emotion regulation ability scale

The Emotion Regulation Scale (ERS) is currently the most widely used emotion regulation ability assessment tool in the field of clinical psychology and psychological research in the world. Its core value is to identify individuals' commonly used emotion regulation patterns, rather than to judge the individual's "emotion management ability" - this is the most common misunderstanding that most non-professional users make when they first come into contact with it.

Last month, I met a girl who was an Internet content operator in the consulting room. The first thing she said when she came in was red-eyed. She said that she had taken this scale online and only scored 31 out of 60. "It turns out that I am a waste who can't even manage my emotions well." I took a look at her score details and laughed: 27 points in the cognitive reappraisal dimension, and only 4 points in expressive suppression. This is not "poor emotional management". It is obvious that she never holds back her emotions. She speaks out on the spot when she is unhappy, and turns around to complain to her friends when she feels wronged. Compared with those who hold back their emotions to the point of breast hyperplasia, I don't know how much less suffering they have suffered.

Interestingly, academic circles and clinical practitioners have been arguing for almost ten years about whether this scale can be used for ordinary people to self-assess. Scholars from the classical emotion theory school insist that this scale was originally designed for statistical analysis of scientific research samples. Ordinary people do not have the ability to interpret it. It is easy for them to use the total score to label themselves negatively like this girl, which will create new anxiety. But those of us who are consulting on the front line feel that as long as the interpretation rules are explained clearly, this scale is more reliable than 90% of the "emotion management tests" on the market. After all, it has been verified cross-culturally for more than 30 years, and its reliability and validity are stable above 0.8. It is not an IQ tax created by the self-media.

Last year, I met a boy who works in technology. He found a pirated scale and found that his expression inhibition score was very high. So he listened to the advice on the Internet and forced himself to "vent when he has emotions." As a result, he directly criticized the product with unreasonable demand in the meeting last week, and was slapped with low performance when he turned around, which made him even more internally consumed. I checked the normative data for him and found that men's expression inhibition scores are generally 5-8 points higher than women's, especially those who work in technology and R&D. This high score is not a problem at all. Instead, it can help you eliminate emotional interference and concentrate on solving problems. If you insist on changing your own adjustment mode, you will only find trouble.

In fact, after you take this scale, you don't have to focus on the total score to calculate whether you "passed or failed." You just need to look at the score difference between the two core dimensions. To put it bluntly, cognitive reappraisal means whether you can "think about the problem from another perspective." For example, if the takeout is half an hour late, instead of being angry, you think, "My brother may have fallen on the road, so it's too late." This is a strong cognitive reappraisal ability. ； Expressive inhibition refers to whether you can "hold back your emotions and not have an attack." For example, you can still smile and say "I will change it right away" even though you are scolded by the leader. This is the ability of expressive inhibition.

A visitor who was a drama actor came to us specifically to take this test. His cognitive reappraisal score was very low, and he easily got stuck in his emotions when something happened. He had a low self-esteem because of this before. But we told him that this is actually an advantage for you. Creative work requires emotional sensitivity. If you can think of everything quickly, the role you perform will not be tense. After he returned, he no longer forced himself to "regulate his emotions." Last month, he told us that he won the best actor award in a small theater.

Oh, by the way, a reminder, the versions of the scales that can be found on the Internet are in a mess now. If you really want to take the test, just look for the 6-question simplified version revised by the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017. It can be completed in 1 minute. There are domestic norms for the general population to compare with. Those that often have dozens of questions and claim to be able to test your "emotional intelligence" are basically modified blindly and have no reference value.

In fact, at the end of the day, this scale is just like the blood test you go to the hospital for. High white blood cells does not mean that you are "bad", it just means that you may have inflammation and need to be adjusted. There is no perfect way to regulate your emotions. As long as you feel comfortable and it doesn't affect your normal work and life, it doesn't matter whether your score is high or low.