Review article

Affective, cognitive, social and health consequences of emotional suppression

Asmir Gračanin

Abstract

Emotional suppression is a form of emotional regulation which is directed to the inhibition of emotional behavior. It usually happens after an emotional program has been activated and after behavioral tendencies have been triggered. Similarities and differences between suppression and concepts that do not differ enough, such as emotional inhibition, repression and expressivity are explained. Special attention is directed to the limitations of correlational studies examining the consequences of suppression, the most important of which are the poor constructive validity of its measurement and lack of control for basic personality traits which could be the basis of both susceptibility to suppression and its covariates. Recent research results show that suppression has negative impact on psychological well-being, which is consistent with data about its negative effects on affective, social and cognitive functioning. In this light, the mechanisms which could lead to observed effects are proposed. Part of this review is dedicated to the health consequences of suppression. Although the majority of the results of correlational studies allow assumptions that suppression leads to undesirable consequences for health, they do not provide detailed insight into these relations. Fortunately, the field of emotion regulation has been enriched with a line of experimental research on the acute consequences of suppression which suggests that specific patterns of physiological activation could form a link between this form of emotional regulation and different health outcomes. The last part of the review is focused on the importance of the functional discrimination of primary emotions and on the importance of searching for the effects of personality traits.

Keywords

suppression; personality; affect; memory; physiology; health

Hrčak ID:

4832

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/4832

Publication date:

1.7.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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