Comparing the Effectiveness of Reappraisal Strategies in Adult Participants

"Participants receive training in the reconstrual strategy, which involves recognizing and reinterpreting initial negative appraisals of emotionally challenging situations. The training guides participants to:~Identify the situation and their initial negative interpretation.~Generate alternative, balanced explanations that reduce negative emotional impact.~The goal is to help participants view events from a different, realistic perspective to decrease negative emotions by modifying how they interpret situations."

"Participants receive training in the repurposing strategy, which involves adjusting or replacing personal goals to better align with the current situation. The training guides participants to:~Identify the situation and the original goal that was not met.~Develop alternative, realistic goals or modify existing ones to reduce the emotional impact of unmet expectations.~This approach helps participants manage negative emotions by creating meaningful, adaptable goals that fit the reality of the situation."

Participants are asked to carefully copy a neutral descriptive passage without making any changes, focusing solely on transcription accuracy. This task serves as an active control by engaging participants in a cognitive task that requires attention and effort, but does not involve emotion regulation strategies. The task controls for the effects of engagement and time spent on a task without influencing participants' emotional processing.