Meta-Emotion-Regulation: Influencing Emotion Regulation Behavior

If the short-term effectiveness or long-term adaptivity of emotion regulation (ER) depends on the specific ER (covert or overt) behaviors that are executed, it is important to know what it is that leads to those (more or less adaptive or maladaptive) behaviors. While, in brief, ER refers to influencing emotions, meta-emotion-regulation (MER) refers to influencing ER. We show how the concept of MER extends previous ideas and propose potential targets of MER. Furthermore, we derive potential MER strategies, tactics, and techniques that may help increase desirable and decrease undesirable ER behavior, opening up a whole new field of investigation for ER research that could lead to new and refined interventions and treatments. We also introduce the idea of a Hierarchical Taxonomy of Meta-Emotion-Regulation (HiTOM) and other promising ways to move forward.