“I feel better but I don’t know why”: the psychology of implicit emotion regulation.
Abstract
Although emotion regulation has traditionally been conceived as a deliberative process, there is growing evidence that many emotion-regulation processes operate at implicit levels. This special issue of Cognition and Emotion showcases recent advances in theorising and empirical research on implicit emotion regulation. Implicit emotion regulation can be broadly defined as any process that operates without the need for conscious supervision or explicit intentions, and aims at modifying the quality, intensity, or duration of an emotional response. Implicit emotion regulation is likely to be pervasive in everyday life and may contribute considerably to the effectiveness of emotion regulation. Research in this area has developed several valid methods for measuring and manipulating implicit emotion. The contributions to this special issue highlight the significance of implicit emotion regulation in psychological adaptation, goal-directed behaviour, interpersonal behaviour, personality functioning, and mental health.
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Implicit emotion regulation does not require conscious intentions.
“Implicit emotion regulation, by contrast, does not require conscious intentions (Gyurak et al., 2011; Koole and Rothermund, 2011; Koole et al., 2015).”
From Synchrony in Psychotherapy: A Review and an Integrative Framework for the Therapeutic Alliance (2016) · cites this paper as Koole and Rothermund, 2011
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“Although several scholars acknowledged the theoretical possibility that emotion regulation might operate on implicit levels (eg, Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000 ; Gross, 1998 ), empirical research on implicit emotion regulation was virtually nonexistent.”
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- Authors
- Koole, S. L., & Rothermund, K.
- Affiliations
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Friedrich Schiller University Jena (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Koole, Sander L.
- Venue
- Cognition and Emotion
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-03-15
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 389-399
- ISSN
- 0269-9931 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-0600
- OpenAlex
- W2160728135
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 7.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cognition & Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- implicit emotion regulation, implicit emotion, automatic emotion regulation, psychological adjustment, goal-directed behavior, interpersonal behavior, personality functioning, mental health
- MeSH terms
- Emotions, Humans, Psychological Theory, Social Control, Informal, Unconscious, Psychology
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