Da Ye Lee on emotion regulation and authenticity
Da Ye Lee is currently pursuing her PhD at Sogang University, Korea, under the supervision of Dr. Jinhyung Kim. She earned her Master’s degree in Cultural, Social, and Personality Psychology from Korea University and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in British and American Language & Literature, Psychology, and Communication at Sogang University. Her primary research focus is exploring the mechanisms people employ to lead authentic lives, both in everyday life and in the face of adversity. Additionally, she is also interested in the process through which people derive meaning and work toward enriching their lives.
Da Ye on the web: Website | Research Lab
By Kenneth Vail, Cleveland State University. October 6, 2023.
Clockwise from top left: Viktor Frankl and his Man’s search for meaning (1946), and a woman finding her true self in a chaotic scene of colors.
ISSEP: How did you first become aware of an interested in existentialism and the science of existential psychology?
Da Ye Lee: In high school, I had seen a documentary featuring other students who were struggling mentally and it made me want to go into counseling to help people like them. So I attended college, majored in psychology, and in my freshman year began learning about therapeutic ideas. One of those was Carl Rogers’ humanistic approach and I did find that appealing. But then I encountered Viktor Frankl’s Man’s search for meaning (1946) and it opened my eyes to existential psychology which resonated very deeply with me.
Subsequently, I had a medical accident that made me think about the challenges of truth and reality, significance, and meaning in my own life. One of the chief frustrations during that time was that it seemed as though none of the doctors I consulted would validate—or even acknowledge—the existence of my symptoms. They acted as though the accident didn’t even happen. It was awful. I felt like I was crazy, like I was floating all alone in outer space. In my search for validation, to come back to Earth and plant my feet back on the ground, I started a blog to share my experiences and began searching the internet to see if any other people have had similar experiences.
Bit by bit, I met other people who had, and eventually discovered a large community of people just like me. It was a huge relief and totally validated my experiences and my sense of authenticity—of who I really was and what I was really experiencing in the world. Still, within those communities I also witnessed some people who never got that sense of validation, who never came to view their experiences as authentic expressions of their true self—and they eventually gave up on life. Seeing that happen was deeply troubling and filled me with agony.
It seemed to me that feeling a sense of authenticity is important for being able to withstand adversity. So I became interested in learning more about how people’s experience of authentic self-expressions might wax or wane, and whether that authenticity might ultimately help to build resilience in the face of life’s challenges. I also became interested in how social pressures and systematic constraints—such as social pressures to behave politely or professionally, or systematic “glass ceiling” barriers—might impair authentic self-expressions. That led me to become a PhD researcher, studying these existential psychological processes and thinking about how we can use the knowledge gained to help people live healthier, happier lives.
ISSEP: You’ve been doing some great work studying the relationship between emotion regulation and authenticity. Can you tell us more about that research?
In Study 1, when observing others’ behavior, authenticity was reduced to an equal extent when regulating non-moral and moral emotions.
Da Ye Lee: Sure! Previous research, by English and John (2013), had found that regulating one’s natural emotions can undermine one’s sense of authenticity. However, other prior research had also found that people not only believe that they have a “true self”—which represents who they really are inside—but also that their true self is morally good (Freitas, Cikara, Grossman, & Schlegel, 2017; Strohminger, Knobe, & Newman, 2017). With that in mind, I wanted to know if felt authenticity might be more strongly reduced when regulating one’s moral emotions than when regulating one’s non-moral emotions.
So, in a first experiment, we recruited 301 participants and randomly assigned them to one of two conditions. In each condition, participants viewed a series of 10 images from the international affective picture system (IAPS; Bradley & Lang, 2017). In one condition, we showed them scenes eliciting general negative emotions; in the other condition, we showed them scenes of people committing moral transgressions (e.g., stealing, fighting). Additionally, participants viewed each image series twice—once while simply feeling their emotions naturally, and once while actively trying to decrease their negative emotions. During each viewing period, participants indicated their felt authenticity on quantitative survey items (Wood et al., 2008), such as “To what extent did you feel authentic during the task?” (1 = Not at all, 5 = Very much). To our surprise, the data patterns revealed that the type of emotion regulation actually didn’t matter. Participants’ felt authenticity was reduced to an equal extent when regulating moral and non-moral emotions.
In Study 2, when reflecting on one’s own behavior, considering prior moral transgressions led to greater guilt and shame and regulating those moral emotions led to reduced authenticity.
One possible reason that authenticity was not more strongly impacted when doing emotion regulation while viewing the moral images, compared to the non-moral images, was that the scenes depicted other people’s actions. Therefore, we conducted a second experiment in which we prompted 240 participants to consider their own personal behaviors. Participants were randomly assigned to recall either a non-moral event or a moral transgression. In the non-moral condition, they were asked to recall a past experience where they did something that was simply unsatisfying; in the moral transgression condition, they were asked to recall a time when they did something morally wrong. Then, we instructed them to try to minimize any negative emotions they might be feeling, and then had them rate their felt authenticity. Results indicated, compared to the non-moral experience, participants primed to recall doing a moral transgression felt greater guilt and shame, and after doing emotion regulation they felt less authentic.
Together, these findings suggest that moral and non-moral emotion regulation more strongly undermines people’s felt authenticity, but only when the emotions being regulated are about one’s own personal behaviors.
ISSEP: Do you see any interesting connections between your research and trends in culture or technology?
Da Ye Lee: Yes, totally. One is the noticeable difference between the Baby Boomer generation and the younger folks such as Millenials and Gen Z (called MZs, em-zeds, in Korea). The generational divide in emotion regulation standards, and felt authenticity, seems like something that shows up on a daily basis with friends, family, and coworkers. Whether you’re feeling happy or upset and whether you’re at the dinner table, playing sports, or riding the elevator with colleagues on the way to a meeting, you’ve got to decide: “Do I let my emotions out here, and engage in an authentic self-expression, or do I keep my feelings to myself and down-regulate them in some way?” There’s often a very real tension between diplomacy, politeness, and professionalism on the one had and authentic expressions of one’s emotions on the other, and I think we’re seeing a generational shift happening in how people balance those.
For example, Boomers have tended to prefer restrictive emotion regulation—emphasizing the need to maintain an “even keel,” or a “stable hand,” regardless of one’s emotions. Accordingly, they often hold an attitude to mental health where discussing emotions, venting, or seeking counseling is seen as a sign of weakness. The view is that you shouldn’t need that—just tough it out, push it down, suck it up, carry on. In contrast, the MZs seem to have been re-thinking that approach, asking whether it might be healthier to be more open and tolerant of the fact that people do have emotions. We can see trends in counseling, self-help advice, and general social media trends, where younger generations are encouraging each other to “speak your truth”—rather than pushing those things down and keeping a lid on them, expressing how particular experiences made them feel happy or sad emotions in ways that help them feel more authentic, like they’re in greater touch with who they really are inside. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this cultural trend will be, and whether it will indeed lead to improved mental health and what effects it might have on social cohesion.
ISSEP: Do you see any interesting examples of your research topic in the arts and culture?
Da Ye Lee: Absolutely! One of my favorite films is Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001). In the film, Hansel Schmidt is a gay teen, desperate to leave East Germany. A gay American soldier, Luther Robinson, persuades Hansel to have a sex reassignment surgery, adopt his mother’s name (Hedwig) and passport, and become Luther’s wife so they can abscond to the USA together. The surgery is botched, however, leaving Hedwig feeling as though her body is not an authentic expression of who she really is inside, leading to a domino effect of other unpleasant experiences and some intense emotional agony. Eventually, she expresses how she truly feels inside through rock music, calling her band the “Angry Inch,” and through drag resolves her anguish by accepting that—physically and emotionally—her life truly embodies the combination of the masculine and the feminine experience.
Another great example is the Pixar film Inside Out (2015). In that film, a young girl named Riley is going through a tough time adjusting to moving across the country. We also get a glimpse into what Riley truly feels like inside, with various emotions, core memories, and personality features. As Riley struggles with the move, missing her friends, her old house, and her old life back in Minnesota, Sadness begins to take over and starts impacting Riley’s memories and emotional experiences. Joy tries to suppress Sadness, which causes chaos and leaves Riley alienated from her own personality and depressed as a result. Eventually, Riley and her parents have a rather touching moment where they recognize that sometimes you need to allow yourself to have authentic self-expressions, that it’s okay for Sadness to be part of the picture, if that’s how you really feel. Riley finally reveals her Sadness, her parents reveal they feel Sadness too, and in that moment they feel the Joy of togetherness, love, and support; and Riley’s Joy and Sadness emotions co-create a new core memory. It’s a beautiful lesson that authentic self-expression—"speaking your truth” and bringing your emotions from inside out—can help to create a more resilient way of life. It might not eliminate Sadness, but it can help you accept yourself, alert others to your experiences, and potentially elicit the appropriate supports from the people who love you.
ISSEP: You’ve attended, and presented research at, our Existential Psychology Preconferences; how has your experience been with those?
Da Ye Lee: I first attended the Existential Psychology SPSP Preconference in 2022. I didn’t have a presentation at that one; I just wanted to participate and hear the other researchers’ talks. So, I was really excited to present my research at the 2023 event. It was my first time giving a research presentation in front of so many people, which was exciting and also nerve-wracking! But I’m happy that it went well, and everyone was so interested and supportive. I also really enjoyed the award ceremony, because Dr. Richard Ryan received the Distinguished Career Award and spent some time talking about what his career has been like over the years. I’m a big fan of his work, and that was so interesting to hear about. I’m really looking forward to going to more of these preconference events!
“It’s important to be passionate about learning about the mind through existential psychology research”
ISSEP: What is one piece of advice you would give to future students who have an interest in following in your footsteps?
Da Ye Lee: My advice is similar to good advice for entering any area of psychological science: Make sure you’re sufficiently interested in the topic area. Careers last a long time, and even individual research projects can go on for many years, so it’s important to be passionate about learning about the mind through existential psychology research. I recommend reading a variety of good introductions to the field, such as Viktor Frankl’s Man’s search for meaning (1946); if you’re inherently interested in that sort of material, then you may be well-suited for a career in this field. I’d also recommend paying close attention to the arts—movies, literature, music, and so on—because almost everything people create offers a window into the challenges of being and becoming. That can be a great way to generate research questions, develop new methodologies, and even illustrate data patterns.
Da Ye Lee and some of her original drawings and paintings.
ISSEP: Can you tell us a little about yourself outside the research context?
Da Ye Lee: I’m quite a homebody; love to be cozy at home, doing hobbies, cooking food, or watching Netflix. My long-standing hobbies are drawing and painting; after I started grad school I had to put those to the side for a while, but now I’m getting back into it which has been nice. I was actually going to major in fine art in college, but my parents suggested I needed to do something more practical. So now mostly I study and work on existential psych science, but my dream hobbies are drawing and painting.
My boyfriend and I just recently got engaged, so now we’re planning the wedding. I’m making the invitations and that’s been a fun and creative task to draw the two of us. Outside of that, we love to go outdoors together, hiking and riding bikes. We hike a lot, and sometimes we do pretty difficult paths and mountains. We also share a passion for cooking together; we like to make pork dishes, Japanese food, and of course Korean food as well. It’s a pretty happy life together!
ISSEP: What music are you listening to lately, and does it depend on whether you’re working on lab projects versus just enjoying music otherwise?
Da Ye Lee: I love to listen to music! But, yes, there’s a big difference between the kinds of music I listen to when I’m working/studying and when I’m just listening for fun. For example, when I’m working, I can’t listen to music with Korean lyrics because the words disrupt my thoughts; instead, I prefer listening to classic jazz—songs like Autumn Leaves and Cheek to Cheek. If it’s instrumental, or in English or some other language, it doesn’t really disrupt my thought process and I can still be productive while I enjoy the music.
When I’m not working, I love listening to K-pop girl groups! NewJeans and Aespa are my favorites, but there are so many great groups. And of course I’ve been a fan of BTS for many years and love their music a lot, too. In fact, many of their songs are about self-love and following your true self, and one of their songs—Answer: Love Myself—helped inspire me to do existential psychology research about topics such as self exploration and authentic self-expression!
Outside of K-pop, I also like Western pop music. I saw Bruno Mars recently, at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The old and new English and American bands, such as David Bowie, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, and Coldplay are also fun to listen to. And I like American R&B music too.