Prof. Kevin Ochsner | Emotion and emotion regulation: From the self to social contexts

Emotions provide a map for what matters in life, but they aren't always adaptive: We may be frozen by fear, overwhelmed by sadness, or tempted by desires for things that aren't good for us. In such cases, emotion regulation can be a powerful tool for transforming unwanted and/or unhealthy reactions into more adaptive ones. This talk will show how a combination of behavioral and imaging studies can be used to build, test, and elaborate a multi-level model describing the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying different ways of regulating as well as individual differences in regulatory ability. Towards these ends, the talk will have four parts. Part one will describe a brain-based model of the self-regulation of emotion that has guided work in my lab as well as others. Part two translates that model to understand changes in emotion regulation ability from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood. Part three highlights the limitations of this model, and how it can be expanded to provide a more comprehensive account of how we regulate our own as well as how we socially regulate the emotions of others. Finally, part four considers directions for future work.

Poster