About EROS
EROS is a research project that is studying fundamental and applied questions concerning Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS). The project is a collaboration between researchers from a number of psychological disciplines based at five universities in the UK. It is funded by a large project grant from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that is worth £2.1 m over 4 years (Nov 2008-Oct 2012).
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/esrcinfocentre/viewawardpage.aspx?awardnumber=RES-060-25-0044
The central node in the collaborative research network is based at Sheffield University, and involves involve researchers from Work Psychology, Clinical Neuroscience, and Social Psychology. The other network nodes are at the Universities of Oxford (Experimental Social Psychology), Manchester (Clinical Psychology), Reading (Developmental Psychology), and Wolverhampton (Sports Psychology). The principal investigator is Professor Peter Totterdell from the Institute of Work Psychology.
Aims. The aim of the research project is to advance the understanding of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation refers to the set of automatic and controlled processes involved in initiating, maintaining, and modifying feeling states in self and others. It is goal-directed, oriented to affective consequences in self and others, and implemented in a number of ways (both cognitive and behavioural). Everyday examples include cheering oneself up by doing something enjoyable, making oneself anxious by worrying, angering a colleague by criticising him or her, and calming down an over-excited child. How people regulate emotions can have considerable costs or benefits for their own and other’s well-being and performance, and for the quality of their relationships. Dysfunctional emotion regulation may contribute to many mental health problems (such as bipolar disorder, gambling, alcohol/drug abuse, and road rage) and effective emotion regulation can be vital in high-performance situations (such as competitive sports and safety-critical work). Research that helps understand emotion regulation and how to change it therefore has clear social and economic value.
Objectives. The project plans to meet the following objectives for understanding emotion regulation:
- Provide theoretical development concerning the principal types, antecedents, moderators, and consequences of intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation.
- Evaluate and advance methods for studying emotion regulation in experimental and applied settings.
- Identify the neurophysiological substrates of intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation.
- Elucidate the role and malleability of intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation beliefs and behaviours in determining well-being and behaviour (sports, occupational, clinical, developmental).
- Design and test interventions for enhancing well-being and performance through changing emotion regulation.
Outputs. The project will produce a range of outputs to reach academic and user-group audiences. As well as disseminating our findings via scientific journals, books and conferences, the project will engage with relevant work, health, sport and family user groups. It also plans to host academic and user workshops. News and summaries of the research will be posted on this website.
