2016 Theses Doctoral

Measuring ability to enhance and suppress emotional expression: The Flexible Expression Regulation Ability Scale

Burton, Charles Levi

Flexibility in self-regulatory behaviors has proved to be essential for adjusting to stressful life events, and requires individuals to have a diverse repertoire of emotion regulation abilities. However, the most commonly used emotion regulation questionnaires assess frequency of behavior rather than ability, with little evidence linking these measures to observable capacity to enact a behavior. A laboratory paradigm has been developed to assess individual difference in expressive enhancement and suppression ability, but such lab-based measures are impractical or impossible to employ in the field research setting. The aim of the current investigation is to develop and validate a Flexible Expression Regulation Ability Scale (FERAS) that measures a person's ability to enhance and suppress displayed emotion across an array of hypothetical contexts. In Study 1, I investigate the factor structure of the FERAS in addition to convergent and discriminant validity. In Study 2, I compare the FERAS with a composite of traditional frequency-based indices of expressive regulation to predict performance in a previously validated experimental paradigm.