Emotion regulation is the last motivation regulation strategy from Wolters’ (2003) article. Being aware of your emotions during learning in grad school is something you may not have prioritized before. But I can tell you that this group of strategies are vital for motivation regulation as a grad student.
Broadly, emotion regulation is when students regulate their emotional experiences so they can put their effort toward completing academic tasks (Wolters, 2003). We know that having a variety of emotions, both positive (e.g., joy, pride, love) and negative (e.g., hate, anger, jealousy) emotions are necessary for emotional well-being. However, in general, we want to be experiencing more positive than negative emotions.
When it comes to academic work in particular, emotions may be more difficult to categorize as “positive” or “negative.” I’m sure Lizz would add many nuances to this discussion as this was the topic of her doctoral dissertation, but I know from personal experience that this is the case.
For example, when I was taking multilevel modelling, an advanced statistics course, as a part of my PhD coursework, I often felt “negative” emotions, such as hate and sadness, such as “I hate this” or “I’m never going to understand this.” Some may say that negative emotions are bad for motivation and can be demotivating. But for me, I found they often were motivating because it meant I needed to take a step back and examine if my approach was the best one. I was very motivated to learn how to use multilevel modelling and respected the professor. I also felt many “positive” emotions when I persevered and figured things out.
What I’m trying to get at is that emotion regulation as a motivation strategy is not emphasizing that if you force yourself to feel positive emotions that you’ll be more motivated. Or that feeling negative emotions will always be demotivating.
I think that emotion regulation can help your motivation because it usually requires labelling what it is you are feeling, rather than just ignoring, and suppressing the emotions as they come up. I do know that suppressing, or avoiding, strong emotions for a long period of time usually doesn’t lead to good things.
The work I do with grad students is often focusing on their emotional experience because so much time is spent on the cognitive experience. We become very comfortable flexing our logical and analytical muscles in grad school. Flexing our emotional muscles is something that often takes second place.
Once you’ve identified which emotions you are feeling, you can figure out next steps. Perhaps trying self-compassion (e.g., revisiting our strengths), cognitive reappraisal (e.g., taking a different perspective on a situation), adaptability (e.g., looking for things to change instead of avoiding change), and emotional support (e.g., telling a trusted friend, peer, or seeking counselling) can all be strategies to use.
Emotion regulation may be something you are uncomfortable with or don’t know how to use yet. But we know that regulating your emotions is such a key aspect of self-regulated learning and a necessary aspect of being successful in grad school.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this series on motivation regulation strategies for grad students. You're probably doing many of these strategies already, but hopefully these posts have given you some ideas as to how to be more purposeful when trying to increase your motivation in grad school.
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