The Regulatory Benefits of High Levels of Affect Perception Accuracy: A Process Analysis of Reactions to Stressors in Daily Life

Individuals attuned to affective signals from the environment may possess an advantage in the emotion-regulation realm. In two studies (total n = 151), individual differences in affective perception accuracy were assessed in an objective, performance-based manner. Subsequently, the same individuals...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Emotion (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2012-08, Vol.12 (4), p.785-795
Main Authors: Robinson, Michael D, Moeller, Sara K, Buchholz, Maria M, Boyd, Ryan L, Troop-Gordon, Wendy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living
Affect
Affectivity. Emotion
Biological and medical sciences
Depression
Emotion Recognition
Emotional Intelligence
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Male
Perception
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social Perception
Stress
Stress, Psychological
Task Performance and Analysis
Young Adult
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Summary:Individuals attuned to affective signals from the environment may possess an advantage in the emotion-regulation realm. In two studies (total n = 151), individual differences in affective perception accuracy were assessed in an objective, performance-based manner. Subsequently, the same individuals completed daily diary protocols in which daily stressor levels were reported as well as problematic states shown to be stress-reactive in previous studies. In both studies, individual differences in affect perception accuracy interacted with daily stressor levels to predict the problematic outcomes. Daily stressors precipitated problematic reactions-whether depressive feelings (Study 1) or somatic symptoms (Study 2)-at low levels of affect perception accuracy, but did not do so at high levels of affect perception accuracy. The findings support a regulatory view of such perceptual abilities. Implications for understanding emotion regulation processes, emotional intelligence, and individual differences in reactivity are discussed.
ISSN:1528-3542
1931-1516
DOI:10.1037/a0029044