The Future of Emotion Regulation Research: Broadening Our Field of View

Abstract

Over the past few decades, emotion regulation research has matured into a vibrant and rapidly growing field (in 2022 alone, more than 30 thousand papers were published on emotion regulation). Taking stock of our progress, we ask “What does the future hold?” In this manuscript, we offer a roadmap for the next generation of research on emotion regulation. We begin by painting a picture of the field’s journey so far. We then outline a forward-looking agenda for broadening our field of view along three key dimensions: (1) increasing our resolution to see how regulatory strategies are flexibly and dynamically translated into tactics; (2) widening our viewing angle to embrace interpersonal emotion regulation; and (3) extending the timescale of emotion regulation research to examine how regulatory efforts are fine-tuned across the regulatory cycle and in the context of a broader range of affective experiences. In doing so, we highlight empirical studies that exemplify these three areas of focus and discuss the opportunities that lie before us. We close by offering a set of concrete practical and methodological recommendations for how the field can accomplish the goals we have outlined.