In accordance with the undoing hypothesis (Fredrickson, Levenson, 1998), evoked positive affect speeds up the cardiovascular system recovery in a stressful situation. An attempt was made to replicate this finding in an experimental study. Individuals characterized by high resiliency levels are capable of more efficient utilization of positive emotions in a stressful situation. Since in earlier research no relationship had been found between resiliency and a tendency to appraise stress as a challenge, this study investigated a possible mediating function of a more specific dimension of cognitive appraisal, i.e. that in terms of activity-oriented challenge appraisal (Wlodarczyk, Wrzesniewski, 2005). The study shows that evoked positive affect does not lead to a faster recovery. However, highly resilient individuals turned out to achieve higher levels of positive affect in a stressful situation; this effect was mediated by challenge-activity appraisals.
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived maternal and paternal parental behaviours (support and restrictive control) and affective well-being (positive and negative affect) in children. The study involved 166 primary school children (75 girls, 91 boys), aged 8 to 12 years (M = 10.15, SD = 0.86), who completed the Parental Behaviour Questionnaire and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children. The results showed that both maternal and paternal support and restrictive control were significantly correlated with children’s positive and negative affect. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for the child’s age and gender, maternal support and restrictive control significantly predicted children’s positive affect and only maternal restrictive control predicted negative affect. However, when paternal behaviours were included in the analyses, significant predictors of children’s positive affect were maternal and paternal support and paternal restrictive control, while significant predictors of negative affect were only paternal behaviours.
Drawing on Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, which explains how the future time perspective changes throughout one’s lifetime, we investigated the effect of manipulating time perspective on positive and negative affect, and personal goal selection. An experiment was conducted using an imaginary task that hypothetically and explicitly altered participants’ time perspective. 60 younger adults and 60 older adults (N = 120) were assigned to one of the following experimental conditions: open future time (30 younger adults and 30 older adults) and limited future time (30 younger adults and 30 older adults). Results revealed that positive affect is not modified by alterations in the future time perspective, while negative affect increased. Goal patterns also change, in line with Socioemotional Selectivity Theory. Although younger and older adults in ordinary life circumstances perceive time left to live differently, some emotion and goal patterns emerge when they face explicit hypothetical alterations of time.
This article reviews many results of recent investigations in areas related to decision-making. The classic conception of a rational human being is yielding to new, more complex and integrated formulations in which emotional and affective aspects occupy a prominent position. Decision-making is tackled from different points of view, among which the neurological one plays a major role, and the evidence obtained in studies on positive affect, impulsivity and several emotions such as anger and sadness is reviewed. On the whole, the results show that any explanation of the way a human being makes decisions must necessarily consider emotional and affective states, so as not to make the mistake of using limited and biased explicative models.
Attachment plays an important role in emotional experience, interaction, and regulation, particularly in close relationships. Specifically, individuals with higher attachment-related anxiety and avoidance tend to report more psychological distress in general compared to more securely attached counterparts, but less is known about their emotional experience in daily life. We employed the experience sampling method to assess whether the individual variability in attachment-related anxiety and avoidance relates to momentary affective experience, stress, and perceived closeness to others in everyday social contexts. The research sample consisted of a total of 44 healthy individuals (23 females and 21 males) between ages 18-40 years. Participants were administered the Experience in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) and received a mobile device with pre-installed application that signalled them randomly 10 times per day for 6 days to complete questionnaires about their current experiences and social context. Individuals with higher attachment-related anxiety reported overall increase of negative affective states and stress in daily life. Attachment-related avoidance, on the other hand, was associated with an overall decrease of positive affective states with negative impact on the ability to benefit from proximity to others. These results indicate that a relatively stable attachment dimension translates to mental states fluctuations and social interactions in daily life, thus adding crucial ecological validity to the attachment theory.
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