Perceiving Social Pressure not to Feel Negative is Linked to a More Negative Self-concept

Abstract

The current cultural standard in western societies expects people to be happy and not sad. While the pursuit of positive emotion is strongly encouraged in modern societal discourse, occasionally feeling negative is easily considered maladaptive or abnormal. It is in our human nature to comply with social expectations, and the extent to which we are able to do so has important consequences for how we view or present ourselves, generally referred to as our self-concept. Here, we investigate how the perception of the societal norm to avoid negative emotions relates to people’s self-concept. In an online survey (n = 98), we assessed people’s perceived social expectancies not to experience feelin..