Positive Feelings From The Perspective Of Correct Problem: Emotional Value Of Doctrine Of Mean

Psychological and behavioral characteristics of people deeply rooted in traditional culture. Chinese culture shapes the psychology of the Chinese people. As the soul of Confucian culture, Zhongyong has an imperceptible impact on people’s psychology and behavior. Zhongyong thinking as a way of thinking is rooted in Chinses traditional culture, having a profound effect on individual emotions. This study mainly investigated the relationship between Zhongyong thinking and emotion in the lab environment and daily life.The study had three parts: the first two parts inquiried the relationship between Zhongyong thinking and emotion; the last one was a priming experiment. 1)The first study explored the influences of Zhongyong thinking on emotion recognition and emotion experience in the lab environment; 2)The second study using experience-sampling method explored whether different daily life events had influences on different emotion experience, and how Zhongyong thinking style at between-person level moderated the relation between daily life events and emotion experience; 3)The last study used thinking priming paradigm to establish stories including Zhongyong thought in order to explore whether Zhongyong thinking could be primed.Through statistical analysis, the following results can be concluded:1) Two groups had same performance to positive emotion pictures in the two experimental conditions: the reaction of high and low Zhongyong participants to low arousal/positive emotion pictures was speculative and random, that is, fast response but low accuracy rate. Compared to low Zhongyong participants, high Zhongyong participants preferred to high arousal/positive emotion, having a fast and accuracy response to high arousal/positive emotion pictures. In the two experimental conditions, two groups had different performance to negative emotion pictures: in the supraliminal experimental condition, compared to low Zhongyong participants, high Zhongyong participants had a fast and correct response to low arousal/negative emotion pictures; to high arousal/negative emotion pictures, two groups had no difference in response time and accuracy rate. In the subliminal experimental conditions, the two groups both couldn’t balance the response time and accuracy to negative emotion pictures.2) When considering the emotional valance and arousal in the same time, the level of Zhongyong thinking had no effect on different emotional experience. But in the generally, high Zhongyong thinking participants had higher scores than low Zhongyong thinking participants, that is, high Zhongyong thinking individuals were more easily evoked emotion. When considering emotional valance only, the level of Zhongyong thinking had significantly effect on emotion experience. No matter positive or negative emotion stimulates, high Zhongyong thinking individuals had higher emotion experiences than the low ones. Compared to negative emotion stimulates, the level of Zhongyong thinking had more significant effect on the positive emotion stimulates, that is, Zhongyong thinking had more enhanced influence on the positive emotion.3) The positive events had positive influence on positive emotion experience, but no influence on negative emotion experience. The negative events had positive influence on negative emotion experience, but no influence on positive emotion experience. Zhongyong thinking moderated the positive relation between positive life events and positive emotion experience. The relation was stronger for participants who had higher levels of Zhongyong thinking and weaker for participants who had lower levels of Zhongyong thinking. Although the effect didn’t significant, Zhongyong thinking reduced the positive relation between the negative events and negative emotion experience, that is, the relation was weaker for participants who had higher levels of Zhongyong thinking and stronger for participants who had lower levels of Zhongyong thinking. Moreover, Zhongyong thinking had no significant effect on the relation between positive events and negative emotion experience. Similarly, Zhongyong thinking had no significant effect on the relation between negative events and positive emotion experience.4) Zhongyong thinking could be primed using Zhongyong stories in the lab condition.