Transforming hostility: The potential of benefit-finding and compassion as positive reappraisal strategies

DOI

This study examined the efficacy of benefit-finding and compassion-focused reappraisal on hostility, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA) following anger recall, while exploring the moderating role of trait prevention focus. Using a within-subjects design, 102 participants recalled autobiographical anger-eliciting memories and completed condition-specific writing tasks (benefit-finding, compassion, control). Results from repeated-measure ANOVAs showed that both benefit-finding and compassion significantly reduced hostility across measures (directed anger, state anger, aggressive tendencies, behavioral aggression) compared to the control condition. Benefit-finding also significantly increased PA, outperforming compassion and control conditions, while NA changes did not differ across conditions. Prevention focus did not moderate outcomes. Findings suggest that benefit-finding and compassion effectively reduce hostility, with benefit-finding uniquely enhancing PA, aligning with the Broaden-and-Build Theory. Implications for emotion regulation interventions and future research are discussed.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.34894/YPHQXS
Metadata Access https://dataverse.nl/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=doi:10.34894/YPHQXS
Provenance
Creator Chen, Li ORCID logo
Publisher DataverseNL
Contributor faculty data manager FPN; Chen, Li
Publication Year 2025
Rights CC0-1.0; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess; http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0
OpenAccess true
Contact faculty data manager FPN (Maastricht University); Chen, Li (Maastricht University)
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format application/x-spss-sav; application/pdf; application/x-spss-syntax
Size 235075; 653066; 77809
Version 1.2
Discipline Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture; Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine; Life Sciences; Social Sciences; Social and Behavioural Sciences; Soil Sciences