Emotion Regulation

elective courses

Emotions and Motivation 2500-EN_O_48

The course is aimed at presenting the current research in the domain of

emotion regulation. When is control of emotion possible? What makes it

difficult? Can it be trained? Is emotion regulation always conscious? What

are the differences between emotion regulation strategies and which

strategies are adaptive and effective? On the basis of literature and

fragments of movies we will try to answer these questions and think

about methods and possibilities of emotion regulation and managing

emotions. In the first half of semester students (in groups) will prepare

presentations (max 45min) based on recent literature referring to the

topic of emotion regulation, they will be asked to make the presentation

supported by short demonstrations, real life examples etc. During each

class several topics will be discussed (after the presentation) based on

questions asked by other students and the teacher. In the second half of

semester we will be watching fragments of movies selected by students

(in groups again) showing different aspects of emotion regulation and we

will discuss it based on knowledge acquired in the first half of semester.

Handbook: Gross, J. (ed. 2014). Handbook of emotion regulation, second

edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

CLASS 1

Introduction, presenting the program of the course, repetition of basic

knowledge about emotion; dividing the topics

What is emotion regulation?

1. Gross, J. (2014). Emotion regulation: conceptual and empirical

foundations, In: J. Gross (ed.) Handbook of emotion regulation, second

edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

2. Webb, T. L., Miles, E., Sheeran, P. (2012). Dealing with feeling: a metaanalysis

of effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of

emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 775-808.

CLASS 2

Strategies of emotion regulation

Gross J. (2002). Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive and social

consequences. Psychophysiology, 39, 281-291.

CLASS 3

Culture and emotion regulation

Mesquita, B., de Leersnyder, J., Albert, D. (2014). The Cultural Regulation

of Emotions, In: J. Gross (ed.) Handbook of emotion regulation, second

edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

CLASS 4

Knowledge about emotions and emotion regulation

Wranik, T., Feldman Barrett L., Salovey, P. (2007). Intelligent emotion

regulation: Is knowledge power?, W: J. Gross (ed.) Handbook of emotion

regulation (pages: 393-407). New York: The Guilford Press.

CLASS 5

Automatic emotion regulation

2.Koole, S.L., Rothermund, K. (2011). I feel better but And don’t know

why: the psychology of implicit emotion regulation. Cognition and

emotion, 25, 389-399.

CLASS 6

Neurobiology of emotion regulation

Ochsner K.N., Gross J.J. (2014). The neural basis of emotion regulation: a

valuation perspective, In: J. Gross (ed.) Handbook of emotion regulation.

New York: The Guilford Press.

CLASS 7

Can emotion regulation be trained?

1. Farb, N.A.S., Anderson, A.K., Irving, J.A., Segal Z.V. (2014). Mindfulness

Interventions and Emotion Regulation, In: J. Gross (ed.) Handbook of

emotion regulation, second edition. New York: The Guilford Press.

2. Christou-Champi, S., Farrow T.F.D., Webb T.L. (2014). Automatic control

of negative emotions: evidence that structured practice increases the

efficiency of emotion regulation. Cognition and Emotion.

CLASS 8

Flexible emotion regulation

Dore, B. P., Silvers, J. A., Ochsner, K. N. (2016). Toward a personalized

science of emotion regulation. Social and Personality Psychology

Compass, 10, 171-187.

Having passed this course students should:

- understand the concepts of emotion regulation, emotional control

and be able to present their definitions

- name different levels of emotion regulation and describe it with

examples

- name different strategies of emotion regulation and describe their

consequences (also describe research done to study it)

- understand what is automatic emotion regulation and how it can be

studied

To pass the course a student should:

- prepare max 20-minute presentation based on one

article/chapter listed in the syllabus (classes 1-8) – in small groups

(20% of final grade)

- prepare the presentation of movie fragment(s) and discussion

(choosing fragments of movies and having questions for

discussion) – in the same small groups (15% of final grade)

- prepare one question for discussion for at least 4 classes (classes

2 to 8) with the suggested answer to the question (in writing) and

hand it to the instructor at the beginning of each class (10% of

final grade for questions to all classes overall)

- Two tests:

1. in the middle of the semester (on class 8 or 9) (mixed:

multiple choice and open questions) (35% of final grade)

based on presentations and readings

2. during the last class, open ended questions – applying

knowledge about emotion regulation to given description of a

problem/situation (similar to how discussing the movie clips

looks like) (20%final grade)

It is not possible to pass the course not having completed one of the tasks

above.

Criteria for assessing the presentation:

- preparing the power point presentation (sending it to all the

students after the class)

- summarizing the article/chapter to the group

- selection of material and presenting it with understanding

- using demonstrations, mini-experiments, exercises etc. to show

the mechanisms described in the literature

- presenting examples

- questions to the group, interaction with the group

- eye contact with the group

You can get 7 points (one for each of the above criteria).

Grading:

5 for 7 points

4+ for 6 points

4 for 5 or 4 points

3+ for 3 points

3 for 2 points

Attendance rules

Students are allowed to have up to 2 unexcused absences; further

absences are only permissible with a formal excuse. Missing more than 4

classes results in course failure, irrespective of excuse.