1. Affect, Mood, and Emotions
Affect is defined as the subjective experience of the general emotional state, which can be positive/pleasant or negative/unpleasant [
1]. Emotional episodes typically result in a mixture of emotions, while also reinforcing, creating, or relying on mood states [
2]. Emotions shape individuals’ subjectivity through the process of symbolic interaction between identity, norms, and social values [
3], and influence the behaviors that can be observed in different social contexts. Despite emotions being conceived by researchers from very different perspectives, there appear to be some key similarities among experts [
4]. First, emotions involve moderately related changes in domains such as subjective experience, behavior, and physiological aspects. Second, they develop over time [
5]. In this sense, the Process Model of Emotion Regulation proposed by [
4] provides a framework for understanding how emotions are generated and regulated, and how different components of emotional responses interact with each other. According to this model, the sequence begins with the appraisal of a psychologically relevant situation. The appraisal process determines whether the situation is perceived as positive or negative, and whether it is relevant to the individual.
Whether of one kind or another, these situations are e evaluated in terms of what they mean to the individual based on their goals [
6]. Finally, the model suggests that emotions are important because of their relationship with prominent social beliefs [
7] and ethical decisions [
8,
9]. Current research concludes that emotions and cognitive processes mutually influence each other and are co-determined by sociocultural processes [
10,
11,
12]. In this sense, there is an important consensus that emotions are not just individual, internal experiences but are shaped by cultural norms, social contexts, and historical and political circumstances [
13].
2. Affective Regulation
Emotional regulation is a process considered necessary for optimal personal and social adaptation [
14]. Individuals who possess well-developed emotional competencies to regulate their affectivity report having more positive relationships with others, exhibit fewer antisocial behaviors, and are less prone to psychological disorders compared to those who exhibit lower levels or lack such competencies [
15]. While affect regulation refers to the modification of moods, emotional regulation refers to individuals’ capacity to modify components of their emotional experience.
According to the Process Model of Emotion Regulation in [
4], emotional regulation begins when a person chooses between possible situations based on their probable emotional impact. The model suggests that once an emotion is generated, it can be regulated through various cognitive and behavioral strategies which modify the appraisal, physiological arousal, and expression components of the emotional response. These strategies include the following: (1) the modification of the situation, which involves altering the situation to modify its emotional impact; (2) attentional deployment, which involves focusing attention on one aspect of the situation; (3) cognitive change, which involves modifying the meaning attributed to the situation, according to which the potential emotional meanings would lead to a new decision, resulting in the experience, behaviors, and physiological response tendencies that define the emotion; and, finally, (4) modulation of affective response refers to directly influencing the experience, behavior, or physiological components of the emotional response after the emotion has been generated.
2.1. Goals of Affect Regulation
Regulation is considered functional if adaptive goals are achieved [
16]. Different motivations or goals for emotional regulation are important. First, arousal regulation (which increases when people are bored or decreases when they are upset) and, second, hedonic regulation, usually related to a decreased negative affect and improved positive affect, are two basic goals related to affect valence and activation. Third, instrumental or problem solution goals or task-related (or achievement outcomes) goals are important. Fourth, goals of social integration or goals with belonging-oriented outcomes are relevant in general and especially in the workplace. Other goals or motives are important, like maintaining a positive self-image and defending self-esteem and cognitive motives, or understanding emotions and affect [
17,
18]. Briefly, affect regulation can be characterized by the inclination to improve feelings and arousal, solve tasks successfully, defend self-esteem, and understand and control experience, as well as to maintain or improve social integration.
2.2. Relational and Social Regulation Forms
Forms of regulation are important for all goals, but also particularly for social integration goals, which are those that are carried out through interactions with others. Here, not only the search for social support, widely studied, but also forms of regulation that involve mobilizing changes in social relationships can be integrated, like altruism, negotiation, mediation, delegation, and public rituals.
As forms of regulation based on social relationships, seeking and giving social support, as well as negotiation, have been studied. In particular, prosocial behavior or altruism that increases well-being [
19]. Negotiation is aimed at making a deal and proposing a compromise with others, in order to reduce stress. Previous studies have identified negotiation and altruism as frequently chosen regulation strategies that are associated with adjustment [
20].
Mediation and delegation are forms of regulation also linked to the use of social relationships. Mediation seeks the intervention of third parties as intermediaries, while delegation involves vicarious and indirect control through figures of higher status and expertise, in which the instrumental resolution of the situation is delegated (e.g., to a doctor, a teacher, or a more knowledgeable colleague). Mediation and delegation as indirect forms of changing the situation through social relationships were more effective than direct coping in situations with limited controllability [
21]. However, the involvement of third parties as mediators and delegation were rarely used in previous samples, and the latter was not adaptive in the workplace [
20].
Private and public rituals, as well as participation in social movements or social participation, constitute forms of regulation that involve the use of social instruments. Both private and public rituals have been associated with well-being in coping with collective stressful events [
22]. In the work environment, it was identified the use of collective or public rituals as a regulation strategy [
23] and there is evidence of their positive effects in other areas [
18,
24]. Finally, participation in social movements, although it is a less frequent form of coping, and is only applicable in situations of collective problems, can be an adaptive way for the regulation of stress [
25].
4. Emotional Regulation and Creativity
As mentioned earlier, positive forms of regulation such as humor are associated with creativity. In general, creativity can be defined as the ability to generate novel, original, infrequent, and useful or adaptive responses to a problem or situation. In the affective domain, creativity facilitates adaptive regulation. A personality trait linked to this topic is called emotional creativity (EC). It is the ability to attend to and experience complex emotions—rare or novel ones—in an authentic and adaptive way [
29,
30]. EC has been associated with well-being and correlated with a higher adjustment after an intense emotional experience. It has also been shown in university students to be a predictor of intrinsic motivation and academic commitment [
31]. This trait is related to divergent thinking, the ability to be creative and original in emotional experiences, and emotional regulation, specifically reinforcing adaptive reappraisal. Finally, motional creativity is linked to creative performance [
32].
In addition to this personality trait, forms of regulation such as humor, active physiological regulation, regulated emotional expression, gratitude and self-reward, thankfulness, and reappraisal facilitate creativity. The use of humor involves distancing, creative and positive reformulation of events. Probably through affective and cognitive pathways, it strengthens creativity or the generation of innovative responses [
26]. Active physiological regulation, which involves some kind of physical activity, increases positive affect and, through it, creativity [
33]. Regulated emotional expression increases creativity, probably because it is related to greater abilities to analyze and delay the response, which allows overcoming habitual responses [
34]. Self-reward and thankfulness are associated with creativity because they involve the interpretation of reality in an innovative way, where the search for alternative positive stimuli helps to elaborate creative responses. Reappraisal as distancing and changing perspective also reinforces creativity [
35].
5. Wellbeing and Emotional Regulation
Research has shown that people who use more functional regulation strategies experience high psychological well-being [
4,
36]. Therefore, well-being measures are also important to verify the functionality of emotional regulation strategies in different situations [
37]. Specifically, some studies have focused on studying the relationship between regulation strategies and psychological or eudaimonic well-being (which refers to the extent to which individuals perceive their lives to be meaningful, purposeful, and fulfilling), while others have also related them to measures of hedonic well-being (which refers to the subjective experience of pleasure, happiness, and life satisfaction) [
38].
For example, in a study conducted by [
39] with 470 adults, positive reappraisal and refocusing on planning were positively correlated with subjective and psychological well-being. Additionally, rumination, catastrophizing, and self-blame were linked to poorer well-being. In another study low suppression, low self-critical use of humor, and affiliative humor were linked to higher levels of psychological well-being. Similarly, self-enhancing humor and low suppression were associated with higher levels of happiness [
40].
More recently, a study conducted by [
18] analyzed different strategies of emotional regulation [
4] and its association with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The results showed that maladaptive coping strategies, such as withdrawal and social isolation, and suppression were associated with higher levels of negative affect or low hedonic well being. Conversely, coping strategies such as social support, gratitude and self-reward, reappraisal, as well as venting and regulated expression were found to be significantly associated with higher levels of positive affect. Similar results were found in the relationship of strategies with psychological well-being. Specifically, suppression, social isolation and withdrawal were associated with low psychological well-being., At the opposite, strategies such as problem-directed action and planning, attentional deployment through distraction, seeking social support, cognitive change by reappraisal, response modulation by active physiological regulation, as well as venting and regulated expression, acceptance and gratitude/self-reward, have been found to be positively correlated with psychological well-being. However, as observed in previous studies, the functionality of emotional regulation strategies and their relationship with well-being varies depending on the situations and interactions that occur with others [
37]. Therefore, it is essential to conduct more studies that allow us to verify the functionality of emotional regulation strategies and their relationship with well-being in different contexts.
6. Present Study
Based on the reviewed literature, the objectives and hypotheses of this study are presented [
31]. The shared objective was to compare how students, workers and athletes regulated emotions in the common domain of achievement or performance. In the presentation of the instruments, it was emphasized that we were asking how people managed emotions in the non-interpersonal and non-family environment, but in the area of performance or achievement, i.e., studies, work, and competitive sports.
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Differences in the frequency and effectiveness of strategy use are expected to be found between students, workers and athletes.
The relationship between forms of affect regulation with adaptive goals of emotional regulation and well-being adjustment, health-related quality of life perception, humor, emotional creativity, and creativity or innovation in responses given to face a conflicting work situation will be contrasted. It is expected to find a congruent relationship between the use of functional strategies and the analyzed variables.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Specifically, adaptive regulation is expected to be associated with stress adjustment, well-being and health related quality of life, as well as with trait creativity and innovation—the creativity trait is expected to be associated with creative performance in the form of innovative solution to a work conflict.
The specific effect of self and hetero-regulation strategies on adjustment will be examined, with well-being as a distal predictor and the strategies themselves as mediating variables.
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Adaptive regulation strategies will mediate between adjustment and well-being; with a direct relationship between both variables in students (see also [18]).
9. Discussion
The three hypotheses postulated in this study were partially confirmed. Differences in the use and, to a lesser extent, the efficacy of regulation strategies were found between workers, students, and athletes. Dysfunctional regulation strategies such as rumination and social comparison are maladaptive for workers and students but not for athletes, which has also been shown in previous studies [
18]. Moreover, maladaptive strategies in the former two groups such as confrontation and suppression do not have negative effects on athletes (H1).
There is a congruent relationship between the use of functional strategies and adjustment to stress, well-being, and health-related quality of life. This congruence is also found to some extent in humor styles such as self-affirmation, as well as in creativity, both emotional and applied or innovation in the ideation phase to cope with a conflicting work situation (H2). However, negative heteroregulation, that worsens the emotions of others, is associated with well-being and personal adjustment in the student sample. This result may suggest that attempting to influence the emotions of others, even critically, has positive effects for the individual, reinforces self-esteem and personal self-efficacy, even if it has negative effects on others. However, this conclusion must be relativized because of the low reliability of the scale.
Furthermore, it was confirmed that adaptive regulation strategies mediate the relationship between well-being and adjustment to stress (H3). It is possible to conclude that the use of adaptive self- and hetero-regulation strategies facilitates adjustment and is related psychological well-being. Confirming their general adaptive nature, the following strategies were associated with adjustment and well-being: direct coping, social support, distraction, self-reward, gratitude, reappraisal, active physiological regulation, use of humor and affection, as well as regulated expression. On the other hand, low psychological abandonment, low passive physiological regulation, and low suppression were associated with adjustment and well-being. The results suggest that individuals who know and regulate their own emotions properly can be more effective in work, studies, and sports teams. This is consistent with a recent meta-analysis showing the relevance of these emotional processes in adaptive behavior in different contexts [
55]. A state of high well-being has horizontal influence between peers, and vertical influence through the leaders, helping to create a positive group climate. Since moods tend to be contagious and/or transmitted in both work teams and groups, when they are positive in a high well-being climate, they can help mitigate negative situations in study, work, and sports groups [
56]. When leaders are in a good mood, team/group members are more positive and cooperate more [
57]. These aspects can facilitate their creativity [
48,
58].
In the following paragraphs we discuss, in detail, the difference in frequency of use of the strategies between students, workers and athletes. We then examine their functionality in each group. We differentiate in our discussion the three phases of Gross’s model: situation modification and social bonding, attention reorientation and cognitive change, and finally, experience modification and emotional regulation.
9.1. Differences between Groups on the Frequency of Strategies: Modification of Situation and Social Relationships
Regarding the facet of modification of the situation and social relationships, it was found that
athletes use problem-solving and social support-seeking strategies (especially instrumental and informative) more than workers. The effect size was small, of eta squared 0.01 or 0.02, equivalent to an r = 0.10 or 0.14 or
d = 0.20 or 0.28. These results could be explained by the fact that direct action (see items 04, 05 and 06 in
Table 2) is possibly more frequent in the professional sports context, although it is also expected to be commonly used in the educational context and desirable in the workplace. Lower use of social support strategy in the worker sample than in the student sample, is probably explained by the fact that the work environment tends to be more concrete and focused on the individual than that of sports—especially if it is cooperative or collective.
Students specifically seek more emotional social support, and express and discharge emotions more intensely than the other two groups, as described below. This could be explained by a more informal youth sociability and more horizontal social relationships. It is possible that in work and high-performance sports contexts, more regulated interactions give less room for expressive spontaneity.
Overall, students use more regulation forms that involve mobilizing social relationships in line with more horizontal and spontaneous interactions that occur in the educational setting. Specifically, students make relatively more use—than workers- of negotiation. In turn, athletes make greater use of rituals as a regulation strategy than the other two groups.
9.2. Modification of Situation and Social Relationships: Searching Social Support, Altruism and Negotiation as Adaptive Strategies and Mediation and Delegation as Inadpative Strategies
The results show that
direct coping, seeking social support, and low avoidance are adaptive emotional regulation strategies. In addition, some forms of social regulation, like helping and negotiating with others are effective forms of regulation.
Altruism and negotiation are associated with adjustment and well-being in students and workers. This result confirms that helping others allows individuals to move away from egocentrism and feel effective and socially integrated [
20]. Helping others, even if done “selfishly”, is effective [
19]. Negotiation may be adaptive because it involves negotiating at a similar level of status and reducing conflict.
Others forms of social regulation, like mediation and delegation are negatively associated with adjustment in workers, but not in students. The results suggest that asking for a third-party intervention in the work context is not functional, probably because it implies “breaking” defined roles. Delegating to others is also not adaptive in either group. In performance or achievement contexts, delegating is associated with not directly taking control of the situation, which can result in low levels of effectiveness and self-esteem.
9.3. Social Participation, Private and Public Rituals and Adjustment; Adaptives in Students and Athletes Respectively
Social participation shows a positive association with adjustment and well-being in students, while in workers, it is negatively associated with well-being. These results suggest that despite the current weaknesses of the student movement, participating in social movements has positive effects for students. As for workers, the low well-being in relation to social participation could be explained by the weakness of the labor movement and the cost it could have for salaried personnel.
While
rituals are not adaptive in students and show a negative association in workers, they are associated with well-being and adjustment in athletes. Evidence supports that the level of collective ritual and its effects are potent in sports contexts where the use of amulets, lucky signs, coordinated chants, and collective celebrations are behaviors of high frequency and significance [
59]. It has been postulated that the use of private rituals is common for coping with competition anxiety [
60,
61]. This study confirms this approach, suggesting that using rituals as a regulation strategy reduces anxiety and helps to focus on the task, allowing for an improvement in performance.
9.4. Differences between Groups on the Frequency of Strategies: Attentional Deployment and Cognitive Change
Regarding the aspect of attention deployment and cognitive change, it was found that students and athletes report using distraction more often than workers as a strategy. Athletes use self-reward, gratitude, reevaluation, and social comparison more frequently than the other two groups.
Workers and athletes use spiritual activities strategies more than students. This shows a greater secularization in young people with higher education than in other groups.
Athletes reevaluate and
self-reward more and have a higher attitude of gratitude than the other two groups—and the effect size was medium high or important. The fact that this group uses all forms of cognitive change and focus on activity corroborates what has been found in other studies [
62,
63]. Although sport is found to be a source of greater satisfaction and flow than study and work [
64], other results qualify this assertion [
65]. It is possible that in the study environment and some work contexts, it is more difficult to find and use positive stimuli to reward oneself. Another explanation is that people may not know how to use these regulation styles in the analyzed areas, even though they are familiar with them.
9.5. Attentional Deployment and Cognitive Change: Reevaluation, Gratitude and Self-Reward as Adaptive Strategies and Rumination and Social Comparison as Inadpative Strategies in Workers and Students
Reevaluation, gratitude, and self-reward were associated with adjustment and overall well-being in general, while distraction was only associated with these variables in students and athletes. Distraction is not adaptive in the workplace probably because the cost of redirecting attention by ignoring problems instead of focusing on them to solve them is probably higher than in the other two areas.
Rumination and social comparison are non-adaptive strategies in students and workers, although they are positively associated with adjustment and well-being in athletes in this and other study [
66]. Although workers report using social comparison at a moderate level, it is negatively associated with well-being in this group. This last result is also found in students. Remember that in general, social comparison has been shown to be a maladaptive regulation strategy [
18]. However, in a competitive context such as team sports, ruminating on thoughts and comparing oneself to others seems to motivate one to perform and feel better as a result.
9.6. Differences between Groups on the Frequency of Strategies: Experience Modification and regulation of Emotional Responses
In the facet of modification of experience and emotional response, it has been found that workers use more inhibition and suppression of emotions than students and athletes, probably due to the greater demands for emotional self-control in the workplace. However, it is important to remark that effect size was small.
Athletes are the ones who report using active physiological regulation more than the other two groups, in line with the fact that the activity they engage in is predominantly physical—effect size was strong and explained variance was 5% or more. Workers use this form of regulation at an intermediate level, and also report using passive physiological regulation more than students—effect size was small. This last result could probably be explained by age and suggests that workers make a greater effort at regulation, although it may not be more adaptive (in the case of passive regulation).
Students and workers report engaging in more discharge, but athletes confront more than students and workers- effect size were from small to medium high. This probably reflects the relative greater acceptance of expressiveness in the study/work environment and the greater need for assertiveness and competitiveness in the sports field.
9.7. Experience Modification and Regulation of Emotional Response: Active Physiological Reaction, Regulated Emotional Expression as Adaptive Strategies and Passive Physiological regulation and Suppression as Inadaptive Strategy
Active physiological regulation shows its adaptive character and passive regulation shows its dysfunctionality as expected. Regulated emotional expression is adaptive in all three groups. Previous studies in this field have shown that self-regulation and regulation of others through suppression are associated with low emotional intelligence and poor psychological adjustment [
67]. These results are replicated in this study, except for the case of athletes. While these strategies have been shown to be maladaptive in other studies, it was found that
both discharge and confrontation were associated with regulated expression of emotions and adjustment in the sample of workers. These results suggest that direct but non-aggressive expression of anger may be an adaptive strategy in the work environment [
32]. On the other hand, the fact that venting is not dysfunctional in sports can be explained, in part, because an ideal emotional profile in sports included, among other traits, being somewhat anxious and a little angry, consistent with the meta-analysis of [
68] on sport psychology and performance.
9.8. Modification of Response of Emotions by Humor and Affection as Adaptive Strategy in Workers and Students
Results show that the
use of humor and affection is associated with adjustment and well-being in workers and students, although not in athletes. This could suggest that the expression of humor and affection plays different roles depending on the analyzed context. It is possible that the sense of competition and commitment in sports leads to humor being considered a distraction -as measured in this study- and that demonstrations of affection are not desirable or are expressed differently in the context of competitive sports, studying, and work. It is important to remember, in the same vein, that there was less acceptance of expressiveness or discharge and greater confrontation in the sports field than among students and workers. Humor styles were also found to be associated with well-being. Consistent with previous studies [
69], in this study,
self-enhancing humor was associated with well-being. Aggressive humor was associated with non-adaptive coping strategies such as confrontation and discharge, suggesting a social integration cost for this style. However, this humor style was also associated with altruism, gratitude, and distraction, which help to obtain social support. Its ambivalent nature can be explained by the fact that it is not negatively associated with well-being. Self-defeating humor, which is usually associated with distress neuroticism and low wellbeing [
26], was found to be associated with non-adaptive strategies such as suppression, passive physiological regulation, confrontation, and delegation, which may explain its general association with distress. However, it was also associated with reappraisal and active physiological regulation. The ambivalent nature of self-defeating humor can be explained by the fact that this style focuses on internal processes. Laughing at oneself as a detached critique can be adaptive, while coping with stress through intense physical exercise can be an externalized form of coping. However, the limitations of the sample size relativize these conclusions.
9.9. Adaptive Regulation like Reevaluation and Active Physiological Regulation Are Related to Emotional Creativity and Creative Solution of Work Conflict
Regarding the relationship between regulation and creativity, it was found that reappraisal and active physiological regulation are associated with emotional creativity as a trait and applied to a task. Emotional creativity trait is associated with innovative responses to solve a labor conflict, confirming that it predicts creative performance. The fact that emotional creativity is associated with regulation strategies that also relate to well-being, and that both indicators correlate with adjustment, suggests that creativity is adaptive and helps people to successfully coping with stress and managing emotions. The results indicate that, in a situation of labor conflict, people who give more creative responses did not choose dysfunctional regulation strategies such as abandon or giving up, or acting as if nothing happened. They also do not suppress their emotions and report more positive reappraisal—which helps personal growth -, use greater active physiological regulation, and information seeking. The results corroborate that low abandonment, finding the positive side of the situation, physical activity, high trait emotional creativity, and low suppression make up an optimal functioning profile for creativity.
9.10. Wellbeing as Dispositional Variable Predicting Adjustment through Adaptive Regulation—Direct Coping, Low Abandonment, Reappraisal, Active Physiological Regulation, and Regulated Expression
The analyses confirmed that well-being predicts an adaptive coping profile, and that these partially mediate between well-being and adjustment, explaining between 10 and 20% of variance. The specific strategies that mediate between these variables are direct coping, low abandonment, reappraisal, active physiological regulation, and regulated expression. These confirm their central role in emotional regulation. Well-being was associated with greater acceptance and discharge, which in turn showed a negative effect on adjustment in this analysis. That is, these strategies mediated negatively. The results suggest that students with higher well-being tend simultaneously to express their emotions intensely while also practicing self-control. Multivariate results suggest that, when eliminating the influence of other adaptive regulation forms, these strategies (discharge and acceptance) have a negative influence, e.g., if the influence of regulated expression of emotions is eliminated, discharge itself does not help adjustment. Acceptance, if the influence of positive reappraisal is eliminated, is not helpful either. These results were found with nuances in the other two groups (mediational analysis not shown). For example, in workers, the effect of well-being on adjustment was shown to be significant through gratitude, low discharge, and high reappraisal. In athletes, acceptance mediated positively between well-being and adjustment.
As study limitations, it is noted that this is a cross-sectional study that prevents making causal statements and that the samples were large but convenience samples. Another limitation is that the reliabilities of some of the scales, like EROs worsening heteroregulation scale and affiliative humor scales—in some of the samples in this study—are low. MARS strategies such as behavioral avoidance and distraction in athletes, rumination and active physiological regulation in students, showed reliabilities below 0.70, although not as low as the previous ones. This limits the scope of the results of this study. Regarding the results of humor and creativity, the small samples do not allow for generalizing the findings, however, they are consistent with previous studies. Future studies need to consider these limitations when comparing different nations and exploring whether regulation strategies are influenced by cultural patterns.