2014 Theses Doctoral

The Effects of Shared Reality on Emotional Experience and Regulation

Hazanov, Valery

The current study consisted of a pilot and two experiments that explored the effects of "shared reality"--experiencing commonality with others' inner states about some aspect of the world--on clinically relevant emotional processes, such as emotional regulation, attachment, well-being, and positive and negative affects. The primary aim was to contribute to our understanding of the implications of social sharing on emotional experience and regulation, using the well-established paradigm of shared reality. Shared reality has been studied thus far in connection to social-cognitive processes such as memory and attribution. The current study is the first application of this paradigm to emotional research.
The study showed that shared reality intensifies negative emotional reactions, but not ambiguous ones. In addition, the study showed that shared reality makes people feel less guilty and fearful, but failed to show that it increases secure attachment to others. The study suggests that shared reality operates by making aspects of perceived reality seem more relevant and thus, it is argued, more accesible. Implications of the findings to emotional research and clinical practice, as well as its limitations and possible future directions for research, are discussed.