The Need for Change

Understanding Emotion Regulation Antecedents and Consequences Using Ecological Momentary Assessment

Colombo, Desirée
Fernández-Álvarez, Javier
Suso-Ribera, Carlos
Cipresso, Pietro
Valev, Hristo
Leufkens, Tim
Sas, Corina
Garcia-Palacios, Azucena
Riva, Giuseppe
Botella, Cristina

Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Jaume I University
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart
Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Jaume I University
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Philips Research, High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University
Philips Research, High Tech Campus
School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University
Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Jaume I University, and CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto Salud Carlos III
Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano
Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Jaume I University, and CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Instituto Salud Carlos III

This work is supported by the Marie Curie EF-ST AffecTech Project, approved at call H2020 – MSCA—ITN – 2016 (project reference: 722022).

Desirée Colombo, Department of Basic Psychology, Clinic and Psychobiology, Jaume I University, Av. Sos Baynat, s/n, 12071, Castellón, Spain [email protected]

Received December 3, 2018

revised July 12, 2019

Accepted July 18, 2019

Emotion 20(1):p 30-36, February 2020. | DOI: 10.1037/emo0000671

In recent decades, emotion regulation (ER) has been one of the most widely studied constructs within the psychological field. Nevertheless, laboratory experiments and retrospective assessments have been the 2 most common strands of ER research; thus, leaving open several crucial questions about ER antecedents and consequences in daily life. Beyond traditional methods, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has the potential to capture ER dynamics during the flow of daily experiences, in real-life settings and through repeated measurements. Here, we discuss what we currently know about ER antecedents and consequences. We will compare findings from previous literature to findings from EMA studies, pointing out both similarities and differences, as well as questions that can be answered better with the EMA approach.