What is it about?
Our study examined whether an emotion regulation toolkit of cognitive reappraisal, mindfulness, and savoring exercises could promote well-being and train cognitive reappraisal skills over and above an active control toolkit of neutral breathing and memory recall exercises. Our results show that cognitive reappraisal skills improved after just 10 days of 5-minute online self-practice of the emotion regulation toolkit over and above the improvements seen in the active control group.
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Why is it important?
Our study extends research on the value of training emotion regulation strategies, namely, cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal is defined as the process of altering one's own perceptions, such as by reframing the meaning of an event, or by thinking about lessons learned as a result of a seemingly unpleasant experience. Cognitive reappraisal has been a core focus in emotion regulation research and has received substantial support for its well-being benefits across cultures, stressors, and individual differences. Our results suggest that cognitive reappraisal can be developed with short, daily self-practice of various emotion regulation exercises, such as guided mindfulness and savoring.
Perspectives
By showing that the emotion regulation intervention outperformed the neutral control breathing and memory recall exercises, this study allows us to more definitively conclude that emotion regulation interventions are an effective way of developing cognitive reappraisal skills - a foundational skillset for promoting sustained stress reduction and well-being across genders, cultures, ages, and professions.
Ekaterina Pogrebtsova
University of Guelph
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effectiveness of an emotion regulation intervention versus an active
control on daily well-being and cognitive reappraisal: An experience
sampling randomized controlled trial., International Journal of Stress Management, July 2022, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/str0000259.
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