Variation and consistency in the links between religion and emotion regulation

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Highlights

  • National contexts may suppress or alter links between religion and emotion regulation.

  • Religion-specific beliefs lead to religion-specific syndromes in emotion regulation.

  • Such syndromes reveal that elements of emotion regulation are linked to each other.

Emotions play a central role in the religious experience. This suggests that religious institutions, practices, and beliefs may actively shape the emotions of adherents, such as by influencing how they regulate emotions. An emerging literature has documented the various links between religion and emotion regulation. This article reviews these links with regards to various elements of emotion regulation, including beliefs about the controllability of emotions, desired emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and intrinsic versus extrinsic emotion regulation. For each link, emphasis is given to whether it is variable or consistent across religious affiliations, and if variable, what might explain such variation.

Section snippets

Beliefs about controllability of emotions

People hold beliefs about the controllability of emotions, in general, as well as about how much they can control their own emotions (i.e. self-efficacy in emotion regulation; [6]). By instilling the expectation that one can successfully alter one’s emotional experience in line with one’s desired emotional state, these beliefs promote successful emotion regulation [7]. Religion may promote the belief that emotions can be controlled by prescribing what to feel (e.g. ‘give thanks to Me and do not

Desired emotions

As in other types of self-regulation, emotion regulation is directed towards desired end-states [10]. The attainment of these desired end-states, or desired emotions, is the very purpose of engaging in emotion regulation. A recent investigation found that, across several religions, people who are more religious desire emotions that strengthen foundational religious beliefs, include more other-praising emotions (awe and gratitude) and less self-praising emotions (pride [11]). However, the

Emotion regulation strategies

Desired emotions are pursued via emotion regulation strategies. Emotion regulation strategies span a range of psychological processes, including the regulation of attention, meaning-making, and the regulation of expression [17]. Since meaning-making is a primary concern of religion [18, 19, 20], religion may be associated with an emotion regulation strategy concerned with meaning-making in particular. Such an emotional regulation strategy, called cognitive reappraisal [21], involves altering

Intrinsic versus extrinsic emotion regulation

The research reviewed up to this point refers predominantly to intrinsic forms of emotion regulation, which are processes that originate from within the self [29]. Specifically, an individual who pursues his or her desired emotions, supported by a belief that emotions are controllable while wielding emotion regulation strategies, is utilizing intrinsic processes of emotion regulation to alter his or her emotional experience. However, emotion regulation may also be extrinsic, such that they

Conclusion and future directions

In the links between religion and emotion regulation reviewed above, it is possible to identify two sources of variation. One source of variation arises from religion-specific characteristics. As reviewed above, religions that place greater value on internal states may foster lower beliefs about the controllability of emotions; religions that place greater value on shaping the environment may foster greater desire for high arousal positive affect than low arousal positive affect; religions with

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • • of special interest

  • •• of outstanding interest

Acknowledgement

I thank Michael Pasek for comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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