title: Does regulating others' feelings influence people's own affective well-being?
abstract: Individuals in a variety of social contexts try to regulate other people's feelings, but how does this process affect the regulators themselves? This research aimed to establish a relationship between people's use of interpersonal affect regulation and their own affective well-being. In a field study, self- and other-reported data were collected from prisoners and staff members in a therapeutic prison using two surveys separated in time. In a laboratory study, a student sample reported their affect before and after attempting to influence the feelings of talent show contestants in a role-play task. The results of both studies indicated congruent associations between the use of affect-improving and affect-worsening interpersonal affect regulation and strategy agents' affective well-being. Our findings highlight that, when performing interpersonal affect regulation, people may not be immune from the effects of their own actions.
authors.affiliation: University of Manchester, Manchester Business School, Booth St. W, Manchester M15 6PB, UK. karen.niven@mbs.ac.uk
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Niven
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Totterdell
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holman
authors.forename: Tara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Headley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012381:Role Playing; D012932:Social Facilitation; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013808:Therapeutic Community; D055815:Young Adult