Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event

PLoS One. 2019 Jan 2;14(1):e0209029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209029. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

In everyday life, people often combine strategies to regulate their emotions. However, to date, most research has investigated emotion regulation strategies as if they occur independently from one another. The current study aims to better understand the sequential interplay between strategies by investigating how reappraisal and rumination interact to affect anger experience. After participants (N = 156) recalled a recent anger-provoking event, they were instructed to either a) reappraise the event twice, b) reappraise the event, and then ruminate about the event, c) ruminate about the event, and then reappraise the event, or d) ruminate twice about the event. The effects of the first strategy used replicated a large body of research: reappraisal was associated with a decrease in anger, but rumination was associated with no change in anger. There was a small interactive effect of the combination of the two strategies, such that those who ruminated and then reappraised showed a larger decrease in anger than those who reappraised and then ruminated. There were no other differences between groups. This suggests that the second strategy does have an effect over and beyond the first strategy, but this effect is small in size, highlighting the importance of the initial emotion regulation strategy used.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Anger / physiology*
  • Emotions / physiology
  • Humans
  • Mental Recall / physiology*
  • Rumination, Cognitive / physiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Research Fund of KU Leuven (GOA/15/003; OT/11/031): https://www.kuleuven.be/english/research/support/if, and the Interuniversity Attraction Poles program financed by the Belgian government (IAP/P7/06): http://www.belspo.be/belspo/iap/index_en.stm EKK is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE180100352): http://www.arc.gov.au/discovery-early-career-researcher-award The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.