Savor now and also reap the rewards later: amplifying savoring predicts greater uplift frequency over time

Abstract

ABSTRACT Conceptualised as an adaptive positive emotion regulation strategy, savoring has been shown to mediate and moderate emotional reactions to positive life events. In contrast, in the present study, we sought to determine whether amplifying savoring might evidence an uplift propagation function paralleling the previously documented stress generation function of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Two large community-based longitudinal samples (Ns = 319 and 755) obtained self-reports of frequencies of everyday positive life events (uplifts) and both amplifying and dampening savoring. Across both samples, amplifying savoring prospectively predicted an increased frequency of uplifts over 3 months, whereas dampening savoring did not significantly predict changes in uplift frequency over time. Further, uplifts did not predict changes in either type of savoring over time. These findings suggest that: 1) amplifying savoring precipitates an increase in reports of uplifts, and that 2) experiencing positive events does not build the capacity to adaptively regulate positive emotions.