Emotion Regulation: Past, Present, Future

Modern emot ion th eor ies empha sise the adap t ive va lue of emot ions. Emo tions are by no means always help fu l, however. They often must be regu lated . The study of emot ion regu lation has its o r igins in the psychoana lytic and stress and cop ing trad it ions. Recen t ly, increa sed interest in emot ion regu lation has led to crucia l boundary ambigu it ies that n ow threaten progress in th is domain . I t is a rgued that d ist inct ions need to be m ad e between (1) regu lat ion of emo t ion and regu lation by emot ion ; (2) emot ion regu lat ion in self and emot ion regu lation in o thers; and (3) conscious and nonconscious emot ion regu lat ion . U sing a process model o f emot ion generat ion , th is review considers p rom ising research on basic p rocesses and ind ividua l d ifferences in emot ion regu lat ion and poses ® ve theoretica l cha llenges.