Individual Differences in Inhibitory Control Are Not Related to Downregulation of Negative Emotion via Distancing

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Abstract

Evidence suggests that cognitive control and emotional control share partly the same cognitive processes. For example, downregulation of negative emotions requires inhibiting or limiting the expression of a prepotent appraisal of a situation in favor of selecting an alternative appraisal. Although inhibitory control seems to be a particularly relevant process in emotion regulation (ER), previous studies reported inconsistent findings on their relationship, likely because of the application of single task measures in relatively small samples. Therefore, this study implemented a battery of six commonly used inhibitory control tasks in a large sample of young healthy adults (N = 190) and investigated whether inhibitory control is associated with the downregulation of negative emotion. ER was measured via self-reported reappraisal and suppression use and via a laboratory ER task where participants had to distance themselves from emotions in response to negative and neutral pictures. The ER task was accompanied by concurrent physiological measurements of corrugator electromyography (EMG), skin conductance response (SCR), and heart period (HP). Frequentist and Bayesian analyses indicated that inhibitory control was neither associated with self-reported reappraisal and suppression use, nor with successful downregulation of negative emotion via distancing. Compared with HP and SCR, corrugator EMG was the only peripheral physiological measure that was indicative of regulatory success. The findings question the view that inhibitory control represents an underlying process in emotion regulation via distancing, at least at the behavioral level.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)1141–1159
Seitenumfang19
FachzeitschriftEmotion
Jahrgang23
Ausgabenummer4
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2022
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

PubMed 35951389
Mendeley 3258d416-5b74-3126-a4c7-3da12a7d0f57
unpaywall 10.1037/emo0001135
ORCID /0000-0002-9426-5397/work/141543200
ORCID /0000-0003-4296-963X/work/141543657

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Schlagwörter

  • Distancing, Emotion regulation, Inhibitory control, Peripheral physiology, Reappraisal

Bibliotheksschlagworte