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the science behind the method
What is Emotion Regulation?
Emotion regulation, or rather the frequency or ease with which an individual becomes dysregulated, is related to many psychological disorders across various diagnostic categories. Emotion regulation is defined as a person's ability to effectively manage and respond to an emotional experience. It is the process by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express these emotions.
(Aslan et al., 2024; Gross, 1998).
MALADAPTIVE THINGS YOU DO
You likely often engage in patterns such as negative automatic thoughts, rumination, catastrophizing, and low metacognitive awareness. These habits intensify emotional distress and make it harder to regulate emotions effectively. Negative automatic thoughts involve immediate, often unhelpful interpretations of situations. Rumination refers to repeatedly dwelling on distressing experiences or emotions. Catastrophizing involves expecting the worst possible outcome. Low metacognitive awareness reflects difficulty noticing or stepping back from your own thought processes
Within clinical practice, a range of therapeutic approaches—including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), and Metacognitive Therapy (MCT)—are used to address emotional dysregulation. Across these modalities, there is strong agreement that maladaptive emotion regulation patterns like those listed above contribute significantly to increased emotional distress and reduced regulatory capacity.
(Aldao et al., 2010; Watkins & Roberts, 2020).
ADAPTIVE THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD DO
You can strengthen emotional well-being by developing four core skills: metacognition, attentional control, cognitive change, and acceptance/tolerance. These skills help you manage emotional experiences more effectively by changing how you relate to your thoughts, where you place your attention, how you interpret situations, and how you respond to distress. Rather than relying on a single strategy, research suggests that flexible use of multiple regulation tools leads to better emotional outcomes across different contexts.
Within clinical and psychological research, these skills are supported across multiple therapeutic approaches, including CBT, DBT, ACT, EFT, and MCT, though they are often taught separately. When integrated, they form a more complete framework for emotion regulation that allows individuals to respond to distress in a more adaptive and intentional way.
(Gross, 2015; Wolgast et al., 2011).
If you want a more digestible way to understand these concepts, visit our "TOOLS" section.
IF NOT, FEEL FREE TO READ THE SCIENCE BELOW. NERD.
MALADAPTIVE TENDENCIES
Within emotion regulation, there are four main habits that can be pinpointed as integral to an individual's inability or trouble to emotionally regulate, these are: negative automatic thoughts, rumination, catastrophizing, and lack of metacognitive awareness (see Aldao et al. 2010; Watkins & Roberts, 2020). See the science behind these tendencies below.
Negative thoughts are experienced by anywhere from 80% to 99% of the non-clinical population, and have been heavily associated with the development of psychopathology (Larsson, 2015). Negative automatic thoughts can be defined as immediate negative evaluations that individuals make about themselves, their situation or their future, as well as interpreting information in an overly negative or pessimistic manner (Flour et al., 2012). Given that automatic negative thoughts involve persistent maladaptive perspectives, researchers have sought to explore their role in various psychological disorders. The clearest disorder that would be impacted by this maladaptive mental process is depression, given the nature and symptomology of the disorder. Negative automatic thoughts lead individuals to negatively assess quality of life, which causes depressive levels to increase (Yavuzer & Karatas, 2017). Furthermore, automatic negative thoughts are correlated with negative self esteem, the severity of depression, hopelessness, and external locus of control (Kazdin, 1990). Not only does this maladaptive habit impact depression, but it has also been found to be incredibly common in individuals who experience anxiety.
The impact of negative automatic thoughts on anxiety and perfectionism cognitions was explored in a study with undergraduate students, and negative automatic thoughts were concluded to mediate the association between anxiety symptoms and depressive distress (Pribaglou et al., 2013). In addition to anxiety and depression, negative automatic thoughts have been linked to Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), with studies concluding that individuals diagnosed with BPD make negatively biased interpretations and evaluations of neutral stimuli, habitually attend to negative stimuli, and have consistent negative beliefs about themselves, their circumstances, or the future (Baer et al., 2012). As the impact of negative automatic thoughts becomes refined, the broader impact becomes increasingly clear when examining their role in additional disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In a study with a goal to explore the impact of CBT on adults with ADHD, it was found that the ADHD group reported significantly more negative automatic thoughts than controls (Mitchell et al., 2013). Furthermore, the ADHD group with comorbid depression reported significantly more automatic negative thoughts than both the ADHD and control groups (Mitchell et al., 2013).
These findings strongly suggested that negative cognitive patterns have a role in the development of psychopathology (Beck, 2008). Negative automatic thoughts represent immediate appraisals, and unfortunately, sustained attention to these negative interpretations may develop into a more sustained cognitive process known as rumination.
Rumination is defined as repetitive thinking regarding present distress and sadness, habitual negative inferences associated with stressful life events, or continued negative processing about an interaction or event (Smit & Allory, 2009). It is associated with increased access to negative memories, worsening of negative mood states, and greater affective response to negative material (Cooney et al., 2010).
Rumination is a negative thinking pattern that is incredibly relevant to the development and continued progression of most mental health disorders. This is further supported by a meta-analysis across longitudinal studies, which found that rumination predicted future anxiety symptoms and has a direct positive correlation with anxiety, suggesting that ruminative tendencies increase the likelihood of the onset of anxiety (Thomsen, 2004). Not only is rumination relevant in anxiety, it is also prevalent in depression. In a longitudinal study, rumination predicted the onset of depressive episodes over a one year follow up, and found that those who engage in ruminative responses to depressive symptoms have higher levels of depressive symptoms over time (Nolan-Hoeksma, 2000). These studies are examples of rumination and its role in anxiety and depression, however, evidence also suggests that it is also associated with binge eating, binge drinking, and self harm. (Nolan-Hoeksema et al., 2008).
Furthermore, rumination has been found to exacerbate psychopathology by prolonging negative mood states, and acts as a transdiagnostic mental health vulnerability that impacts psychosis, insomnia, and impulsive behavior (Watkins & Roberts, 2020).
Catastrophizing is defined as thoughts that predict or assume how future events will unfold in such a way that causes the individual to have an emotional experience. It is characterized as a maladaptive coping style that is rooted in a magnification of threat and rumination about distress Garnefski et al., 2001). It is associated both with psychopathology and with chronic pain, and has additive and adverse effects on the impact of chronic pain (Linton et al., 2011). This is supported with the findings of a study containing adolescents, who were recruited to assess the predictive relationship between catastrophizing and depressive symptoms, where it was found that there is a significant positive relationship between the experience of depressive symptoms and catastrophizing. (Noel et al., 2011) The impact is further emphasized in a study that found that catastrophizing fully mediated the relationships between PTSD symptoms and pain outcome above and beyond the influence of depressive symptoms. (Gilliam et al., 2019) These findings are consistent with previous research, demonstrating that catastrophizing increases emotional distress and maladaptive coping among clinical and non-clinical populations.
As catastrophizing is characterized by sustained fixation on negative outcomes, it is integral to the skill of metacognitive emotion regulation, which involves awareness, understanding, and control over one’s own cognitive processes, specifically in regards to the process by which one influences which emotions they have. While negative automatic thoughts involve immediate appraisals, rumination represents sustained repetition of these cognitions, and catastrophization is perseveration of cognitive patterns concerning worst case scenarios, metacognition then becomes necessary to become aware of and intercept these maladaptive processes.
Metacognition refers to an individual's ability to monitor and evaluate their cognitive tendencies while simultaneously engaging in those thought patterns. Therefore, individuals who are unaware of their repetitive cognitive patterns are more likely to ruminate or catastrophize without awareness. In addition to being unaware of one's own thought processes, maladaptive metacognition can also be defined as having negative beliefs or opinions about one’s thought patterns, such as inability to change or believing that excessive worrying is productive (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004). Due to the nature of this habit, it has its own role in the development and exacerbation of depression, PTSD, OCD, and anxiety. Higher levels of maladaptive metacognitive beliefs have been found to increase the impact of emotional reactivity on anxiety and strengthen the relationship between emotional reactivity and anxiety (Clauss et al., 2019).
In addition to its impact on anxiety, maladaptive metacognition is associated with increased depressive symptoms (Nordahl et al., 2018) and has been found to significantly predict subsequent depression (Zhou et al., 2021). Becoming aware of the importance of metacognition and gaining clarity on one’s tendencies to engage or not engage in this crucial skill is vital to emotional and mental wellbeing, which points to the importance of preventative action in order to avoid unnecessary negative emotions. Therefore, preemptive efforts to reduce negative metacognitive beliefs may be beneficial among individuals prone to emotional reactivity (Clauss et al., 2019). In a study utilizing the Metacognition Questionnaire (MCQ-30), 53 patients with major depression and 56 healthy controls were evaluated, and mediation analysis was used to examine association among the variables (Chen et al., 2021).
Patients with depression reported higher levels of negative metacognitive beliefs, which related to uncontrollable thoughts and fully mediated the relationship between intolerance of uncertainty in both depressive and anxious symptoms (Chen et al., 2021). These findings provided clear evidence that maladaptive metacognitive beliefs are directly associated with depression and anxiety symptoms.
SCIENCE BEHIND THE ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES
Cognitive Change
Cognitive Change
Cognitive Change
Emotion regulation includes cognitive tools that are rooted in changing thoughts to restructure or reappraise the emotional impact of a situation in order to alter the strength of emotion. Behavioral regulation of emotions has been found to increase sympathetic nervous system activation and does not dampen unpleasant experiences of emotion, in contrast, cognitive regulation has been found to neutralize negative experience and potentially decrease physiological arousal (Ochsner & Gross, 2005). A skill under the umbrella of cognitive change, cognitive restructuring, is defined as replacing maladaptive thoughts with grounded, rational ones. This powerful tool was found to make significant positive gains in mitigating thought discomfort, negativity, and increasing acceptance (Larsson et al., 2015). Cognitive reappraisal is another skill that is found within cognitive change, and it is defined as reinterpreting the meaning of an event to alter its emotional impact. Cognitive reappraisal has been associated with healthier patterns of affect, wellbeing, and social functioning (Cutuli, 2014). It is also associated with reduction in emotion reactivity in individuals with bipolar disorder across behavioral, physiological, and subjective domains. This skill may be an effective regulation strategy for both positive and negative affects in both individuals with bipolar disorder and healthy adults (Gruber et al., 2014). Interestingly, a higher ability to engage in cognitive reappraisal is associated with lower levels of depression for individuals with uncontrollable stress, and is also associated with greater levels of depression in participants with controllable stress (Troy et al., 2013). This conclusion supports a model where emotion regulation strategies’ adaptiveness depends on the context, strengthening the argument for a protocol where an individual has adaptive regulatory strategies to choose from. Analysis of this emotion regulation strategy can be deepened with a study that compared acceptance and appraisal in regards to psychological reactions and behavioral avoidance in relation to aversive emotional states (Wolgast et al., 2011). In this study, participants were randomized to the reappraisal, control, or acceptance group with both the reappraisal and acceptance groups having significant reductions of subjective stress, behavioral avoidance, and physiological reactions (Wolgast et al., 2011). This raises questions about the potential integration or combination of these two regulatory skills, as one study found that appraisal is not always effective, and another found both appraisal and acceptance to be effective. Therefore, it is worth considering how having both regulatory strategies be taught and used in tandem or interchangeably might affect regulatory processes in clinical and non-clinical populations.
Metacognition
Cognitive Change
Cognitive Change
Emotionally intelligent individuals carefully analyze circumstances before deciding if and how they should regulate their emotions, possessing the ability to reflect on and evaluate one’s own thoughts (Peña-Sarrionandia et al,. 2015). Mindfulness and metacognitive distancing, or the ability to step back from thoughts to view them as subjective experiences rather than absolute facts, have been associated with increased well-being and improved emotional functioning (Khoury et al., 2015). For example, research has shown that an increased awareness of cognitive patterns is associated with increased happiness (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010) and decreased negative emotional experiences, such as stress, anxiety, or depression (Brown & Ryan, 2003). The importance of this skill is emphasized in metacognitive therapy, which focuses on an increased awareness of thought patterns to reduce rumination and worry by awareness, familiarity, and regulation of maladaptive mental processes. In a study with patients who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder, depression was associated with lower levels of mindfulness. There was also a significant negative correlation between mindfulness and negative automatic thoughts in patients with depression (Ayhan et al., 2021). Furthermore, metacognitive therapy was found to reduce rumination, worry, and maladaptive metacognitive beliefs, which further established the role that metacognition plays in efficient affect regulation (Ayhan et al., 2021). An example of a metacognitive skill is cognitive defusion, which is observing a thought merely as a mental event and recognizes the importance of a balanced perspective rather than over identification with the thought (Wells, 2019). Defusion has been found to lower believability, increase comfort and willingness to have the target thought, decrease negative thought frequency, and increase positive affect (Larsson et al.,2015). Metacognition has been well established as a vital aspect of negative affect regulation, due to the fact an increased awareness and observation of mental patterns allows for the intentional selection and regulation of thoughts. In order to properly facilitate the implementation of this cognitive change, the skill of attentional control offers a further understanding of what emotion regulation entails.
Attentional Control
Acceptance and Tolerance
Acceptance and Tolerance
Attentional control plays a vital role in efficient emotion regulation. Affect based attention was defined as the predisposition to attend to emotionally salient stimuli over others, and provides an important mechanism of emotion regulation (Todd et al., 2012). This skill allows for regulation as it is the practiced skill of turning one’s filters for initial attention and processing. By selectively directing attention, individuals gain the ability to influence how information is processed and interpreted. An integral aspect to this skill is to engage in it in a manner that is proactive rather than reactive (Todd et al., 2012). Greater attentional control is associated with fewer difficulties with emotional clarity and the ability to engage in goal-directed behavior during distress (O’Bryan et al., 2017). Additionally, it has been shown to facilitate more effective regulation of distress (Bardeen et al,. 2014), and predicts faster spontaneous emotional downregulation (Morillas-Romera et al., 2015). In contrast, lower emotional attentional control is related to depressive symptoms (Kahriz et al., 2019). These filters influence how emotional information is initially processed, and therefore shape emotional responses. Supporting this relationship, research showed that cognitive emotion regulation and attentional control abilities are linked at both the behavioral and neural level, indicating that emotional disturbances in depression may be improved with interventions that target attentional control (Loeffler et al., 2019). Furthermore, meditative attentional practices appear to be among the most effective training methodologies in enhancing emotional well-being (Wadillinger et al., 2010). Together, these findings highlight attentional control as a foundational skill to efficient emotion regulation, as it determines which information is worth prioritizing during emotional processing.
Acceptance and Tolerance
Acceptance and Tolerance
Acceptance and Tolerance
Tools with the foundation of acceptance and tolerance have been integral to the formation of therapeutic modalities such as dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). This is rooted in the perspective that increasing an individual’s ability to tolerate distress, and to accept uncontrollable situations, will allow for less emotional discomfort (Naragon-Gainey, 2017).One skill that grew from this intervention style is distress tolerance, which is defined as the perceived capacity to withstand negative emotional or physical states and by the ability to withstand uncomfortable internal states caused by a stressor (Zvolensky et al., 2010). It is closely associated with low levels of repetitive negative thought and experiential avoidance, and high levels of acceptance and mindfulness (Naragon-Gainey, 2017). Lower distress tolerance is linked to an intense discomfort with negative emotions, perceived inability to effectively navigate these circumstances, as well as anxious and depressive affects (Buschmann et al., 2017). Another vital tool within this subsect of emotion regulation based tools is radical acceptance, which is defined as accepting reality as it is without judgement (Segal et al., 2025).This skill functions not only as an effective standalone tool for regulating affect, but also as a powerful catalyst for other emotion regulation strategies, such as ones rooted in cognitive change. In a study with healthy young adults, participants were randomly assigned to a radical acceptance group or to another group utilizing a DBT skill called “check the facts”(Segal et al., 2025). It was found that induced negative affect fully returned to baseline among those who used radical acceptance, but not in the group that used check the facts. Radical acceptance was found to enhance the ability to use cognitive reappraisal (a cognitive change-based strategy addressed below), and enhanced ability to use acceptance to downregulate negative emotions (Segal et al., 2025). The studies described in this section offer a miniscule percentage of studies conducted on this incredibly impactful tool in the field of emotion regulation, however, in order to understand why this integration would be valuable, a deeper understanding of cognitive change must be provided to see the full value and ramifications.
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