Tony Gutentag

Successful emotion regulation requires both conviction and skill: beliefs about the controllability of emotions, reappraisal, and regulation success.

ABSTRACT To succeed in self-regulation, people need to believe that it is possible to change behaviour and they also need to use effective means to enable such a change. We propose that this also applies to emotion regulation. In two studies, we found that people were most successful in emotion regulation, the more they believed emotions can be controlled and the more they used an effective emotion regulation strategy – namely, cognitive reappraisal. Cognitive reappraisal moderated the link between beliefs about the controllability of emotion and success in emotion regulation, when reappraisal was measured as a trait (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2). Such moderation was found when examining the regulation of disgust elicited by emotion-inducing films (Study 1), and the regulation of anger elicited by real political events (Study 2). We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice in emotion regulation.

Desired emotional states: their nature, causes, and implications for emotion regulation

Emotion regulation is a process directed toward achieving desired emotions. People want to experience different emotions at different times and for different reasons, leading them to change emotions accordingly. Research on desired emotions has made several discoveries. First, what people want to feel varies across individuals and across situations. Second, what people want to feel depends on how much they value emotions and on the extent to which they expect emotions to yield behavioral, social, or epistemic benefits. Third, what people want to feel sets the direction of emotion regulation and can shape emotional experiences and subsequent behavior. Identifying and understanding desired emotional states can promote healthier emotion regulation and emotional experiences, and more adaptive personal and social functioning.

Teachers’ Approaches Toward Cultural Diversity Predict Diversity-Related Burnout and Self-Efficacy:

We examine the ways in which, and the extent to which, DOPA (Diversity in Organizations: Perceptions and Approaches; that is, asset, problem, challenge, or nonissue) approaches predict teachers’ diversity-related burnout and immigration-related self-efficacy. One hundred thirty-six schoolteachers completed a self-report questionnaire measuring diversity-related burnout and self-efficacy, approaches toward cultural diversity, attitudes toward multiculturalism, and demographics. It was found that the teachers’ perception of the immigrant student as an asset and not as a problem was related to lower diversity-related burnout and to higher immigration-related self-efficacy. Future research should focus on possible interventions with teachers on the ways in which approaches to cultural diversity are developed, negotiated, and adopted.