Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation

Summary & key facts

Putting feelings into words, called affect labeling, can reduce how strong emotions feel. It often does not feel like a deliberate way to control feelings. The review finds that affect labeling shows effects similar to a deliberate strategy called reappraisal across people's experience, bodily responses, brain activity, and behavior. The authors also discuss possible reasons why labeling works and note questions that still need study.

Key facts:

• Affect labeling means putting one’s feelings into words and it can lessen emotional reactions.
• People often do not feel like they are trying to regulate their emotions when they use affect labeling.
• Studies reviewed show affect labeling produces a pattern of effects similar to explicit reappraisal across four domains: experiential (what people feel), autonomic (bodily responses), neural (brain activity), and behavioral (actions).
• Because of these similar effects, the review describes affect labeling as a form of implicit emotion regulation.
• The article is a review paper that compares affect labeling to reappraisal and then discusses possible mechanisms and remaining unanswered questions.

Abstract

Putting feelings into words, or “affect labeling,” can attenuate our emotional experiences. However, unlike explicit emotion regulation techniques, affect labeling may not even feel like a regulatory process as it occurs. Nevertheless, research investigating affect labeling has found it produces a pattern of effects like those seen during explicit emotion regulation, suggesting affect labeling is a form of implicit emotion regulation. In this review, we will outline research on affect labeling, comparing it to reappraisal, a form of explicit emotion regulation, along four major domains of effects—experiential, autonomic, neural, and behavioral—that establish it as a form of implicit emotion regulation. This review will then speculate on possible mechanisms driving affect labeling effects and other remaining unanswered questions.

Topics

Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Emotions and Moral Behavior Mental Health Research Topics

Categories

Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Affect (linguistics) Affect regulation Cognition Cognitive psychology Communication Developmental psychology Emotional regulation Feeling Neuroscience Psychology Social psychology