Emotions are a central part of our lives and the ability to effectively regulate them is central to well-being. Although a lot of research shows the beneficial role of sleep on emotional reactivity and regulation, little is known about how dream emotions relate to emotional reactivity and regulation. The current study investigated how dreams with high vs low levels of self-rated negative dream affect related to next-day waking emotional reactivity and regulation. Participants kept a home dream diary until reporting dreams on five days. They also reported dream and wake emotions and performed an online emotional reactivity and regulation task. Opposing predictions were derived from the continuity hypothesis and from the emotion regulation theories of dreaming. However, no significant differences were found between emotional reactivity and regulation on mornings following dreams with high vs low negative affect. Thus, no support was provided for the direct predictions made from the two theories. Nevertheless, morning wake affect differed significantly as a function of dream emotions. Specifically, participants reported significantly higher levels of positive emotions on mornings after a dream low, rather than high, in negative affect. Similarly, wake morning negative affect was higher following dreams high, rather than low, in negative affect. Thus, the results support a form of affective continuity between dreams and morning wakefulness.

This thesis deals with the emotion regulation. The author presents a theoretical concept of emotion regulation and deals with the theoretical development of emotion regulation across the human lifespan. In the empirical part, the author presents three papers. The first deals with the emotion regulation in relation to the health of the individual. The study shows that unhealthy individuals suppress significantly more emotions and affective phenomena compared to healthy individuals. The second study deals with the display rules of basic emotions in a sample of Czech undergraduate students. The last paper is a cross-cultural survey comparing the frequency of emotions experienced by its participants and the emotion regulation strategies in the group of Czech and Slovak undergraduate students. Emotion regulation in this study appears to be a significant factor of cultural differences: Slovak participants access open and authentic expression of emotions significantly more often than the Czech participants. The presented thesis is a contribution to the existing understanding of emotion regulation with regard to the development, health and culture of the individual. Keywords Emotion Emotion regulation Development of emotion regulation Health Culture

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Background: Despite evidence that caring for a spouse or partner with dementia may continue over a number of years, our understanding of how the carer’s experience unfolds over time is still in its infancy. In addition, the emotional experience of spousal dementia carers has been incompletely understood in research and clinical practice with a predominant focus upon negative emotional consequences. There is a need to contextualise the emotional experience of carers within a framework that enables understanding of positive aspects of the care experience. Objective: This thesis is in two parts. Part one uses systematic review to critically evaluate evidence from published longitudinal studies that assess the impact of care transition (caring for spouse at home and placed spouse in care home) on the well-being of spousal dementia carers. Part two is an empirical study examining emotion regulation and positive growth in spouses who care for their partner with a diagnosis of dementia. Methods: Systematic review of longitudinal studies that assess the impact of care transition on spousal carer well-being. The empirical study comprised a cross-sectional design comparing positive growth and emotion regulation in three carer groups (caring for spouse at home, placed spouse in care home or experienced death of spouse). 183 carers were recruited through a postal survey which comprised the following self-report measures: Post Traumatic Growth Inventory; Basic Emotions Scale; and Regulation of Emotions Questionnaire. Systematic Review Results: Despite poorer psychological and physical well-being over time compared with non-carers, symptoms of depression, perceived burden and stress are stable over time for those who continue to care for their spouse at home. Mixed results are obtained for carer well-being when examining transition to permanent placement in care home and impede definitive conclusions. Empirical Study Results: Spousal carers report more frequent feelings of fear and frustration compared to other basic emotions. Gender and care transition impact upon the experience and regulation of emotion and positive growth. Internalising emotion regulation strategies (for example, rumination) are associated with greater fear and frustration, sadness and guilt while strategies comprising social support seeking are associated with feelings of happiness in carers. Spouses report positive growth since taking on the role of carer and this is predicted in part by social support seeking emotion regulation strategies but not by experience of emotions. Conclusions: Spousal carers are not a homogenous group. Further research on the experience of spousal dementia carers is required. This should include the development of tools and methods tailored to capture emotion regulation. The concept of positive growth following stressful events (for example, becoming a carer) may have potential for presenting an enriched understanding of the emotional consequences of the carer experience over time.

The objectives of this mixed-method intervention study were: (1) To examine idiosyncratic profiles of emotions and performance of 3-4 leading handball team players in successful and less successful games and identify their strengths and limitations in emotion-concentration regulation; (2) To develop, implement, and evaluate an intervention program aimed at optimizing the players' emotion-concentration regulation and performance. The participants (n= 4, age= 24,5) consisted of four female elite handball players from the same team. An emotion-performance profiling process was conducted to facilitate objective one. To facilitate objective two, a small group IZOF based short term intervention was developed and implemented. The participants’ emotion-performance profiles are presented. The evaluation of the intervention indicated that the intervention increased the participants’ awareness and knowledge, and stimulated psychological skills development (i.e., emotion regulation and concentration). Methodological issues,future directions, and implications are discussed.

Introduction: Experiences of negative parenting and childhood abuse can have adverse consequences for the child‟s development particularly in relation to the ability to regulate emotions effectively. There has been extensive research in this area and attachment theory is pivotal. Problems in regulating emotions can involve not being able to recognise, label or manage internal and external states of mind and behaviour. Therefore research has shown that problems in emotion regulation skills due to negative parental and/or abusive experiences can result in long-term psychosocial problems such as depression. Research has suggested that adults with adverse childhood experiences exhibit risky behaviours as a means of managing their emotions such as self-harming, dangerous sexual encounters and substance misuse. Although research has shown that there is an association between these factors no real understanding of the pathways and the potential mediating roles these factors play has been investigated with people presenting with suicidal behaviour, which could be argued as the ultimate form of managing emotions and therefore the internal and external self. Therefore this study aims to answer the following question: Does childhood abuse and dysfunctional emotion regulation mediate the relationship between parental bonding and suicidal behaviour. Method: This study involved sixty participants from a suicidal behaviour sample presenting at an Accident and Emergency department aged between 18 - 65. Measures assessing childhood abuse, emotion regulation, parental bonding, suicidal intent, risk of repeating suicidal behaviour, depression and anxiety were completed. Results: Childhood emotional abuse was found to significantly mediate the relationship between low parental care and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. A lack of external functional emotion regulation strategies was also found to mediate the relationship between parental care and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Finally, a lack of internal functional emotion regulation strategies was found to mediate the relationship between childhood physical abuse and risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Conclusion: Preliminary findings of this study suggest that childhood emotional abuse and dysfunctional emotion regulation play a crucial role in further understanding those who engage in and are at risk of repeating suicidal behaviour. Therefore, emotions and emotion regulation within a developmental framework are important when considering long-term adult psychosocial functioning.

Envy is a painful emotion that can negatively impact one’s self-worth. It is also a shameful, socially undesirable emotion, implying both inferiority and hostility. Some scholars suggest that these features of envy lead to a need to cope with the emotion. Thus, over time, envy tends to be transformed into more socially acceptable responses such as resentment or dislike. The present study tested this claim. First, envy was manipulated by asking participants to read an article containing an interview with either a high- or low-envy target. The second article manipulated the likeability of the target by varying whether or not he or she made an arrogant statement. Finally, a third article indicated that the target had suffered a misfortune. Although, as predicted, envy decreased, the manipulation of likeability did not affect this decrease. Consistent with predictions, resentment increased after the second article and this was more likely when the target was dislikeable than when the target was likeable. Finally, the participants felt greater schadenfreude when the dislikeable target suffered than when the likeable target suffered and marginally more schadenfreude when the target was more enviable. Clearly, envy dissipated over time, but further research is needed to determine precisely why.