Is attention to feelings beneficial or detrimental to affective well-being? Mood regulation as a moderator variable.

This research examined the functionality of attention to feelings for affective well-being. The authors found that mood regulation, but not clarity of feelings, moderated the attention-well-being relationship. For individuals with high mood regulation scores, attention was beneficial to affective well-being, whereas for individuals with low mood regulation scores, attention was detrimental to affective well-being. This finding was corroborated by self- and peer reports in Study 1 and replicated in Study 2. The validity of the scales was established by the convergence of self- and peer ratings. Moreover, Study 2 showed that dysfunctional and functional and self consciousness scales suppressed variance in attention to feelings, thereby revealing that attention incorporates both adaptive and maladaptive aspects.