說還是不說?情緒表達效用信念與人際互動品質之關聯

Abstract

本研究採取情緒信念的特定取徑進行設計與分析探討人們的情緒表達信念以及其在社會互動後的滿意評估之關聯。具體來說，研究聚焦於(1)特定的情緒信念—效用信念;(2)特定的情緒管道—情緒表達;以及(3)四種特定的社會情緒—憤怒、為他人丟臉、感恩、和以他人為傲。本研究假設人們在表達(而不是壓抑)各個社會情緒時，其對於情緒表達的效用信念能夠正向預測其對於情緒事件之滿意程度。根據 209 人的樣本資料分析，結果發現無論是哪種社會情緒，當人們表達其情緒時，其對於情緒表達的效用信念對於事件的滿意程度有穩定一致的正向預測力。然而，當人們沒有表達其所感受到的感恩時，其對於情緒表達的效用信念則對於其事件的滿意程度有負向的預測力。此負向效果只存在於感恩的不表達，而不存在於其他情緒的不表達事件。整體來說，這些發現呼應了過去文獻中所提出的特定取徑論點，強調了情緒信念在人們情緒經驗中的角色，且提供了對於情緒信念以及情緒調節的動機觀點的研究進一步的延伸與討論。

The present study investigates the association between people’s beliefs about emotion and their overall satisfaction with a social interaction. I focus on three specific aspects to examine this association: (a) utility beliefs—a dimension of emotion beliefs; (b) emotion expression—an emotion channel; and (c) four social emotions—anger, other- embarrassment, gratitude, and other-pride. I examine whether people’s utility beliefs about expressing a social emotion can predict their evaluation of a social interaction when they express (vs. suppress) their social emotion. Results (N = 209) consistently indicate that when people express their social emotion, their utility beliefs positively predict their satisfaction with an event. However, when people suppress their gratitude, their utility beliefs negatively predict their satisfaction, an effect not observed in the other three emotion events. These findings corroborate the claim that emotion beliefs impact people’s emotional lives. Implications for research on emotion beliefs and motivated emotion regulation are discussed.