Capitalizing on and coping with daily-life events: Expressive responses to positive events.

“For example, flight attendants limit hostile feelings toward unpleasant passengers (Hochschild, 1983), and college students enhance positive feelings by social sharing (Clark & Isen, 1982; Langston, 1994).”

“The appraisal of personal significance is influenced by the relevance of the event to the person's beliefs, commitments and goals, and by options regarding what can be done about the situation (Langston, 1994; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Thompson & Janigian, 1988; Wortman, 1983).”

“Langston (1994) views positive emotional episodes as opportunities on which to seize or “capitalize”—he notes that Bryant (1989) used the term savoring in this respect.”

“Indeed, Langston (1994) found that communicating positive events to others enhanced positive affect, even above and beyond the affect associated with the experiences itself (also see Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004).”

“For example, research on savoring and capitalization—defined as “beneficially interpreting positive events” (Langston, 1994, p. 1112)—showed that disclosing positive job events to one’s spouse is associated with positive affective states (Hicks & Diamond, 2008; Ilies, Keeney, & Scott, 2011).”

“We know relatively little about individuals’ emotion regulatory goals, but it seems increasingly clear that emotion regulation involves both decreasing and increasing negative and positive emotions ( Langston, 1994; Masters, 1991; Parrott, 1993).”

“Brief Summary of Study 1 and Overview of Studies 2 and 3 Study 1 replicated and extended the findings of Langston (1994) by showing that positive affect and life satisfaction were higher on days people shared the occurrence of their most positive event of the day.”

“This form of self-regulation involves decreasing, maintaining, or increasing both negative and positive emotions (Masters, 1991; Parrott, 1993; Langston, 1994), by using various cognitive regulatory processes such as rationalization, reappraisal, and suppression (Gross, 1999; Hariri et al.”

“Correlational studies have shown, for example, that individuals are more likely to experience positive emotions following pleasant events if they perceive control over those events, or mark, celebrate, or otherwise share those events with others (Bryant, 1989; Langston, 1994).”

“…momentous events (Pillemer, 2001), positive events (Ilies, Keeney, & Scott, 2011), negative events (Lavallee & Campbell, 1995), daily life events (Langston, 1994), work events (Mignonac & Herrbach, 2004), uncommon events (Latané & Darley, 1969), stressful life events (Holmes & Rahe, 1967),…”

“It is also defined as beneficially interpreting positive events by engaging in social behaviors, such as communicating the event to others or celebrating (termed ‘‘capitalizing’’ by Langston, 1994).”

“The ability to notice, appreciate, and savor the elements of one’s life has been viewed as a crucial determinant of well-being (Bryant, 1989; Janoff-Bulman & Berger, 2000; Langston, 1994).”

“…(2010), doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010 either the effectiveness of a limited number of specific strategies (e.g., Bryant, 2003; Bryant et al., 2005; Langston, 1994; Nezlek & Kuppens, 2008) or the consequences of the overall savoring and/ or dampening abilities (e.g., Feldman et al., 2008; Wood et…”

“Similarly, Tomasello et al. (2005) have cogently argued that social motivation may be fundamental to the evolution and development of human social cognition and the tendency to share psychological states, and Langston (1994) suggests that individual differences in the motivation to share information contributes to dif…”

“Keywords: social support, close relationships, positive emotions, intimacy, marital satisfaction Good things happen, and when they do, people often share the positive event with someone else—a process that has been called capitalization (Langston, 1994).”

“…of daily positive events and their emotions showed that capitalization was associated with increased intensity and duration of daily positive emotions, over and above the impact of the positive events themselves (Gable et al., 2004; Langston, 1994; see also Gable & Reis, 2010, for a review).”

“Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden and build theory suggests this possibility, as does empirical research showing that when positive events are savored or shared, their effects are enhanced (Gable et al., 2004; Ilies et al., 2011; Langston , 1994).”

“Recalling a wonderful moment—a triumph, a creative breakthrough, a first declaration of love—by reliving it through rehearsal and replaying may allow the individual to savor (Bryant, 1989, 2003) and capitalize on (Gable et al., 2004; Langston, 1994) the experience.”

“Langston (1994) proposed three mechanisms (or, as he referred to them, marking functions) underlying the personal benefits of capitalization: to enhance memorability, to maximize the event’s personal significance, and to gain value (status) in the eyes of others.”

“…with this exercise to help the students capitalize on the positive experiences of the gratitude intervention, which should help boost their well-being (Bryant & Veroff, 2007; Langston, 1994), we are still unclear about the potential benefits of this gratitude intervention in isolation with youth.”

“As described earlier, Langston (1994) proposed three marking functions to account for this correlation: increasing memorability, maximizing the event’s personal significance, and building social resources.”

“According to this model, adjustment to stressors may be maximized when coping efforts are balanced between emotional reactions and more deliberate cognitive work ( 15 ).”

“Studies on capitalization have suggested that people can derive benefit not only from the tangible outcomes of advantageous circumstances but also by responding in certain ways to those circumstances (e.g., Gable, Impett, Reis, & Asher, 2004; Langston, 1994).”

“Savoring positive affect has been the subject of very few studies (e.g., Bryant, 2003; Langston, 1994) and the opposite of savoring, the “inhibition of good moods .”

“Changes in PA are more strongly related to the occurrence of positive than negative minor events (David et al., 1997; Gable et al., 2000; Langston, 1994).”

“Social ties can enhance well-being through sharing of positive experiences, a process Langston (1994) has referred to as “capitalization”.”

“This phenomenon, termed interpersonal capitalization (Gable, Gonzaga, & Strachman, 2006; Langston, 1994), has only been studied recently and presents a vast new area for research on social support in the workplace.”

“Researchers (Bryant, 2003; Langston, 1994) have asserted that if one has the ability to enjoy and savor positive experiences in life, then one will live a richer”

“Research previously conducted by Langston (1994) shed a new light on the motives underlying the social propagation of positive emotional episodes.”

“Generating, maintaining, decreasing, or increasing either positive or negative emotional responses represent the various expressions of emotional self-regulation (Cole et al., 1994; Langston, 1994; Masters, 1991; Parrott, 1993).”

“PA had no relationship to SCC, and as noted by Langston (1994), PA and positive events do not figure as heavily as NA or negative events in many models describing reactions to daily or life events.”

“According to Langston (1994), just as individuals respond to negative events by coping, they may respond to positive events via an analogous process of “capitalization” through which they capture benefits beyond those conferred by the events themselves.”

“…1978; Lewinsohn, Hoberman, & Clarke, 1989; Lewinsohn, Sullivan, & Grosscup, 1980); 2) capitalizing on or savoring positive events (Bryant, 1989; Langston, 1994); 3) gratitude (Emmons, 2007; 2006; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005); 4) mindfulness (Cresswell, Myers, Cole, & Irwin, 2009;…”

“This phenomenon has been labeled capitalization (Gable et al., 2004; Hicks & Diamond, 2008; Langston, 1994; Rimé, 2009).”

“Positive emotional episodes were conceived as opportunities on which to ‘capitalize’, by letting others know about the event and thus getting another opportunity to enhance one’s positive affect [17].”

“note these successes and capitalize on the positive feelings that they generate ( 47 ).”

“Besides, research has often focused on negative affective states only and not on positive emotional experiences (Langston, 1994).”

“…Lewinsohn, Clarke, & Hoberman, 1989; Murrell & Norris, 1984; Zautra & Reich, 1983) (2) Savoring or capitalizing on positive events (Bryant, 1989; Langston, 1994) (3) Gratitude (Emmons, 2007; Emmons & McCullough, 2003; Kashdan, Uswatte, & Julian, 2006) (4) Mindfulness (Brown & Ryan, 2003;…”

“Prior research (e.g., Gable et al., 2004; Langston, 1994) has shown some correlation between sharing positive experiences and positive mood; however, most prior research has been somewhat limited to correlational methods.”

“, the listener is a stranger or is unspecified) indicates that sharing positive events with others leads to greater state PA and life satisfaction (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004; Lambert et al., 2013; Langston, 1994; Reis et al., 2010; Verduyn, Van Mechelen, & Tuerlinckx, 2011).”

“Langston (1994) found that when people shared the news of a positive event with others, they experienced a level of positive affect that exceeded the level associated with the positive event itself, a process he termed capitalization.”

“Yet, our results suggest that it might be more worthwhile to attend to positive events (Judge & Hurst, 2007; Langston, 1994), because these may inform us about opportunities on which to capitalize.”

“Capitalising refers to communicating and celebrating positive events with other people (Langston, 1994).”

“It allows one to re-experience and enhance the positive emotion (Langston, 1994; Rimé, 2007, 2009).”

“Capitalizing, otherwise known as savoring, is an expressive response to a positive event that strengthens the association between positive events and positive emotion (Langston, 1994).”

“In particular, in previous studies it has been found that sharing does not affect the intensity of negative emotions (Finkenauer & Rimé, 1998; Zech & Rimé, 2005) and may even lead to an increase of intensity in some cases (Langston, 1994; Gable et al., 2004).”

“Accepting and openly expressing positive emotions serves the function of clearly delineating pleasurable and meaningful events (Langston, 1994).”

“This latter positively oriented partner interaction is relatively new in the literature, but research is already demonstrating the importance of capitalization, which is the process of sharing one’s personal positive events with others (Gable, Gonzaga, & Strachman, 2006; Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004; Langston, 1…”

“In two different studies, Langston (1994) confirmed that the communication of positive events to others was indeed associated with an enhancement of positive affect far beyond the benefits resulting from the valence of the positive events themselves. Gable, Reis, Impett, and Asher (2004) demonstrated that close relati…”

“…across all major facets of PAF: cognitive (e.g., Beevers and Meyer 2002; Bergouignan et al. 2008; Cropley and MacLeod 2003), behavioral (e.g., Langston 1994; Lewinsohn and Graf 1973; Sloan et al. 2002), motivational (e.g., Beevers and Meyer 2002; Kasch et al. 2002), subjective/experiential…”

“At the same time, emotion regulation strategies have been shown to be associated with corresponding emotional changes after positive and negative events that happened in a daily life (Heimpel et al., 2002; Langston, 1994; Wood, Heimpel, & Michela, 2003 ).”

“Indeed, evidence suggests that capitalising between people actually produces positive effects over and above the effects of the actual event itself (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004; Langston, 1994).”

“…programs (e.g. Fava and Ruini, 2003; Fava et al., 1998; Fordyce, 1981, 1983; Seligman et al., 2006) as well as studies of single skills (e.g. Emmons, 2007; Langston, 1994; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005), and our own program of observational research (e.g. Folkman et al., 1997; Moskowitz et al., 1996).”

“Expressing positive emotions (sharing positive emotions with others, expressing positive emotions) has also been linked to the successful up-regulation of positive emotions (Langston, 1994).”

“At a behavioral level, one important secret for increasing happiness is to act happily (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006), and whenever possible, to make a rather big deal out of pleasant events in life (Gable, Reis, Impett, & Asher, 2004; Langston, 1994).”

“In a seminal article, Gable et al. (2004) showed that sharing good news with others is associated with greater positive affect (path A; see also Langston, 1994) and is common.”

“This is done in order to increase positive social feedback from other people (Langston, 1994).”

“Friendship can lead to job satisfaction through increasing opportunities for interpersonal capitalization, the process of sharing and celebrating positive news with others (Langston, 1994).”

“Our results suggest that parents of securely attached children might be socializing their children to enhance their PA and respond effectively to positive experiences (Contreras and Kerns 2000; Diamond and Aspinwall 2003; Feldman 2003), which is likely to produce benefits for their mood or self-worth (Bryant and Verho…”

“In addition, when positive events are shared with others, people experience positive affect that is above and beyond the positive affect associated with the event itself (Langston, 1994).”

“For example, talking with others has been found to be an important vehicle for capitalizing on and savoring positive experiences, which in turn benefits well-being (Gable et al. 2004; Langston 1994).”

“increases in PA than are associated with the positive event itself (Langston 1994).”

“Langston (1994) named this process capitalisation, whereby informing another person of the occurrence of a personal positive event creates additional benefits derived from the retelling of the event.”