Background

Emotions are present in almost every moment of our daily lives, adding colour to our experience of the world. Emotions can range from mild enjoyment or annoyance–often triggered by everyday pleasures or hassles, to intense joy or sadness–usually in response to more momentous events. Although emotions have traditionally been defined as very brief, psychologists are discovering that they can last anywhere from seconds to hours or days. While our emotions are often very helpful, at times we also seek to control and manage how and when our emotions unfold. This ability to regulate emotions is thought to be critical to health and well-being.

Scientists studying emotions are only beginning to understand the complexities of how emotions function in daily life. Although important discoveries have been made in the lab, we don't know how much these findings apply to how people experience and manage their emotions in the "real world". The FEEL Lab aims to discover how emotions function in the rich and complex environments we encounter in our daily lives.

Lab News

Why winners shouldn't always be grinners (March 2019)

How do you feel when an Australian tennis player wins that Grand Slam? Do you jump up and down with excitement? What about when your colleague gets that promotion you wanted? Do you celebrate with them but feel slightly annoyed that they're telling everyone about it? Dr Katie Greenaway talks with Hilary Harper on Life Matters about her research that finds demonstrating positive emotions when you 'win' actually has wide-ranging consequences.

Audio Link: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/success/10893602

The mental cost of keeping secrets (Feb 2019)

There is a mental cost to keeping secrets, but also keeping the secrets of others. According to new research when someone confides a secret in us we can feel important, but also experience stress. Dr Katharine Greenaway talks to Life Matters on ABC Radio National and says we often try and problem solve on behalf of the other person.

Audio Link: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/the-cost-of-keeping-secrets/10762154

Shame, guilt, and secrets on the mind (Jan 2019)

How many secrets are you carrying around? What is the cost of keeping all these secrets?  Dr Elise Kalokerinos, Dr Katie Greenaway, & Dr Michael Slepian are studying the science of secrets, estimating the costs of secrecy - from lost productivity to mental health issues - and testing solutions that might reduce them. Dr. Kalokerinos chats with ABC Newcastle Radio on the online database of nearly four thousand anonymous secrets.

Audio Link: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/newcastle/programs/breakfast/science-secrets/10766260

Is emotional stability all it’s cracked up to be? (May, 2018)

Emotional stability is often described as a hallmark of psychological health and well-being. Yet, one of the primary functions of our emotions is to fluctuate and change over time following the ebb and flow of daily life. This lecture, presented by Dr Peter Koval will explore recent research on “emotion dynamics”, which suggests that emotional stability may not necessarily be a good thing. Psychological health requires emotions to be flexible rather than stable. Ideally emotions respond to environmental changes, but are also well regulated. The lecture will examine research, conducted inside the laboratory and outside in our everyday environments, that links emotional flexibility with better psychological functioning and well-being.

Lecture Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7qZhtd067k

2020 Honours Students

• Annabelle Patten
• Emma McIntoch
• Lachlan Anthony
• Melissa Petrolo
• Rachel Sobel
• Tammy Lim

External Collaborators

• 
  Professor John Gleeson

  Australian Catholic University

  Professor John Gleeson

  John Gleeson is Professor and Head of the School of Psychology at the Australian Catholic University. John is a clinical psychologist with 20 years experience in severe mental health problems. His research interests include psychological treatments in youth with psychosis, the use of moderated on-line social interventions for youth with mental health problems, and experience sampling methods in the understanding of anxiety and mood problems.

  Research Profile
• 
  Professor Peter Kuppens

  KU Leuven

  University of Leuven

  Professor Peter Kuppens

  Peter Kuppens is Professor in the Research Group of Quantitative Psychology and Individual Differences at KU Leuven, Belgium. Peter's research focuses on componential (e.g., appraisal) theories of emotions, individual differences in emotional appraisal, experience, and dynamics and their relationships with personality and well-being, and formal models for contextualised personality and emotion research.

  Research Profile
• 
  Associate Professor Tom Hollenstein

  Queen's University, Canada

  Associate Professor Tom Hollenstein

  Tom Hollenstein is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Canada. Tom's research examines socioemotional development, particularly in adolescence. Specifically, Tom's research focuses on the regulation of emotion as evidenced by changes in self-reported feelings, autonomic psychophysiology, and behavioural expressions. Tom is also active in developing and applying methods for the analysis of change, including state space grids (www.statespacegrids.org).

  Research Profile

Research Interns / visiting students

• Bruce McIntyre
• Nicholas Cheng
• Steven Leu
• Julia Schreiber
• Yaoxi Shi

Past Members

2019

• Amani Nasarudin (Honours student)
• Jardine Louise Mitchell (Honours student)
• Jessica Mortlock (Honours student)
• Sylvia Chu Lin (Honours student)

2018

• Jordan Hinton (Research Assistant and Lab Manager). Now at the Australian Catholic University
• Ami Mane (Honours student)
• Aamna Shah (Honours student)
• Khai Shin Lee (Honours student)
• Ann Ee Ching (Honours student)
• Sarah Paling (Visiting Master’s student)
• Orsi Benke (Visiting Master’s student)
• David Mussoff (Research intern)
• Stephanie Au Yeung (Research intern)

2017

• Hon Chung (Tommy) Choi (Honours student)
• Tim Reynolds (Honours student)

2016

• Keana Loschiavo (Honours student)
• Freya Hanly (Honours student)
• Jennifer Makovec Knight (Honours student)

2015

• Fiona Thomson (Honour student)
• Simon Haines (Honours student)

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^*Greenaway, K.H., ^*Frye, M. & Cruwys, T. (2015). When aspirations exceed expectations: Quixotic hope increases depression among students. Plos One, 10(9).

^†Bentley, S.V., Greenaway, K.H., & Haslam, S.A. (2017). Cognition in context: Social inclusion attenuates the psychological boundary between self and other. Journal of Experimental SocialPsychology, 73, 42–49.

Alvarez-Jimenez, M., Bendall, S., Koval, P., Rice, S., Cagliarini, D., Valentine, L., ... & Gleeson, J. F. (2019). HORYZONS trial: protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a moderated online social therapy to maintain treatment effects from first-episode psychosis services. BMJ Open, 9, e024104.

Bastian, B., Koval, P., Erbas, Y., Houben, M., Pe, M., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Sad and alone: Social expectancies for experiencing negative emotions are linked to feelings of loneliness. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 496–503.

Bastian, B., Kuppens, P., Hornsey, M. J., Park, J., Koval, P., & Uchida, Y. (2012). Feeling bad about being sad: The role of social expectancies in amplifying negative mood. Emotion, 12, 69–80.

Blanke, E. S., Brose, A., Kalokerinos, E. K., Erbas, Y., Riediger, M., & Kuppens, P. (2019). Mix it to fix it: Emotion regulation variability in daily life. Emotion. Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1037/emo0000566.

Brans, K., Koval, P., Verduyn, P., Lim, Y. L., & Kuppens, P. (2013). The regulation of negative and positive affect in daily life. Emotion, 13, 926–939.

Brose, A., Schmiedek, F., Koval, P., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Emotional inertia contributes to depressive symptoms beyond perseverative thinking. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 527–538.

Cruwys, T., South, E., Greenaway, K.H., & Haslam, S.A. (2015). Social identity reduces depression by fostering positive attributions. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6, 65–74. doi: 10.1177/1948550614543309.

Cruwys, T., Greenaway, K.H., & Haslam, S.A. (2015). The stress of passing through an educational bottleneck: A longitudinal study of final-year university students. Australian Psychologist, 50, 372–381, doi:10.1111/ap.12115.

De Leersnyder, J., Koval, P., Kuppens, P., & Mesquita, B. (2018). Emotions and concerns: Situational evidence for their systematic co-occurrence. Emotion, 18, 597-614.

Dejonckheere, E., Kalokerinos, E. K., Bastian, B., & Kuppens, P. (2019). Poor emotion regulation ability mediates the link between depressive symptoms and affective bipolarity. Cognition and Emotion. Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1524747

Dejonckheere, E., Mestdagh, M., Houben, M., Erbas, Y., Pe, M., Bastian, B., Koval, P., Brose, A., & Kuppens, P. (2018). The bipolarity of affect and depressive symptoms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 114, 323-341.

Dejonckheere, E., Mestdagh, M., Verdonck, S., Lafit, G., Ceulemans, E., Bastian, B., & Kalokerinos, E. K.** (in press). The relation between positive and negative affect becomes more negative in response to personally relevant events. Emotion. Accepted September 1, 2019.

Erbas, Y., Ceulemans, E., Kalokerinos, E. K., Houben, M., Koval, P., Pe, M. L., & Kuppens, P. (2018). Why I don’t always know what I’m feeling: Within-person fluctuations in emotion differentiation and the role of stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 115(2). 179-191. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000126

Frederickx, S., Verduyn, P., Koval, P., Brans, K., Brunner, B., De Laet, I., Ogrinz, B., Pe, M. L., & Hofmans, J. (2013). The relationship between arousal and the remembered duration of positive events. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27, 493–496.

Gleeson, J., Lederman, R., Koval, P., Wadley, G., Bendall, S., Cotton, S., Herrman, H., Crisp, K., & Alvarez-Jimenez, M. (2017). Moderated Online Social Therapy: A model for reducing stress in carers of young people diagnosed with mental health disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 485.

Greenaway, K. H.*, & Kalokerinos, E. K*. (2017). Suppress for success?: Exploring the contexts in which expressing positive emotion can have social costs. European Review of Social Psychology. 28(1), 134-174. doi: 10.1080/10463283.2017.1331874

Greenaway, K. H., & Kalokerinos, E. K. (2019). The intersection of goals to experience and express emotion. Emotion Review. Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1177/1754073918765665

Greenaway, K. H., Kalokerinos, E. K., & Williams, L. A. (2018). Context is everything (in emotion research). Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(6), e12393. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12393

Greenaway, K.H. & Cruwys, T. (in press). The source model of group threat: Responding to internal and external threats. American Psychologist, Advance Online Publication.

Greenaway, K.H. & Kalokerinos, E.K. (in press). The intersection of goals to experience and express emotion. Emotion Review, Advance Online Publication.

Greenaway, K.H., Cruwys, T., Haslam, S.A., & Jetten, J. (2016). Social identities promote well-being because they satisfy global psychological needs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 46, 294–307.

Greenaway, K.H., Fisk, K., & Branscombe, N.R. (2017). Context matters: Explicit and implicit reminders of ingroup privilege increase collective guilt among foreigners in a developing country. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(12), 677–681. DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12482

Greenaway, K.H., Haslam, S.A., & ^†Bingley, W.J. (in press). Are “they” out to get me? A social identity model of paranoia.Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, Advance Online Publication.

Greenaway, K.H., Haslam, S.A., Cruwys, T., Branscombe, N.R., Ysseldyk, R., & Heldreth, C. (2015). From “we” to “me”: Group identification enhances perceived personal control with consequences for health and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(1), 53–74. doi: 10.1037/pspi0000019

Greenaway, K.H., Kalokerinos, E.K., Murphy, S.C., & McIlroy, T. (2018). Winners are grinners: Expressing authentic positive emotion enhances reputation in performance contexts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2018.03.013.

Greenaway, K.H., Louis, W.R., Parker, S.L., Kalokerinos, E.K., Smith, J.R., & Terry, D.J. (2014). Measures of coping for psychological well-being. In G.J. Boyle, D.H. Saklofske, & G. Matthews (eds.), Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs, pp. 322–351, Academic Press: USA.

Greenaway, K.H., Storrs, K., Philipp, M.C., Louis, W.R., Hornsey, M.J., & Vohs, K.D. (2015). Loss of control stimulates approach motivation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 235–241. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2014.10.009.

Greenaway, K.H., Wright, R., Willingham, J., Reynolds, K.J., & Haslam, S.A. (2015). Shared identity is key to effective communication. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(2), 171–182. doi: 10.1177/0146167214559709

Greenaway, K.H., Jetten, J., Ellemers, N., & van Bunderen, L. (2015). The dark side of inclusion: Undesired acceptance provokes aggression. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 18(2), 173–189. doi: 10.1177/1368430214536063.

Haines, S., Gleeson, J., Kuppens, P., Hollenstein, T., Ciarrochi, J., Labuschagne, I., Grace, C., & Koval, P. (2016). The wisdom to know the difference: Strategy-situation fit in emotion regulation in daily life is associated with well-being. Psychological Science, 27, 1651-1659.

Holland, E., Koval, P., Stratemeyer, M., Thomson, F., & Haslam, N. (2017). Sexual objectification in women’s daily lives: A smartphone ecological momentary assessment study. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56, 314-333.

Hornsey, M.J., Greenaway, K.H.,Harris, E.A., & Bain, P.G. (in press). Are there cultural differences in the extent to which people perceive and desire control? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Advance Online Publication.

Kalokerinos, E. K.*, Greenaway, K. H.*, & Casey, J. P. (2017). Context shapes social judgments of positive emotion suppression and expression. Emotion. 17(1), 169-186. doi: 10.1037/emo0000222

Kalokerinos, E. K., Greenaway, K. H., Pedder, D. J., & Margetts, E. A. (2014). Don’t grin when you win: The social costs of positive emotion expression in performance situations. Emotion, 14(1), 180-186. doi: 10.1037/a0034442

Kalokerinos, E. K., Résibois, M., Verduyn, P., & Kuppens, P. (2017). The temporal deployment of emotion regulation strategies during negative emotional episodes. Emotion. 17(3), 450-458. doi: 10.1037/emo0000248

Kalokerinos, E. K., Tamir, M., & Kuppens, P. (2017). Instrumental motives in negative emotion regulation in daily life: Frequency, consistency, and predictors. Emotion, 17(4), 648-657. doi: 10.1037/emo0000269

Kalokerinos, E. K.,* Erbas, Y.*, Ceulemans, E., & Kuppens, P. (in press). Differentiate to regulate: Low negative emotion differentiation is associated with ineffective emotion regulation use, but not strategy selection. Psychological Science. Accepted January 22, 2019

Kalokerinos, E.K., Greenaway, K. H., & Denson, T. F. (2015). Reappraisal but not suppression down-regulates the experience of positive and negative emotion. Emotion. 15(3), 271-275. doi: 10.1037/emo0000025 Download PDF

Kalokerinos, E.K., von Hippel, W., Henry, J. D., & Trivers, R. (2014). The aging positivity effect and immune function: Positivity in recall predicts higher CD4 counts and lower CD4 activation. Psychology and Aging, 29(3), 636-641. doi: 10.1037/a0037452

Koval, P., & Kuppens, P. (2012). Changing emotion dynamics: Individual differences in the effect of anticipatory social stress on emotional inertia. Emotion, 12, 256–267.

Koval, P., Butler, E. A., Hollenstein, T., Lanteigne, D., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Emotion regulation and the temporal dynamics of emotions: Effects of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression on emotional inertia. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 831–851.

Koval, P., Kuppens, P., Allen, N. B., & Sheeber, L. (2012). Getting stuck in depression: The roles of rumination and emotional inertia. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 1412–1427.

Koval, P., Ogrinz, B., Kuppens, P., Van den Bergh, O., Tuerlinckx, F., & Sütterlin, S. (2013). Affective instability in daily life is predicted by resting heart rate variability. PLoS One, 8, e81536.

Koval, P., Pe, M. L., Meers, K., & Kuppens, P. (2013). Affect dynamics in relation to depressive symptoms: Variable, unstable or inert? Emotion, 13, 1132–1141.

Koval, P., Sütterlin, S., & Kuppens, P. (2016). Emotional inertia is associated with lower well-being when controlling for differences in emotional context. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1997.

Lougheed, J. P., Koval, P., Hollenstein, T. (2016). Sharing the burden: The interpersonal regulation of emotional arousal in mother-daughter dyads. Emotion, 16, 83–93.

Meers, K., Dejonckheere, E., Kalokerinos, E. K., Rummens, K. & Kuppens, P. (in press). mobileQ: A free user-friendly application for collecting experience sampling data. Behavior Research Methods. Accepted November 22, 2019.

Millgram, Y., Sheppes, G., Kalokerinos, E. K., Kuppens, P., & Tamir, M. (2019). Do the ends dictate the means in emotion regulation? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(1), 80-96. doi: 10.1037/xge0000477

Panaite, V., Koval, P., Dejonckheere, E., & Kuppens, P. (2018). Emotion regulation and mood brightening in daily life vary with depressive symptom levels. Cognition and Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1543180

Pasyugina, I., Koval, P., De Leersnyder, J., Mesquita, B., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Distinguishing between level and impact of rumination as predictors of depressive symptoms: An experience sampling study. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 736–746.

Pe, M. L., Koval, P., & Kuppens, P. (2013). Executive well-being: Updating of positive stimuli in working memory is associated with subjective well-being. Cognition, 126, 335–340.

Pe, M. L., Koval, P., Houben, M., Erbas, Y., Champagne, D., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Updating in working memory predicts greater emotion reactivity to and facilitated recovery from negative emotion-eliciting stimuli. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 372.

Pe, M. L., Raes, F., Koval, P., Brans, K., Verduyn, P., & Kuppens, P. (2013). Interference resolution moderates the impact of rumination and reappraisal on affective experiences in daily life. Cognition and Emotion, 27, 492–501.

Peuters, C.* , Kalokerinos, E. K.*, Pe, M. L., & Kuppens, P. (2019). Sequential effects of reappraisal and rumination on anger during recall of an anger-provoking event. PLOS ONE. 14(1), e0209029. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209029

Résibois, M., Kalokerinos, E. K., Verleysen, G., Kuppens, P., Van Mechelen, I., Fossati, P., & Verduyn, P. (2017). The relation between rumination and temporal features of emotion intensity. Cognition and Emotion, 32(2), 259-274. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2017.1298993

Slepain, M.L. & Greenaway, K.H.(2018). The benefits and burdens of keeping others’ secrets. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 220–232.

Slepian, M. L., Kirby, J. N.,  Kalokerinos, E. K. (2019). Shame, guilt, and secrets on the mind. Emotion. Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1037/emo0000542.

Trull, T. J., Lane, S. P., Koval, P., & Ebner-Priemer, U. W. (2015). Affective dynamics in psychopathology. Emotion Review, 7, 355–361.

van Berkel, N., Goncalves, J., Koval, P., Hosio, S., Dingler, T., Ferreira, D., & Kostakos, V. (2019). Context-Informed Scheduling and Analysis: Improving Accuracy of Mobile Self-Reports. Proceedings of the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 51, 1–12.

von Hippel, C., Kalokerinos, E. K., Haantera, K., & Zacher, H. (2019). Age-based stereotype threat and work outcomes: Stress appraisal and rumination as mediators. Psychology and Aging. Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1037/pag0000308