Research Seminar
The effect of social sharing on the duration of emotional episodesKaren BransKU Leuven | |
| Abstract: | A frequently observed action that people undertake to regulate their emotions is social sharing. Moreover, a widespread commonsense belief reads that merely talking about negative emotions dissolves their impact and contributes to emotional recovery. However, in several previous studies no significant relationship between social sharing and emotional recovery has been found. To account for this, Rimé developed a theoretical model of social sharing. Within this model, two modes of social sharing are distinguished: a socio-affective and a cognitive one. According to the model, socio-affective sharing is beneficial in the early stages following an emotional event; yet, to attain emotional recovery, cognitive sharing is essential. A number of studies have provided evidence for Rimé’s two-mode model. Yet, in these studies emotional recovery was measured in terms of the residual intensity of the emotional experience. Up to now, another important aspect of emotions, the duration of emotional episodes, has been largely ignored in research on social sharing. In the present talk I will address this gap. In an experience sampling study, participants were asked to report on a daily basis on the duration of episodes of fear, anger and sadness. Furthermore, information was collected regarding social sharing during each episode. In addition, information about the intensity of the experiences at onset, the importance of the eliciting event, and dispositional characteristics was collected. Surprisingly, discrete time survival analysis showed that, for all of the three emotions under study, social sharing led to a decrease in emotion duration. In a follow-up study we tested the hypothesis that this unexpected result could be interpreted in terms of the distinction between emotional relief and emotional recovery. |
| Date: | Tue Mar 30, 12:15 pm - 1:15 pm |
| Place: | room 02.51 (Department of Psychology, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven) |