Individual differences in reappraisal effectiveness: The role of affective flexibility.
Abstract
The present study examined the relation between a specific type of executive control and cognitive emotion regulation. The authors propose that successful reappraisal is related to "affective flexibility": The ability to flexibly attend to and disengage from emotional aspects of a situation or a stimulus. A new affective task-switching paradigm that required participants to shift between categorizing positive and negative affective pictures according to emotional or nonemotional features was used to assess individual differences in affective flexibility. The results showed that greater affective flexibility (less switch costs) predicted the ability to use reappraisal to down-regulate emotions in response to a sad film clip. In particular, more efficient shifts toward the neutral aspects of negative pictures and toward the emotional aspects of positive pictures were found to predict reappraisal ability. The results imply that executive control of emotional material is a capacity that is closely associated with effective reappraisal.
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Cognitive reappraisal is thought to depend on psychological flexibility, because flexible attention to and processing of emotional stimuli supports new reappraisals and meanings.
“Important to the present examination, the use of cognitive reappraisal strategies is thought to itself depend on psychological flexibility. The ability to flexibly attend to, modulate, and process emotional stimuli subserves the implementation and maintenance of new reappraisals and meanings (McRae et al., 2012; Malooly et al., 2013; Schmeichel et al., 2008).”
From Prospective examination of the therapeutic role of psychological flexibility and cognitive reappraisal in the ceremonial use of ayahuasca (2022) · cites this paper as Malooly et al., 2013
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“The ability to flexibly attend to, modulate, and process emotional stimuli subserves the implementation and maintenance of new reappraisals and meanings (McRae et al., 2012; Malooly et al., 2013; Schmeichel et al., 2008).”
Background
- Authors
- Malooly, A. M., Genet, J. J., & Siemer, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Miami (US)
- Venue
- Emotion
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 302-313
- ISSN
- 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1516
- OpenAlex
- W2335062688
- Cited by
- 192
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 4
- FWCI
- 3.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- cognitive reappraisal, affective flexibility, emotion regulation, executive function, task switching, switch costs, individual differences, emotional pictures
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Affect, Attention, Female, Humans, Individuality, Male, Reaction Time, Young Adult, Executive Function
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