This thesis explores the effects of emotional information about characters in text on processing. In five chapters presenting nine experiments in total, readers were presented with emotional characters that occurred either in small texts or in sentences. In the second chapter, it was investigated whether mental representations of entities in sentences are more salient and easier to retrieve due to emotional information. In the third chapter, the effects of emotional information about multiple different characters on processing were explored. The forth chapter presents experiments on perspective taking and how perspective affects the way emotional information is processed. Building up on that, in chapter 5, it was investigated how the mood of the reader influences perspective taking when reading about emotional information. All experiments in the first four chapters used a self-paced reading method to explore effects on reading speed (reading times). Chapter 6, however, presents an eye-tracking experiment set out to explore the effects of perspective on reading behaviour in more detail and to determine where perspective differences arise in the text. Hence, pronoun regions (including perspective cues) across the text were analysed. The findings presented in this thesis gave evidence that readers focus more on emotional characters (that emotional characters are more salient), and that readers also engage more with (emotional) texts when they experience the situation from a personal perspective. All experiments gave evidence that readers track and use emotional information to form a coherent representation of the text.

High trait self-control predicts a successful, healthy, and happy life. Nonetheless, how people with high trait self-control succeed at self-control and attain these outcomes remains unclear. To date, a few studies have linked high trait self-control with effective emotion regulation, and others have linked emotion regulation with enhanced self-control. Building on these insights, along with insights from instrumental emotion regulation, which holds that people regulate emotions to attain goals, this programme of research tests whether people higher in trait self-control use their emotions and emotion regulation to succeed at self-control. Two studies (Study 1: N = 253; Study 2: N = 306) first examined the relations between trait self-control and beliefs about the utility of emotions in everyday situations that varied in self-control type required. Three studies (Study 1: N = 415; Study 2: N = 140; Study 3: N = 210) then explored the links between trait self-control, beliefs about the utility of emotions, and emotion regulation in performance contexts that varied in self-control demand, and how these factors influenced emotions and self-control performance. Convincing evidence was found that people higher, relative to lower, in trait self-control considered positive emotions more useful and negative emotions less useful across situations, although these beliefs did not translate into preferences or choice to regulate emotions. Modest evidence was found that people higher in trait self-control experienced more positive and less negative emotion following a regulatory task, and that more positive and less negative emotion helped people higher in trait self-control to succeed at self-control. Thus, trait self-control predicts beliefs about the utility of emotions, but whether these beliefs translate into behavior depend on context. This research contributes to our understanding of how emotions and emotion regulation might shape self-control success and has the potential to inform the design of interventions to improve people's self-control and help them to attain positive outcomes.