A user's guide to emotion regulation strategies in experimental designs

Emotion regulation is considered as the intentional and automatic ways through which individuals manage the feelings that they have. Increasingly researches indicate the importance of emotion regulation strategies in variables such as psychological well being and numerous psychological disorders. Individuals who are not able to use adaptive emotion regulation strategies face many negative consequences. Strategies, including thought suppression, emotional inhibition and acceptance have been widely studied in the theoretical and research literature. Researchers seek to find the effects of diverse emotion regulation strategies on other psychological variables. In line with this, some instructions should be used to induce these strategies. Not only do researches support the emotional, cognitive, and social effects of aforementioned strategies, but also cross-cultural findings indicate that these strategies are highly affected by culture. On the other hand, to use these strategies in Iranian studies it is necessary to introduce related instructions. In this paper, we will review these strategies and present the instructions related to each emotion regulation strategies in experimental studies.