5. General discussion
This research examines retrospective evaluations of sequential con- flicting emotional experiences. In doing so, it constructs differing predictions for evaluations of conflicting emotional experiences from two distinct literature streams on memory based sequential positioning (Biswas et al., 2010) and coping (Linville & Fischer, 1991). Specifically, in study 1 we show that relatively close (vs. distant) temporal proximity between movie clips arousing positive emotions and those eliciting negative emotions produced more favorable evaluations of the overall experience. This is consistent with the coping (but not memory based sequential positioning) view that when conflicting emotions arise in relatively close (vs. distant) temporal proximity, positive emotion counteracts the deleterious effects of negative emotion. In study 2, we pinpoint the specific coping process that drive the beneficial effect of relatively close temporal proximity, by establishing reappraisal as the underlying driver. We also rule out alternate strategies such as suppression. These insights are novel and extend past research which has acknowledged the importance of temporal proximity between conflicting emotions in coping (Labroo & Ramanathan, 2007; Lau-Gesk, 2005; Linville & Fischer, 1991), but has not pinpointed specific coping processes.
