Peace of mind (PoM) is an aspect of well-being characterized by internal peace and harmony. It is not clear why some individuals have more peace of mind than others. Looking to answer this question, Pilleriin Sikka assessed participants from Finland (Study 1, N = 417) and the US (Study 2, N = 303) and observed that people with higher levels of PoM display a greater tendency to use cognitive reappraisal (adaptive emotion regulation strategy) and a lesser tendency to use expressive suppression (less adaptive emotion regulation strategy). It seems that adaptive emotion regulation may explain individual differences in PoM. The paper Individual differences in peace of mind reflect adaptive emotion regulation, reporting these findings, was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, in the scope of project 295/20 - Peace of Mind and Emotion Regulation: Survey-Based, Behavioural, and Neuroscientific Investigations, supported by the BIAL Foundation.
ABSTRACT
Well-being consists of several different dimensions, such as hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. However, peace of mind (PoM)—an aspect of well-being characterized by internal peace and harmony—has only recently begun to receive attention. It has been shown that PoM predicts important outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. An open question is what underlies individual differences in PoM. One important factor may be emotion regulation. However, to date, no studies have been conducted on PoM and emotion regulation. Here, we investigated the relationship between individual differences in PoM and trait emotion regulation. In two studies, participants from Finland (Study 1, N = 417) and the US (Study 2, N = 303) completed measures of PoM, trait emotion regulation, and other aspects of well-being and ill-being. Results showed that people with higher levels of PoM displayed a greater tendency to use cognitive reappraisal and a lesser tendency to use expressive suppression. Our findings suggest that adaptive emotion regulation may play an important role in explaining PoM and may serve as a promising target for interventions designed to enhance PoM.
