The Extended Trust Hypothesis: Single-Attractor Self-Contagion in Day-to-Day Changes in Implicit Positive Affect Predicts Action-Oriented Coping and Psychological Symptoms.

According to the extended trust hypothesis, the ability to cope with negative experiences is grounded in intuitive positive feelings about one's existence (Kuhl, Quirin, & Koole, 2015). In the present study, the authors empirically tested this hypothesis by examining the nonlinear dynamics in a series of day-to-day autoregressive functions of affective states taken from a 30-day daily mood diary study among 40 participants. A parameter (?) related to the asymptotic level of day-to-day changes in implicit positive mood predicted action orientation, a personality variable that relates to coping with negative affect, and psychological symptoms. This effect did not emerge when using a similar parameter l for self-reported positive affect or any linear characteristic (mean or standard deviation) of changes in positive or negative mood. These findings are considered within the broader framework of Personality Systems Interaction theory (PSI theory) that interprets l, under specified conditions, as a form of basic trust that enables people to confront negative affect and permit self-growth through self-confrontational rather than defensive coping.