Emotions and Culture

Towards a culturally-informed understanding of emotion regulation: Knowledge synthesis and international expert consensus

Emotion regulation (ER) — a person's ability to modify the type, intensity, or expression of an emotion — is a fundamental process that plays a role in virtually every human experience. Although researchers have explored various cross-cultural differences in specific components of ER, there is no overarching model of ER that incorporates culture as a core feature. Any psychological theory that aims to explain human behaviour without explicitly considering cultural context will be limited in its potential reach. With increasing globalization, educators, health care workers, policymakers, industries, and other stakeholders are moving across cultural contexts (in person and virtually), and our explanatory models need to move with them. The world, in essence, is getting smaller. Given people’s use of ER in most everyday behaviours (getting out of bed, managing stress in the morning when getting ready for work and taking care of young children, driving in traffic, speaking with colleagues...) and the primacy of cultural context in shaping belief systems and social norms, an understanding of ER that includes cultural context as a core feature will necessarily have more explanatory value than one that does not. It is vital that we understand the various cross-cultural factors that impact ER to reshape the way in which we study ER and ultimately improve the lives of Canadians and people worldwide.

This 2-year research program funded by SSHRC is a crucial first step in developing an evidence-based model of ER founded in cross-cultural psychology. The project is being led by team members with the appropriate expertise (Dr. Allison Ouimet, along with Drs. Monnica Williams, Gioia Bottesi, Marta Ghisi, Susan Humphrey-Murto, and Patrick Labelle). The overarching goal is to identify the key cultural factors that must be included in any future model of emotion regulation, informed by both the research literature and international expert consensus. First plan of the research is to conduct a Scoping Review to answer two important questions:

Which cultural factors or characteristics have been studied in relation to ER broadly?
Which specific features of ER have been studied in relation to culture?

Using contemporary methodological guidelines, we will map the current state of the literature to produce a list of cultural factors potentially important to ER. Inclusion criteria will be articles that were 1) written in English or French, 2) included human sample in all ages, and 3) related to emotion regulation and culture.

We are using Covidence (a systematic review tool) to manage the two phases of screening and selecting studies: (1) title and abstract screening, (2) full-text screening. Finally, we will develop a list of key cultural factors that must be included in a culturally-informed model of ER, using both the established literature and international consensus (Study 2: Delphi).

Emotions and Culture

Towards a culturally-informed understanding of emotion regulation: Knowledge synthesis and international expert consensus

Related Article