Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

A researcher at Stanford has developed a questionnaire to assess individual differences in emotion regulation. Individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and suppression, and these individual differences have implications for affect, well-being, and social relationships. The questionnaire measures two specific forms of emotion regulation. The researcher derived the ERQ items rationally, indicating clearly in each item the emotion regulatory process to be measured, such as "I control my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I'm in" (reappraisal) and "I control my emotions by not expressing them" (suppression). The Reappraisal and Suppression scales both include at least one item asking about regulating negative emotion (illustrated for the participants by giving sadness and anger as examples) and one item about regulating positive emotion (exemplified by joy and amusement). Care was taken to limit the item content to the intended emotion regulatory strategy, and to avoid any potential confounding by mentioning any positive or negative consequences for affect, social functioning, or well-being.

Stage of Development
Five studies tested two general hypotheses: individuals differ in their use of emotion regulation strategies and these individual differences have wide ranging implications. See publication link below.