Abstract

ETCHEMENDY, Ernestina et al. Good things never last: dampening positive emotions influences our optimism levels. Anal. Psicol. [online]. 2016, vol.32, n.3, pp.704-709. ISSN 1695-2294.  https://dx.doi.org/10.6018/analesps.32.3.261631.

Despite the increasing interest in understanding positive emotion regulation (ER)strategies and their relation with mental health, the relationship between responses to positive affect and cognitive styles such as optimism has yet to be tested empirically. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to empirically assess whether the effect of positive ER strategies (tested by the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire -RPA) on optimism could be mediated by positive mood. Two hundred and fifty participants completed RPA questionnaire, measures of optimism and positive affect and received a positive mood induction (PMI) through Internet. Results show that induced positive mood did not mediate the relation between ER strategies and optimism levels. Nevertheless, dampening strategy was the only ER strategy that predicted the post-induction optimism level. Our findings point out the necessity of further studies in order to better understand the mechanisms involved in the emotional regulation and optimism.

Keywords : Response to positive affect; emotion regulation; dampening; positive mood induction; optimism.

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