Emotional labeling: what is it and what is it for in psychotherapy?

Emotional labeling is a phenomenon that has a lot of potential in psychotherapy. Let's see why.

Emotionality is a fundamental characteristic of the human being, so it is not by chance that it is tremendously complex.

In order to address this dimension, we usually make use of language, in what is called emotional what is called emotional labeling. We are going to deal in depth with this issue to discover how this action is carried out, how useful it is and its importance at different stages of development.

What does emotional labeling consist of?

Emotional labeling is a mechanism by which people try to identify their own emotions or the emotions of others by means of concrete words.. That is, what they do is to assign a label, in this case verbal, to a very specific feeling that they are experiencing or that they sense that another individual is experiencing.

This action, which a priori may seem very obvious and simple, is actually of enormous importance, because it allows, first of all, to translate into our spoken language sensations that are sometimes extremely deep and complex, which facilitates both the understanding of the emotions felt, as well as the understanding of how others feel.

Not only that. Emotional labeling is also essential to be able to share such informationIn other words, to be able to transmit from one person to another, sometimes with a simple word, the feelings that the individual is experiencing, so that others can understand it instantly, sharing the same language.

But beyond that basic (but vitally important) utility, the reality is that emotional labeling has much deeper implications, which we will explore below.

Emotional labeling and emotion regulation

The first of these utilities of emotional labeling that we will review is precisely that of emotion regulation. As we have already mentioned, by identifying these feelings through words, even the person himself is aware of the mental state in which he finds himself.

This capacity opens the door to another really interesting possibility, which is that of emotional regulation. And the fact is that by being aware of what he or she is feeling, the individual can learn to control this sensationIf it is too intense and is generating discomfort, or for any other reason.

Therefore, the person would first perform the emotional labeling, then use it to become aware of the specific emotion he/she is experiencing and, finally, could take advantage of this knowledge to work on the emotion in question and thus manage to lower the level of intensity or even replace it with another one.

If used in the right way, this capacity can be used at a therapeutic level as a resource to treat various pathologiessuch as phobias. This phenomenon has been studied, among others, by Katharina Kircanski and her collaborators, in a work published in 2012.

Treatment of phobias through emotional labeling.

That research dealt with the use of emotional labeling to help people suffering from an atrocious fear of spiders. For this purpose, two groups were formed. Both were going to be treated for their phobia by means of the technique of exposure to the aversive stimulus, that is, to a spider, which was what generated their panic.

However, another variable was also applied to one of these groups, which was none other than the labeling of the emotions they were feeling. After a week of study, the researchers were able to draw different conclusions. On the one hand, there seemed to be no significant difference in terms of the fear that the participants said they were experiencing.

But, interestingly, the group that in addition to being exposed to the spider, worked on emotional labeling, trying to express exactly what they were feeling, demonstrated a lower physiological response to the aversive stimulus (the spider) after the treatment, compared to the members of the control group.compared to the members of the control group. This response was measured by skin conductance.

It was also found that individuals in the experimental group were able to get closer to the spider than those who had not used language to express their feelings and emotions during the treatment phase, i.e., those who had not made use of emotional labeling.

The main conclusion Kircanski and colleagues found in this study is that having used more words to try to define exactly what they were feeling seemed to help the participants in the experimental group to reduce their fear, with the same amount of spider exposure work that people in the control group received.

The effect is interesting enough to investigate further, as the data point to the possibility that emotional labeling could be a powerful ally in working to heal phobias.This effect may be used to help patients suffering from other psychopathologies.

Emotional labeling in the development of children.

But beyond the therapeutic use of emotional labeling, this phenomenon has other more basic utilities in human beings, even throughout our development during infancy.. This issue was analyzed by Daniela Vilca and Chamarrita Farkas, in Chile, in 2012.

They wanted to study the social and emotional development of a group of 30-month-old children and what role affective labeling played in this evolution. For this work, a sample of 84 children from different nursery schools in Santiago de Chile was taken. Several scales were used to record the language associated with emotions used by the children.

The method used for the research was the presentation of a story to the children in which one of the characters had an event that had a specific emotion associated with it. After reading the story, the children were asked how they thought the protagonist felt. Only 30.5% of the children used emotional labels when answering the questions.

Primary emotions, such as joy, sadness, fear or anger, were easier to recognize. Other more complex emotions, such as shame or fear, were more difficult to recognize and express verbally. One of the most remarkable observations about the results is the difference between boys and girls, with girls being the best performers in the use of emotional labeling..

But there was an even better predictor for performance on this task, and that was the socioeconomic level of the families. If this level was medium-high, children from such families scored significantly higher than children belonging to families with a low socioeconomic level. These differences were greater than those found between sexes.

In any case, the authors are aware of the limitations of their research. To begin with, the sample was not large enough to be able to draw general conclusions with confidence. Likewise, the data were recorded through information provided by the children's caregivers, which could be producing biases in the measurements.

It has also been suggested that perhaps the task requested of the children exceeded the recommended complexity for their development and perhaps it would have been better to use another methodology, such as the presentation of faces showing different emotions, a system that has been used in many other studies.

Other ways to use emotional labeling

We have gone through different uses and characteristics of emotional labeling. The function of emotion regulation that this activity has on the subjects has become clear. For this reason, we can learn to use it to our advantage in certain circumstances..

One of them, frequently used, is the publication of moods in social networks. The simple fact of writing about a negative affectivity and thus being aware of it, has a therapeutic effect on the person who is feeling it, and can cause the feeling to diminish or even subside.

But in addition, at a more social level, the responses generated to the publication, provided they are along the lines of consolation, can also help the subject to experience a more positive mood and therefore achieve the emotional regulation he or she was seeking, consciously or unconsciously, through emotional labeling.

Of course, it is not necessary to publicly expose feelings to achieve this effect.. Another way to achieve it, in a private way, is to write down such feelings simply to oneself, either in a journal or in another format. The goal is to be aware of what we are experiencing, and putting it into words is a very powerful way to achieve this.

Bibliographical references:

• Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M.D., Craske, M.G. (2012). Feelings into words: contributions of language to exposure therapy. Psychological Science.
• Lieberman, M.D. (2019). Affect labeling in the age of social media. Nature human behaviour.
• Torre, J.B., Lieberman, M.D. (2018). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling as implicit emotion regulation. Emotion Review.
• Vilca, D., Farkas, C. (2019). Language and Use of Emotional Labels: Its Relation to Socioemotional Development in 30-Month-Old Children Attending Kindergarten. Psykhe (Santiago).