Willingness to express emotion: The impact of relationship type, communal orientation, and their interaction (original) (raw)
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Willingness to express emotion depends upon perceiving partner care
Cognition & emotion, 2017
Two studies document that people are more willing to express emotions that reveal vulnerabilities to partners when they perceive those partners to be more communally responsive to them. In Study 1, participants rated the communal strength they thought various partners felt toward them and their own willingness to express happiness, sadness and anxiety to each partner. Individuals who generally perceive high communal strength from their partners were also generally most willing to express emotion to partners. Independently, participants were more willing to express emotion to particular partners whom they perceived felt more communal strength toward them. In Study 2, members of romantic couples independently reported their own felt communal strength toward one another, perceptions of their partners' felt communal strength toward them, and willingness to express emotions (happiness, sadness, anxiety, disgust, anger, hurt and guilt) to each other. The communal strength partners rep...
Reactions to and willingness to express emotion in communal and exchange relationships
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1991
Based on the idea that emotion conveys information about the expressor's needs and on Clark and Mills' (1979) distinction between communal relationships and exchange relationships, it was hypothesized that: (a) expression of emotion (when not directed at the other) would be reacted to more favorably when communal than when exchange relationships were desired, and that (b) people would be more willing to express emotion in communal than in exchange relationships. In Study 1 subjects were led to desire a communal or an exchange relationship with another who expressed either happiness, sadness, irritability, or no emotion. Then liking for the other was assessed. When no emotion was expressed, there was no difference in liking for the other between the Communal and Exchange conditions. However, as predicted, when happiness, sadness, or irritability was expressed, liking was significantly greater when a communal rather than an exchange relationship was desired. In Study 2, subjects were paired with an existing friend (Communal conditions) or with a stranger (Exchange conditions) with whom they expected to have a conversation. They were given a list of possible topics some of which involved talking about emotional experiences and some of which did not. As predicted, subjects in the Communal condition indicated a greater preference for talking about emotional topics than did those in the Exchange condition.
The Positives of Negative Emotions: Willingness to Express Negative Emotions Promotes Relationships
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2008
Four studies support the hypothesis that expressing negative emotion is associated with positive relationship outcomes, including elicitation of support, building of new close relationships, and heightening of intimacy in the closest of those relationships. In Study 1, participants read vignettes in which another person was experiencing a negative emotion. Participants reported they would provide more help when the person chose to express the negative emotion. In Study 2, participants watched a confederate preparing for a speech. Participants provided more help to her when she expressed nervousness. In Study 3, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotions predicted having more friends, controlling for demographic variables and extraversion. In Study 4, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotion measured prior to arrival at college predicted formation of more relationships, greater intimacy in the closest of those relationships, and greater received support f...
Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2007
In general, expressing emotions is beneficial and withholding emotions has personal and social costs. Yet, to serve social functions there are situations when emotions are withheld strategically. We examined whether social anxiety influenced when and how emotion expressiveness influences interpersonal closeness in existing romantic relationships. For people with greater social anxiety, withholding the expression of negative emotions was proposed to preserve romantic relationships and their benefits. We examined whether social anxiety and emotion expressiveness interacted to predict prospective changes in romantic relationship closeness over a 12-week period. For people with less social anxiety, relationship closeness was enhanced over time when negative emotions were openly expressed whereas relationship deterioration was found for those more likely to withhold emotions. The reverse pattern was found for people with greater social anxiety such that relationship closeness was enhanced over time for those more likely to withhold negative emotions. Related social anxiety findings were found for discrepancies between desired and actual feelings of closeness over time. Findings were not attributable to depressive symptoms. These results suggest that the costs and benefits of emotion expression are influenced by a person's degree of social anxiety. #
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022
Results: We found that sharing both positive and negative emotions increased feelings of closeness above and beyond the effects of autobiographical sharing alone. Sharing positive emotions also increased ratings of warmth, competence, and leadership ability. Male and female sharers benefited equally from disclosing emotions and effects were largely robust to recipients' attitudes toward emotional expression. Having something in common with the disclosed fact or emotion further increased all ratings. Conclusion: These findings indicate that disclosing emotions may improve interpersonal interactions, with potential management applications in business.
Zammuner (2011) Is sincerity the norm in lay theories about emotion sharing
Italian men and women (N 1.156) answered questions about felt and shared emotions, and motives for interpersonally sharing them, in relation to events eliciting Jealousy, Pride, Sadness, Joy and Envy. Felt versus shared emotion-discrepancies were frequent: felt emotions with socio-personal negative implications were 'toned down' or not shared at all, whereas norm-congruent emotions, or those with positive implications, were shared. Sharing motives, besides sincerity, included conforming to emotional norms, steering the interpersonal relationship in the desired direction, trying to convey a positive self-image, and obtaining comfort and advice. The results overall showed that emotion sharing is a strategic, normcongruent, and self-protecting behaviour, and is influenced by the normative-status an emotion has in relation to features of the eliciting event.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 2007
Previous research has shown that the personalities of both partners are associated with the qualities of their romantic relationship. This study extends this literature by examining whether or not reports of negative relationship interactions mediate the effects of personality traits on judgments of relationship satisfaction and quality. Participants were 337 couples from the Family Transitions Project who completed a comprehensive personality questionnaire and several scales measuring relationship behaviors and satisfaction. Negative Emotionality and Communal Positive Emotionality were related to both self-and partner reports of relationship satisfaction. These associations were substantially mediated by
Expression and Regulation of Emotions in Romantic Relationships
2007
Romantic relationships are extremely important in people's physical and mental well being. One of the important determinants of the quality of romantic relationships is the expression and regulation of emotions. This study hypothesized that 1) expression of positive emotions is good for any relationship, 2) expression of negative emotions is good for only communal relationships, 3) expression of positive emotions is necessary alongside of negative ones to maintain a communal relationship, 4) in case negative emotions are expressed, providing explanations would help maintain the relationship, 5) suppression of emotions does not benefit communal relationship, and 6) expression of emotions correlates with a) secure attachment, b) partner's receptiveness to expression, and c) communal approach to relationship. The interactions predicted in this study were not found to be significant. The key study findings follow: 1) expression of positive and negative emotions, 2) communal orientation, 3) explanation of negative affect, 4) and general emotional expressivity correlate with higher relationship satisfaction. 5) Emotional suppression, 6) anxious attachment, and 7) higher year in school were related to lower satisfaction. Other findings suggested that 1) communal approach, 2) partner's receptiveness, and 3) female gender were related to more emotional expressivity. 4) Communal orientation was related to more and 5) avoidant attachment was related to less positive expression. 6) Secure attachment was related to less emotional suppression. Lastly, it was found that 1) secure attachment correlated with more partner's receptiveness. 2) Anxious attachment accompanied less explanations for negative affect., and, 3) older participants had more avoidant attachments. The major limitation of this study was that only one member the couple was assessed and the impact of the respondent's style and behavior on the partner as well as the dyadic factors contributing to the relationship were largely unknown.