Abstract: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the differences of emotional modalities which may make a distinction between high and low happy people in social adaptation and mental health. A large number of Literatures have demonstrated that subjective well being correlates closely with genetics and personality (e.g., extraversion and neuroticism) and interacts with social adaptation, psychological functions and mental health broadly. Further, extraversion is related to more positive emotions and approach behaviors. Neuroticism is linked with more negative emotions, behavioral suppression, and physiological activation. The study hypothesized that, as meeting with adverse situation, the happier people linked with higher extraversion and lower neuroticism would have more changes in emotional experience and expressive behaviors, quicker resilience, and weaker physiological activation. The study also predicted to see the difference in emotion regulation which could be helpful to explain the emotional differences between high & low happy people.
The study was designed to measure the various emotional changes and the regulation strategies in watching a disgust/fear-inducing film clip between high happiness (H_H) and low happiness (L_H) groups. The H_H group (n=32) and the L_H group (n=34) of were selected with positive emotions (e.g., joy and interest) by DES-IV and validated by two measures of life satisfactory. Both groups then were elicited various negative emotions (e.g., disgust, fear, et. al.,) by watching an amputation film clip in a lab environment, and their emotional responses in modalities of subjective experiences, expressive behaviors, physiological responses and regulation strategies were recorded in the meantime. In addition, the personality traits and habitual strategies of emotion regulation were measured with questionnaires of EPQ and ERQ in advance.
The results indicated that: (1) Comparing to the L_H group, the H_H one was higher in extraversion, lower in neuroticism, and better in habitual cognitive reappraisal; (2) During and immediately after watching the amputation film, the L_H group exhibited higher sympathetic physiological activation (e.g., more increased in HR and GSR), reported more inhibition in expressive behaviors, but showed more unspecific expression (e.g., body movement and face touch) in the post film period. On the other hand, H_H group was elicited more disgusting expressive behaviors, stronger displeasure, and recovered more quickly in the post film period.
The study suggests that the happier people are more vivid in emotional social interaction and also have better resilience as facing with an adverse situation. By comparison, the less happy people are less likely to express their unpleasant emotions but actually they still keep a higher activation in physiology. It also suggests that the happier people would have a healthier regulation by better cognitive reappraisal in generally. The study is implication for understanding of the individual differences between high and low happiness people in social adaptation and mental health from the perspectives of emotional responses, resilience and emotion regulation.

Key words: happiness, emotional responses, emotional resilience, emotion regulation