Through the Looking Glass: Temperament and Emotion as Separate and Interwoven Constructs

Abstract

The regulation of emotion is essential to adaptive functioning. Whether to hide our disappointment, keep calm, or pump up our excitement, modifying our emotions to achieve our goals is a daily endeavor that in some circumstances and for some individuals requires significant effort. Because the ability to regulate emotions becomes more flexible and improved with age, it is considered a core developmental task with wide-ranging implications and consequences for intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning. In addition, emotion regulation is of scientific interest because it can be examined at multiple levels (e.g., genetic, neurobiological, behavioral, cognitive, social) making it an ideal construct to examine the integration of these levels across development. Despite its developmental significance, emotion regulation continues to have conceptual challenges that enliven the field while research in emotion regulation has produced exciting and provocative findings. In this chapter, we review the different but overlapping conceptualizations of emotion regulation followed by an examination of its development across the lifespan. We also discuss the different methods for evaluating emotion regulation at different age points. The role of parenting and socialization in the development of emotion regulation as well as the developmental consequences of emotion regulation are also considered. Finally, we end with a number of recommendations for future research.