Emotion Regulation Can Be Defined

Emotion regulation can be defined as the ability with which one can regulate and control the emotions that he or she has. The paper will highlight some of the most important factors that play an important role in emotion regulation. Three studies will be included that will help in counting the roles of distraction, rumination, reappraisal, and response modulation and depression in emotion regulation.

Distraction is defined by attention and concentration deficits. The attention systems work in according to certain kept goals. These attention systems can be greatly impaired by anxiety and distraction. Presence of distraction can make changes in goal oriented attention systems to stimulus driven attention systems. Threats relate stimuli are also linked to the distraction in emotion regulation (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007, p. 340). Rumination is the tendency to engage in repetitive negative thinking. This leads to depressive symptoms that are linked to distraction. These negative symptoms can cause impaired motivation, lesser attention, and poor problem solving. Emotion regulation is negatively affected by distraction, and rumination. To lessen the impact of a certain emotion as negative thoughts and certain sets of distraction, a person can use reappraisal. Expressive behavior is greatly reduced in reappraisal but attention is enhanced in the absence of impact of certain distraction and ruminations. Response modulation is used by an individual to sway and ignore certain situations that have already occurred, to be more attentive in regulating emotions. Thereby response modulation and reappraisal are two important techniques by the help of which emotion regulation can be successfully (Papageorgiou, & Siegle, 2003, p. 245).

b. Two important distractors have been mentioned in the previous section; distraction and rumination. Distraction is a part of depression and anxiety. Depressed person is more anxious and has negative or depressed thoughts that greatly distract him making him unable to control and regulate his emotions (Derakshan & Eysenck, 2009, p. 169). Depression is defined by the occurrence of multiple symptoms that are defined by negative thoughts, lesser sleep, lesser focus on reality, and lesser attention on more important tasks. Emotion regulation requires increased focus and attention. In case of increased depression, there is a great decrease in the attention, and focus. The other important factor that has been mentioned in the previous section includes rumination. Rumination is when an individual consistently thinks negative about a certain situation or a set of situation. The negative thoughts are the main source of increased negativity in relation to reality and a complete loss of touch with the real meaning of life (Papageorgiou & Siegle, 2003, p. 243). If literature is taken into account, it was previously believed that rumination was the main factor that helped in determining the total duration of cycle of depression. Responding to and focusing consistently on the Symptoms of depression is referred to as rumination. Rumination is more commonly seen in the people who are anxious, neurotic, negative, pessimistic, and those who believe in having negative attribution styles. The literature has mentioned that the tendency that the individuals have to ruminate remains constant over a certain period of time and rumination is one of the most significant risks for development of depression. Habitual ruminators have greater tendencies to become increasingly depressed and anxious (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007, p. 339). On the other hand, people who are induced to ruminate are the ones who experience more depressed moods.