Abstract
Situation selection is a form of emotion regulation where people approach or avoid certain things, places, or objects to proactively regulate their emotions. Though it is the only strategy that occurs before encountering emotion-eliciting events, situation selection remains understudied. The present research proposes a new measure of Day Recollection Situation Selection (DRSS) in which participants are prompted to recall the day's events before reporting their approach and avoidance behaviors. Across two studies, we aimed to: (1) develop the DRSS measure, (2) compare it to existing measures of situation selection and well-being, (3) examine within- and between-person variability, and (4) compare baseline DRSS to daily means and variability. In one age-diverse survey, and a separate daily diary survey, the DRSS revealed 3 subscales: prohedonic approach, prohedonic avoidance, and contrahedonic behaviors. While the first two subscales aligned with existing measures of approach and avoidance, the contrahedonic subscale was uniquely captured by the DRSS and predicted lower well-being. Approximately half of the variability of the DRSS came at the within-person level. Baseline DRSS predicted greater daily use of all three forms of situation selection, but baseline contrahedonic behaviors were uniquely predictive of variability in daily life. These findings highlight the prohedonic and contrahedonic behaviors of situation selection, with the latter being less frequent but impactful for well-being. Our findings suggest that situation selection can be both prohedonic and contrahedonic. These findings underscore the multi-faceted nature of situation selection as a form of emotion regulation, highlighting that while prohedonic behaviors are more common, the less frequent contrahedonic behaviors have important implications for shaping well-being in daily life.
Committee Chair
Patrick Hill
Committee Members
Daniel Link; Grant Challen; Matthew Walter; Yoona Kang
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author's Department
Psychology
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
5-8-2025
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/ytyg-hb83
Author's ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2292-8366
Recommended Citation
Kwak, Jiyoung, "A Novel Way of Conceptualizing and Measuring Situation Selection" (2025). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 3464.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/ytyg-hb83