Beliefs About Emotions and Positive Emotion Regulation: Do Fears of Social Evaluation Moderate the Relationship?

Abstract

Individuals hold a variety of beliefs about emotions, which can influence how they regulate specific emotions. Additionally, concerns about social evaluations can shape how people’s beliefs about emotions are associated with the way they manage their feelings. In this study, we investigate the beliefs about undesirability of positive emotions and controllability of feeling good in relation to positive emotion regulation strategies (i.e., positive rumination vs. dampening). Within the scope of this study, the concepts of fear of happiness and discomfort with positive emotions were examined in relation to beliefs about undesirability. Moreover, we considered the moderating roles of both fears of positive and negative evaluation in the relationships between those beliefs and the regulation strategies. Our findings (N = 411) indicated that both fear of happiness and discomfort with positive emotions were associated with lower positive rumination but were associated with higher dampening. On the contrary, beliefs about the controllability of feeling good were associated with higher positive rumination but with lower dampening. However, neither of the fears of social evaluation moderated the relationship between emotion beliefs and positive emotion regulation strategies. Our findings highlight the role of emotional beliefs in positive emotion regulation and suggest that interventions targeting these beliefs can improve emotion regulation skills.