Emotion regulation is increasingly being incorporated into models of psychopathology. The question of how we deal with emotions especially the negative ones such as stress, anxiety and adversity is the key issue for psychopathology aetiology understanding and treatment planning. In its broadest sense, emotion regulation subsumes the regulation of all states that are emotionally charged, including moods, stress, and positive or negative affect. Ego defence mechanisms (e.g. S. Freud, A. Freud) and coping mechanisms (e.g. R. Lazarus, S. Folkman) represents an examples of emotion regulation strategies. Emotion regulation follow different developmental paths and are functionally distinct throughout the lifespan. The use of defence mechanisms is currently seen as an aspect of normal psychological functioning, serving to reduce anxiety and protect self-esteem. However, excessive use of some strategies, or the use of their immature variant, has been associated with psychopathology. Despite considerable research in this area, it is not still clear what factors mediate the relation among environment, brain maturation, ego development and cognition in the emotion regulation strategies development. We focus our review on normal emotion regulation development.