Perceptions of Extrinsic IER Consequences for Positive and Negative Scenarios
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Interpersonal emotion regulation describes how people regulate other’s emotions by modifying or maintaining their occurrence, frequency, or intensity. There are positive benefits to engaging in interpersonal emotion regulation. However, at the individual level, people tend to engage in emotion regulation more so and with more effort for their negative emotions and experiences. This study directly addresses how a negativity bias may arise in interpersonal emotion regulation interactions and potential individual differences associated with responding in interpersonal scenarios. Undergraduate students (N = 107) were presented with vignettes depicting both negative and positive scenarios and were asked questions to assess their anticipated interpersonal emotion regulation responses. Participants also completed self-report measures assessing envy, the tendency to make social comparisons, and self-absorption. I hypothesized that participants would be more likely to respond, put forth more effort, and perceive their responses to be more urgent for negative scenarios than positive scenarios. Secondly, I hypothesized that envy, social comparisons, and self-absorption would be associated with these outcomes. Consistent with my first hypotheses, I found participants were more likely to report they would respond, with effort and urgency for negative, compared to, positive scenarios. Additionally, I found that public self-absorption tended to be associated with more responsiveness in negative scenarios. Therefore, this study provides a basis for understanding the negativity bias in interpersonal emotion regulation and potential individual differences that may be associated with an individual’s tendency to respond with interpersonal emotion regulation in negative or positive situations.
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Keywords
Emotion, Emotion Regulation, Positive Psychology, Extrinsic Interpersonal Emotion Regulation