Chapter 4 Review

• Emotion is the most powerful of human experiences and involves thoughts, physiological arousal, and communication. Emotions are so significant that we feel compelled to engage in emotion-sharing with our relationship partners.

• Emotions are rare compared to feelings, which occur often and typically arise and decay with little conscious awareness. Moods endure longer than feelings or emotions and affect our perception and communication.

• Six primary emotions exist based on patterns of nonverbal behavior: surprise, joy, disgust, anger, fear, and sadness. Sometimes we experience more than one primary emotion simultaneously; the result is blended emotions.

• Personality plays a powerful role in shaping our experience and expression of emotion.

• Gender contributes to our experience and expression of emotion, often due to the different ways men and women typically orient themselves in interpersonal relationships.

• Effective emotion management is a critical part of emotional intelligence. Emotions are usually managed after they have occurred with suppression and venting. Strategies used for preventing emotions before they occur include encounter avoidance, encounter structuring, attention focus, and deactivation.

• Of all the strategies available to people for managing emotions, the most effective is reappraisal.

• Anger is difficult to manage, given its intensity. People who manage anger through suppression can develop chronic hostility. Providing a time delay between the onset of anger and your communicative response, known as the Jefferson strategy, can be especially effective during online communication.

• Most people experience intense passion in the early stages of their involvements, and then a steady decline the longer the relationship endures.

• Managing your own grief is best accomplished through emotion-sharing, whereas providing supportive communication is the best approach for aiding others in overcoming their grief.