Ambivalence over emotional expression and well-being: Nomothetic and idiographic tests of the stress-buffering hypothesis.

Nomothetic and idiographic relations between ambivalence over emotional expression (AEQ; King & Emmons, 1990) and well-being were examined in a 4-month study with an interim 2-week diary component. Nomothetic and idiographic analyses both revealed that AEQ was related to psychological health but not to physical well-being. The nomothetic test of stress-buffering showed that AEQ was more predictive of depression among Ss who had experienced higher levels of positive life-event stress. In contrast, the idiographic test of stress-buffering revealed that Ss higher in AEQ exhibited less covariation between daily stress and negative affect over time. It is proposed that AEQ may reflect 2 types of emotional vulnerability - emotional reactivity and emotional perseveration - and the implications of this distinction for testing the stress-buffering hypothesis are discussed