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

• 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
• ISSN: 1528-3542; 1931-1516
• DOI: 10.1037/a0029044

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.