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Emotional Expression

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Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

Definition

Emotional expression refers to how one conveys emotional experience through both verbal and nonverbal behavior (Gross, 1998b, 1999). Emotional expression should be distinguished from emotional experience in that it is possible to experience emotions without expressing them. Emotional expression is an important part of emotion regulation and can affect health outcomes. Emotional expression is embedded in the broader domain of emotion regulation, which is defined as how individuals, either consciously or unconsciously, influence, experience, and express emotions (Gross, 1999). Emotion regulation unfolds over time in a given situation either before emotional experience, during emotional experience, or in response to emotional experience (Gross, 1998a). Emotion regulation involves coordination of several systems including how one thinks about emotion, physiological reactivity elicited by emotion, and behavioral responses such as emotional expression and utilizing coping...

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Correspondence to Michelle Skinner .

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York

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Skinner, M. (2013). Emotional Expression. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_951

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_951

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2

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