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

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

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

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)

.

Koval, P., Holland, E., Zyphur, M., Stratemeyer, M., Makovec-Knight, J., Bailen, N. H., Thompson, R. J., Roberts, T-A., & Haslam, N. (2019). How does it feel to be treated like an object? Direct and indirect effects of exposure to sexual objectification on women’s emotions in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000161

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.

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.

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

Erbas, Y., Ceulemans, E., Kalokerinos, E., Houben, M., Koval, P., Pe, M. L., & Kuppens, P. (2018). Why I don't always know what I'm feeling: The role of stress in within-person fluctuations in emotion differentiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115, 179-191.

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.

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

Kuppens, P., Tuerlinckx, F., Yik, M., Koval, P., Coosemans, J., Zeng, K. J., & Russell, J. A.  (2017). The relation between valence and arousal in subjective experience varies with personality and culture.  Journal of Personality, 85, 530-542.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rost, S., Van Ryckeghem, D. M. L., Koval, P., Sütterlin, S., Vögele, C., & Crombez, G.  (2016). Affective Instability in Patients with Chronic Pain: A Diary Approach. Pain, 157, 1783-1790.

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.

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

Koval, P., Brose, A., Pe, M. L., Houben, M., Erbas, Y., Champagne, D., & Kuppens, P. (2015). Emotional inertia and external events: The roles of exposure, reactivity, and recovery. Emotion, 15, 625–636.

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.

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., 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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., 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.

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.

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., 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., Laham, S. M., Haslam, N., Bastian, B., & Whelan, J. A. (2012). Our flaws are more human than yours: Ingroup bias in humanizing negative characteristics. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 283–295.

Laham, S. M., Koval, P., & Alter, A. L. (2012). The name-pronunciation effect: Why people like Mr. Smith more than Mr. Colquhoun. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48, 752–756.