Hurts so good: Pain as an emotion regulation strategy.

In the field of emotion regulation studies, cognitive reappraisal has been established as the preferred strategy for coping with painful negative feelings. For some, however, asking them to think more about an already distressing situation can be quite literally "like pulling teeth." Indeed, many people voluntarily cause themselves physical pain during upsetting situations (e.g., getting a deep tissue massage after a stressful week or hitting a punching bag when angry); however, there is currently little empirical evidence of the relative effectiveness of such behaviors. The present study tested two primary hypotheses: (a) some people will choose to inflict pain to regulate negative emotional states; and (b) pain provides effective short-term relief from negative emotion. The findings from these two studies demonstrate that, given the opportunity, participants will choose to use physical pain in addition to other strategies, like reappraisal or distraction, to cope with various sources of negative emotion. We further show that physical sensation in general, and pain in particular, are equally effective in coping with negative emotion. These results suggest a reconsideration of the dominance of cognitively based emotion regulation. We discuss the implication that benign physical pain may be a broadly effective and underrecognized coping strategy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Muslim American adolescents' explanations of changing religious practices: Cultural tools in cultural contexts.

To examine the culturally embedded nature of religious practices, we conducted a mixed-methods study in which Muslim American adolescents described how and why their religious practices had changed in recent years (see Etengoff & Daiute, 2013, J. Adolesc. Res., 28, 690). Participants included 201 Muslim adolescents (ages 13-19) from predominantly immigrant families; all were contestants in a Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament regional competition. Participants completed surveys including an item regarding whether their religious practices had changed, and for those who answered affirmatively, open-ended questions about the change. Additional measures assessed ethnic identity and perceived discrimination. As hypothesized, the 60% of participants who reported a change in religious practices described this shift as a response to new contexts, people, and religious knowledge. Those who reported a change also reported higher levels of ethnic identity exploration and perceived discrimination. Overall, Muslim American adolescents' descriptions portrayed religious practices as developing through reciprocal interactions with culture. More generally, participants' descriptions point to the viability of a model in which religious practices change and in turn are changed by cultural contexts. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Religious development is viewed as taking place in relational systems with reciprocity between individuals and surrounding contexts. Variations in contexts predict variations in religious development, but mechanisms of development are not well understood. Muslim Americans, including adolescents, show high levels of religious involvement and experience unique cultural and religious contexts. Muslim American emerging adults describe their religious practices as responsive to sociocultural contexts. What does the study add? This study focuses on Muslim American adolescents, a group that has received little research attention, especially in regard to religious development. Participants reported a wide array of changes in religious practices, and they described these changes as responses to social and cultural influences. Participants' descriptions of changing practices can be understood through a Vygotskian framework in which religious practices are cultural tools that both respond to and shape surrounding cultural contexts.