Emotion Regulation

How we regulate our emotions – emotional experiences and their expression – plays an important role in health and wellbeing. This may, for example, involve managing intense emotions, such as anger or sadness, in the moment to prevent long-term negative consequences. The inability to regulate emotions can result in aggression, substance abuse, binge eating, and other self-harming behaviours. It can also affect our ability to maintain and develop close relationships. Deficiencies in emotion regulation have been linked to a variety of health conditions.

Several research projects within CHAMP examine emotion regulation as a basic psychological mechanism underpinning health conditions in experimental, longitudinal, and clinical research designs. For example, the interaction between emotion regulation, expectancy, and attentional bias are examined in laboratory studies to gain an understanding of how basic psychological mechanisms are implicated in the aetiology of ill-health, with a focus on conditions such as tinnitus, anxiety, and pain. 

In addition, training in effective emotion regulation is a central component in psychological treatments of chronic pain, anger and tinnitus. Furthermore, ongoing research examines how deficiencies in emotion regulation affect disordered eating.

We also conduct research on the importance and effects of effective communication in this research area, with a particular focus on validation. Validation is known for its emotion regulatory effects, and as an effective tool for behaviour change. Our research on validation is primarily situated in healthcare settings, such as communication with pain and cancer patients, but also in family and work settings.