Emotion Regulation in Educational Contexts: The Role of Positive Strategies and Self-control

In situations related to academic learning and achievement, individuals experience a variety of positive and negative emotions. Since negative emotions are known to have detrimental effects on learning and achievement, effective regulation of negative emotions is thought to benefit academic learning and success. To date, research has hardly examined which emotion regulation strategies are more or less beneficial in educational contexts and what the responsible mechanisms are. Based on evidence that positive emotions are able to replenish an individual’s self-control capacity (counteracting ‘ego depletion’), this thesis examined whether positive emotion regulation benefits academic learning and performance via promoting self-control resources. The main purpose was to examine whether the emotion regulation strategy of positive reappraisal benefits emotion experience and physiology as well as self-control resources in learning and achievement situations, as compared with strategies that focus on a mere reduction of negative emotions. Further objectives were to understand the role of positive emotions for self-control capacity and whether higher self-control resulting from emotion regulation is able to promote self-regulated learning and working memory capacity. A last purpose of this research was to test the effectiveness of an intervention to foster self-regulated learning that integrates positive emotion regulation. Two experimental studies and one intervention study examined the outcomes and trainability of positive emotion regulation in the context of academic learning and achievement. The first experimental study (manuscript A) compared the two strategies positive reappraisal and expressive suppression, whereas the second experiment (manuscript B) searched for within-strategy differences by comparing positive reappraisal with reappraisal focused on decreasing negative emotions. In the intervention study (manuscript C), a training program was developed that aimed at promoting a range of positive emotion regulation strategies tailored to the context of academic learning for secondary school students. The effectiveness of an integrated training program that fostered both positive emotion regulation and self-regulated learning strategies simultaneously was compared with pure emotion regulation training. Part 1 of this dissertation features a synopsis. It provides a theoretical introduction leading to the research objectives, followed by an overview of the three manuscripts and a summarizing discussion. Part 2 includes the three original manuscripts. The first experimental study that compared positive reappraisal with expressive suppression (manuscript A) is followed by the second experimental study that compared positive reappraisal with reappraisal that reduces negative emotions (manuscript B). Finally, the intervention study is presented (manuscript C). In manuscript A, it was examined whether positive reappraisal promotes self-regulated learning by counterbalancing the depletion of self-control resources. Sixty-one university students used either positive reappraisal or expressive suppression to regulate negative emotions that were induced by a film clip on animal testing or were asked to not regulate their emotions (control group). They subsequently worked on a self-regulated learning task which involved gaining knowledge on the island of Malta. Participants who had used positive reappraisal experienced more positive emotions after the film and reported a higher availability of self-control resources than participants in the expressive suppression group. As compared to expressive suppression and no regulation, engaging in positive reappraisal also led to a continued increase in skin conductance during emotion regulation. Regardless of the emotion regulation strategy, experiencing positive emotions best predicted post-film availability of self-control resources. Post-film self-control was positively linked with subsequent self-regulated learning. The beneficial affective and resource-related implications of positive reappraisal highlight its potential for fostering self-regulated learning. In manuscript B, positive reappraisal was contrasted with reappraisal that focuses on decreasing negative emotions regarding the consequences for affect, self-control, and working memory capacity. Participants (N = 118) either used one of these reappraisal tactics to regulate negative emotions elicited by failure feedback on their performance in a previous test, or received no feedback/no tactic instruction (control groups). In contrast to reappraisal aimed at reducing negative emotions, positive reappraisal allowed participants to effectively regain positive affect. Performance in a subsequent working memory test (operation span task) was affected by both self-control capacity and affective state, when participants had engaged in positive reappraisal. In reappraisers who aimed at reducing negative emotions, however, self-control capacity promoted working memory performance independent of affect. Across three assessments before and after emotion regulation as well as after the working memory test, positive affect was associated with higher self-control capacity. The results demonstrate affective advantages of positive reappraisal over reappraisal reducing negative emotions. However, depending on the individual self-control level, both tactics may facilitate or harm cognitive performance and may thereby affect academic success. In manuscript C, an integrated training program that fosters both self-regulated learning and positive emotion regulation in learning situations was compared to an emotion regulation-only and a control program (cognitive techniques-only). Eight groups of secondary school students (total N = 106) attending 8th – 10th grade took part in one of the programs, each involving three 90-minute sessions in weekly intervals. The deployment of emotion regulation and self-regulated learning strategies as well as participants’ self-control capacity were assessed before and after the intervention. The integrated program increased the use of positive emotion regulation, effectively promoted the use of all trained strategies of self-regulated learning, and tended to increase self-control capacity. The emotion regulation-only program was less effective in fostering emotion regulation and self-control capacity but selectively supported strategies of self-regulated learning deployed before learning. The findings demonstrate the superiority of an integrated approach to fostering positive academic emotion regulation in programs of self-regulated learning. Summing up, the findings of this dissertation shed light on the consequences of positive reappraisal in educational contexts. They demonstrate a positive impact on affect and self-control resources, which in turn were supportive of self-regulated learning and facilitated cognitive performance. Training of positive emotion regulation made a valuable contribution to programs that foster self-regulated learning in secondary school students. Based on the findings, enhancing positive emotion regulation should be considered an important component in fostering self-regulation and academic success