What We Can Learn about the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies Using Experience Sampling

Emotion regulation refers to the ability to regulate the intensity, frequency, and duration of positive and/or negative emotions. Improving emotion regulation through training in the effective use of strategies is an important aspect of some psychotherapeutic approaches aimed at correcting psychological disorders, which is currently considered highly relevant. Central issues related to the use of emotion regulation strategies are questions about their adaptiveness and the effectiveness of their use. These characteristics have been investigated using different methods, but not many studies have been conducted using experience sampling. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of some strategies using experience sampling and to compare the effectiveness of adaptive and maladaptive strategies. Method: for 10 days, participants received seven smartphone notifications at pseudorandom intervals every day. Each notification led to a questionnaire for rating their emotional state and then to note which emotion regulation strategies they had used since the previous signal. Fifty-three participants took part in the study. The effectiveness of the use of emotion regulation strategies was investigated using correlation analysis in two ways: 1) the relationship between the participant's decrease in negative affect from one measurement point to the next one and the degree of emotion regulation strategy use between these two measurement points; 2) the relationship of the intensity and frequency of emotion regulation strategy use with the mean level of negative affect over the entire observation period. The following results were obtained. Comparing the decrease in negative affect with the use of a particular emotion regulation strategy between measures did not allow us to find differences between adaptive and maladaptive strategies, but the correlation pattern was consistent with the assumption that adaptive strategies are more effective: correlations were positive for reappraisal, acceptance and problem solving, and negative for suppression, rumination, and avoidance. More frequent or intense use of emotion regulation strategies was also found to be associated with more negative affect, with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies having stronger correlations between their frequency and intensity and negative affect than adaptive ones, which demonstrates their lower effectiveness.