engleski

Is it important what we believe about expressing emotions?

Introduction: Social phobia is one of the most common mental disorders of our age and is linked with a number of other emotional and behavioral problems that significantly impede the functioning and life satisfaction. Emotion regulation processes are foundation of mental health and studies have confirmed an association between a maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and eating disorders, alcohol abuse, anxiety and mood disorders. It has been suggested that attitudes towards emotional expression play important role in anxiety disorders and emotion regulation processes. Objectives and methodology: The aim was to test the model of relationship between social anxiety, beliefs about emotional expression, emotion suppression, positive and negative emotions and life satisfaction in general, controlling for depressive symptoms and neuroticism. The study included 521 female students of the two universities in Croatia. Results: Only anxiety experienced in social interactions has a significant role in proposed model. The proposed model shows the strong role that beliefs about expressing emotions have on the suppression of emotions. The mediating role that these beliefs have in relation to social anxiety and emotion suppression, and finally in experiencing positive and negative emotions and life satisfaction in general, has been confirmed. Discussion and conclusion: This research provided a new detailed insight into the complex relationship between social anxiety, beliefs about emotional expression and experience of emotions and the quality of life in general. Besides important theoretical contribution, the research has useful therapeutic implications. In dealing with socially anxious people, it is important to consider their beliefs about expressing emotions.

social anxiety; beliefs about emotional expression

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