Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)

Abstract

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) is a widely used psychological instrument designed to assess individual differences in the habitual deployment of two primary forms of emotion regulation. Developed by Gross and John (2003), the scale is composed of 10 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale. It specifically targets the differential use of cognitive reappraisal, an antecedent-focused strategy involving changing the way one thinks about a potentially emotional situation, and expressive suppression, a response-focused strategy involving inhibiting behavioral manifestations of emotion. The ERQ has demonstrated robust psychometric properties across diverse samples, making it an essential tool for research investigating affect, social relationships, and well-being.

Keywords

Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), Cognitive Reappraisal, Expressive Suppression, Emotion Regulation, Affect, Psychological Assessment, Individual Differences, Psychometrics

Authors

Gross, J.J., John, O.P.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire is to quantify the degree to which individuals habitually employ two major strategies for managing their emotional experiences and expressions. This assessment is crucial for understanding how different regulatory styles influence psychological outcomes, including overall affect, quality of relationships, and general well-being.

The scale was rationally derived to provide clear, distinct measures of reappraisal and suppression, carefully avoiding conflation with items that measure the consequences of these strategies (e.g., positive or negative outcomes for social functioning). This focus ensures that the instrument specifically measures the process of emotion regulation itself, rather than its resulting impact.

Construct

The ERQ measures two distinct, yet commonly utilized, processes within the broader framework of emotion regulation theory:

• Cognitive Reappraisal (Reappraisal Scale): This strategy involves reinterpreting the meaning of an emotion-eliciting situation in a way that alters its emotional impact. It is considered an antecedent-focused strategy because it occurs early in the emotion-generative process. Items assessing this construct focus on changing one’s thoughts about a situation to control emotions, applicable to both positive and negative emotional experiences.
• Expressive Suppression (Suppression Scale): This strategy involves inhibiting the behavioral expression of an emotional state, often by masking facial expressions or verbal indicators. It is considered a response-focused strategy as it occurs later in the emotion-generative process, after the emotion has already been experienced. Items assessing this construct focus on keeping emotions contained or controlling their expression.

The scale structure ensures that both positive emotions (e.g., joy, amusement) and negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger) are included as targets for regulation within the items, providing a comprehensive assessment of general regulatory habits.

Validity

The validity of the ERQ is supported by its clear theoretical foundation and consistent empirical findings regarding its relationship with various psychological outcomes. The instrument was designed to isolate the regulatory processes, thereby avoiding confounding effects with affective or social consequences, which enhances its construct validity.

In terms of criterion and predictive validity, the use of cognitive reappraisal has generally been associated with more positive outcomes, including reduced negative affect and greater well-being. Conversely, the habitual use of expressive suppression has been linked to negative consequences, such as increased physiological arousal and difficulties in interpersonal relationships, providing strong evidence for the differential predictive power of the two subscales.

Furthermore, early psychometric results demonstrated validity by supporting hypotheses related to demographic differences; specifically, the finding that minority status was associated with greater use of suppression, while reappraisal use showed no significant ethnic differences, supports the scale’s ability to capture meaningful variance in emotion regulation behavior related to social context.

Reliability

The psychometrics of the ERQ demonstrate reliable measurement properties across different samples and over time. Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach’s alpha, was strong for both subscales:

• The average alpha reliability for the Reappraisal scale was .79.
• The average alpha reliability for the Suppression scale was .73.

In addition to internal consistency, temporal stability was assessed using test-retest reliability over a 3-month interval. The results indicated good stability, with a test-retest coefficient of .69 reported for both the Reappraisal scale and the Suppression scale. These figures indicate that the ERQ provides consistent measures of stable, habitual individual differences in emotion regulation strategies.

Factor Analysis

Although the source content does not explicitly detail the factor analysis results (e.g., eigenvalues or factor loadings), the development process explicitly resulted in two distinct, rationally derived subscales, strongly implying a two-factor structure. This structure corresponds directly to the two theoretical constructs the scale is intended to measure: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.

The items were designed to load cleanly onto one of these two factors, ensuring that the scale accurately captures the independent variance associated with antecedent-focused regulation versus response-focused regulation. Subsequent confirmatory factor analyses in derivative studies have consistently supported this two-factor model, confirming that the ERQ measures two separable dimensions of emotion regulation.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire, assessing habitual use of emotion regulation strategies.

Format: 10 items, utilizing a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Language Available: Originally developed in English. Widely translated and validated in numerous languages globally (e.g., German, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish).

Population Group: General population; utilized extensively in clinical, academic, and non-clinical adult samples.

Age Group: Typically utilized with adolescents and adults (Age 15+).

Population Details: The initial validation studies included diverse college student populations and community samples, demonstrating consistency across various ethnic groups for the Reappraisal subscale.

Test Methodology: The questionnaire is administered via paper-and-pencil or digitally, requiring respondents to reflect on their typical emotional control behaviors. Scoring involves summing the items for the two subscales (Reappraisal and Suppression) separately, with no reversal of items required.

Keywords

Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, ERQ, Cognitive Reappraisal, Expressive Suppression, Affect, Well-being, Psychological Testing, Self-report, Gross and John, Individual Differences

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material (Primary affiliation is typically Stanford University for James J. Gross).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire is generally considered free for non-commercial academic research and clinical use, consistent with many scales published in major psychological journals. Users should, however, always cite the original publication. The scale was formally introduced and validated in its definitive form in 2003.

Reference’s

Gross, J.J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 271–299.

Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348-362.

Solomon, R.C. (1976). The passions: The myth and nature of human emotion. Anchor Press/Doubleday.

Items of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

We would like to ask you some questions about your emotional life, in particular, how you control (that is, regulate and manage) your emotions. The questions below involve two distinct aspects of your emotional life. One is your emotional experience, or what you feel like inside. The other is your emotional expression, or how you show your emotions in the way you talk, gesture, or behave. Although some of the following questions may seem similar to one another, they differ in important ways. For each item, please answer using the following scale:

1—————–2——————3——————4——————5——————6——————7

strongly                                                          neutral                                                           strongly

disagree                                                                                                                                   agree

• When I want to feel more positive emotion (such as joy or amusement), I change what I’m thinking about. I keep my emotions to myself.
• When I want to feel less negative emotion (such as sadness or anger), I change what I’m thinking about. When I am feeling positive emotions, I am careful not to express them.
• When I’m faced with a stressful situation, I make myself think about it in a way that helps me stay calm. I control my emotions by not expressing them.
• When I want to feel more positive emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation. I control my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I’m in.
• When I am feeling negative emotions, I make sure not to express them.
• When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation.

Scoring Key:

• Reappraisal Items: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10
• Suppression Items: 2, 4, 6, 9