Capturing Emotional Suppression as it Naturally Unfolds in Couple Interactions

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2015
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
Most research examining the consequences of suppressing emotional expression has focused on experimentally manipulated, conscious suppression. This study examined suppression as it naturally occurred in couple discussions (n = 105) of an upsetting event. A novel Suppression Index (SI) was created by calculating the difference between continuous self reports of emotional experience, obtained using cued recall, and coders’ continuous ratings of expressed emotion, obtained using a naïve coding approach. Suppression was the most common strategy for regulating emotional expression in both men and women, with individual differences in the degree to which people suppressed emotion. Autocorrelations on the SI were run to create a Suppressive Rigidity (Srig) score that gauges the degree to which suppression varied over the course of the conversation. Srig was consistent across contexts, suggesting that Srig captures stable individual differences. In women, greater suppression of negative emotions and more rigid application of suppression was predictive of lower marital satisfaction, indicating that suppressive behavior may have consequences in relationships. Interpretations and implications of these findings are discussed.
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