The social dimension of emotion regulation: Brain, mind, and behaviour

Ref. 10258

General description

Period

2010-2013

Geographical Area

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Additional Geographical Information​

Université de Genève et Center Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives (CISA)

Abstract

This application is part of a coordinated research proposal of 5 European excellence initiatives in the Affective Sciences in the framework of a recent ESF-ESRC call in the Social Sciences. This joint research program on the social dimension of emotion regulation seeks 1. To investigate emotion regulation at several levels of analysis, ranging from the individual to the social and cultural. 2. To work towards an integrative theoretical framework of multi level emotion regulation. 3. To identify and operationalize research questions which aim at exploring the interaction of individual differences, social processes and cultural contexts, linking social neuroscience to social psychology, linguistics, and the humanities. 4. To execute a number of pertinent experimental studies on topics developed on the basis of the joint European framework and to calibrate and share the resulting data sets. 5. To establish the basis for a European Research Perspective for Affective Sciences by bringing together leading European centres of research on emotion to work on an important topic. The core approach will be that of experimental social psychology. We will study emotion regulation empirically in social interactions but also in the individual using neuroimaging methods. Furthermore, cultural psychology survey studies will be used (IP 4). In particular, we hope that the systematic investigation of our cultural heritage will help to establish a historically informed examination of research questions as well as identifying potential pitfalls which can then be avoided. Within this collaborative project, the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences will focus on the role of emotion regulation in conflict and conflict resolution. The proposed project seeks to examine the role of emotion regulation in the elicitation, course, and resolution of interpersonal conflicts, investigating the cognitive and affective/emotional components from a multilevel and pluridisciplinary perspective. Two theoretical models will guide our research process: 1) The component process model of emotions (Scherer, Klaus R. and Ekman 1984; Scherer, K. R., Schorr and Johnstone 2001) defines the factors determining the elicitation and differentiation of emotions, treating event appraisal, motivational shifts, physiological responses, motor expression and subjective feelings as dynamically interrelated and integrated components. 2) The process model of emotion regulation (Gross 2007) identifying several points in the emotion-generative process at which emotions may be regulated. In addition, we integrate recent neuroimaging research showing, for example, an involvement of interconnected subcortical and cortical brain systems in the generation and control of emotion respectively (e.g. (Goldin, McRae, Ramel et al. 2008b) for a review see (Ochsner and Gross 2005)). We will also consider the contributions of social appraisal approaches (Parkinson, Fischer and Manstead 2005). More specifically, we will focus on appraisals of justice (on the basis of perceived entitlement and causality attribution) as a determinant of both emotion (e.g. anger, frustration) and conflict.

Results

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