Author(s)

Wenwen Chen, Tianwei Du

Corresponding Author

Wenwen Chen

ABSTRACT

Prior studies have found that the two primary emotion regulation strategies, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, relate differentially to psychological outcomes. Reappraisal was found to associate with positive psychological outcomes in general, and suppression was found to associate with negative psychological outcomes. However, these studies were conducted in Western countries and the generalizability of these findings in collectivistic population is questionable. The current study aimed to examine the effect of reappraisal and suppression in a Chinese sample to test the replicability of previous findings as well as to test whether the two strategies may influence interpersonal problems that individuals from the Chinese population encounter. Results from correlational analysis showed that even with a small sample, cognitive reappraisal associate strongly and significantly with social support, and expressive suppression associate significantly with individuals’ affective states and life satisfaction. Future studies are encouraged to examine the effect of emotion regulation on the same set of outcome variables using a larger, well-powered sample that is more representative of the Chinese population.

KEYWORDS

Reappraisal, Suppression, Emotion, Affect, Interpersonal Problems