Four studies support the hypothesis that expressing negative emotion is associated with positive relationship outcomes, including elicitation of support, building of new close relationships, and heightening of intimacy in the closest of those relationships. In Study 1, participants read vignettes in which another person was experiencing a negative emotion. Participants reported they would provide more help when the person chose to express the negative emotion. In Study 2, participants watched a confederate preparing for a speech. Participants provided more help to her when she expressed nervousness. In Study 3, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotions predicted having more friends, controlling for demographic variables and extraversion. In Study 4, self-reports of willingness to express negative emotion measured prior to arrival at college predicted formation of more relationships, greater intimacy in the closest of those relationships, and greater received support from roommates across participants' first semester of college.
Ainsworth, M.D., & Bell, S.M. (1970). Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation. Child Development, 41, 49-67.
2.
Aron, A., Melinat, E., Aron, E.N., Vallone, R.D., & Bator, R.J. (1997). The experimental generation of interpersonal closeness: A procedure and some preliminary findings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 363-377.
3.
Averill, J.R. (1982). Anger and aggression: An essay on emotion. New York: Springer.
4.
Bell, P.A. (1978). Affective state, attraction and affiliation: Misery loves happy company too. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 616-619.
5.
Clark, M.S., & Brissette, I. (2000). Relationship beliefs and emotion: Reciprocal effects . In N. Frijda, A. Manstead, & G. Semin (Eds.), Emotions and beliefs: How feelings influence thoughts (pp. 212-240). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press .
6.
Clark, M.S., & Finkel, E.J. (2004). Does expressing emotion promote well-being? An argument that it depends on relationship context. In L. Z. Tiedens & C. W. Leach (Eds.), The Social Life of Emotions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Clark, M.S., Fitness, J., & Brissette, I. (2001). Understanding people's perceptions of relationships is crucial to understanding their emotional lives. In G. J. O. Fletcher & M. S. Clark (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Interpersonal processes. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
8.
Clark, M.S., Mills, J.R., & Corcoran, D.M. (1989). Keeping track of needs and inputs of friends and strangers. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 533-542.
9.
Clark, M.S., Mills, J., & Powell, M.C. (1986). Keeping track of needs in communal and exchange relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 51, 333-338.
10.
Clark, M.S., Ouellette, R., Powell, M., & Milberg, S. (1987). Recipient's mood, relationship type, and helping . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 94-103.
11.
Clark, M.S., & Taraban, C.B. (1991). Reactions to and willingness to express emotion in two types of relationships. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 324 -336.
12.
Collins, N.L., & Miller, L.C. (1994). Self-disclosure and liking: A meta-analytic review . Psychological Bulletin, 11, 457-475.
13.
Coyne, J.C. (1976). Depression and the responses of others. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 186-193.
14.
Dodge, K.A., & Coie, J.D. (1987). Social-information processing factors in reactive and proactive aggression in children's peer groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1146-1158.
15.
Eysenck, S.B.G., Eysenck, H.J., & Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the Psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 21-30.
16.
Feeney, J.A. (1995). Adult attachment and emotional control. Personal Relationships, 2, 143-159.
17.
Feeney, J.A. (1999). Adult attachment, emotional control, and marital satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 6, 169-185.
18.
Fredrickson, B.L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218-226.
19.
Fridlund, A.J. (1991). Sociality of solitary smiling: Potentiation by an implicit audience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 60, 229-240.
20.
Frijda, N.H. (1993). Moods, emotion episodes, and emotions. In M. Lewis and J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 381-404). New York: Guilford Press.
21.
Goldberg, L.R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26-42.
22.
Harrell, W.A. (1978). Physical attractiveness, self-disclosure, and helping behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 104, 15-17.
23.
Jones, S.S., Collins, K., & Hong, H. (1991). An audience effect on smile production in 10-month-old infants. Psychological Science, 1, 45-49.
24.
Kashdan, T.B., Volkmann, J.R., Breen, W.E., & Han, S. (2007). Social anxiety and romantic relationships: The costs and benefits of negative emotion expression are context-dependent. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21, 475-492.
25.
Laurenceau, J., Barrett, L.F., & Pietromonaco, P.R. (1998). Intimacy as an interpersonal process: The importance of self-disclosure, partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness in interpersonal exchanges. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1238-1251.
26.
Locke, K.D., & Horowitz, L.M. (1990). Satisfaction in interpersonal interactions as a function of similarity in level of dysphoria. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 58, 823-831.
Pennebaker, J. (1995). Emotion, disclosure, and health: An overview. In J. Pennebaker (Ed.), Emotion, disclosure, and health (pp. 3-10). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
29.
Reis, H.T., & Shaver, P. (1988). Intimacy as an interpersonal process. In S. Duck (Ed.), Handbook of personal relationships: Theory, research and interventions (pp. 367-389). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
30.
Reysen, S. (2005). Construction of a new scale: The Reysen Likability Scale. Social Behavior and Personality, 33, 201-208.
31.
Rimé, B. (1995). The social sharing of emotion as a source for the social knowledge of emotion. In J. Russell & J. Fernandez-Dols (Eds.), Everyday conceptions of emotions (pp. 475-489). Dordecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
32.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
33.
Saucier, G. (1994). Mini-markers: A brief version of Goldberg's unipolar Big-Five markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63, 506-516.
34.
Sedikides, C., Campbell, W.K., Reeder, G.D., & Elliot, A.J. (1999). The relationship closeness induction task. Representative Research in Social Psychology, 23, 1-4.
35.
Segrin, C., & Abramson, L.Y. (1994). Negative reactions to depressive behaviors: A communication theories analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 655-668.
36.
Shimanoff, S.B. (1988). Degree of emotional expressiveness as a function of face-needs, gender, and interpersonal relationship. Communication Reports, 1, 43-59.
37.
Simon, H.A. (1967). Motivational and emotional controls of cognition . Psychological Review, 74, 29-39.
38.
Simpson, J.A., Rholes, W.S., & Nelligan, J.S. (1992). Support seeking and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation: The role of attachment styles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 434-446.
39.
Sommers, S. (1984). Reported emotions and conventions of emotionality among college students. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 207-215.
40.
Tiedens, L.Z. (2001). Anger and advancement versus sadness and subjugation: The effect of negative emotion expressions on social status conferral. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 86-94.
41.
Tolstedt, B.E., & Stokes, J.P. (1984). Self-disclosure, intimacy, and the depenetration process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 84-90.
42.
Williamson, G.M., & Clark, M.S. (1989). Providing help and desired relationship type as determinants of changes in moods and self-evaluations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 722-734.
43.
Williamson, G.M., & Clark, M.S. (1992). Impact of desired relationship type on affective reactions to choosing and being required to help. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 10-18.
