The Importance of Being Flexible

TLDR

Researchers have shown that both expressing and suppressing emotion have consequences, and that successful adaptation depends more on flexible regulation than on any single process. The study aimed to test whether flexible emotional regulation predicts better adjustment among New York City college students after the September 11 attacks. Participants performed a laboratory task that required them to enhance, suppress, or maintain normal emotional expression on different trials, and their performance was used to predict adjustment over the first two years of college. Results confirmed the flexibility hypothesis: students who could both enhance and suppress emotion experienced less distress by the end of year two, although both tasks imposed memory deficits, indicating a cognitive cost.

Abstract

Researchers have documented the consequences of both expressing and suppressing emotion using between-subjects designs. It may be argued, however, that successful adaptation depends not so much on any one regulatory process, but on the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression in accord with situational demands. We tested this hypothesis among New York City college students in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Subjects' performance in a laboratory task in which they enhanced emotional expression, suppressed emotional expression, and behaved normally on different trials was examined as a prospective predictor of their adjustment across the first two years of college. Results supported the flexibility hypothesis. A regression analysis controlling for initial distress and motivation and cognitive resources found that subjects who were better able to enhance and suppress the expression of emotion evidenced less distress by the end of the second year. Memory deficits were also observed for both the enhancement and the suppression tasks, suggesting that both processes require cognitive resources.