Summary: December’s festive season often brings extra stress and disappointment, challenging the cultural expectation that the holidays must be only joyful. New research indicates that how we respond to unpleasant emotions—whether we accept them or judge them—plays a central role in mental health. Accepting negative feelings as natural and temporary, rather than labeling them as wrong or inappropriate, is linked with lower anxiety and depression.
Key Facts:
- Labeling negative emotions such as sadness or anger as inappropriate is associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression.
- Accepting unpleasant emotions as normal, adaptive responses is linked to better mental well-being.
- Talking about emotions with others, recognizing their temporary nature, and changing stressful circumstances when possible can support emotional acceptance and resilience.
Source: WUSTL
December can be an especially stressful time of the year. Holiday to-do lists, family expectations, and comparisons to idealized celebrations can make people feel overwhelmed. When the season doesn’t match those expectations, disappointment, sadness, or anxiety can follow. These reactions are common and valid, even if social pressures suggest otherwise.
“People often feel guilty because society tells us that the holidays are supposed to be filled only with positive emotions,” explains Emily Willroth, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences. “That isn’t realistic for everyone, and it’s OK to feel stressed, overwhelmed, sad or disappointed.”
A study published in 2023 in the journal Emotion, co-authored by Willroth, examined how habitual judgments about emotions relate to psychological health. The researchers found that people who routinely judge their negative emotions as bad or inappropriate tend to report higher anxiety and depression than those who treat these feelings as understandable responses to life events.
The study’s findings highlight an important distinction: accepting an unpleasant emotion does not mean tolerating harmful or abusive situations. Instead, emotional acceptance involves recognizing that the feeling itself is a natural human response. At the same time, it can be adaptive and important to change stressful circumstances whenever possible—by setting boundaries, simplifying schedules, or seeking practical support—to reduce sources of distress.
Willroth notes that many people sometimes criticize their own emotions, but for some, this judgmental stance is habitual. Breaking that habit starts with awareness: noticing when you label feelings as bad, and reminding yourself that emotions can serve useful functions. For instance, sadness can signal a need for support, fear can protect us from danger, and anger can motivate us to defend our needs or values.
Social support and talking about emotions often aid in acceptance and recovery. Sharing feelings with trusted friends, family, or a mental health professional can help normalize those emotions and clarify next steps. If unpleasant emotions are intense, long-lasting, or significantly disrupt daily life, seeking help from a mental health professional is recommended.
About this mental health and stress research news
Author: Sara Savat
Source: WUSTL
Contact: Sara Savat – WUSTL
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access. “Judging emotions as good or bad: Individual differences and associations with psychological health” by Emily C. Willroth et al., published in Emotion.
Abstract
Judging emotions as good or bad: Individual differences and associations with psychological health
People vary not only in their immediate emotional reactions but also in how they think about and respond to those emotions—what the authors call emotion judgments. Across five samples drawn from MTurk and undergraduate participants between 2017 and 2022 (total N = 1,647), the researchers explored (1) the types of habitual emotion judgments people tend to make and (2) how those judgments relate to psychological health.
In Aim 1, the team identified four distinct patterns of habitual emotion judgments that differ by the valence of both the judgment and the emotion being judged. These individual differences showed moderate stability over time and related to, but were not redundant with, related constructs such as affect valuation, emotion preferences, stress mindsets, and broader personality traits like extraversion and neuroticism.
In Aim 2, the key findings were that positive judgments of positive emotions were uniquely associated with better psychological health, while negative judgments of negative emotions were uniquely associated with worse psychological health. These associations were evident both concurrently and prospectively, and they remained significant after accounting for related constructs and broader personality traits.
The research advances understanding of how people evaluate their emotional experiences and underscores that the way we judge our emotions has meaningful implications for mental health. Recognizing and accepting unpleasant emotions—especially during high-stress periods like the holidays—can be an important step toward improved psychological well-being.