Investigating the impact of emotional display rules on the positive/negative affect

ntroduction: Emotional display rule are factors dependent on the cultural background of each person and they have a determinant role in expressing emotion. According to these rules, whatever emotion a person expresses is related to sub-threshold factors determined by personal culture. We aimed to investigate affect experience, which is important in psychological wellbeing and identified as a major determinant of quality of life.
The participants in this study were 560 Iranian individuals who live in various cities of Iran (Tehran, Abadan, Ahwaz, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Mashhad) in 2014-2015, and were selected through multistage clustering sampling method. Each one has their own specific emotional display rule. Hypotheses were investigated in light of emotional display rule and positive/negative affect. Questionnaires used in this study were Display Rule Assessment Inventory (DRAI) and Positive/ Negative affect (PANAS). Multiple regressions were used to test the study hypothesis and data were statistically evaluated by SPSS 19.
Results showed that happiness and disgust are expressed more, and anger and sadness are expressed less.
Affect experiences are dependent on the rules which are determined by the culture. If expressing emotion is validated by the culture, the person would experience positive affects; and if not, he would experience negative affects.