Abstract
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to verify if subjective well-being (SWB) modifies the autoregressive effect of daily emotions and if this emotional inertia predicts long-term changes in SWB among people living with HIV (PLWH).MethodsThe 131 participants had medically confirmed diagnoses of HIV and were undergoing antiretroviral therapy. They assessed their SWB (satisfaction with life, negative affect, positive affect) twice with an interval of one year. They also took part in a five-day online diary study six months from their baseline SWB assessment and reported their daily negative and positive emotions.ResultsResults showed that baseline SWB did not modify the emotional carryover effect from one to another. Additionally, after control for baseline SWB, emotional inertia did not predict SWB one year later. However, such an effect was noted for the mean values of daily reported emotions, indicating their unique predictive power over SWB itself.ConclusionsThis may suggest that emotional inertia does not necessarily provide better information than more straightforward measures of affective functioning.
Highlights
There has been a long-standing dispute regarding subjective well-being (SWB) adaptation in response to experiencing various stressful life events [1,2,3,4], including the specific case of coping with chronic illness [5]
In trying to interpret the aforementioned, unexpected null result regarding the emotional inertia, it is vital to underline that contemporary research on this phenomenon focused on its link predominantly with negative measures of well-being or psychopathology [for metaanalysis, see 16], which may lead to bias in extrapolating these findings on positive indicators of well-being [26]
The results of our study show that more caution is needed in implementing novel theoretical constructs regarding emotion regulation and related complex and dynamic measures
Summary
There has been a long-standing dispute regarding subjective well-being (SWB) adaptation in response to experiencing various stressful life events [1,2,3,4], including the specific case of coping with chronic illness [5]. It is important to emphasize that the dominant theoretical and methodological assumption of most research in this area is a perspective neglecting within-person dynamics [for a meta-analysis see 16], as emotions are operationalized as single states that can be experimentally turned on and off, or relatively stable individual differences in experiencing particular emotions. This occurs despite the fact that classical authors have underlined that emotions are not static entities but are characterized by inherent dynamics in time [17, 18]. In some studies based on the models of emotions as emergent processes [21], it has been observed that short-term affect dynamics can concurrently and prospectively be related to psychopathological symptoms [22, 23]
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