Will you be there for me when things go right?  Supportive responses to
positive event disclosures

In this talk I will summarize our work on the intrapersonal and
interpersonal consequences of seeking out others when good things
happen.  Our data shows that communicating personal positive events with
close others (i.e., capitalization) was associated with increased daily
positive affect and well-being, above and beyond the impact of the
positive event itself and other daily events.  Moreover, perceiving
close others as responding actively and constructively (and not
passively or destructively) to capitalization attempts is associated
with further increases in well-being.  Regarding close relationships, we
have found that perceived response styles were linked to the fate and
state of the relationship such that couples who report typical active
and constructive responses from their partner had more stable and
satisfying relationships.  Our most recent work has directly compared
traditional conceptualizations of social support to capitalization
responsiveness, focusing on intimacy processes in the context of both
positive and negative life experiences.  These studies have examined
these process in observational studies on existing romantic couples as
well in longitudinal studies of participants’ larger social networks.
Our results show that the context of the occurrence of positive events
is particularly important for building personal and relational
resources.  Findings are discussed in terms of independent appetitive
and aversive processes, the theoretical and empirical importance of
understanding how we “cope” with positive events, cultivate positive
emotions, and enhance social bonds.