The Expressions of Emotion in Relationships

• Main Authors: Shih-Yin Chang, 張詩音
• Other Authors: Ruey-Ling Chu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90839482922927880001

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 心理學研究所 === 95 === Literature shows that relationship is one of the significant factors that influence the expressions of emotion of Chinese. This study conducted two empirical researches to investigate how Taiwanese students express “normative” and “ideal” expressions of emotion in different relationships. Study 1 used five relationships－parent, sibling, close friend, teacher/professor, and acquaintance－to investigate the normative expression of emotion of Taiwanese students, aiming to reveal the display rules of them, and examine if there were cultural and personality differences in expressions of emotion in every relationship. Results show that the association between the expression of emotion and the quality of relationship is a “closeness gradient”, which means the expressions of emotion should be more manifest when expressing them to someone with whom the expresser has a higher quality of relationship. The regression analysis reveals that the quality of relationship could positively predict expressions of emotions in most relationships and the impact of culture and personality is little. Study 2 investigated the “ideal” expressions of positive-engaging, positive-disengaging, negative-engaging, and negative-disengaging emotions in five relationships. Results still show that expressers suppress more expressions of emotion to someone with whom they have lower quality of relationship. Testing the individual difference in expressions of emotion in every relationship, in addition to the positive impact of the quality of relationship, there are cultural and personality differences in expressions of emotion in various relationships: the expressions of emotion to family are positively predicted by collectivism and independent self, especially in engaging emotions; the expressions of emotion to close friends are positively influenced by extraversion; the expressions of emotion to teachers and acquaintances are largely determined by the quality of relationship. This study discussed these findings with literatures and suggested the possible limitations and practicable orientation of researches in the future.