Extending Self-Regulated Learning to Include Self-Regulated Emotions

• In Event: Integrating Different Approaches to Investigating Self-Regulated Learning

Abstract

There is a great deal of research supporting the importance of behavioral and cognitive regulation while working on academic activities (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman, 1989). Recent work suggests that emotions play a central role in how students engage and complete tasks (Linnenbrink, 2007; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, in press) highlighting the importance of also considering emotions in the classroom. Yet, we know little about students’ emotion regulation. As with cognitions and behaviors, students’ ability to alter emotions, especially in relation to disliked activities or classes, seems especially crucial for learning. Accordingly, the current study extended the current self-regulated learning framework to include self-regulated emotions.

Building on prior research on dispositional emotion regulation (Gross, 1998; Nolen-Hoeksema, Morrow, & Fredrickson, 1993), we examined three forms of self-regulated emotion strategies (reappraisal, suppression, rumination). Reappraisal, an adaptive form of emotion regulation, occurs prior to experiencing the emotion through attention deployment, cognitive change, or reappraisal of the emotional stimulus (Gross & John, 2003). Suppression, a response-focused form of emotion regulation, occurs after the emotional tendencies are triggered and the emotional response is already underway by inhibiting emotion-expressive behaviors. Rumination refers to incessant thinking and behavioral styles in response to a sad or negative mood, which are intended to remedy the situation but instead distract the individual from focusing on potential remedies (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1993). We examined these three forms of emotion regulation in two varied classroom settings (favorite and least favorite classes) and hypothesized that emotion regulation would play an important role in shaping emotions and engagement, especially in least favorite classes.

To examine how self-regulated emotions related to emotions and engagement, 250 undergraduates were queried mid-semester about their favorite and least favorite classes. Results support the hypothesis that self-regulated emotion is differentially related to emotions and engagement in favorite and least favorite classes and highlight the importance of emotion regulation for altering emotions and academic engagement. In general, students reported using more adaptive emotion regulation strategies, experiencing higher positive and lower negative emotions, and being more engaged in favorite classes. Emotion regulation also functioned differently in favorite and least favorite classes. In favorite classes, reappraisal was associated with reduced negative emotions and, to a lesser extent, increased positive emotions. However, in least favorite classes, reappraisal had an even stronger positive relation to positive emotions and engagement. In contrast, suppression appeared more detrimental in favorite than least favorite classes, as it was associated with lowered positive affect and lower engagement. Rumination was generally detrimental in both types of classes, although it did not seem to undermine engagement in least favorite classes or positive activated emotion in favorite classes. Overall, adaptive emotion regulation strategies had a stronger relation to engagement in least favorite classes. Somewhat surprisingly, maladaptive emotion regulation (suppression, rumination) only undermined engagement in favorite classes, perhaps because students were already more disengaged in least favorite classes thus maladaptive emotion regulation did not further reduce their engagement. Results highlight the value in extending self-regulated learning framework to include emotions.

Authors

• Adar Ben-Eliyahu, University of Pittsburgh

• Lisa Linnenbrink-Garcia, Duke University