Personality, emotional experience, and efforts to control emotions.
Three converging, multimethod studies examined personality and emotional processes. Study 1 (N = 321) examined links among sex, personality, and expectations for emotional events. In Study 2, participants (N = 468) described contents of emotionally evocative slides to a partner (either a friend or a stranger). Participants reported their emotional experience, efforts to control emotion, and the anticipated reactions of their partners. Structural modeling of self-report data and analyses of observational data indicated that Agreeableness and sex were significant predictors of emotional experience and of efforts to control emotion. Study 3 (N = 68) replicated and extended the two previous studies using psychophysiological methods to examine responses to positively and negatively charged emotional materials. Outcomes are discussed in terms of processes underlying the five-factor structural dimension of Agreeableness and links to emotional self-regulation.
Tobin
R M
RM
Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station 77843-4235, USA.
Graziano
W G
WG
Vanman
E J
EJ
Tassinary
L G
LG
D000339:Affect; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011897:Random Allocation