June 16, 2017
In a new paper (Clark, Armentano, Boothby & Hirsch, 2017, in press) in Current Opinion in Psychology we discuss how being in a communal relationship (or not) shapes a person’s emotional life. Even in the absence of interaction the fact that communal partner is present and has one’s back and one has one’s partner’s back shapes daily feelings as both threats to well-being and reasons to celebrate or enjoy a moment arise. So too do a special group of emotions, ones we call relational emotions (including gratitude, guilt, hurt and others), often arise which function to grow, shape, maintain and repair the communal relationship.