In the last decades a vast amount of research supported that positive emotions can be vehicles for individual growth and social connection, as well as antidotes to negative affect (Fredrickson, 1998; Shiota, Keltner & John, 2006). But a limited part of studies have specifically addressed the role the perceived capabilities to preserve one¿s own positive mood, to savor and nurture positive feelings, and to self-generate positive emotions, especially under adverse conditions. Those capabilities are key ingredients of people¿s resiliency when facing challenges and coping with adversities (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000; Quoidbach, et al. 2011). The present proposal is aimed to address the role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs (SEB) in experiencing and expressing joy and satisfaction; SEB in retrieving positive emotional experiences, and SEB in using humor (Caprara, Di Giunta, et al., 2008; Gerbino et al., 2016).In particular, we are interested in examining the moderator role of those SEB in the relations between negative affectivity and low life satisfaction and bad quality of friendship relations, in young adults from Italy and Spain.
Participants will be young aduts aged 19-25 . they will complete a variety of self-report questionnaires measuring: Positive Affect/Negative Affect. (Watson, et al. 1988); Perceived Self-efficacy in Managing Positive Affect (Gerbino et al., 2016); Perceived Self-efficacy in Expressing Positive Affect (Caprara et al. 2008); Life Satisfaction ( (Diener, et al., 1985); Quality of Friendship ( Bukowski, Hoza, and Boivin ;1994). Findings from this proposal will extend previous limited knowledge concerning Self-Efficacy in dealing with positive affect. Furhermore, in examining whether SEB counteract the association between negative ffect and well-being, findings could clarify if SEB may be considered potential target of interventions aimed to strengthen personal and relational well-being and could suggest furher research lines
Despite the limits of using correlational data, the present project is an important extension of previous research on positive emotions and well being for different reasons:
a) the project examine in deeper the specific role of different Self-Efficacy beliefs concerning different strategies of regulating positive emotions in contributing to individual and interpersonal well being. This is innovative in the field of research on SEB, because most part of the previous research have emphasized the role of perceived capabilities to modulate negative emotions (for a review Alessandri et al., 2015; Di Giunta et al., 2017; 2018; Mesurado et al., 2018) and neglect the role of perceived capabilities to activate and extend positive emotions. It is important this change of view, if we consider the large amount of research of the last decades attesting the importance of positive emotions and their upward for individual well-being and resilience (or a review, Fredrickson, 2013). In addition, whereas in examining SEB in regulating negative emotions, research emphasized individual's capacities to control emotional experiences, SEB in dealing with positive affectivity emphasize, mostly, the proactive role of individuals in "creating" one's own emotional experience with the goal to face with difficult moments. The emphasis on the proactive role of individuals, is of particular relevance during the transition to adulthood, when youths have to face with a variety of change in their life (Arnett, 2000), especially in countries such as Italy and Spain where youths obtain their independence later than in other northern European countries (Fierro Arias & Moreno Hernandez, 2007). The transition to adulthood probably increase uncertainty in different domains of individuals' lives (Elder, 1998), so we can reasonably consider this transition "optimal window" to study the importance of individuals'resources to increase their own well-being. In this sense, perceived capabilities to make an optimal use of positive emotional states could be a further resosurce for youths' adjustment because perceived capabilities could contribute to more personal well being
b) the project frame the role of SEB within a consolidated personality perspective, in which well-being is considered (in part) as result of the interaction of different personality structures (dispositions and SEB). Few studies have addressed this hypothesis (Lightsey, 2011; 2013) and no studies have addressed positive emotional experiences.
Most of previous findings have attested the role of SEB in regulating negative emotions as mediator of the relations between dispositions and adjustment (e.g., Alessandri et al., 2012;Caprara et al., 2010; 2011), excepted the recent findings by Lightsey (2011; 2013) that examined the moderating role of those SEB in regulating negative emotions. We believe that to examine the moderating role of SEB is important especially for intervention. SEB are malleable factors and corroborated practice concerning their development and strengthen are available (Bandura, 1997; 2006). Understanding whether higher self-efficacy beliefs counteract the negative effects of dispositions is important for the intervention. Our findings are of relevance because in the field of positive emotions no previous studies have examined this moderating role. We are aware that our findings will be correlational and no causal relation may be tesed or inferred. Howeverm we believe that our findings could contribute to encourage this new direction of research in the field, and could suggest to continue those kind of studies within a longitudinal perspective, to better understand the complex relations among th examined variables.
c)Finally, we think that comparing findings across nations could represent a further added value of our proposal.