Emozioak erregulatzea

Abstract

The emotions sometimes help us to achieve the well-being and sometimes prevent us from achieving our goals; therefore, we constantly strive to regulate the emotions that bring us unhappiness. Several strategies to regulate emotions are used; some of these strategies are applied before the emotion appears, and others are applied after the emotion has arisen; some of these strategies are more effective than others, but there is no strategy that is effective in all situations. Some strategies are more appropriate in certain situations and other strategies are more appropriate in other situations; therefore, we have to choose flexibly strategies to regulate emotions. In this article we will analyze the following aspects of emotional regulation: men and women have different abilities to regulate emotions; children learn throughout their evolutionary development to regulate emotions in an increasingly autonomous manner; this development is linked to the security of attachment and characteristics of personality; affect regulation is related to the functioning of the brain (cortex and amygdale); inability to regulate emotions is related to psychopathology; the level of awareness and reflective capacity are related to resilience; people can regulate emotions consciously or automatically; ideals and obligations of persons play an important role in regulating emotions properly; sharing emotions with others is good to regulate them properly; emotions are not regulated in the same way in different cultures.