ID-22-VALUING-POSITIVE-EMOTIONS-AS-A

Individuals’ positive affect may lead them to value certain emotions that help increase their life satisfaction.. Second, we tested whether beliefs about emotions, particularly the belie

VALUING POSITIVE EMOTIONS AS A MEDIATOR OF THE

ASSOCIATION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS’ AFFECT AND SATISFACTION

WITH LIFE

M.P Dissanayake 1 *, A.G Halberstadt 1 , J.W Kalat 1 , S.V Kamble 2

INTRODUCTION

Affect can be described as more consciously accessible feelings (Fredrickson, 2001) Those feelings are present within emotions that are identified as subjective experience (one component of emotions) It can be relevant only at the level of subjective experience (Ekman, 1994; Rosenberg, 1998; Russell & Barrett, 1999) It is described as an affective state that varies along two extents, either pleasantness and activation (Russell & Barrett, 1999) or positive and negative affective activation (Tellegen, Walson, & Clark, 1999) Affect influences the way individuals perceive themselves and the way they feel about their lives Emotions and affect are different in some ways Emotions can be conceptualized as multicomponent reaction tendencies that occur over relatively short period of time (Fredrickson, 2001) Usually, an emotion arises with one’s appraisal of an antecedent event which gives a personal meaning to the person This assessment can be either conscious or unconscious and it produces reaction tendencies such as subjective experience, physiological changes, cognitive processing and facial expression

Life satisfaction can be defined as one’s overall appraisal of different aspects of life domains such as self-esteem, career, interpersonal relationships and health (Suh, Diener,

& Oishi, 1998) It is one of the main facets of hedonic well-being Hedonic well-being can be described by an individual’s affective experience Also, it is operationalized as the presence of positive affect and life satisfaction and the absence of negative affect (Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2018)

Beliefs about Emotions

Emotions shape individuals’ mental schemas relating to their emotional experiences and expression (Dunsmore & Halberstadt, 1997) Individuals develop these schemas about emotional experiences when interacting with others in their social environment Beliefs about emotions can be influential factors for individuals’ behavior These belief systems may influence how they feel about their lives Individuals’ positive affect may lead them

to value certain emotions that help increase their life satisfaction Individuals may avoid certain emotions (e.g., anger, irritability, and hate) that cause a decrease in their life satisfaction In this way, positive affect may lead individuals to value emotions that are appropriate or more important for their life satisfaction

Affect and Age

Research has found age-related differences in emotional experiences (e.g., Magai et al., 2006; Phillips et al., 2006) Older adults tend to indicate significantly

higher positive affect and lower negative affect than young adults and they separate positive and negative affect by optimizing their positive affect (Phillips et al., 2006;

Chow, Hamagami, & Nesselroade, 2007) They tend not to express negative emotions to the outside world and have inner control of these emotions Older adults also reported higher level of life satisfaction and self-esteem (Phillips et al., 2006) It seems that individuals experience less negative affect and more positive affect with age

The current study examined three aims First, we examined the relationship between affect and life satisfaction Second, we tested whether beliefs about emotions, particularly the belief that positive emotions are valuable would mediate the relationship between affect and life satisfaction Finally, we examined the relationship between age and life satisfaction

METHODOLOGY

Participants

Quantitative research method was used in this study A sample of 607 participants:

308 Sri Lankans, 196 Americans, and 103 Indians who were selected using convenience sampling method participated in the study The Sri Lankan sample

(52% females, age range 18 to 80, Mage = 30 years) was primarily Buddhist (64%) The American sample (51% females, age range from 17 to 80, Mage = 27 years) was

primarily Christian (82%) The Indian sample (58% females, age range from 17 to 69,

Mage = 22 years) was mainly Hindu (81%) The participants completed a

self-administered questionnaire The questionnaire was self-administered to the participants in Sri Lanka in English, Sinhala, or Tamil version based on their preference Demographic questionnaire was used to obtain individuals’ demographic information All participants participated in the study voluntarily Written consent was obtained from participants prior to the study Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review board of the institute Correlational and regression analyses were used for the analysis of the data

Materials

Positive and negative affect Individuals’ positive and negative affect was assessed

with the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) The scale consists of 10 positive (e.g., interested) and 10 negative (e.g., upset)

adjectives rated on a 5-point scale (1 = very slightly or not at all and 5 =

extremely) Reliability in the current study for the Positive Affect Scale was α = 83

and for the Negative Affect Scale was α = 81

Beliefs about emotions Individuals’ value of emotion was measured with the

Beliefs About Emotion Scale (BAE) (Dennis & Halberstadt, 2008), which consists of

45 items rated on a 6-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree) It has

four subscales: Positive Emotions are Valuable (10 items), Negative Emotions are Valuable (12 items), All Emotions are Dangerous (13 items), and Emotions Just Are (10 items) The positive emotions are valuable subscale consists of 10-items and it includes items such as “In general, having lots of joy is very important” Reliabilities in the present study were α = 78, α = 76, α = 82, and α =

.79 respectively

Life satisfaction Individuals’ life satisfaction was measured with the

Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) The scale consists of five items and the items were rated using a 7-point scale (1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree) Reliability in the current study was α = 78

Aim 1: The Relationship between Affect and Life Satisfaction

Table 1

Correlations between Affect and Life Satisfaction

Life Satisfaction Variables Entire Sample

(n=607)

Sri Lankans

(n=308)

Indians

(n=103)

Americans

(n=196)

*p < 05, **p < 01

Positive affect was positively related and negative affect was negatively related with life satisfaction in the entire sample as well as in the American group Positive affect and life satisfaction significantly correlated only in the Sri Lankan group among two South Asian countries (see Table 1)

Aim 2: Examine whether the beliefs that positive emotions are valuable would

mediate the link between positive affect and life satisfaction

Table 2

Correlations Among Variables (n=607)

Variables Life Satisfaction Positive Affect

**p<.01

Next, analyses were conducted to examine whether individuals’ beliefs that positive emotions are valuable mediates the link between positive affect (IV) and life satisfaction (DV) Correlational analysis suggested that positive affect (IV) significantly correlated with life satisfaction (DV) and positive emotions are valuable (mediating variable) (see Table 2) Therefore, a hierarchical regression analysis was performed using the steps introduced by Baron and Kenny (1986) to examine the mediating effect

Table 3

Hierarchical Regression for the mediation (n=607)

Life Satisfaction

Predictors

Step 1

Positive Affect

Positive Emotions Are Valuable Step 2

Life Satisfaction Step 3

Positive Emotions Are Valuable

R2 = 09 for step 1; ∆R2 = 02 for step 3 **p < 01***p < 001

Results of the hierarchical regression revealed that positive affect was a significant predictor of life satisfaction indicating that individuals who rated high on positive affect were highly satisfied with their life After the addition of ‘positive emotions are valuable’ in the third step, the relationship between positive affect and life satisfaction was reduced (see Table 3) This suggests that the relationship between positive affect and life satisfaction was mediated by the beliefs that positive emotions are valuable Results from the Sobel test indicated that the belief that positive emotions

are valuable significantly (t = 2.12, p = 0339) mediated the relationship between

positive affect and life satisfaction

Aim 3: Affect and Age

Correlational analyses were conducted to test the relationship between age and other variables Age was positively correlated with positive affect and negatively correlated with negative affect Age and positive affect were significantly correlated

in Sri Lankans and in Americans Accordingly, results suggested that there is an increase in experiencing positive affect with age in both groups Age and negative affect were significantly correlated in the American group suggesting that there is a decrease in experiencing negative affect with age in Americans (see Table 4)

Table 4

Correlations between Affect and Age

Age Variables Entire Sample

(n=607)

Sri Lankans

(n=308)

Indians

(n=103)

Americans

(n=196)

*p < 05, **p < 01

CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings of the present study revealed that positive affect was positively related and negative affect was negatively related with life satisfaction in the entire sample Similar results were found in the American group as well Comparing the two South Asian countries, a significant positive correlation between positive affect and life satisfaction was found in the Sri Lankan group Accordingly, individuals who experienced more positive affect tend to be more satisfied with their lives Prior research has also found a significant relationship between positive emotions and life satisfaction (Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, & Conway, 2009) Our findings also demonstrate that positive affect is a significant predictor of life satisfaction Further, previous studies have indicated that a wide range of positive feelings and states significantly predict positive outcomes in one’s life (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005) When an individual experiences positive emotions it contributes to the increase in global life satisfaction (Cohn, et al., 2009)

The results further revealed that valuing positive emotions mediated the link between positive affect and life satisfaction In addition, results revealed a positive correlation between age and positive affect and a negative correlation between age and negative affect in the entire sample This suggests that positive affect tend to increase with age whereas negative affect tend to decrease with age Previous studies have found that certain domains of emotional experiences remain stable throughout the life span or tend to increase with age (e.g., Carstensen, Pasupathi,

& Mayr, 2000; Carstensen & Turk-Charles, 1994, 1998; Levine & Bluck, 1997) Individuals’ emotional needs are crucial throughout the life span, however, these needs become more important as people age When people understand that perceived time in their life is limited, they tend to focus more on present than their future Therefore, they look for more emotionally meaningful goals and make effort to gain emotional satisfaction (Carstensen et al., 2003) Considering the three groups, age and positive affect were significantly correlated

in Sri Lankans and in Americans Accordingly, similar trend was observed in relation to the link between age and positive affect in Sri Lankans and Americans Age and negative affect were significantly correlated only in Americans Overall, our findings suggest that the experience of positive affect and individuals’ belief that positive emotions are valuable significantly contribute to their satisfaction with life

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS