Compassion-focused reappraisal, benefit-focused reappraisal

As the field of positive psychology has burgeoned in recent years, research has begun to focus on strategies to promote happiness and well-being even after hurtful interpersonal offenses (Witvliet, 2008). How people cope with a transgression can significantly affect their well-being, with evidence for the salutary effects of forgiveness (e.g., Berry & Worthington, 2001) and of gratitude cultivated by focusing on benefits even in adversity (e.g., Emmons & McCullough, 2003). Meanwhile, the field of emotion regulation has focused on the beneficial effects of reappraisal - thinking differently about a situation, stimulated by Gross' (2007) process model of emotion regulation. This study brings together these research streams in positive psychology and emotion regulation, using an experimental paradigm to induce rumination and reappraisal strategies, and testing their effects on well-being across subjective, narrative, and physiological measures.

The aim of this study is to test the emotion effects of two positive reappraisal approaches: a focus on compassion as a means to approach forgiveness, and a focus on benefits as a way to cultivate gratitude. This repeated measures experiment is designed to test whether each reappraisal strategy is more effective than rumination. We assess well-being effects by (1) measuring subjective ratings of emotion, (2) conducting linguistic analyses of participants' written descriptions of their thoughts, emotions, physical responses, and behavioral motivations, and (3) measuring physiological responses relevant to emotion communication and emotion regulation. These include measures of even subtle emotion displays on the face detected with (...)

Rumination

Rumination can occur naturally or be induced in the laboratory. It involves perseverative thinking about one's problems and emotions (Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, & Lyubomirsky, 2008), which Rottenberg and Gross (2007) conceptualized as a failure in emotion regulation.

* Emotional Regulation

** Emotional regulation refers to the process by which individual influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express their feelings. Emotional regulation can be automatic or controlled, conscious or unconscious, and may have effects at one or more points in the emotion producing process (Gross, 1998, p. 275).

*** Emotional regulation involves three components: Initiating actions triggered by emotions. Inhibiting actions triggered by emotions. Modulating responses triggered by emotions.