Michelle N. Shiota

Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style

Although theorists have proposed the existence of multiple distinct varieties of positive emotion, dispositional positive affect is typically treated as a unidimensional variable in personality research. We present data elaborating conceptual and empirical differences among seven positive emotion dispositions in their relationships with two core personality constructs, the “Big Five” and adult attachment style. We found that the positive emotion dispositions were differentially associated with self- and peer-rated Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism. We also found that different adult attachment styles were associated with different kinds of emotional rewards. Findings support the theoretical utility of differentiating among several dispositional positive emotion constructs in personality research.

The nature of awe: Elicitors, appraisals, and effects on self-concept

Awe has been defined as an emotional response to perceptually vast stimuli that overwhelm current mental structures, yet facilitate attempts at accommodation. Four studies are presented showing the information-focused nature of awe elicitors, documenting the self-diminishing effects of awe experience, and exploring the effects of awe on the content of the self-concept. Study 1 documented the information-focused, asocial nature of awe elicitors in participant narratives. Study 2 contrasted the stimulus-focused, self-diminishing nature of appraisals and feelings associated with a prototypical awe experience with the self-focused appraisals and feelings associated with pride. Study 3 found that dispositional awe-proneness, but not dispositional joy or pride, was associated with low Need for Cognitive Closure, and also documented a relationship between dispositional awe and increased emphasis on membership in “universal” categories in participants’ self-concepts. Study 4 replicated the self-concept finding from Study 3 using experimentally elicited awe. Implications for future work on awe are discussed.

Resting Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Is Associated With Tonic Positive Emotionality

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSAREST) indexes important aspects of individual differences in emotionality. In the present investigation, the authors address whether RSAREST is associated with tonic positive or negative emotionality, and whether RSAREST relates to phasic emotional responding to discrete positive emotion-eliciting stimuli. Across an 8-month, multiassessment study of first-year university students (n = 80), individual differences in RSAREST were associated with positive but not negative tonic emotionality, assessed at the level of personality traits, long-term moods, the disposition toward optimism, and baseline reports of current emotional states. RSAREST was not related to increased positive emotion, or stimulus-specific emotion, in response to compassion-, awe-, or pride-inducing stimuli. These findings suggest that resting RSA indexes aspects of a persons tonic positive emotionality.

Influence of Different Positive Emotions on Persuasion Processing: A Functional Evolutionary Approach

Much research has found that positive affect facilitates increased reliance on heuristics in cognition. However, theories proposing distinct evolutionary fitness-enhancing functions for specific positive emotions also predict important differences among the consequences of different positive emotion states. Two experiments investigated how six positive emotions influenced the processing of persuasive messages. Using different methods to induce emotions and assess processing, we showed that the positive emotions of anticipatory enthusiasm, amusement, and attachment love tended to facilitate greater acceptance of weak persuasive messages (consistent with previous research), whereas the positive emotions of awe and nurturant love reduced persuasion by weak messages. In addition, a series of mediation analyses suggested that the effects distinguishing different positive emotions from a neutral control condition were best accounted for by different mediators rather than by one common mediator. These findings build upon approaches that link affective valence to certain types of processing, documenting emotion-specific effects on cognition that are consistent with functional evolutionary accounts of discrete positive emotions.

Positive emotion and the regulation of interpersonal relationships

Contents: P. Philippot, R.S. Feldman, Preface. Part I:Basic Physiological and Cognitive Processes in the Regulation of Emotion. A. Bechara, A Neural View of the Regulation of Complex Cognitive Functions by Emotion. G. Stemmler, Physiological Processes During Emotion. P. Philippot, C. Baeyens, C. Douilliez, B. Francart, Cognitive Regulation of Emotion: Application to Clinical Disorders. Part II:Social and Motivational Aspects of Emotional Regulation. E.A. Butler, J.J. Gross, Hiding Feelings in Social Contexts: Out of Sight Is Not Out of Mind. M.N. Shiota, B. Campos, D. Keltner, M.J. Hertenstein, Positive Emotion and the Regulation of Interpersonal Relationships. E. Zech, B. Rime, F. Nils, Social Sharing of Emotion, Emotional Recovery, and Interpersonal Aspects. A. Fisher, A.S.R. Manstead, C. Evers, M. Timmers, G. Valk, Motives and Norms Underlying Emotion Regulation. Part III:Self-Presentation and Emotion Regulation. D.M. Tice, R.F. Baumeister, L. Zhang, The Role of Emotion in Self-Regulation: Differing Role of Positive and Negative Emotions. D. Hrubes, R.S. Feldman, J. Tyler, Emotion-Focused Deception: The Role of Deception in the Regulation of Emotion. S. Kitayama, M. Karasawa, B. Mesquita, Collective and Personal Processes in Regulating Emotions: Emotion and Self in Japan and the United States. Part IV:Individual Differences and the Development of Emotion Regulation. N. Eisenberg, T.L. Spinrad, C.L. Smith, Emotion-Related Regulation: Its Conceptualization, Relations to Social Functioning, and Socialization. S.D. Calkins, R.B. Howse, Individual Differences in Self-Regulation: Implications for Childhood Adjustment. C.A. Pauls, Physiological Consequences of Emotion Regulation: Taking Into Account the Effects of Strategies, Personality, and Situation. A.M. Kring, K.H. Werner, Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology.

The Many Shades of Rose-Colored Glasses: An Evolutionary Approach to the Influence of Different Positive Emotions

We present an evolutionary framework for examining the influence of different positive emotions on cognition and behavior. Testing this framework, we investigate how two positive emotions-pride and contentment-influence product desirability. Three experiments show that different positive emotions (compared with a neutral control condition) have specific effects on judgment that are consistent with the proposed underlying evolved function of each positive emotion. As predicted by the framework, the specific influences of pride and contentment on product desirability are mediated by the triggering of emotion-specific functional motives. Overall, an evolutionary approach presents important research implications and practical applications for how and why discernible positive and negative emotions influence thinking and behavior. We discuss the implications of an evolutionary approach for the study of emotions, highlighting key similarities and differences between this and other approaches, as well as noting the advantages of incorporating an evolutionary approach. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The Faces of Positive Emotion Prototype Displays of Awe, Amusement, and Pride

Although several theorists posit the existence of multiple discrete positive emotion states,1–4 much empirical research on the nature and consequences of emotion considers only one: happiness.5–8 Studies of the facial display of emotion have documented universally recognized expressions of sadness, anger, fear, and other negative emotions, but have not differentiated among positive emotions.6 The Duchenne smile, which includes contraction of the orbicularis oculi as well as the zygomaticus major, is generally considered the sole reliable expression of positive affect. The goal of this study was to establish the features of facial and upper-body displays participants associate with the experience of distinct positive emotions. Although the full data set explores displays of 17 positive and negative emotions, only the data regarding awe, amusement, and pride displays are discussed here.

Feeling Good: Autonomic Nervous System Responding in Five Positive Emotions

Although dozens of studies have examined the autonomic nervous system (ANS) aspects of negative emotions, less is known about ANS responding in positive emotion. An evolutionary framework was used to define five positive emotions in terms of fitness-enhancing function, and to guide hypotheses regarding autonomic responding. In a repeated measures design, participants viewed sets of visual images eliciting these positive emotions (anticipatory enthusiasm, attachment love, nurturant love, amusement, and awe) plus an emotionally neutral state. Peripheral measures of sympathetic and vagal parasympathetic activation were assessed. Results indicated that the emotion conditions were characterized by qualitatively distinct profiles of autonomic activation, suggesting the existence of multiple, physiologically distinct positive emotions.

Turn down the volume or change the channel? Emotional effects of detached versus positive reappraisal.

Cognitive reappraisal, or changing ones interpretation of an event in order to alter the emotional response to it, is thought to be a healthy and an effective emotion regulation strategy. Although researchers recognize several distinct varieties of reappraisal, few studies have explicitly compared the effects of multiple reappraisal strategies on emotional responding. The present study compares the effects of detached and positive reappraisal on thought content, subjective emotional experience, physiological reactivity, and facial expressions of emotion while viewing film clips evoking sadness and disgust. Although both forms of reappraisal reduced overall emotional responding to unpleasant stimuli, the effects of detached reappraisal were stronger in this regard, and positive reappraisal was more likely to maintain subjective experience and facial expression of stimulus-appropriate positive emotions. The two reappraisal strategies also produced somewhat different profiles of physiological responding. Differences between detached and positive reappraisal with respect to subjective experience and facial expression were more pronounced among men than women; the reverse was true for differences with respect to physiological responding. Beyond these effects on individual emotion response systems, detached and positive reappraisal also had somewhat different effects on coherence in change across response systems. Implications for our understanding of emotion regulation processes, and for emotion theory more broadly, are discussed.

Context Matters: The Benefits and Costs of Expressing Positive Emotion Among Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Positive emotions promote adjustment to aversive life events. However, evolutionary theory and empirical research on trauma disclosure suggest that in the context of stigmatized events, expressing positive emotions might incur social costs. To test this thesis, the authors coded genuine (Duchenne) smiling and laughter and also non-Duchenne smiling from videotapes of late-adolescent and young adult women, approximately half with documented histories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as they described the most distressing event of their lives. Consistent with previous studies, genuine positive emotional expression was generally associated with better social adjustment two years later. However, as anticipated, CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion in the context of describing a past CSA experience had poorer long-term social adjustment, whereas CSA survivors who expressed positive emotion while describing a nonabuse experience had improved social adjustment. These findings suggest that the benefits of positive emotional expression may often be context specific.