Emotion regulation as a passive or flexible coping strategy? Views from situational and cultural perspectives

Abstract

Problem-solving has long been regarded as an active coping strategy that fosters psychological adjustment, whereas emotion-focused coping is generally regarded as a passive strategy that elicits greater distress. This study challenged this widely held view by putting forward the adaptive aspect of emotionfocused coping in stressful encounters. From a situational perspective, emotion-focused coping may be adaptive when it fits the specific situational demands. From a cultural perspective, this strategy may be related to secondary control, which is valued in collectivistic societies. Participants were 105 Chinese undergraduates selected based on their coping profile (i.e., flexible, active-inflexible, or passive-inflexible). In the experiment, they were instructed to first complete a questionnaire. All of them performed a control task for baseline measures of skin conductance level (SCL) and then an uncontrollable task. Results showed that when handling an objectively uncontrollable stressful task, the active-inflexible group attempted to alter the task outcome, the flexible group tended to use emotion-focused coping, and the passive-inflexible group did not do anything. The active-inflexible group experienced the highest SCL than the other two groups. Use of emotion-focused coping was positively related to secondary control rather than relinquished control. Greater perception of secondary control was related to lower SCL in an uncontrollable situation. These findings provide support for the adaptiveness of emotion-focused coping in the context of uncontrollable stressful situations. It is also noteworthy that problem-solving can heighten stress levels in this type of situations.