The interplay between momentary experienced and verbally expressed negative affect within interactions

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Relationship Science

Background:

• Emotions are dynamically constructed during social interactions.
• The interplay between emotional experience and expression in relationships is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between experienced and verbally expressed negative affect within and between romantic partners.
• To examine how emotion expression influences both self and partner's emotional states during negative interactions.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of second-to-second self-reported affect ratings.
• Examination of verbatim transcripts from videotaped negative interactions between romantic partners.

Main Results:

• Inconsistent evidence for intraindividual links between experienced and expressed negative affect.
• Consistent, though small, interpersonal effect: one partner's negative emotion expression predicts the other's subsequent negative affect experience.

Conclusions:

• Verbal negative emotion expression may be more consistently linked to a partner's emotional experience than one's own.
• Emotion expression plays a role in interpersonal emotion regulation and the social construction of emotions.
• The subtle effect sizes indicate other factors significantly contribute to emotional experiences.