Communal Orientation Predicting Flourishing of Married Individuals: Mediation of Emotion Expressivity

Abstract

Abstract Expression of emotions may arbitrate the connections between communal orientation and psychological flourishing of married individuals that may lead to optimal functioning within a marital relationship. By using cross-sectional research design, the present study measures multiple dimensions of psychological flourishing (relationship and individual) in conjunction with communal orientation and emotion expressivity. Among married individuals from Pakistan aged 20–80 years, the authors examined the mediating effect of each spouse's emotional expression (positive, negative, and impulse strength) on the association between communal orientation and psychological flourishing. Findings highlight that communal orientation significantly predicts psychological flourishing. Positive Communal Orientation positively predicts relationship dimension as well as the Individual dimension of psychological flourishing. On the other hand, Negative Communal Orientation negatively predicts the Relationship dimension of psychological flourishing. However, Negative Communal Orientation positively predicts the Individual dimension of psychological flourishing. Furthermore, positive expressivity, negative expressivity and impulse strength significantly mediate the relationship between communal orientation and psychological flourishing. Moreover, gender differences were also found in the exercise of communal orientation and level of flourishing among husbands and wives. The evidence from the present study can be utilised to design relationship measure that can capture all the ingredients of optimal functioning of marital relationship.