Advances In Emotion Regulation From Neuroscience To Psychotherapy

Emotions are the gift nature gave us to help us connect with others. Emotions do not come from out of nowhere. Rather, they are constantly generated, usually by stimuli in our interpersonal world. They bond us to others, guide us in navigating our social interactions, and help us care for each other. Paraphrasing Shakespeare, “Our relationships are such stuff as emotions are made of”. Emotions express our needs and desires. When problems happen in our relationships, emotions arise to help us fixing those problems. However, when emotions can become dysregulated, pathology begins. Almost all forms of psychopathology are associated with dysregulated emotions or dysregulatory mechanisms. These dysregulated emotions can become regulated when the therapist helps clients express, face and regulate their emotions, and channel them into healthy actions. This research topic gathers contributions from affective neuroscientists and psychotherapists to illustrate how our emotions become dysregulated in life and can become regulated through psychotherapy.

"Subject Areas/Keywords: clinical, cognition, cognitive, developmental, disorders, dysregulation, emotion regulation, emotional, emotions, neurobiology, neuroscience, personality, psychology, psychopathology, research, self-regulation, social Description: Reviewing the state of the science in a dynamic, thriving field, this influential handbook integrates knowledge from multiple psychological subdisciplines. Foremost experts address the neurobiological and cognitive bases of emotion regulation and examine how individuals develop and use regulatory strategies across the lifespan. The social context of emotion regulation is explored, as are personality processes and individual differences. Critical implications are discussed for psychopathology, psychosocial interventions, and health. Including helpful cross-referencing among chapters, the volume describes cutting-edge methods and identifies promising directions for future investigation"--

Emotion is a basic phenomenon of human functioning, most of the time having an adaptive value enhancing our effectiveness in pursuing our goals in the broadest sense. Regulation of these emotions, however, is essential for adaptive functioning, and suboptimal or dysfunctional emotion regulation may even be counterproductive and result in adverse consequences, including a poor well-being and ill health. This volume provides a state-of-the art overview of issues related to the association between emotion regulation and both mental and physical well-being. It covers various areas of research highly relevant to both researchers in the field and clinicians working with emotion regulation issues in their practice. Included topics are arranged along four major areas: • (Neuro-)biological processes involved in the generation and regulation of emotions • Psychological processes and mechanisms related to the link between emotion regulation and psychological well-being as well as physical health • Social perspective on emotion regulation pertaining to well-being and social functioning across the life span • Clinical aspects of emotion regulation and specific mental and physical health problems This broad scope offers the possibility to include research findings and thought-provoking views of leading experts from different fields of research, such as cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, psychophysiology, social psychology, and psychiatry on specific topics such as nonconscious emotion regulation, emotional body language, self-control, rumination, mindfulness, social sharing, positive emotions, intergroup emotions, and attachment in their relation to well-being and health. Chapters are based on the “Fourth International Conference on the (Non) Expression of Emotions in Health and Disease” held at Tilburg University in October 2007. In 2007 Springer published “Emotion Regulation: Conceptual and Clinical Issues” based on the Third International Conference on the (Non) Expression of Emotion in Health and Disease,” held at Tilburg University in October 2003. It is anticipated that, depending on sales, we may continue to publish the advances deriving from this conference.

Emotion is a basic phenomenon of human functioning, most of the time having an adaptive value enhancing our effectiveness in pursuing our goals in the broadest sense. Regulation of these emotions, however, is essential for adaptive functioning, and suboptimal or dysfunctional emotion regulation may even be counterproductive and result in adverse consequences, including a poor well-being and ill health. This volume provides a state-of-the art overview of issues related to the association between emotion regulation and both mental and physical well-being. It covers various areas of research highly relevant to both researchers in the field and clinicians working with emotion regulation issues in their practice. Included topics are arranged along four major areas: • (Neuro-)biological processes involved in the generation and regulation of emotions • Psychological processes and mechanisms related to the link between emotion regulation and psychological well-being as well as physical health • Social perspective on emotion regulation pertaining to well-being and social functioning across the life span • Clinical aspects of emotion regulation and specific mental and physical health problems This broad scope offers the possibility to include research findings and thought-provoking views of leading experts from different fields of research, such as cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, psychophysiology, social psychology, and psychiatry on specific topics such as nonconscious emotion regulation, emotional body language, self-control, rumination, mindfulness, social sharing, positive emotions, intergroup emotions, and attachment in their relation to well-being and health. Chapters are based on the “Fourth International Conference on the (Non) Expression of Emotions in Health and Disease” held at Tilburg University in October 2007. In 2007 Springer published “Emotion Regulation: Conceptual and Clinical Issues” based on the Third International Conference on the (Non) Expression of Emotion in Health and Disease,” held at Tilburg University in October 2003. It is anticipated that, depending on sales, we may continue to publish the advances deriving from this conference.

One of the most important advances in the study of emotion regulation is understanding it as a dynamic process that develops across the life span. Emotion Regulation focuses on current conceptual and methodological issues in terms of change over various time scales: developmental change across years, as well as changes from day to day, from situation to situation, and from moment to moment. Written by top experts in the field, the volume is organized around three age periods of the life span: infancy and childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. By taking the matter of time seriously, these chapters represent promising and necessary approaches to broadening our knowledge of emotion regulation as a dynamic process that changes with age. The volume provides guidance for future research that will enable researchers to leave behind facile and static conceptualizations of emotion regulation in favor of richer and more explanatory frameworks.

This book, a member of the Series in Affective Science, is a unique interdisciplinary sequence of articles on the cognitive neuroscience of emotion by some of the most well-known researchers in the area. It explores what is known about cognitive processes in emotion at the same time it reviews the processes and anatomical structures involved in emotion, determining whether there is something about emotion and its neural substrates that requires they be studied as a separate domain. Divided into four major focal points and presenting research that has been performed in the last decade, this book covers the process of emotion generation, the functions of amygdala, the conscious experience of emotion, and emotion regulation and dysregulation. Collectively, the chapters constitute a broad but selective survey of current knowledge about emotion and the brain, and they all address the close association between cognitive and emotional processes. By bringing together diverse strands of investigation with the aim of documenting current understanding of how emotion is instantiated in the brain, this book will be of use to scientists, researchers, and advanced students of psychology and neuroscience.

Emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, but there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. Implicit emotion regulation is initiated automatically, without conscious intention, and aims at modifying the quality of emotional responding. This special issue showcases recent advances in theorizing and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation is pervasive in everyday life and contributes considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behavior, interpersonal behavior, personality functioning, and mental health.

Regulating Emotions: Culture, Social Necessity, and Biological Inheritance brings together distinguished scholars from disciplines as diverse as psychology, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience, and psychotherapy to examine the science of regulating emotions. Contains 13 original articles written in an accessible style Examines how social and cultural aspects of emotion regulation interact with regulatory processes on the biological and psychological level Highlights the role of social and cultural requirements in the adaptive regulation of emotion Will stimulate further theorizing and research across many disciplines and will be essential reading for students, researchers, and scholars in the field