Influential Factors of Emotional Display Rules in Chinese Adolescents

Yifang Wang, Xue Liu, Lixia Cui

Beijing Key Laboratory of Learning and Cognition, Department of Psychology, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2012.36072                

Abstract

To explore the influential factors of emotional display rules in Chinese adolescents, 119 participants (male 66, female 53) were selected from a junior high school in Beijing. Ten life events associated with emotional display rules were used to comprehensively examine the effects of emotional type (positive/ negative), interactive partners (parents/peers), other-involved/self-involved and gender. Results indicated that in the positive contexts, adolescents applied more EDR in front of peers than parents, while in the negative contexts their performances were similar in front of the two kinds of interactive partners. All the participants used more EDR in negative contexts than positive contexts. Compared with other-involved situations, they applied more EDR in self-involved situations. Girls used more EDR than boys.

Keywords

Adolescents; Emotional Display Rules; Emotional Types; Interactive Partners; Other-/Self/Involved; Gender

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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