Individual beliefs about emotion and perceptions of belief stability are associated with symptoms of psychopathology and emotional processes

There are a variety of beliefs people can hold about emotions (e.g., beliefs that emotions are malleable, beliefs that emotions last forever). In addition, some people's beliefs may fluctuate—their beliefs might change during an emotional event (i.e., belief instability). In two studies, we explored a variety of beliefs about emotion and perceptions of belief instability alongside symptoms of psychopathology, trait-based emotional skills (Study 1, n = 359) and behavioral emotion regulation strategies (Study 2, n = 725). In both studies, individual emotion beliefs were associated with age, gender and symptoms of psychopathology. In addition, in both studies, beliefs that emotions last "forever," beliefs that ones own emotions are unique, and belief instability predicted heightened psychopathology. After controlling for psychopathology, preferences for logic and beliefs that emotions should be hidden from others predicted lower emotional expressivity, lower emotional intelligence, and lower social support seeking. Beliefs that emotions are "bad" predicted emotion dysregulation but no specific behavioral regulation strategies, and beliefs about emotions lasting "forever" predicted a variety of outcomes even after controlling for psychopathology. Overall results confirm that beliefs about emotion are associated with a wide range of emotional processes, and that further attention to belief instability may be useful.