Abstract
This paper investigates whether high accessibility to situational self-knowledge facilitates the regulation of negative affect. As an index to the accessibility of situational self-knowledge, Study 1 used the number of responses generated by a participant about themselves in specific situations. The results indicate that participants who generated more situations could regulate naturally occurring negative affect. In Study 2, reaction times in describing one's self in specific situations were employed as the index of accessibility. The results indicated that the participants who made faster self-description responses could were able to regulate the negative affect that was affects induced within the experiment. These findings suggest that accessibility to situational self-knowledge plays a moderating role in the regulation of negative affect. The mechanisms underlying affect regulation that utilize situational self-knowledge are discussed.