Future Directions in Research and Treatment of Emotion Dysregulation

Abstract

This chapter discusses themes that emerged while editing the Oxford Handbook of Emotion Dysregulation and outlines directions for future research. Although the term emotion dysregulation has at times been used amorphously in the literature, most authors now define the phenomenon as experiences and expressions of emotion that interfere with situationally appropriate, goal-directed behavior. Situational embedding of emotion dysregulation is important given very different expectations of appropriate emotional expression across contexts and cultures. Despite emerging consensus regarding emotion dysregulation as a construct, several challenges lie ahead. Major tasks for the field are to (1) abandon implicit notions of emotion dysregulation in favor of formally operationalized definitions, such as that provided earlier; (2) maintain a clear distinction between emotion dysregulation versus mood dysregulation; (3) map transdiagnostic features of emotion dysregulation across functional domains of behavior such as those instantiated in the Research Domain Criteria matrix and, where appropriate, syndromes in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; (4) further develop prevention and treatment programs that systematically target emotion dysregulation across development; and (5) extend emotion dysregulation research to stigmatized groups in an effort to identify mechanisms of mental health disparities. Chapters in this volume address these issues and advance the science of emotion dysregulation in new and exciting ways.