Ego-Resilience and Positive Emotions (2011)
Undergraduate: Rebecca Searles
Faculty Advisor: Sara Algoe
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience
Ego-resilience is an executive cognitive function of the brain involved with self-regulation. It enables an individual to bounce-back from adversity, and adapt to changing environments. Studies have correlated ego-resilience with a number of positive life outcomes, and individuals high in ego-resilience experience more positive emotions in response to a stressor. But how are those low in ego-resilience different? Specifically we sought to answer the question, "What effect might trait ego-resilience have on the interpretation of a positive event?" In this online study, we measured trait ego-resilience in a large sample of college undergraduates, and then induced a positive event of admiration or gratitude, or a neutral-emotion event of a non-routine behavior. We assessed emotional responses to the events, which allowed us to draw a correlation between ego-resilience and strength of positive emotion in response to a positive event. We predicted based on previous research that ego-resilience will be directly related to the strength of positive emotions felt in response to a positive event. We predicted that the condition (a positive event vs. a neutral event) will serve as a moderator of this relationship. Linear regression analysis found the interaction of ego-resilience and condition had a non-significant relationship with positive emotion. However, graphical representation of the data does infer a weak trend in the expected direction.