, and (2) distraction decreased appraised picture negativity for high negativity photos. For low HRV participants, distraction and suppression were most effective in decreasing corrugator responses, while suppression was more effective than reinterpretation in decreasing perceived picture negativity in the high negativity condition. Subjectively reported effort and success in applying ER strategies were also dependent on manipulated and dispositional factors. Overall, our results lend support to the flexible emotion regulation framework, showing that emotion regulation effectiveness relies on situational context as well as individual dispositions and their interaction.
Kobylińska et al. (Mon,) conducted a other in Healthy volunteers (n=54). Emotion regulation strategies (reinterpretation, distraction, suppression) vs. No regulation control condition was evaluated on Corrugator supercilii muscle activity and perceived picture negativity. Emotion regulation strategies including distraction, suppression, and reinterpretation significantly decreased corrugator muscle activity compared to control, with effectiveness varying by baseline heart rate variability and stimulus negativity.
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