Emotion is defined as moving targets that are usually unfelt and unseen (Cole, Martin " Dennis, 2014). The emotions have to be inferred from proof of one's association to surrounding events. Conversely, emotion regulation denotes changes related to activated emotions. These comprise alterations in the emotion itself (changes in duration, intensity) or in some psychological processes (such as social interaction, memory). The three methodological challenges that researchers encounter while studying emotions are choices associated with data interpretations, data collection instruments, and study's setting. This paper seeks to assess the methodological challenges investigators face in studying emotion regulations and emotion and highlighting how they have been solved while preserving the external and internal validity of their research.
Methodological Challenges When Studying Emotion
According to Linnenbrink (2016), concerning the study setting (naturalistic or experimental) emotions are the complex phenomenon which may be affected by a range of factors, comprising individual emotional expressivity, motivation, and current activity. Selecting an experimental setting enables the use of specific data collection instruments, which can’t be utilized in a naturalistic setting (for example neuro-physiological sensors). Nevertheless, the challenge for researchers, in this case, is that the experimental setting itself can effect partakers’ emotions and behavior. For instance, knowing that a person is being observed may induce further anxiety and stress that can cloud other emotions. Additionally, motivation to finish experimental roles cannot easily be compared to the inspiration to involve in the real-life information use/search. An example of how investigators have solved this challenge while preserving the external and internal validity of their research is by cautiously assessing advantages and disadvantages of both research approaches, and when probable, utilizing a mixture of approaches to diminish the negative impacts of naturalists of experimental methods. Concerning how investigators are solving the difficulty in selecting a particular data collection instrument, they often start by talking to colleagues and reviewing comparable studies which are examining similar problems. This is due to differences associated with the complexity and cost. Moreover, instruments differ in obtrusiveness levels, the researcher's skills (FACS) or objectiveness among others.
Lastly, because of the novelty of the research methods for examining emotions as well as disagreements regarding the nature of emotion, there exist several challenges if it comes to interpreting the data. Researcher have to choose the data to be interpreted after the instrument is selected and certain pilot data is gathered. To solve this problem while preserving the external and internal validity of research, investigators have sort that when emotions are short-term experience, short intervals need to be chosen, and when emotions are long-lasting, emotional forms over long intervals need to be analyzed. The literature proposes that the duration of emotion relies on personality types and cultural background, emotional intensity, the type of emotion, and differ from a few seconds to many days and may depend on the kind of the experienced emotion (Linnenbrink, 2016).
Methodological Challenges When Studying Emotions Regulation
For emotional regulations, the first challenge researchers encounter is the difficulty in distinguishing between emotion regulation and the emotion itself (expressed or experienced). Researchers have solved this by using measures, which focus on particular regulatory strategies (like re-appraisal, suppression) that might be more valuable in this regard than measures that emphasize on emotional dysregulation. It thus, appears that the usage of self-report directly questioning concerning the use of particular emotion regulation approaches, or the utilization of experimental protocols needing the partaker to apply specific regulation method are also effective means of handling these difficulties (Cole, Martin " Dennis, 2014).
Another methodological challenge with the use of self-report in the research of emotion regulation involves the fact that retrospective reporting is vulnerable reply biases as well it doesn't enable capturing emotion regulation as it happens. Also, self-report for the assessment of emotion regulation is the often co-occurring shortages in the emotional awareness that can deter participants having lower emotion regulation ability from accurately examining themselves. Self-report as well most probably suffers from the challenge participants might encounter in differentiating between motion, and its regulation. An example of how the investigators have solved these issues is by the use of ecological monetary assessment methodology; however, according to Cole, Martin, and Dennis (2014), this methodology continues to be comparatively novel besides its validity persisting to be unclear.
Finally, observational methods have the difficulty while enquiring the manner in which individuals generally cope with emotions, without singling out a particular emotion regulation strategy is also a challenge. This is mainly problematic since persons tend to utilize different emotion regulation approaches to control various emotional conditions in dissimilar psychopathologies (Cole, Martin " Dennis, 2014). To overcome these challenge by investigators while preserving external and internal validity, they use multi-method strategy with many measures of emotion regulation.
In conclusion, methodological challenges and ways to solve them have been discussed on emotion and emotion regulation. The emotion methodological challenges that investigators encounter when studying emotions are selections associated with data interpretations, study’s setting and data collection instruments. On the other hand, difficulties linked to emotion regulations include; problems in differentiating between emotion regulation as well as the emotion itself; challenges related to self-report, and observational problems.
References
Cole, P. M., Martin, S. E., " Dennis, T. A. (2014). Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: Methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child development, 75(2), 317-333.
Linnenbrink, E. A. (2016). Emotion research in education: Theoretical and methodological perspectives on the integration of affect, motivation, and cognition. Educational Psychology Review, 18(4), 307-314.
