Chronic Physical Illness Affects Emotion Regulation Process: A Case of HIV/AIDS

Abstract

The chronic physical and mental clinical conditions are characterized by some or other sorts of emotional problems. People suffering from these diseases find themselves incapable to regulate their emotions resulting from pain, hopelessness, lack of care etc. The individuals suffering from Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) face many types of physical and mental health problems. The central goal of the present study was to compare and contrast the characteristic features of emotion regulation processes of the participants and uncover the intricacies of these processes rampant in the people living with chronic disease of HIV/AIDS. The two strategies of emotion regulation were chosen for this purpose i.e., emotional suppression and emotional appraisal. Eighty participants took part in the study in which forty were diagnosed male and female patients with HIV/AIDS and the rest forty were normal adults with no known/reported chronic disease of any kind. The results of the study evinced that the clinical and non-clinical participants significantly differed in their mean scores on emotional suppression and cognitive reappraisal strategies of emotion regulation. The results have been discussed in the light of current theories of emotion regulation along with their implications for future research.