Browsing by Subject "Emotional capital"
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Item Emotional capital and the benefits for personal well-being : how positive moments with you might help me too(2019-09-16) Walsh, Courtney Michelle; Neff, Lisa A.; Gleason, Marci Elizabeth Joy; Williamson, Hannah C.; Benner, Aprile D.; Crockett, Erin E.Couples share many different types of experiences together, but recent research has begun to focus on their ordinary shared positive moments. The theory of emotional capital suggests that the accumulation of positive experiences shared between partners can buffer couples’ from the harmful impact relationship threats can have on their marital happiness. Though prior work has demonstrated the benefits of emotional capital for relationship well-being, less attention has been given to the potential benefits for individual well-being. Therefore, the first goal of the current project was to extend existing theories of emotional capital to identify whether every day shared positive moments with a partner may similarly buffer the individuals from their personal life challenges experienced outside their relationship. In two daily diary studies, I tested whether emotional capital is associated with reduced reactivity to both daily personal stress and chronic life stress over time. The second goal of the present work was to investigate an alternative way in which emotional capital may benefit personal wellbeing. Specifically, I tested whether emotional capital is associated with better mental health indirectly through increasing perceptions of partner support. Supporting my predictions, emotional capital moderated the association between spouses’ daily stress and daily mood (Study 1a). In other words, emotional capital was associated with reduced reactivity to personal daily stressors. Contrary to hypotheses, however, emotional capital did not buffer individuals from their chronic stressors (Study 1b) and did not predict better prospective mental health directly or indirectly through increased perceptions of support (Study 2). These findings suggest that emotional capital can have important benefits for personal well-being; however, those benefits may only extend to spouses’ immediate context and daily mental health.Item The role of emotional capital during the early years of marriage : it’s about the little things(2016-05) Walsh, Courtney Michelle; Neff, Lisa A.; Gleason, Marci Elizabeth Joy; Loving, Timothy J.In ongoing relationships, partners often accumulate a number of shared positive moments together, referred to as emotional capital. Although these moments may seem trivial on the surface, emotional capital has been shown to be an important resource when faced with relationship threats. The proposed study aimed to examine the longitudinal effects of emotional capital using daily diary assessments collected from 167 couples across the first 3 years of marriage. Conceptually replicating prior work, we found that individuals who accumulated more emotional capital on average maintained greater levels of satisfaction on days of greater relationship threat when compared to those individuals who accumulated less emotional capital. We also tested whether (1) the trajectories of emotional capital across time predicted later reactivity and (2) whether the buffering effect of emotional capital became stronger over time. We did not find support for either of these predictions. Lastly, the current study examined whether emotional capital not only reduced reactivity, but also reduced the likelihood that spouses detected threats in the first place. Results indicated that compared to husbands who accumulated less emotional capital, husbands who accumulated more emotional capital exhibited less vigilance for their wives’ daily negative behaviors within the relationship. Wives’ vigilance for their husbands’ negative behaviors was unaffected by their accumulations of emotional capital.