Gallo, Inge Schweiger and Keil, Andreas and McCulloch, Kathleen C. and Rockstroh, Brigitte and Gollwitzer, Peter M. (2009) Strategic automation of emotion regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96 (1). pp. 11-31. ISSN 0022-3514
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
As implementation intentions are a powerful self-regulation tool for thought and action (meta-analysis by P. M. Gollwitzer & P. Sheeran, 2006), the present studies were conducted to address their effectiveness in regulating emotional reactivity. Disgust-(Study 1) and fear-(Study 2) eliciting stimuli were viewed under 3 different self-regulation instructions: the goal intention to not get disgusted or frightened, respectively, this goal intention furnished with an implementation intention (i.e., an if-then plan), and a no-self-regulation control group. Only implementation-intention participants succeeded in reducing their disgust and fear reactions as compared to goal-intention and control participants. In Study 3, electro-cortical correlates (using dense-array electroencephalography) revealed differential early visual activity in response to spider slides in ignore implementation-intention participants, as reflected in a smaller Pl. Theoretical and applied implications of the present findings for emotion regulation via implementation intentions are discussed.