Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;85(5):1894-1908.
doi: 10.1007/s00426-020-01369-2. Epub 2020 Jun 16.

Do interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility predict emotion regulation?

Stephanie A Schuette  1   2 , Nancy L Zucker  3   4 , Moria J Smoski  4
Affiliations

Do interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility predict emotion regulation?

Stephanie A Schuette et al. Psychol Res. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction: Interoception refers to awareness, interpretation, and integration of sensations in the body. While interoceptive accuracy has long been regarded as a core component of emotional experience, less is known about the relationship of interoceptive accuracy and related facets of interoception to emotion regulation deficits. This study explores how interoceptive accuracy and interoceptive sensibility relate to emotion regulation in a non-clinical sample.

Methods: Undergraduate participants completed a heartbeat perception task and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (Noticing and Body Listening sub-scales), and rated their confidence in performance on the heartbeat perception task. Participants also completed self-report measures of emotional awareness and regulation (Profile of Emotional Competence, intrapersonal emotion identification and emotion regulation sub-scales), and rated their use of different coping strategies (Brief COPE).

Results: Noticing predicted emotion identification, emotion regulation, and the use of adaptive but not maladaptive coping strategies. Heartbeat perception accuracy did not significantly contribute to the prediction of any outcome variables.

Discussion: Future work is needed to extend these findings to clinical populations. The results from this study support the use of interoceptive training interventions to promote emotional wellbeing.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Aldao, A., Gee, D. G., De Los Reyes, A., & Seager, I. (2016). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology: current and future directions. Devlopment and Psychopathology, 28(4pt1), 927–946. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579416000638 . - DOI
    1. Beck, A. T. (1993). Cognitive therapy: past, present, and future. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61(2), 194. - DOI
    1. Betka, S., Pfeifer, G., Garfinkel, S., Prins, H., Bond, R., Sequeira, H., et al. (2018). how do self-assessment of alexithymia and sensitivity to bodily sensations relate to alcohol consumption? Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 42(1), 81–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.13542 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. BIOPAC (1997). BIOPAC MP100 psychophysiological data acquisition system: BIOPAC Systems, Inc.
    1. Bornemann, B., Herbert, B. M., Mehling, W. E., & Singer, T. (2014). Differential changes in self-reported aspects of interoceptive awareness through 3 months of contemplative training. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1504. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01504 . - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources