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Research Team
Research Team
Anna Sekeres
Anna Sekeres
First Author, Psychology and Neuroscience
Lindsay Lehman
Lindsay Lehman
Second Author, Psychology and Social Work
Carly Ramos
Carly Ramos
Second Author, Psychology
Tiange Dai
Tiange Dai
Graduate Student, Social Psychology Ph.D Candidate
Dr. Darwin Guevarra
Dr. Darwin Guevarra
Mentor, Psychology Department, Ph.D
Introduction
Introduction
Everyone utilizes emotion regulation techniques, both consciously and subconsciously. We are interested in evaluating various emotion regulation techniques based on their perceived effectiveness, ease of use, effort, health, and frequency of use. With this data, we can go forward and explore various questions within this study. Here, we look more specifically at perceived effectiveness, effort, and health.
Exploratory study design to see the perceptions of ten emotion regulation techniques:
Distanced Self-Talk
Acceptance
Exercise
Listen to Music
Seek Social Support
Passive Social Media
Mindfulness
Cognitive Reappraisal
Avoidance
Emotional Eating
Through five lenses:
Effectiveness
Ease
Effort
Health
Frequency
Methods
Methods
Participants: 400 participants recruited through SONA participant pool and Prolific online research platform (18+ years old, fluent in English)
Independent Variables: Participant Group, Video
Dependent Variables: Participant Screening, Self-Report, Individual Difference Measures
No Video (Control): Proceed directly to individual difference measures.
Control Video with Misleading Content: How often people use first-person versus third-person language in everyday life; deception is necessary to match the control video in length, tone, and density, allows for evaluation of how misinformation shapes beliefs.
Belief-Enhancing Video (Female Narrator): Supports the use of distanced self-talk.
Belief-Enhancing Video (Male Narrator): Supports the use of distanced self-talk.
Procedures and Measurements: Cross-Sectional Study
Participants will read descriptions of 10 emotions regulation strategies and rate each one on perceived Effectiveness, Ease of Use, Effortfulness, Heathiness, and Frequency of Use using a Likert Scale.
Participants who viewed a video complete items assessing impression of video and narrator
All participants complete individual difference measures:
DASS-21, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Demographics
Results/Findings and Discussion
Results/Findings and Discussion
Discussion
Our findings suggest that meta-beliefs surrounding emotional regulation strategies are organized systematically, in a way that indicates strategies perceived as more effective are also viewed as more healthy and more effortful. There could be a potential tradeoff in strategy selection, where lower-effort strategies may remain appealing despite being perceived as less effective or less healthy. This may help explain why individuals continue to engage in maladaptive regulation strategies, even when presented with more adaptive alternatives. Future research should examine how these meta-beliefs influence actual behavior, particularly whether people use high-effort strategies less often despite believing they are more effective. Future studies can also test whether changing these beliefs—such as making effective strategies seem less effortful—can increase their use. If supported by further research, targeting these beliefs could help promote healthier and more effective emotion regulation strategies.
Limitations
This study utilized an exploratory, correlational design, which limits the ability to draw causal conclusions about the relationship between meta-beliefs and emotional regulation strategy selection. Additionally, all measures were based on self-reported perceptions, which may not fully reflect individuals' actual use or the real-world effectiveness of these strategies.
Conclusions and Future Study
Conclusions and Future Study
Key Takeaway
Our findings suggest that meta-beliefs about effort, effectiveness, and health are closely linked and play a key role in how individuals choose to regulate their emotions. This highlights the importance of understanding not only which strategies are effective, but how they are perceived.
The following is an image of poster presented at the 2026 Undergraduate Research Forum
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
NACE Career Readiness Competencies
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has published eight career competencies that broadly prepare the college educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. We have chosen four of these competencies that most strongly apply to our research experiences and creating this poster presentation.
Teamwork - This poster was a product of teamwork. From writing section summaries, to creating and captioning graphs, to the creation of this website, we relied on one another and worked as a team throughout the entire process. We had to listen to what each other needed, help one another out, and provide feedback to each other so that we could create the best possible product.
Leadership - Many aspects of leadership went into this process. This task involved a lot of trust, team-building, delegation, and reliability. Each member of this team had a chance to lead an aspect of the project, whether that was data collection, big-picture creation, or individual section description creations.
Professionalism - The 2026 Undergraduate Research Forum marks the first time that the undergraduate members of this research team have formally presented research findings. This meant a lot of practice delivering a poster presentation, working on presentation skills, and exhibiting professional behaviors behind the scenes. This team exhibited dependability, consistency, accountability, and dedication to their research.
Technology - R and R Studio were used in the data analysis and figure creation for this poster. This involved a learning curve in becoming familiar with new software and data analysis skills.
Research Compliance Protocols
Research Compliance Protocols
IRB #02421r
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