Individual differences in motives for regulating affect intensity: positive trait affect and the value of trait-consiste
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Individual differences in motives for regulating affect intensity: positive trait affect and the value of trait‑consistent affect Scott H. Hemenover1 · Colin R. Harbke1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract We examined individual differences in the motivation to regulate affect intensity. In three samples (total n = 1082) we used structural equation modeling and found support for a serial mediation model in which positive trait affect predicted the motivation to increase the intensity of positive affect and decrease the intensity of negative affect, indirectly, through the commonality and value of positive affect. These findings indicate that trait affect drives regulation motives for multiple parameters of affect: people most value, and are motivated to feel, moods and emotions that match their typical experiences on intensity as well as valence. Keywords Affect regulation · Individual differences · Motivation A growing body of evidence suggests that the value of affect is trait-consistent; people value, and thus are often motivated to experience, moods and emotions that they commonly feel and reflect the nature of their affective lives (e.g., Ford and Tamir 2014; Tamir 2016; Tamir and Gutentag 2017). This work represents important advances towards understanding individual differences in affect regulation (Gross 2015). However, much of this extant work has focused on motives for regulating the valence of affect, with few studies examining motives for other parameters of affective experience. Affect regulation can target a variety of such parameters including valence, duration, frequency, intensity, physiological responses, and the expression of affect (Gross 1998, 2015; Hemenover 2003). Despite this, few studies examining individual differences in regulatory motives have focused on any parameter other than valence, limiting understanding to a narrow portion of the total affective experience. Therefore, we sought to expand on past work and broaden
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-020-09844-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
understanding by examining individual differences in motives for regulating affect intensity.
Trait‑consistent affect regulation motives The central proposition of the current work is that affect regulation motives are often trait-consistent, with affect preferences echoing trait affect or individual differences in consistent affective experiences involving both valence and intensity (Costa et al. 1980; Larsen 2009; Tamir 2009a; Watson et al. 1988). Trait affect represents a predisposition for consistent affective experiences, or what we call here affect commonality. Affect commonality refers to the nature of the most typical or common moods and emotions one actually experiences, and it is those most commonly experienced states that should serve as regulatory goals (Ford and Tamir 2014). For example, someone high on positiv
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