Having Befuddled Feelings: The Effects of Suppression on Emotional Clarity and Self-Control

Past research has generally indicated that expressive suppression is a rather ineffective and maladaptive emotion regulation strategy. The present study extends the negative outcomes associated with expressive suppression to the domain of self-control. Specifically, the present study incorporates the process of emotion regulation into the cybernetic model of self-regulation, hypothesizing that 1) the habitual use of expressive suppression is negatively associated with self-control, and 2) that this association should be mediated by lower emotional clarity. The results support our hypotheses. After controlling for social desirability, habitual use of expressive suppression was associated with poorer self-control through lower emotional clarity. Finally, issues concerning the weak association between expressive suppression and self-control, study limitations, and future research directions are discussed.