Social Interactions Are Intense Experiences

September 2010 - The most intense positive and negative experiences tend to be associated with social interaction rather than individual accomplishment, according to research from the University at Buffalo published in Self and Identity.

Co-author Shira Gabriel, PhD, associate professor of psychology, said:

"Most of us spend much of our time and effort focused on individual achievements such as work, hobbies and schooling. However this research suggests that the events that end up being most important in our lives, the events that bring us the most happiness and also carry the potential for the most pain, are social events - moments of connecting to others and feeling their connections to us."

The authors explain that previous social psychological research into this topic has tended to conclude that independent events rather than those involving other individuals are responsible for the strongest emotional experiences.

The research was based on 376 subjects who participated in four interrelated studies. The first involved college students asked to describe the most positive and negative emotional experience of their lives. Irrespective of gender, they were much more likely to identify social rather than independent events. The second focused on middle-aged participants asked to describe a recent intense emotional experience with similar results. The third study was designed to exclude the possibility that social events simply have greater salience. The fourth found that social events have far greater impact and reflect the need to belong.

Shira Gabriel concluded:

"...it was not independent events or individual achievements like winning awards or completing tasks that affected participants the most, but the moments when close relationships began or ended; when people fell in love or found a new friend; when a loved one died or broke their hearts. In short, it was the moments of connecting to others that that touched peoples' lives the most."

* "What Makes Us Feel the Best Also Makes Us Feel the Worst: The Emotional Impact of Independent and Interdependent Experiences"

The researchers include principal author Lisa Jaremka, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mauricio Cavallo, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, both graduates of UB.

 

Source: PsyArticles.com