New developments in the study of emotional control

Emotional control is reviewed and an approach centered in this concept is presented, in which emotion is seen as a reaction composed by a set of different responses with a dissimilar degree of control (voluntary versus automatic) from the individual. Since this approach, some phenomena that have occupied a main place in the development of the model of the three response systems are analyzed (fractionation of response, desynchrony, and discordance between response systems). An explanation of these phenomena, based in the different degree of control from the individual on your emotional responses is proposed, and what situational and individual variables can generate a great discordance is argued. Literature about the influence of the high demand of control (as an experimental task) on the discordance is reviewed, as well as those researches centered in the study of the characteristics of the subjects with repressive coping style, emphasizing the tendency of these individuals to control their negative emotions, their high perceived control, and the discordance between their (very low) emotional experience and their (very high) physiological activation. Finally, implications for the treatment of the emotional disorders (specially, anxiety disorders), that can suppose an increase of the efficacy and maintenance, as well as a decrease of the discordance, are proposed.