Abstract

The present study examined the use and effectiveness of various emotion regulation strategies. Study 1 supported our suggestion that emotion regulation strategies would be divided into three styles: active regulation style, avoidant/distractive regulation style, and support-seeking regulation style. These three styles were differently related to several personal characteristics, such as self-esteem, generalized expectancies for negative emotion regulation, introversion-extraversion, neuroticism, optimism, emotional support, and emotional expressivity. In study 2, we examined whether the use and effectiveness of each emotion regulation style depended on the kind of emotion experienced. The results showed that the use of the three emotion regulation styles had different patterns for anger, sadness, anxiety, and shame. In addition, we found that frequently used regulation styles were not necessarily effective ones.