Guy Roth

Senior Academic

About the Lab

Research at the Motivation and Emotion Lab focuses on the adaptivity of emotion regulation styles. We investigate the consequences of adaptive versus maladaptive regulation styles, alongside the socialization processes that shape them. The outcomes of these regulation styles are examined across various domains, including pro-social behavior, academic functioning, and psychological well-being. Our socialization research specifically focuses on parent-adolescent and teacher-student relationships. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017), our research defines adaptive emotion regulation as ‘integrative regulation.’ This style is characterized by curiosity and interest toward one’s emotional experience, utilizing emotional information as a basis for volitional and autonomous action. This stands in contrast to persistent attempts to avoid emotions that are perceived as threatening or useless.

Our research

Our research on the outcomes of emotion regulation primarily focuses on contexts that elicit negative emotions, as these situations pose greater regulatory challenges.

Across diverse lines of inquiry, we examine topics such as:

Coping with stress and anxiety
Emotion regulation patterns and their role in learning from failure
Social relationship quality, including links between regulation patterns and empathic capacity
The quality of intimate relationships
Flexible versus rigid regulation strategies

Our research on the antecedents of adaptive emotion regulation centers on socialization processes, particularly within parent–child and teacher–student relationships.

Within this line of work, we investigate:

Autonomy-supportive and autonomy-thwarting practices as predictors of children’s emotion regulation patterns
Parental unconditional regard as a foundation for the development of adaptive regulation
Parents’ and teachers’ beliefs about negative emotions and their associations with caregiving behavior and children’s regulatory functioning