Emotion Controllability Beliefs: “I believe there is something I can do about how I feel”
With Dr Matt Somerville, I’ve been researching whether people’s beliefs about their ability to manage their emotions might result in the use of emotion regulation strategies and as a result, less anxiety and depression.
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Funded by the Wellcome Trust, we've reviewed whether beliefs about emotion controllability are associated with anxiety and depression in young people aged 14-24.
Our review found that believing emotions are manageable was associated with reduced depression and anxiety. The evidence suggests that this is possibly because if you think you can do something about the way you feel, you are probably more likely to use a strategy that changes how you feel. You can learn more about this review by watching our animated video.
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Our research involving 1227 adult participants has found that perceived control over one’s own emotions predicted better psychological health.
This means people experienced fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression. This link between beliefs about emotion controllability and psychological heath was partially mediated by cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, with cognitive reappraisal predicting a reduction in clinical symptoms and expressive suppression predicting an increase in clinical symptoms. You can read more about this research in our article published in Current Psychology.
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What's next for this work?
With my undergraduate students, I’ve been looking at whether training emotion regulation skills through a self help intervention might change beliefs about emotion controllability and result in better psychological health. Check back soon as we’re working on the findings!
