Helping Others Regulate Emotion Predicts Increased Regulation of One’s Own Emotions and Decreased Symptoms of Depression

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 729-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce P. Doré ◽  
Robert R. Morris ◽  
Daisy A. Burr ◽  
Rosalind W. Picard ◽  
Kevin N. Ochsner
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Regulation ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
The Social ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
Regulation Of Emotion ◽  
Over Time

Although much research considers how individuals manage their own emotions, less is known about the emotional benefits of regulating the emotions of others. We examined this topic in a 3-week study of an online platform providing training and practice in the social regulation of emotion. We found that participants who engaged more by helping others (vs. sharing and receiving support for their own problems) showed greater decreases in depression, mediated by increased use of reappraisal in daily life. Moreover, social regulation messages with more other-focused language (i.e., second-person pronouns) were (a) more likely to elicit expressions of gratitude from recipients and (b) predictive of increased use of reappraisal over time for message composers, suggesting perspective-taking enhances the benefits of practicing social regulation. These findings unpack potential mechanisms of socially oriented training in emotion regulation and suggest that by helping others regulate, we may enhance our own regulatory skills and emotional well-being.

scholarly journals The Experience of Empathy in Everyday Life

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762199520
Author(s):  
Gregory John Depow ◽  
Zoë Francis ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Trait Empathy

We used experience sampling to examine perceptions of empathy in the everyday lives of a group of 246 U.S. adults who were quota sampled to represent the population on key demographics. Participants reported an average of about nine opportunities to empathize per day; these experiences were positively associated with prosocial behavior, a relationship not found with trait measures. Although much of the literature focuses on the distress of strangers, in everyday life, people mostly empathize with very close others, and they empathize with positive emotions 3 times as frequently as with negative emotions. Although trait empathy was negatively associated only with well-being, empathy in daily life was generally associated with increased well-being. Theoretically distinct components of empathy—emotion sharing, perspective taking, and compassion—typically co-occur in everyday empathy experiences. Finally, empathy in everyday life was higher for women and the religious but not significantly lower for conservatives and the wealthy.

Community Networks

2013 ◽  
pp. 187-207
Author(s):  
John M. Carroll ◽  
Mary Beth Rosson
Keyword(s):  
Social Engagement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Social Milieu ◽  
The Social ◽  
Helping Others ◽  
Design Idea ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
University Undergraduates ◽  
Health And Well Being

The authors present a socio-technical design that illustrates how a community network health intervention can mobilize human resources across social boundaries and enhance health and well-being for people on both sides of the boundary. They specifically address how to reduce the barriers to social engagement experienced by autistic individuals who want more supportive life opportunities. The authors focus on the social milieu of an American college town, on traditional town-gown boundaries, and on possibilities for integrating social resources within this context. Their design adopts community networking to not only connect autistic persons living within an existing social milieu (university undergraduates; local autistic children and their families), but also to integrate individuals across milieus. The key design idea is that facilitating cross-milieu interactions can initiate and sustain a virtuous cycle of being helped by helping others.

Conclusion

A Child's Day ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 165-178
Author(s):  
Killian Mullan
Keyword(s):  
Time Use ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Uk

This concluding chapter surveys the key findings and issues raised in the previous chapters. This study of a child's day provides the most extensive picture currently available in the UK, and elsewhere in the world, into how children's time use has changed over the past several decades. It identifies areas of expected change as well as other areas of surprising stability. It reveals how change and stability in children's time use blend together to comprise a child's day, uncovering also the multi-layered contexts of a child's day. Aspects of children's time use, and how this may have changed, will no doubt continue to surface in public debate in connection with their well-being. While welcoming this, it is necessary to always question and seek to understand how supposed changes actually fit within a child's day, the types of days where these changes are concentrated, among whom, and to seek out evidence on how such changes relate to other activities and the social contexts of daily life.

scholarly journals Social capital, economic growth and well-being

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Sarracino
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Comparisons ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Long Run ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

In the long run economic growth does not improve people's well-being. Traditional theories – adaptation and social comparisons – explain this evidence, but they don't explain what shapes the trend of subjective well-being and its differences across countries. Recent research identified in social capital a plausible candidate to explain the trends of well-being. This dissertation adopts various econometric techniques to explore the relationship over time among social capital, economic growth and subjective well-being. The main conclusion is that social capital is a good predictor of the trend of subjective well-being, both within and across countries. Hence, policies for well-being should aim at preserving and enhancing social capital for the quality of the social environment matters.

scholarly journals When the meditating mind wanders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud Delorme ◽  
Tracy Brandmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Negative Affect ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Emotional Arousal ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Meditation Practice ◽  
Over Time

The capacity for thought and the ability to assemble and manipulate concepts are cognitive features unique to humans. Spontaneous thoughts often occur when we are engaged in attention demanding tasks, with an increased frequency predicting negative affect. Meditation does not require thinking, however thinking occurs naturally during meditation. We develop the hypothesis that chronic thinking associated with strong emotional arousal during meditation practice might be detrimental to meditation practice and well being. One goal of meditation is to identify the arousal of emotions and thoughts, and remain equanimous with them. Over time, meditation may help dampen the attention grabbing power of these thoughts both during practice and in daily life, which may consequently help deepen meditation practice. However, when meditators fail to remain equanimous, the effects of these thoughts may be deleterious. We discuss how this hypothesis may help guide future research on meditation.

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