Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Do people really fare better if they can rely on many social ties? Research suggests that benefits of interpersonal emotion regulation (ER) can be derived from both large and small social networks. Building on the intrapersonal regulatory flexibility model, we propose the emotion regulation repertoire of social support (ERROSS) model that views effective socioemotional support as the combination of network size and ER strategies, resulting in a repertoire of ER resources one can draw on. Best outcomes in mental health should follow from both a large network and a diverse repertoire of strategies. ERROSS is applied as an example in the context of bereavement, and specific contributions of the model are highlighted.

Keywords

bereavement emotion regulation interpersonal emotion regulation social support

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aldao

Jazaieri

Goldin

P. R.

Gross

J. J.

(2014). Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies: Interactive effects during CBT for social anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 28(4), 382–389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.03.005

Aldao

Nolen-Hoeksema

(2013). One versus many: Capturing the use of multiple emotion regulation strategies in response to an emotion-eliciting stimulus. Cognition and Emotion, 27(4), 753–760. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2012.739998

Armstrong

B. F.

Kammrath

L. K.

(2015). Depth and breadth tactics in support seeking. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(1), 39–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614546049

Baarsen

Broese van Groenou

M. I.

(2001). Partner loss in later life: Gender differences in coping shortly after bereavement. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 6(3), 243–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/108114401753201688

Berkman

L. F.

Leo-Summers

Horwitz

R. I.

(1992). Emotional support and survival after myocardial infarction. A prospective, population-based study of the elderly. Annals of Internal Medicine, 117(12), 1003–1009.

Bodenmann

(1997). Dyadic coping: A systemic-transactional view of stress and coping among couples: Theory and empirical findings. European Review of Applied Psychology/Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée, 47(2), 137–141.

Bolger

Amarel

(2007). Effects of social support visibility on adjustment to stress: Experimental evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(3), 458–475. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.3.458

Bolger

Zuckerman

Kessler

R. C.

(2000). Invisible support and adjustment to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 953–961.

Bonanno

G. A.

Burton

C. L.

(2013). Regulatory flexibility: An individual differences perspective on coping and emotion regulation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(6), 591–612. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613504116

10.

Bonanno

G. A.

Papa

Lalande

Westphal

Coifman

(2004). The importance of being flexible: The ability to both enhance and suppress emotional expression predicts long-term adjustment. Psychological Science, 15(7), 482–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00705.x

11.

Bowlby

(1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. Basic Books.

12.

Burke

L. A.

Neimeyer

R. A.

McDevitt-Murphy

M. E.

(2010). African American homicide bereavement: Aspects of social support that predict complicated grief, PTSD, and depression. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 61(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.61.1.a

13.

Burton

C. L.

Yan

O. H.

Pat-Horenczyk

Chan

I. S. F.

Bonanno

G. A.

(2012). Coping flexibility and complicated grief: A comparison of American and Chinese samples. Depression and Anxiety, 29(1), 16–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20888

14.

Butler

E. A.

(2015). Interpersonal affect dynamics: It takes two (and time) to tango. Emotion Review, 7, 336–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073915590622

15.

Butler

E. A.

Randall

A. K.

(2013). Emotion coregulation in close relationships. Emotion Review, 5, 202–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073912451630

16.

Caserta

M. S.

Lund

D. A.

(2007). Toward the development of an inventory of daily widowed life (IDWL): Guided by the dual process model of coping with bereavement. Death Studies, 31(6), 505–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481180701356761

17.

Cheung

E. O.

Gardner

W. L.

Anderson

J. F.

(2015). Emotionships: Examining people’s emotion regulation relationships and their consequences for well-being. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(4), 407–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614564223

18.

Chu

P. S.

Saucier

D. A.

Hafner

(2010). Meta-analysis of the relationships between social support and well-being in children and adolescents. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(6), 624–645. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2010.29.6.624

19.

Coan

J. A.

Schaefer

H. S.

Davidson

R. J.

(2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–1039. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x

20.

Cohen

(1988). Psychosocial models of social support in the etiology of physical disease. Health Psychology, 7, 269–297.

21.

Cohen

Doyle

W. J.

Skoner

D. P.

Rabin

B. S.

Gwaltney

J. M.

Jr. (1997). Social ties and susceptibility to the common cold. JAMA, 277(24), 1940–1944. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1997.03540480040036

22.

Cohen

Wills

T. A.

(1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.98.2.310

23.

Coyle

C. E.

Dugan

(2012). Social isolation, loneliness and health among older adults. Journal of Aging and Health, 24(8), 1346–1363. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898264312460275

24.

Cutrona

C. E.

Russell

(1990). Types of social support and specific stress: Toward a theory of optimal matching. In Sarason

I. G.

Sarason

B. R.

Pierce

(Eds.), Social support: An interactional view (pp. 319–366). Wiley.

25.

Cutrona

C. E.

Russell

D. W.

Gardner

K. A.

(2005). The relationship enhancement model of social support. In Revenson

T. A.

Kayser

Bodenmann

(Eds.), Decade of behavior. Couples coping with stress: Emerging perspectives on dyadic coping (pp. 73–95). American Psychological Association.

26.

Debrot

Schoebi

Perrez

Horn

A. B.

(2013). Touch as an interpersonal emotion regulation process in couples’ daily lives: The mediating role of psychological intimacy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(10), 1373–1385. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213497592

27.

Diminich

E. D.

Bonanno

G. A.

(2014). Faces, feelings, words: Divergence across channels of emotional responding in complicated grief. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123(2), 350–361. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036398

28.

Dixon-Gordon

K. L.

Bernecker

S. L.

Christensen

(2015). Recent innovations in the field of interpersonal emotion regulation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 3, 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.02.001

29.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

Spoors

(1995). Social networks, support cliques, and kinship. Human Nature, 6(3), 273–290. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734142

30.

Gable

S. L.

Gonzaga

G. C.

Strachman

(2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 904–917. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.904

31.

Gable

S. L.

Reis

H. T.

Impett

E. A.

Asher

E. R.

(2004). What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(2), 228–245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.2.228

32.

Gleason

M. E.

Iida

Shrout

P. E.

Bolger

(2008). Receiving support as a mixed blessing: Evidence for dual effects of support on psychological outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94(5), 824–838. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.5.824

33.

Gross

J. J.

(1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271

34.

Gross

J. J.

(2015a). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781

35.

Gross

J. J.

(2015b). The extended process model of emotion regulation: Elaborations, applications, and future directions. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 130–137. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2015.989751

36.

Gross

J. J.

John

O. P.

(2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348

37.

Gupta

Bonanno

G. A.

(2011). Complicated grief and deficits in emotional expressive flexibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120(3), 635–643. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023541

38.

Gurung

R. A.

Taylor

S. E.

Seeman

T. E.

(2003). Accounting for changes in social support among married older adults: Insights from the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Psychology and Aging, 18(3), 487–496. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.18.3.487

39.

Hansen

L. R.

Pedersen

S. B.

Overgaard

Torp-Pedersen

Ullits

L. R

. (2017). Associations between the structural and functional aspects of social relations and poor mental health: A cross-sectional register study. BMC Public Health, 17(1), article 860. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4871-x

40.

Hether

H. J.

Murphy

S. T.

Valente

T. W.

(2016). A social network analysis of supportive interactions on prenatal sites. Digital Health. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207616628700

41.

Hill

R. A.

Dunbar

R. I. M.

(2003). Social network size in humans. Human Nature, 14(1), 53–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-003-1016-y

42.

Hofmann

S. G.

Carpenter

J. K.

Curtiss

(2016). Interpersonal Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (IERQ): Scale development and psychometric characteristics. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(3), 341–356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-016-9756-2

43.

Holt-Lunstad

Smith

T. B.

Baker

Harris

Stephenson

(2015). Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 10(2), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691614568352

44.

Holt-Lunstad

Smith

T. B.

Layton

J. B.

(2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Med, 7(7), Article e1000316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

45.

Horn

A. B.

Maercker

. (2016). Intra- and interpersonal emotion regulation and adjustment symptoms in couples: The role of co-brooding and co-reappraisal. BMC Psychology, 4, article 51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-016-0159-7

46.

Horn

A. B.

Samson

A. C.

Debrot

Perrez

(2018). Positive humor in couples as interpersonal emotion regulation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407518788197

47.

Horowitz

M. J.

Siegel

Holen

Bonanno

G. A.

Milbrath

Stinson

C. H.

(1997). Diagnostic criteria for complicated grief disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 154(7), 904–910. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.154.7.904

48.

House

J. S.

Kahn

R. L.

(1985). Measures and concepts of social support. Academic Press.

49.

Huxhold

Fiori

K. L.

Windsor

T. D.

(2013). The dynamic interplay of social network characteristics, subjective well-being, and health: The costs and benefits of socio-emotional selectivity. Psychology and Aging, 28(1), 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030170

50.

Kawachi

Berkman

L. F.

(2001). Social ties and mental health. Journal of Urban Health, 78(3), 458–467. https://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.3.458

51.

Koole

S. L.

(2009). The psychology of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Cognition and Emotion, 23(1), 4–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930802619031

52.

Lazarus

R. S.

Folkman

(1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer Publishing Company.

53.

Levy-Gigi

Bonanno

G. A.

Shapiro

A. R.

Richter-Levin

Kéri

Sheppes

(2016). Emotion regulatory flexibility sheds light on the elusive relationship between repeated traumatic exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Clinical Psychological Science, 4(1), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702615577783

54.

Levy-Gigi

Shamay-Tsoory

S. G.

(2017). Help me if you can: Evaluating the effectiveness of interpersonal compared to intrapersonal emotion regulation in reducing distress. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 55, 33–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2016.11.008

55.

Lin

Ensel

W. M.

(1999). Social support and depressed mood: A structural analysis. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 40(4), 344–359. https://doi.org/10.2307/2676330

56.

Lund

Modvig

Due

Holstein

B. E.

(2000). Stability and change in structural social relations as predictor of mortality among elderly women and men. European Journal of Epidemiology, 16(12), 1087–1097.

57.

Lyyra

T. M.

Heikkinen

R. L.

(2006). Perceived social support and mortality in older people. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 61(3), S147–S152. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/61.3.S147

58.

Martire

L. M.

Stephens

M. A.

Townsend

A. L.

(1998). Emotional support and well-being of midlife women: Role-specific mastery as a mediational mechanism. Psychology and Aging, 13(3), 396–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.13.3.396

59.

McDowell

T. L.

Serovich

J. M.

(2007). The effect of perceived and actual social support on the mental health of HIV-positive persons. AIDS Care, 19(10), 1223–1229. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540120701402830

60.

Morelli

S. A.

Lee

I. A.

Arnn

M. E.

Zaki

(2015). Emotional and instrumental support provision interact to predict well-being. Emotion, 15(4), 484–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000084

61.

Nils

Rimé

(2012). Beyond the myth of venting: Social sharing modes determine the benefits of emotional disclosure. European Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 672–681. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1880

62.

Niven

(2017). The four key characteristics of interpersonal emotion regulation. Current Opinion in Psychology, 17, 89–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.06.015

63.

Niven

Garcia

van der Lowe

Holman

Mansell

(2015). Becoming popular: Interpersonal emotion regulation predicts relationship formation in real life social networks. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, Article 1452. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01452

64.

Niven

Holman

Totterdell

(2012). How to win friendship and trust by influencing people: An investigation of interpersonal affect regulation and the quality of relationships. Human Relations, 65, 777–805. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712439909

65.

Niven

Macdonald

Holman

(2012). You spin me right round: Cross-relationship variability in interpersonal emotion regulation. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, Article 394. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00394

66.

Niven

Totterdell

Holman

(2009). A classification of controlled interpersonal affect regulation strategies. Emotion, 9(4), 498–509. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015962

67.

Niven

Totterdell

Stride

C. B.

Holman

(2011). Emotion regulation of others and self (EROS): The development and validation of a new individual difference measure. Current Psychology, 30(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-011-9099-9

68.

Nordin

Westerholm

Alfredsson

Akerstedt

(2012). Social support and sleep. Longitudinal relationships from the WOLF-study. Psychology, 3(12), 1223–1230. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.312A181

69.

Orcutt

H. K.

Bonanno

G. A.

Hannan

S. M.

Miron

L. R.

(2014). Prospective trajectories of posttraumatic stress in college women following a campus mass shooting. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(3), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21914

70.

Pressman

S. D.

Cohen

Miller

G. E.

Barkin

Rabin

B. S.

Treanor

J. J.

(2005). Loneliness, social network size, and immune response to influenza vaccination in college freshmen. Health Psychology, 24(3), 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.24.3.297

71.

Reinhardt

J. P.

Boerner

Horowitz

(2006). Good to have but not to use: Differential impact of perceived and received support on well-being. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23(1), 117–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407506060182

72.

Reis

H. T.

Clark

M. S.

Holmes

J. G.

(2004). Perceived partner responsiveness as an organizing construct in the study of closeness and intimacy. In Mashek

D. J.

Aron

(Eds.), Handbook of closeness and intimacy (pp. 201–225). Erlbaum.

73.

Rimé

(2009). Emotion elicits the social sharing of emotion: Theory and empirical review. Emotion Review, 1, 60–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073908097189

74.

Rook

K. S.

(2001). Emotional health and positive versus negative social exchanges: A daily diary analysis. Applied Developmental Science, 5(2), 86–97. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0502_4

75.

Seeman

. (2008). Support & social conflict: Section One – Social support. Psychosocial Notebook. http://www.macses.ucsf.edu/research/psychosocial/socsupp.php

76.

Seeman

T. E.

Lusignolo

T. M.

Albert

Berkman

(2001). Social relationships, social support, and patterns of cognitive aging in healthy, high-functioning older adults: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Health Psychology, 20(4), 243–255. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.20.4.243

77.

Shapiro

E. R

. (2001). Grief in interpersonal perspective: Theories and their implications. In Stroebe

M. S.

Hansson

R. O.

Stroebe

Schut

(Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping and care (pp. 301–327). American Psychological Association.

78.

Shear

M. K.

(2010). Complicated grief treatment: The theory, practice and outcomes. Bereavement Care, 29(3), 10–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02682621.2010.522373

79.

Shear

M. K.

(2012). Grief and mourning gone awry: Pathway and course of complicated grief. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 14(2), 119–128.

80.

Shear

M. K.

Simon

Wall

Zisook

Neimeyer

Duan

Reynolds

Lebowitz

Sung

Ghesquiere

Gorscak

Clayton

Ito

Nakajima

Konishi

Melhem

Meert

Schiff

O’Connor

M.-F.

. . . Keshaviah

(2011). Complicated grief and related bereavement issues for DSM-5. Depression and Anxiety, 28(2), 103–117. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20780

81.

Shrout

P. E.

Herman

C. M.

Bolger

(2006). The costs and benefits of practical and emotional support on adjustment: A daily diary study of couples experiencing acute stress. Personal Relationships, 13, 115–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6811.2006.00108.x

82.

Stelle

C. D.

Uchida

(2004). The stability and change in the social support networks of widowers following spousal bereavement. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 13(1), 85–105. https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.1301.85

83.

Stiller

Dunbar

R. I. M.

(2007). Perspective-taking and memory capacity predict social network size. Social Networks, 29(1), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socnet.2006.04.001

84.

Stroebe

Schut

(2010). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: A decade on. OMEGA: Journal of Death and Dying, 61(4), 273–289. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.61.4.b

85.

Stroebe

Schut

Stroebe

M. S.

(2005). Grief work, disclosure and counseling: Do they help the bereaved? Clinical Psychology Review, 25(4), 395–414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2005.01.004

86.

Uchino

B. N.

(2004). Pathways linking social support to health outcomes. Yale University Press.

87.

Van der Houwen

Stroebe

Schut

van den Bout

Wijngaards-de Meij

. (2010). Risk factors for bereavement outcome: A multivariate approach. Death Studies, 34(3), 195–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1988.tb02079.x

88.

Webb

T. L.

Miles

Sheeran

(2012). Dealing with feeling: A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of strategies derived from the process model of emotion regulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 775–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027600

89.

Westphal

Seivert

N. H.

Bonanno

G. A.

(2010). Expressive flexibility. Emotion, 10(1), 92–100. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018420

90.

Williams

W. C.

Morelli

S. A.

Ong

D. C.

Zaki

(2018). Interpersonal emotion regulation: Implications for affiliation, perceived support, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000132

91.

Zaki

Williams

W. C.

(2013). Interpersonal emotion regulation. Emotion, 13(5), 803–810. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033839

92.

Zee

K. S.

Bolger

(2019). Visible and invisible social support: How, why, and when. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(3), 314–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721419835214

Can Less Ever Be More? A Model of Emotion Regulation Repertoire of Social Support (ERROSS)

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References