Regulatory Properties of Positive Emotion Differentiation

Positive emotions (PEs) are essential for an individual’s well-being. PEs may (under some circumstances) undo the effects of negative emotions and enhance coping and psychological resiliency (Fredrickson, 2004). According to the Broaden-and-Build theory, PEs offer important long-term benefits including both “broadening” an individual’s thought-action repertoire and “building” upon their personal toolbox (including cognitive, physical, and social resources) when in a safe environment (Fredrickson, 2004). These processes allow PEs to trigger an upward, self-propagating trajectory towards enhanced emotional well-being, predicting future increases in PEs (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002). Contrastingly, elevated PEs can also be a clinical focus, as a feature of bipolar spectrum disorders and a potential motivator of substance use and antisocial behaviors (Le Nguyen & Fredrickson, 2017). Emotion differentiation (ED) is the ability to distinguish between similar emotions. This construct is split into positive emotion differentiation (PED; differentiating similar positive emotions) and negative emotion differentiation (NED; differentiating similar negative emotions). ED has often been studied in the context of NED. Studies on NED have found low NED to be correlated with greater depressive symptoms, alcohol-related problems, among others (Starr et al., 2017; Smidt & Suvak, 2015). Additionally, NED studies to date had been under the naturalistic assumption that high NED would support regulation. However, a recent study found that when NED is induced experimentally, negative affect is reduced, suggesting that NED directly regulates negative affect (Carolus & Starr, Under review). To date, the PED aspect has been unexplored. Compared to NED, PED is relatively understudied within literature. PED and PEs are often studied in the context of psychopathology, where PED and PEs can be both adaptive and maladaptive. Thus, both PEs and PED may have clinical implications to guide in treatment interventions and understanding a clearer relationship is important. Yet, no research has investigated how the act of differentiating PEs impacts PE intensity. There are two ways that PED may influence felt positive affect. According to the adaptive regulation model, greater differentiation allows for better clarity and precision to adjust affect according to regulatory goals, leading to increased positive emotions. According to the affective blunting model, differentiation reduces felt affect of any valence, leading to decreased positive emotions. The study aims to investigate whether experimentally-induced PED influences PE intensity.