Interpersonal emotion regulation

Emotion regulation - the ability to control one's feelings - is an important ability in everyday life. People have many ways of regulating their emotions, including suppressing undesired feelings, reappraising events, and distracting themselves. One major approach to emotion regulation is interpersonal: we rely on our friends and family to help us feel the way we want to. This can include seeking comfort when we're feeling down, or sharing happiness when we're feeling good. The purpose of this survey is to measure the extent to which you use and benefit from this interpersonal approach to emotion regulation. We hope to relate this measure to other social abilities and outcomes.

The task you will complete is a simple survey. You will see 16 statements, one at a time, and rate them with respect to how well they apply to yourself on the 1-7 scale shown above (left). At the end of the study, you will be presented with histograms that reflect the distribution of other participants' responses on the survey, and each of its four subscales. Your scores relative to others will be shown via a vertical line, as shown above (right). Please note that receiving high or low scores on the scales of this survey is not necessarily a good or bad thing. The interpersonal approach to emotion regulation is only one strategy to control one's feelings, and you may have a personal preference for another method. If you wish to participate in the Interpersonal Emotion Regulation survey, please click the 'begin' button below.