Second-Order Geometry Helps Clarify Relationships between Momentary Emotion Regulation Use and Affect

Resumen de los autores

Understanding how emotion regulation relates to affective experience in everyday life is a central question in affective science. Findings on momentary emotion regulation use and affect have been mixed, with studies observing a wide range of effects for any given strategy–affect pairing. One possible reason for this lies in the assumptions researchers make about the direct (first-order) relationship between momentary emotion regulation and affect when choosing a statistical model. Because many first-order forms are possible (i.e., models relating levels of strategy use to levels of affect), an incorrect analytic decision may misrepresent the true association. We address this by testing regulatory–affect associations through second-order geometry of temporal similarity patterns, specifically via the correspondences between the similarity structures of momentary strategy use and momentary affect. In theory, such an approach would be advantaged in detecting associations because it is agnostic to underlying first-order form. We began by running a simulation study to verify basic assumptions and validate the core logic. We then applied the approach across two samples: an original sample of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data (N=113) covering five regulatory strategies, and a secondary, larger sample (N=843) aggregated from a public database of EMA studies. Across both studies, we find evidence for widely-theorized relationships such as reappraisal and positive affect, and suppression and negative affect. We also find that some emotion regulation strategies with previously mixed or more limited findings such as distraction and situation selection may have non-linear or more complex first-order relationships with affect.

Áreas y palabras clave

Cómo citar (APA 7)

Scheve, B., Sahi, R. S., Silvers, J., & Moreira, J. F. G. (2026). Second-Order Geometry Helps Clarify Relationships between Momentary Emotion Regulation Use and Affect. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cg3d2_v1