Resilience and Positive Emotions: Examining the Roleof Emotional Memories
Frederick L. Philippe,1 Serge Lecours,2 and Geneviève
Beaulieu-Pelletier2
1
2

McGill University

Université de Montréal

ABSTRACT Resilience has been frequently associated with positive emotions, especially when experienced during taxing events. However, the psychological processes that might allow resilient individuals to self-generate
those positive emotions have been mostly overlooked. In line with recent
advances in memory research, we propose that emotional memories play animportant role in the self-generation of positive emotions. The present research examined this hypothesis in two studies. Study 1 provided initial dataon the validity and reliability of a measure of emotional memories networks(EMN) and showed that it had a predictive value for broad emotion regulation constructs and outcomes. In addition, Study 1 showed that positive
EMN mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and theexperience of positive emotions in a context of sadness, even after controlling for pre-experimental positive mood. Study 2 replicated results of Study
1 in a context of anxiety and after controlling for positive affectivity trait.

To produce change in a person’s thoughts and feelings from negative to positive is probably a much more difﬁcult task than meetsthe eye.
—Richard Lazarus, 2003
Preparation of this article was facilitated by a grant from the Fond Québécois de laRecherche en Sciences Humaines (FQRSC) to the second author. The authors would
like to thank Dr. Marc-André Bouchard and Dr. Annie Bernier for their comments onan early draft of this paper.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Frederick L. Philippe, Department of Psychology, McGill University, 1205 Dr. Penﬁeld Avenue, Montreal, QC, H3A 1B1, Canada. E-mail: frederick.philippe@mail.mcgill.ca.

Journal of Personality 77:1, February 2009r 2008, Copyright the Authors
Journal compilation r 2009, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00541.x

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A currently promising paradigm in psychology is that of positive
psychology. A decade of research has shown that optimism, and inparticular the intervention of positive emotions, is a critical ingredient of a number of positive outcomes as various as psychologicaladjustment (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003), interpersonal relationships (Waugh & Fredrickson, 2006), ﬂexible behavior (Isen & Daubman, 1984; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), life
longevity (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001), or physical health(Huppert & Whittington, 2003). However, if such investigations
have shown that experiencing positive emotions leads to a number of
positive outcomes, how these positive emotions are self-generated1
has been mostly overlooked. The purpose of the present research was
to examine this issue.
One individual characteristic that has been frequently linked to theself-generation of positive emotions is psychological resilience. Morespeciﬁcally, resilient individuals are believed to experience positive
emotions in the face of difﬁcult events, thus allowing them to thriveand beneﬁt from positive outcomes (e.g., Fredrickson, 2001). Indeed,
research has shown that psychological resilience was associated withpositive emotions in general (Block & Kremen, 1996; Klohnen, 1996)
and throughout taxing situations (Ong, Bergeman, Bisconti, & Wallace, 2006; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). What is not clear, however,from these studies is how resilient people make use of these positive
emotions in the face of difﬁcult emotional situations and how they
are self-generated. Some authors have suggested that intentional conscious coping or intentionally recruiting positive emotions might account for the self-generation of positive emotions (e.g., Fredrickson,2001). However, such approaches rely exclusively on a deliberate or
explicit motivation to cope or to regulate one’s mood. It does notencompass implicit appraisal based on the memory of past experiences or antecedent events, which have been shown to play an important role in emotion elicitation (Lazarus, 1991; Scherer, 2005). We
suggest that the implicit (i.e., out of one’s awareness) and automatic
activation of past emotional memories by external cues of stressful or

1. By self-generation the authors mean that positive emotions are produced—in
an explicit or implicit fashion—by the person’s internal resources without an external positive source of induction (e.g., an experimental induction of positive
emotions with a pleasant ﬁlm excerpt).

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141

taxing events may play a role in the emotional elicitation these events
will sustain and how they will be appraised.
Emotional Memories

Emotional memories can be deﬁned as memory for events or things
that have been experienced as emotionally arousing and that havebeen stored in memory. Emotional memories are believed to be integrally linked in memory to the emotion associated with the experienced event (Christianson & Engelberg, 1999; LeDoux, 1992;
Westen, 1998). This emotion is automatically evoked whenever anemotional memory is activated (Collins & Allard, 2004) leading to a
subjective feeling and a physiological state similar to the ones experienced in the original situation (Schwartz, Weinberger, & Singer,1981). Because emotions tend to inﬂuence what is attended to in theenvironment (e.g., negative emotions will alert one to potential
threat or positive emotions will promote exploration and approach
behavior), activation of an emotional memory and of its related
emotion should inﬂuence the way one will experience and perceive
current and actual situations. Emotional memories are thus used tomake sense of and explain external events (Pillemer, 2001) the sameway factual knowledge is used to understand the world around us(Robinson, 1986). Stored emotional memories can thus later serve toemotionally appraise novel events and situations (Lazarus, 1991;
Robinson, 1986; Scherer, 2005), as they become resources of the self
(Robinson, 1986; Sutin & Robins, 2005). For these reasons, they are
posited to be an important mediator between personality functioning(Block, 2002; Singer & Salovey, 1993; Sutin & Robins, 2005) andemotional and behavioral outcomes (Dweck & London, 2004; Pillemer, 2001). For instance, Andersen and Baum (1994) showed thatpeople were experiencing negative emotions when they were about tomeet an unknown person who looked slightly similar to a signiﬁcantother from their past with whom they had negative experiences.
Clearly, the activation of an emotional memory by cues from anexternal event can inﬂuence the emotional experience and appraisalof that event.
Three components have been frequently reported as essential tothe psychological organizational structure of emotional memories.
First, each emotional memory has a characteristic level of intensity.
Indeed, the vividness of the recollection of an emotional memory has

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been found to be proportionally associated with greater emotional
intensity (Porter & Birt, 2001), even after controlling for event novelty, importance, and amount of rehearsal (Conway, 1995; Thompson, Skowronski, Larsen, & Betz, 1996).
A second component of an emotional memory is its valence. Indeed, positive and negative emotions lead to different information
processes. For instance, fMRI data have shown that the recall of
positive versus negative pictures produced different patterns of brain
activation (e.g., Canli, Zhao, Desmond, Glover, & Gabrieli, 1999),
thus suggesting that the valence of emotional memories might beprocessed differentially. According to the Broaden-and-Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2001), positive emotions lead to a broadening of
the scope of the thought–action repertoires that is conducive to a
global processing (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005) and patterns ofthought that are ﬂexible (Isen & Daubman, 1984), creative (Isen,
Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987), open-minded (Estrada, Isen, &Young, 1997), and integrative (Isen, Rosenzweig, & Young, 1991).
Conversely, negative emotions lead to a narrowing of the thought–
action repertoires (Fredrickson, 2001; Fredrickson & Branigan,
2005) that is conducive to a local awareness. Research has shownthat positive autobiographical memories tend to include a wide
range of information, whereas negative autobiographical memories
focus on central information at the expense of peripheral details(Berntsen, 2002). For instance, a study about the trial of O. J. Simpson (Levine & Bluck, 2004) showed that people who were happy withthe verdict remembered a wider range of details of the trial comparedto people who were unhappy with the verdict. Furthermore, people
who were happy were also more likely to report false information
concerning the trial, as positive emotional memory allowed them todraw freely on their general knowledge and ﬁll in the gaps of theirrepresentations (Levine & Bluck, 2004). However, people who were
unhappy with the outcome remembered fewer details about the trial,
but made fewer mistakes, as they did not report elements that did not
happen during the trial (Levine & Bluck, 2004). Negative emotional
memories led them to constrain their general knowledge and analyze
the situation in a rigid and systematic—but less error prone—fashion(Levine & Bluck, 2004). The valence of an emotional memory thus
appears to lead to different types of information processing.
Finally, a third component of an emotional memory is binding or
its associative structure. This component supposes that emotional

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143

memories are modeled into associative networks (McClelland, 1995;
Smith, 1998) that are formed through contiguity, when the elements
they link are experienced or thought about together (Smith, 1998).
When an emotional memory is activated, other emotional memories
to which it is linked become active, as activation spreads across thelinks (Anderson, 1984; Smith, 1998). Tomkins (1979) posited thatmemories get linked together according to a common theme, leading
to the composition of scripts organized through past and novel information and that these scripts later serve to appraise subsequentsituations. Other researchers also argue for associative networks ofknowledge in which the remembering of an autobiographical memory comes to activate a pathway of memories through a knowledge
base (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). Research has also shownthat memories tend to organize by linking themselves together according to a common theme (Robinson, 1992). It has also beenfound that when a memory is cued to cue recall another, event clusters emerge, thus suggesting local organization of memories (Brown& Schopﬂocher, 1998).
This binding process is also posited to serve an emotional regulation function. Indeed, when an event is experienced with a certain
emotional intensity, it comes to be internalized in a network of related memories. When this newly internalized event is activated, theperipheral memories are activated as well. Depending on the qualityof this network (peripheral memories), the affective experience of thenovel event will be dampened or intensiﬁed. For instance, experiencing a negative event and internalizing it into a relatively positive
network of past memories might help reduce the intensity of thenegative emotions associated with this event (see also Fredrickson,
Mancuso, Branigan, & Tugade, 2000, for a similar undoing model).
This negative event might thus come to be experienced with mixed
emotions (negative and positive) the next time it is encountered, andnot as all negative. Conversely, experiencing a negative event andinternalizing it to a network composed of strong negatively valenced
memories might have the opposite effect. Therefore, it is not so muchthe affective experience of an event that is important, but rather thequality (positivity) of the network in which it will be internalized thatis determinant of how this experience will be regulated.
In sum, it would appear that three components—intensity, valence, and binding—play an essential role in the cognitive organization of emotional memories. These three components are not new

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Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierand are core features of several theoretical organizational systems
of cognitions (e.g., Anderson, 1984; Kruglanski et al., 2002;
McClelland, 1995).
The Emotional Memory Networks Theory

We propose that when the content of an emotional memory is activated, its components (valence and intensity) are activated alongand spread an emotional activation to associated emotional memories (binded memories), thus activating a network of emotional
memories (see Anderson, 1984; Bower, 1981; Kruglanski et al.,2002, for similar spreading activation systems). Therefore, when aparticular situation comes to activate an emotional memory, thisactivation also leads to the activation of other emotional memories(or elements of other emotional memories) to which the prior memory is associated. Activation of this network of memories also activates each of their respective emotional intensity and valence. The
network now activated would then combine its information andyield a qualitative outcome or a type of emotional ‘‘script’’ (Sutin &Robins, 2005; Tomkins, 1979) posited to inﬂuence thoughts, emotional elicitation, appraisal, and behavior. Therefore, we suggest thattaking into account emotional memories peripheral to an activatedmemory is of a critical importance for the prediction of various outcomes. In line with past research on the role of positive and negative
emotional memories (Berntsen, 2002; Levine & Bluck, 2004; Levine,
Prohaska, Burgess, Rice, & Laulhere, 2001), we propose that activating an emotional memory with a high number of positive andintense links (i.e., associated emotional memories) should lead to a
positive emotional elicitation and to a larger and more ﬂexible accessto internal resources (Fredrickson, 2001), such as coping or cognitive
regulation strategies and approach behavior (Hendersen, 1985; Levine, 1997; Levine et al., 2001). Conversely, activating an emotional
memory with a high number of negative and intense links should
lead to a strong reactivation of the prior negative experience (Christianson & Engelberg, 1999). This condition should thus be conducive
to a negative emotional elicitation and to a narrowing of thethought–action repertoires (Fredrickson, 2001; Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005), thereby leading to more rigid situational analyses anddefensive avoidant behavior (Hendersen, 1985; Levine, 1997; Levine
et al., 2001).

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145

Finally, we further propose that emotional memories networks
are relatively context dependent; that is, memories are minutely sensitive to external cues (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). Therefore,
external cues of a context will most likely activate memories related
to this context. In addition, the memories activated by a context canoperate in parallel. Thus, one context may simultaneously activate
several memories networks that are relatively independent from eachother (McClelland, 1995). For instance, playing tennis might activate
an emotional memories network related to tennis playing and also
activate another emotional memories network related to father, if
one is playing tennis with one father’s racket. In this case, the emotional network related to tennis would be relatively independent
from the one related to father. We thus posit that this multicomponent information processing can include different networks and thatit takes place in parallel (McClelland, 1995). However, the output ofeach of these networks (e.g., positive perceptions of tennis, but negative relationship with the father) should combine at some point andserve the appraisal, thus affecting one’s emotional regulation of thecurrent experience. Therefore, sampling and assessing only one ofseveral relatively independent networks should not yield a perfectprediction, but it would at least have a partial predictive value forappraisal and emotional elicitation.
Resilience and Emotional Memories: The Present Research

We posit that resilient people experience and self-generate positive
emotions in distressing situations because they rely on more positive
affect-laden emotional memories composed of intense positive links
to other memory elements. Because the emotion associated with anemotional memory is automatically evoked when it is activated(Collins & Allard, 2004), activation of a positive emotional memories network and of the related positive emotions should in turn facilitate a positive emotional elicitation and a positive appraisal of thecurrent experienced event. Thus, individuals with internal resources,
such as positive affect-laden memories, might thus be better skilled
at self-generating positive emotions and at coping in times of adversity (see Block, 2002; Fredrickson et al., 2003). Emotional memories
are thus likely to play the role of a buffer between the distressing
situation and the emotional elicitation and appraisal of that situation. Two studies examined this issue. Study 1 aimed at validating an

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operational measure of emotional memories networks (EMN). It
also sought to test the mediating role of EMN between resilience andemotional experience to an induction of sadness. Study 2 replicatedthe results of Study 1 with an anxiety-inducing task. It further
showed that the measure of EMN was not inﬂuenced by positive
affectivity trait and by the concurrent activation of a short-lived
emotional state.
STUDY 1In the present study, participants were induced with a distressing
experience of sadness by being exposed to a ﬁlm excerpt picturing
two young children at the funerals of their parents. The themes ofloss and sadness were selected because research has shown that resilience was particularly at play in the face of loss and grief (Bonanno
et al., 2002). Participants were then assessed for their EMN related
to the ﬁlm excerpt. Past research has shown that trait-like characteristics are associated with the valence of broad emotional memories (Sutin & Robins, 2005). In line with the Emotional Memory
Networks Theory, it was thus hypothesized that each positive components of the EMN (positive valence, number of positive links, andintensity of positive links) should be positively associated with general adaptive mechanisms of emotion regulation such as resilienceand adaptive defenses and to the elicitation of positive emotions
following the distressing induction of sadness. Conversely, these
positive components were hypothesized to be negatively associatedor unrelated to maladaptive mechanisms of emotion regulation, suchas alexithymia, impulsive defenses, and dependency, and to negative
outcomes such as level of current depression and to the elicitation ofnegative emotions following the distressing induction of sadness.
Depression and dependency have been selected because they bothrefer to emotion regulation processes. In addition, the manipulationthat was used to induce sadness was thematically related to loss, andboth constructs have been shown to be involved in the dysfunctional
processing of sadness (e.g., Surguladze et al., 2004) and to be particularly relevant to the theme of loss (e.g., Blatt, D’Afﬂitti, & Quinlan, 1976; Monroe, Rohde, Seeley, & Lewinsohn, 1999). It was also
hypothesized that each negative component of the EMN (negative
valence, number of negative links, and negative links intensity)
should be positively associated to these maladaptive mechanisms

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

147of emotion regulation and outcomes, but negatively associated or
unrelated to general adaptive mechanisms of emotion regulation andoutcomes. Finally, it was hypothesized that all these associations
would be of a low to moderate strength, as the assessed network wasthematically speciﬁc (loss), whereas these measures refer to broad andgeneral concepts of emotion regulation. Second, in line with past research (Ong et al., 2006; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), it was hypothesized that resilience would be associated with the self-generationof positive emotions following the negative emotional induction. It
was further hypothesized that positive EMN would mediate this relationship, even after controlling for preinduction positive mood.
MethodParticipants
Two hundred twenty-two undergraduate students (169 women, 53 men)from a French-Canadian university took part in this study. Mean age was
23.04 years (SD 5 5.50 years; range 5 17 to 58 years).
Material
A short ﬁlm excerpt lasting 4:12 min from the motion picture You Can
Count on Me (Lonergan, 2000) was used to induce sadness relative to atheme of loss. The ﬁlm clip depicted two parents who suddenly die in a car
accident. This scene was elliptically followed by another one showing two
children crying during their parent’s funeral ceremony.
Measures
Ego-resiliency. The French adaptation (Callahan, Roge, Cardenal, Cayrou, & Sztulman, 2001) of the original Ego-Resiliency Scale (Block &Kremen, 1996) was administered to assess psychological resilience. Psychological resilience is conceived as a personality trait rather than as an
outcome (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). In this study, we were interested in trait-resilience, as the hypothesized resilient outcome was positive emotions. This scale consists of 14 items forming a single dimension.
Items were responded to on a 4-point Likert scale (1 5 does not apply atall, 4 5 applies very strongly). A sample item is ‘‘I quickly get over andrecover from being startled.’’ In Study 1, a 5 .85.
Positive and negative emotions. A modiﬁed version of the French version(Lapierre, Gaudreau, & Blondin, 1999) of the original Positive and148

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletier

Negative Affects Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988)
was administered to assess positive and negative emotions. Participants
were asked to rate the extent to which they felt a number of affects. Ratings were made on a 5-point Likert scale (1 5 very slightly or not at all,
5 5 extremely). Three measurement moments were used: (1) at the very
beginning of the experiment, to assess initial positive and negative mood(Time 1: how do you feel at the present moment) and 2) right after the ﬁlm
excerpt induction, to assess emotional distress and positive emotions(Time 2: how do you feel at the present moment), and 3) it was also used inorder for participants to evaluate a reported emotional memory (how did
you feel at the time of the event of your memory).
The original PANAS consists of 10 positive affects items (e.g., active,
alert, attentive) and 10 negative affects items (e.g., afraid, ashamed, distressed). Four items of sadness (sad, depressed, discouraged, despondent)
were added to the negative affect subscale to assess the level of induced
sadness. We subjected all of the affect terms (original and added items) toa principal components factor analysis. Two dominant factors emerged,
together accounting for 42% of the common variance. A factor analysis
using only the items from the original PANAS also yielded two factors,
accounting for 30% of the common variance. Positive and negative
affects subscales were then separately calculated by computing themean of the original items for the positive affects subscale (10 items)
and the mean of the combined original and added items for the negative
affects subscales (14 items) to yield two separate subscales. Correlation
between those two subscales was  .06, which is in line with the expected
orthogonality of the PANAS. Alphas for the positive affects subscale
were .90, .88, and .85 for Time 1, Time 2, and for the emotional memory,
respectively. Alphas for the negative affects subscale were .84, .85, and .83
for Time 1, Time 2, and for the emotional memory, respectively.
Mature and impulsive defenses. Two subscales of the 60-item Defense
Style Questionnaire (DSQ-60; Trijsburg, Bond, Drapeau, Thygesen, & deRoten, 2005) were used to assess mature defenses, or dispositional adaptive copings, and impulsive defenses. Defenses have been shown to play
an important role in regulating emotions, especially when one faces disturbing events (see Vaillant, 2000). The mature defenses or adaptive copings subscale was composed of 16 items assessing eight types of mature
defenses (self-observation, humor, self-acceptance, self-assertion, sublimation, anticipation, altruism, and suppression). Alpha for this subscale
was .70. The second subscale was composed of eight items and assessed
four impulsive defenses (acting out, withdrawal, hypochondria, and passive-aggression). Alpha in this study for that subscale was .64. All items
were responded to on a 9-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (totally

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149

disagree) to 9 (totally agree). The DSQ-60 has been validated in threelanguages (English, French, and German) and has been shown to display
adequate validity and reliability and to constitute an improved version ofprevious self-report measures of defenses (Trijsburg et al., 2005).
Alexithymia. The French translation (Loas, Otmani, Verrier, Fremaux,& Marchand, 1996) of the original 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale(TAS-20; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994)
was used to assess alexithymia, that is, difﬁculties in identifying andcommunicating emotions. Items (e.g., I can easily describe my feelings)
were responded to on a 5-point Likert scale (1 5 totally disagree, 5 5 totally agree). Adequate levels of validity and reliability have been obtainedwith this instrument (Loas et al., 1996; Bagby, Parker, et al., 1994; Bagby,
Taylor, et al., 1994). Alpha in this study was .81 for the entire set of items.
Depressive Experience Questionnaire. The French translation (Boucher,Cyr, & Fortin, 2006) of the Depressive Experience Questionnaire (DEQ;
Blatt et al., 1976) includes 66 items assessing different feelings and attitudes about the self and others. Three orthogonal factors underlie thisscale—that is, dependency, self-criticism, and efﬁcacy. This scale has
shown high internal consistencies and high test–retest reliabilities (Blatt etal., 1976; Zuroﬀ, Moskowitz, Wielgus, Powers, & Franko, 1983). Only
the dependency factor was retained in this study, as it refers to a predisposition to depression characterized by a fear of losing signiﬁcant people
in one’s life (Blatt et al., 1976). This construct was thus directly related tothe induced theme of loss. The factor-weighting method described by
Blatt and colleagues was used to calculate a global dependency score.
Depression. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, &Emery, 1979) is a 21-item inventory responded to on a 4-point forced
choice assessing symptoms of depression. Research has consistently
shown high reliability and validity for this widely used scale (e.g.,
Shaw, Vallis, & McCabe, 1985). The French translation of this instrument was used in this study (Bourque & Beaudette, 1982). Alpha in thisstudy was .85.
Emotional Memories Network Assessment (EMNA). The EMNA is aquestionnaire that has been created to collect autobiographical emotional
memories that are context dependent, in this case related to the sad ﬁlm
clip. The questionnaire ﬁrst asked the participants to describe in a shorttext ‘‘a personal memory that the ﬁlm excerpt made you spontaneously
think about.’’ Thus, participants were free to recall any type of memory.
This procedure is particularly critical, as we were interested in memories

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Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierthat might pop spontaneously to the participants’ mind. These types ofmemories are thus likely to have been cued by elements of the ﬁlm
excerpt. This procedure is in line with Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s(2000) model of autobiographical memory, which suggests that elementsof memories are minutely activated by cues and that these activations do
not necessarily emerge to consciousness. Therefore, exposing participants
to a ﬁlm excerpt might automatically activate, consciously or not, memories related in some way to the ﬁlm excerpt. In addition, in line withpriming studies (e.g., Schacter, Chiu, & Ochsner, 1993), activating out ofawareness a speciﬁc memory improves the likelihood to retrieve thismemory later on, when asked to. Therefore, our procedure should increase the likelihood that participants report memories that were indeed
automatically activated during the ﬁlm excerpt. To ensure the inclusion of
essential narrative components, participants were asked to ‘‘try to answer
the four following questions in the order that best suits you’’ while they
were detailing their memory. These four questions were (1) What is thecentral element of your memory? (2) How did the event/situation/elementof your memory begin? (3) How did you react in this event/situation/
element? and (4) How did it end? They were also informed that they could
add any additional element. Finally, to induce longer and elaborated answers, the sheet of paper was ﬁlled with empty lines from top to bottom,
and it was mentioned that the back of the page could be used if necessary.
Participants were also asked to rate the emotional content of their reported memory according to our modiﬁed version of the PANAS. Instructions required participants to recall how they felt at the moment at
which the event composing their memory occurred. This measure yieldedthe valence (positive and negative) of the participants’ reported emotional
memory. In addition, the content of each memory was rated by two
judges according to the themes reported. The judges were blind to theparticipants’ scores to the other scales. Overall, reported categories were
death of a parent, death of a close relative, death of an unknown person, fearof loss, accidents, and other. Each memory was rated according to only
one of these categories. Interrater agreements (kappas) ranged from .87 to.96 for all categories, which indicates excellent agreement beyond chance.
Discrepancies were resolved by discussion.
To assess the associated links to the reported personal memory, thequestionnaire further asked participants to recall and list other personal
memories that they might ﬁnd to be directly or indirectly related to thememory they had just described and to give each one a short name. Participants were thus more or less requested to free associate around thatmemory. However, it is important to note that participants were not invited to report just any memory (which could lead to mood regulation
strategies by using unrelated memories to alleviate one’s mood; seeResilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

151

Sakaki, 2007, on this issue) as they were instructed to recount memories
they found to be related in some way to the memory elicited by the ﬁlm
excerpt. This assessment of associated memories thus allows the evaluation of the participants’ emotional memories network related to the ﬁlm
excerpt (ﬁlm excerpt ! a memory related to the ﬁlm ! memories associated to the memory related to the ﬁlm). A maximum of seven lines
were provided to the participants, as they could write a maximum ofseven titles of personal memory. However, they were informed that they
did not have to ﬁll out all the lines. They should write down only titles ofmemory that came spontaneously to their mind. They were also asked toindicate whether each of their reported links was a globally positive or
negative experience (a dichotomous decision) and to rate its intensity on ascale from 1 to 5 (1 5 not intense at all, 5 5 extremely intense).
Emotional Memories Networks Scores (EMNS). The emotional memories networks scores were derived from the combination of the threecomponents of emotional memories presented above. First, the 10 positive affect items from the PANAS for the principal memory related to thesad clip were averaged to yield a positive valence score for that memory.
Second, the number of reported positive links associated with the principal memory was summed and, third, their reported relative intensity
was averaged (summing it would have created a score dependent of thenumber of links). The same calculations were conducted for the reported
negative valence of the memory associated to the ﬁlm excerpt, links, andintensity of these links. In all, these calculations yielded six scores (3components [valence, number of links, intensity of the links]  2 types of
emotional memories [positive, negative]) of the assessed EMN. Correlations between each of these components are shown in Table 1. An Exploratory Factor Analysis with an Oblimin rotation on these six variables
at one Eigen value yielded two factors accounting for 60.36% of thevariance. The ﬁrst factor to emerge was composed of the three negative
components of the EMN (loadings ranging from .58 to .89) and the threepositive components of the EMN loaded on the second factor (loadings
ranging from .60 to .82). Alphas for these three positive and negative
components were .62 and .68, respectively.
Two general composite scores were then computed in order to obtain ascore assessing the global quality of the EMN for each valence polarity
according to the following equation:
EMNS ¼ ðV  L  IÞ

ð1ÞThe equation above thus shows that the EMNS for each polarity(positive and negative) is obtained from the product of valence (V), number of links (L), and intensity of those links (I). Thus, in line with the

2.13
1.40
2.67
2.45
2.04
3.22

0.79
1.37
1.71
1.06
1.47
1.43

SD
1–5
0–7
1–5
1–5
0–7
1–5

1–4.50
0–6
1–5
1–5
0–7
1–5

Possible Range Observed Range

2

—
.18nn
—
.66nnn.18nn
 .18nn  .18nn
 .09
 .38nnn
 .09
 .39nnn

1

4

5

6

—
 .22nnn—
 .27nnn .39nnn — .28nnn .22nnn .59nn —3

Note: N 5 222. There were no gender differences on all positive memories components. However, women reported a higher score than men
on all three negative memories components, Fs46.90, po.01.
nn
po.01, nnnpo.001.

1. Positive valence
2. Number of positive links
3. Positive links intensity
4. Negative valence
5. Number of negative links
6. Negative links intensity

Mean

Table 1Means, Standard Deviations, Ranges, and Correlations Among Emotional Memories Networks Components: Study 1

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

153

Emotional Memory Networks Theory, high valence or high number oflinks or strong intensity results in a higher score, whereas low valence or
few links or weak intensity results in a lower score. These calculations
were applied to the three positive components and to the three negative
components of the EMN to obtain two separate EMNS relative to thepositive and the negative quality of the EMN.2 The correlation between
positive and negative EMNS was  .32 (po.001).
Procedure
Participants were sitting in a classroom facing a wide projection screen.
They were ﬁrst asked to complete the PANAS Time 1, the Ego-Resiliency
questionnaire, the DEQ, the BDI, the TAS-20, and the two subscales of
the DSQ-60 (only 83 participants were assessed with the DSQ-60). Rightafter, they were told that they were going to see a ﬁlm excerpt. No other
instruction was given at this time. Right after the ﬁlm excerpt, they wereasked to complete the PANAS Time 2. After this latter scale was completed, participants were administered the EMNA. Participants were thenfully debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Results and Discussion

Manipulation Checks on Sadness Induction
Analysis of the PANAS at Times 1 and 2 conﬁrmed that the induction of sadness was successful. Sadness induction intensity, calculated as the difference of mean between the sadness items at T1 andthose at T2, proved to be signiﬁcant, t(1, 222) 5  9.78 po.00.
Effect size was medium to large (d 5 .68). The speciﬁcity of the induction was also signiﬁcant, as sadness showed to be the single negative emotion with the highest reported level at T2 (M 5 2.31,
SD 5 1.21). Paired t test between sadness and the second highest reported negative emotion (anxiety: M 5 1.99, SD 5 1.02) showed signiﬁcant difference, t(1, 222) 5 4.77, po.01. Effect size was small to
medium (d 5 .28). Finally, the report of induced sadness was not
2. It should be noted that the positive and negative EMNS can be combined bysubtracting one from another to yield a differential score of approach and avoidance or by reverse coding one of the score and averaging it with the other toaccount for the variance of both scores in one variable. In this latter method, bothscores should be transformed in z scores before being reversed and averaged together. In this study, positive and negative EMNS were kept separate to examine
their speciﬁc predictive value.

154

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierassociated with resilience (r 5 .08, po.05). These results suggest thatthe induction of sadness was effective, but that the level of sadness
reported was unrelated to psychological resilience.
Hypothesis 1: Concurrent Validation of EMN
First, the EMNA was screened for its relationship to memory content. Analysis of the autobiographical memories content showed that
positive and negative EMN were not associated with the report of
the actual loss of a loved one, close other, or of a relatively unknown
person or to report of accidents (point-biserial correlations ranging
from  .08 to .08, ns). However, negative EMN was positively associated with the fear of losing a loved one (rpb 5 .27, po.05). Suchﬁndings suggest that the measure of EMN is not inﬂuenced by thenature of actual events (actual loss remembered by the participant),
but is inﬂuenced by the way actual events are emotionally experienced (fear of such a loss). However, positive EMN was positively
associated (rpb 5 .21, po.05) with content of emotional memories
that were thematically unrelated to the ﬁlm excerpt and classiﬁed as‘‘other’’ (e.g., ‘‘That time when I went to the dentist’’) and negative
EMN was negatively associated with this content category(rpb 5  .32, po.001). It could be argued that the report of memories that were apparently not directly linked to the ﬁlm excerpt’s
theme should be considered as defensive or as stemming from strategies of avoidance. However, analyses with and without participants
who reported those types of memories (19%) did not change theresults of the present study. All participants were thus retained.3
Second, we examined the relationship between EMN and emotion
regulation mechanisms and outcomes. Results supported our hypotheses, as correlational analyses revealed that most positive EMN
components were positively associated with adaptive emotion regu3. Global EMN scores were separated at their means to examine how many participants reported positive EMN compared to negative EMN. Participants reporting high EMN were conceptualized as those who had a score over the meanon this variable, and participants reporting low EMN were those who had a scoreunder the mean. Results revealed that 16% of the participants reported both highpositive and negative EMN, 30% had a high positive EMN score but low negative
EMN score, 32% reported low positive EMN but high negative EMN, and 22%
had both low positive and negative EMN scores. These results show that the distribution along the EMN scores was relatively heterogeneous.

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

155

lation mechanisms (at least at po.10) and were all negatively associated or unrelated to negative emotion mechanisms and outcomes(see Table 2). Speciﬁcally, positive valence of the principal memory
was positively associated with resilience and negatively related todependency. The number of positive links was signiﬁcantly associated with resilience and adaptive defenses and negatively related todepression, alexithymia, dependency, and marginally to impulsive
defenses. Finally, the intensity of those links was positively associated with resilience and adaptive defenses and negatively associatedwith depression and alexithymia, but unrelated to dependency andimpulsive defenses. More importantly, all three positive EMN components were positively associated with the elicitation of positive
emotions right after the ﬁlm excerpt, even after controlling for preinduction positive mood (except for intensity), and negatively associated or unrelated to the elicitation of negative emotions after
controlling for preinduction negative mood. Even more striking isthat all negative EMN components were positively associated to all
negative emotion mechanisms and outcomes (at least at po.10) andwere all unrelated to adaptive emotion regulation mechanisms andoutcomes. These results strongly support the concurrent validationof the EMN components under a sadness induction.
Hypothesis 2: Resilience and Positive Emotions
To test the hypothesis that resilience would be positively associatedwith positive emotions, we examined subjective reports of positive
emotions from the PANAS. Psychological resilience was positively
correlated with initial positive mood (T1) and with positive emotions
reported right after the sad ﬁlm excerpt (T1: r 5 .42, po.01; T2:
r 5 .38, po.01). Analysis of emotions in terms of discrete categories
for T2 indicated that psychological resilience was associated with all
but one positive emotion (excitement). All correlations, ranging
from .21 (alert) to .38 (determined), were signiﬁcant at po.01. Negative emotions experienced during the ﬁlm excerpt were not highly
correlated with psychological resilience. Negative emotion items thatreached signiﬁcance were depressed (r 5  .14, po.05), discouraged(r 5  .14, po.05), and fearful (r 5  .13, po.05). Psychological resilience was not associated with high or low change in negative emotions between T1 and T2 (Negative emotions T2 regressed on
resilience, controlling for negative emotion T1: b 5  .09, p4.05).

.14n
.13n
.12w
.18n
 .05
 .10
.01
 .09

.00
.31nn
.28nn
.28n
 .13
.08
 .07
 .04

.36nnn.21nn.05.27nnn
 .06
 .11
 .04
 .09

 .06
 .22nnn
 .24nnn
 .18nn.24nnn.19n.18nn.28nnnNote: N 5 222.
an 5 83.
bPartial correlation controlling for preinduction positive mood (PANAS-T1).
cPartial correlation controlling for preinduction negative mood (PANAS-T1).
w
po.10, npo.05, nnpo.01, nnnpo.001.

Positive valence
Number of positive links
Positive links intensity
Global positive EMN
Negative valence
Number of negative links
Negative links intensity
Global negative EMN

 .04
 .26nnn
 .13n .20nn
.14n
.18n
.19nn
.21nn

 .17n .13w
 .03
 .17nn.34nnn.13n.14n.34nnn

 .05
 .15
 .13
 .09
.27n
.22n
.21w
.33n

 .02
 .15n
 .07
 .13.41nnn.16n.13w.36nnnImpulsive Negative
Positive
Adaptive
Resilience Defensesa Emotionsb Depression Alexithymia Dependency Defensesa Emotionsc

Table 2
Correlations Among Emotional Memories Networks Components and General Measures of Emotion Regulation
and Outcomes: Study 1

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

157

These ﬁndings provide support for our second hypothesis and corroborate the ﬁndings obtained in past research that showed thatpsychological resilience is associated with positive emotions in general and during a difﬁcult situation but not with lower negative
emotional elicitation (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004).
Hypothesis 3: Emotional Memories Networks Mediate the ResiliencePositive Emotions Relationship
It was predicted that positive EMN would mediate the relationshipbetween resilience and positive emotions reported right after the sadﬁlm excerpt (T2), even when controlling for initial positive mood. To
test this hypothesis, a linear regression analysis was conducted in linewith Baron and Kenny’s (1986) recommendations. Positive emotionsat T2 served as the dependent variable, and psychological resilience
was entered as the independent variable, controlling for initial positive mood (T1). Results revealed that resilience positively predicted
positive emotions at T2 (b 5 .12, po.05) when controlling for initial
preexperimental positive mood (b 5 .59, po.001). The same regression analysis was again conducted, this time substituting psychological resilience for positive and negative EMN as independent
variables. Results showed that positive EMN positively predicted
positive emotions at T2 (b 5 .28, po.001), even when controlling for
initial positive mood (b 5 .55, po.001). Negative EMN was unrelated to it (b 5 .02, ns). Finally, resilience and positive EMN wereentered together as independent variables in a multiple linear regression, controlling for initial positive mood. Results indicated that
positive EMN was the only signiﬁcant predictor of the change inpositive emotions experienced during the sad ﬁlm excerpt (b 5 .26,
po.001) when controlling for initial positive mood (b 5 .53,
po.001). Resilience was not a signiﬁcant predictor anymore(b 5 .09, ns). In addition, a Sobel Test suggested that the mediation
between resilience and positive emotions by positive EMN was signiﬁcant (z 5 2.28, po.05). These results support our hypothesis andsuggest that positive EMN are involved in the self-generation of
positive emotions by resilient individuals in the face of difﬁcult
events. In addition, the fact that the removal of participants
who reported apparently unrelated memories to the ﬁlm excerpt
did not affect the results presented above suggests that resilient
people do not engage in distraction (recalling unrelated memories) to158

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierexperience positive emotions through taxing events. Rather, they appear to rely on relatively positive memories networks related to loss.
In sum, the present results showed that the Emotional Memories
Networks Assessment sampled emotional memories networks that
were, in a major fashion, context dependent. In addition, the memories that were sampled had a predictive value for broad emotion
regulation outcomes and mediated the relationship between resilience and positive emotions.
STUDY 2The purpose of Study 2 was to replicate the results of Study 1 with anumber of additions. A ﬁrst addition in Study 2 was to examine one
counterhypothesis. Indeed, it might be argued that, instead of reﬂecting emotional memory organization, positive EMN might bebetter conceived as the manifestation of a general positive affectivity
trait. Therefore, individuals with high positive emotionality (i.e.,high positive affectivity trait) should generally experience positive
emotions, in distressing situations as well as when recalling memories. Study 2 thus controlled for this variable.
A second addition aimed at examining the mediation effect ofpositive EMN between resilience and the elicitation of positive emotions, but this time in a context of anxiety/stress. Participants werethus induced with anxiety using a staged oral presentation task. They
were told that two people would be randomly selected to present
their oral presentation. After being allowed 5 minutes to prepare
their presentation, participants were asked to report the level of
emotions they were experiencing at that moment and to report theirappraisal of stress in the expectation of delivering their oral presentation. Their EMN relative to oral presentations were then assessed.
A third addition of Study 2 was to examine the relative independence of two conjointly activated EMN and the combination of theiroutcome at the appraisal and emotion elicitation levels. In line with
the Emotional Memory Networks Theory, memories networks canbe activated independently from each other at the memory baselevel. However, once activated, the respective outcome of each activated network will combine at a higher cognitive level and willserve the appraisal and inﬂuence emotional elicitation. To implement
this third addition, we used a two-group experimental design.
Participants in each of the two groups were told to prepare an oral

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

159

presentation, as was described above. However, participants in one
group were asked to prepare their oral presentation about their personal qualities, whereas participants in the second group were asked
to prepare an oral presentation about their personal ﬂaws. The anxious task of the staged oral presentation should therefore activate
networks of past experiences related to oral performance, whereas
writing about one’s qualities or ﬂaws should activate representationsof evaluative components of the self (positive and negative, respectively). These two EMN (oral and self-representations) should be
activated in a relatively independent fashion from one another.4 In
line with the Emotional Memory Networks Theory, they should beprocessed separately (in parallel). However, because the relative independent outcome (or script) of each of these two networks should
combine at some point, they should both have an independent predictive value for the appraisal of the oral presentation and emotionalelicitation during the preparation process.
Overall, in line with Study 1, it was hypothesized that resilienceand positive EMN related to the oral presentation would be positively associated with the elicitation of positive emotions during theoral preparation process. It was further hypothesized that positive
EMN would mediate the resilience–positive emotions relationship.
Finally, these results should hold even after controlling for positive
affectivity trait and participants’ experimental group membership(qualities vs. ﬂaws).5 It was further expected that group membershipwould predict positive emotions independently of positive EMN, as
these two variables should have an additive predictive value (combination of their networks should inﬂuence the emotional elicitation
4. Although self-representations might have some ties with representations ofpast oral performances (e.g., being shy), they should however be relatively independent from one another. For instance, writing about one’s personal quality of
being sportsman-like or one’s personal ﬂaw of being obstinate should not overlap
with experiences of delivering oral presentations.
5. Activation of positive and negative self-representations plays the role of an
artiﬁcial or external source of induction of positive (for one group) and negative
emotions (for the second group). However, this external induction should be
effective at the same level for all participants. Therefore, the resilience variable
should not be affected by group membership—that is, resilient people should not
beneﬁt more or less from this experimental induction of their self-representation
than less resilient people. This effect should only be noticed on the outcome (positive emotions) between the groups.

160

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierlevel), but they should be relatively independent from one another.
Thus, group membership should not inﬂuence the report of emotional memories related to oral presentations.
MethodParticipants
One hundred one undergraduates (65 women, 33 men, and 3 missing sexdata) from a French Canadian university took part in this study. Meanage was 22.77 years (SD 5 5.17 years, range 19–55 years).
Measures
Ego-resiliency. The French adaptation of the Ego-Resiliency Scale usedin Study 1 was again used in Study 2. Alpha was .85 in the present study.
Positive and Negative Affects Schedule. The French version (Lapierre etal., 1999) of the original PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) was administeredwithout modiﬁcation this time. Participants were initially asked to rate
the extent to which they felt a number of affects ‘‘in general’’ (affectivity
trait) and ‘‘at the present moment’’ during the oral preparation (this lattermeasure will now be referred to as the PANAS-O throughout the text).
Alphas were .80 and .79, for positive affectivity trait and positive emotions experienced during the oral preparation (PANAS-O), respectively.
Alphas were .80 and .84 for negative affectivity trait and negative emotions experienced during the oral preparation (PANAS-O), respectively.
Emotional Memories Network Assessment. The EMNA was again usedin this study with only slight modiﬁcations. The questionnaire again
asked participants to describe a signiﬁcant personal memory, but thistime participants were asked what ‘‘the present situation of having to do
an oral presentation’’ made them think of. As in Study 1, two judges(blind to participants’ data) rated the content of each memory according
to reported themes. Interrater agreements were very high (kappas ranging
from .92 to .98). Discrepancies were resolved by discussion. Overall,
57.1% of the participants reported a memory of an event in which they
had to speak in front of an audience (e.g., oral presentations related toschool work, group animation, theater representation), 9.3% reported amemory related to a job interview, 9.3% of the participants’ memories
concerned a situation where they were only being watched by a groupof people (dancing, attending a company dinner), and 10.2% reported
a memory of a situation in which they had to talk to someone about

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

161

something important (e.g., a relationship breakup). Finally, 14.1% of theparticipants reported memories apparently unrelated to the oral presentation theme and were coded in the category of ‘‘other’’ (some participants have written about a situation in which they have had to reporttheir qualities and ﬂaws).6
Participants were also asked to rate the emotional content of their reported memory. However, to rule out the possibility that the association
between positive emotions and EMN uncovered in Study 1 might havebeen overly increased by the use of the same PANAS instrument in bothvariables (spurious correlation due to measurement method), we used
another emotions inventory. A short scale created to assess subjective
report of emotions (see Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004) was used. This instrument is composed of 14 emotional adjectives (afraid, amused, angry,
anxious, content, disappointed, disgusted, eager, excited, frustrated,
happy, interested, sad, and surprised) relatively different from each othercompared to the PANAS and can be divided into dimensions of positive
and negative emotions. Participants were asked to rate on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (very little or not at all) to 5 (extremely), theextent to which they experienced each of these emotions during the actual
event of their reported memory. Alphas were .83 and .82 for the positive
and negative subscales, respectively. Identical to Study 1, the EMNA also
asked participants to recall and list other personal memories that theyfound to be related directly or indirectly to the memory they just described. They were also asked to indicate for each of their links if it represented a globally positive or negative experience and to rate theintensity of this experience on a 5-point Likert scale.
Emotional Memories Network Scores. The composite score to assess the
EMN related to an oral presentation was calculated according to thesame equation described in Study 1. Alphas in this study were .74 and .75
for positive and negative EMN, respectively.
Procedure
The experiment was part of a course in psychology. Participants were
nonetheless told that they were free to participate or not. Participants
were split into two groups and asked to go in two different classrooms. In
both classrooms, participants were ﬁrst asked to complete the PANAS for
affectivity trait and the ego-resiliency scale. Right after, they were toldthat they would have to prepare an oral presentation about their personal
6. In Study 2, the memory content coded as ‘‘other’’ was unrelated to all study
variables.

162

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletierperception of themselves. The participants were told that two students
would be randomly selected and called out by their university code, inorder to preserve anonymity, and would have to deliver their oral presentation in front of the class. In fact, no student actually did an oralpresentation. However, such a manipulation has proven to be effective ininducing anxiety (see Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). In addition, eachgroup was induced with a speciﬁc mood. One group was told that theywould have to talk about their personal qualities (PG: positive group),
and the other was told that they would have to discuss their personal
ﬂaws (NG: negative group). Writing about one’s qualities was expected tolead to a self-afﬁrmation and produce positive emotions in participants.
Conversely, writing about one’s ﬂaws was expected to produce negative
emotions. These types of self-afﬁrmation manipulations have been frequently used with success in research (see Sherman & Cohen, 2006). To
simplify and clarify the task, participants were presented with a sheet ofpaper ﬁlled with 10 empty lines beginning with the phrase ‘‘I am a person. . . ’’. They were asked to ﬁll some or all of the 10 lines. They were toldthat if they were chosen to perform their oral presentation, all they would
have to do would be to read their qualities/ﬂaws in front of the class andbrieﬂy explain them. To make the task more anxiously arousing, participants were further told that the oral presentations would be audiotape
recorded. They were allowed 5 minutes to prepare their talk. After the 5
minutes, they were asked to complete the PANAS-O (‘‘how do you feelright now’’) and to report on a 5-point Likert scale the extent to which
they felt anxious to do the oral presentation (1 5 very little or not at all,
5 5 extremely). Participants then completed the EMNA and were asked
afterward to bring their questionnaire package to the experimenter’s desk.
They were then fully debriefed and thanked for their participation.

Results and Discussion

Task Induction Checks
Analysis of the anxiety item and of the PANAS-O during the preparation of the oral conﬁrmed that the anxiety induction was successful. First, both groups reported high levels of anxiety fromhaving to do a public statement (NG: M 5 3.92, SD 5 1.04; PG:
M 5 3.05, SD 5 1.18). On the 5-point Likert scale used, 3 was equivalent to being moderately anxious and 4 to being highly anxiously
aroused by the task. Furthermore, as expected, the NG reported
feeling signiﬁcantly more anxious than the PG, F(1, 101) 5 14.14,
po.001, Z 5 .14. This suggests that both groups were, on average,
moderately stressed about having to do an oral presentation, but, asResilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

163

expected, the participants in the NG who had to prepare a talk about
their ﬂaws reported feeling even more anxiety. Analysis of emotion
scales also supported the fact that the task induction was successful.
The NG reported signiﬁcantly more negative emotions on the
PANAS-O than the PG, F(1, 101) 5 5.31, po.05, Z 5 .05, and lesspositive emotions, F(1, 101) 5  4.96, po.05, Z 5 .05. Analysis ofdiscrete emotion categories revealed that ‘‘nervous’’ was the moststrongly felt single PANAS category in both groups (PG: M 5 2.87,
SD 5 1.12; NG: M 5 3.28, SD 5 1.31). A PANAS score of 3 corresponds to a moderate level of anxiety. Taken together, these results
suggest that the anxiety induction was successful in both groups. In
addition, the mood manipulation was also successful, as results
showed that it had an additive effect. Indeed, participants in the PG
felt more intensely positive and less intensely negative emotions thanparticipants in the NG. These ﬁndings conﬁrm the task induction
and mood manipulation hypotheses.
Preliminary Analyses
Results revealed that there was no difference between the qualities
versus ﬂaws groups on the ego-resiliency scale, F(1, 101)o1, ns, and,more importantly, that there was no group difference on the positive
and negative EMN or on any of its components—valence, number oflinks, or intensity—all Fs(1, 101)o1.7, ns. This indicates that theactivation of self-representations (positive and negative) were relatively independent from the activation of EMN related to past experiences of oral presentations. Table 3 shows the means, standard
deviations, and ranges of all memory components along with theirzero-order correlations with all study variables.
Resilience, EMN, and Positive EmotionsFirst, it was hypothesized that resilience would be positively associated with the elicitation of positive emotions, with no regard togroup membership and positive affectivity trait. To test this, a multiple regression analysis was conducted. The positive emotions asmeasured by the PANAS-O served as the dependent variable. Resilience and a dummy coded variable relative to group membership(PG 5 0, NG 5 1) were entered as independent variables. An interaction term was also computed between Group  Resilience and

2.61
2.10
3.21
—
2.29
1.25
2.49
—

0.97
1.66
1.64
—
0.81
1.26
1.93
—

SD
1–5
1–5
0–7
0–6
1–5
1–5
—
 .133–1.94
1–4.50
1–5
0–7
0–5
1–5
1–5
—  .124–2.00

Observed
Range
.22n
.19w
.22n
.26nn
 .20w
 .30nn .28nn .33nn

Resilience

Note: N 5 101.
a
These variables correspond to a z-score average of their respective three memory components.
There were no gender differences in Study 2 on all memories components.
w
po.10, npo.05, nnpo.01.

1. Positive valence
2. Number of positive links
3. Positive links intensity
4. Global positive EMNa
5. Negative valence
6. Number of negative links
7. Negative links intensity
8. Global negative EMNa

Mean

Possible
Range

.09
.01
.15
.08
 .01
 .16
 .23n .12

Positive
Affectivity
Trait

.29nn
.19w
.25n
.32nn
 .23n .17w
 .14
 .21nPositive Emotions
to the Induction

Table 3Means, Standard Deviations, Ranges, and Correlations Among Resilience, Positive Affectivity Trait, Positive
Emotions, and Emotional Memories Networks Components: Study 2

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

165

entered as an independent variable to examine if resilience would
have a different effect according to group membership. Control
variable of positive affectivity trait was also included. As expected,
results revealed a nonsigniﬁcant interaction (b 5  .11, ns), but threesigniﬁcant main effects predicted positive emotions. Resilienceemerged as a signiﬁcant main effect (b 5 .22, po.05) along withgroups (b 5  .28, po.05) and positive affectivity trait (b 5 .22,
po.05). This indicates that the effect of resilience on positive emotions was independent of the experimental activation of self-representations, as shown by the nonsigniﬁcance of the interaction term
between resilience and group membership and by the independent
predictive value of both variables. Resilient participants did not
beneﬁt more than less resilient individuals from the activation of
their positive self-representations nor were they less affected by theactivation of their negative self-representations. In addition, all theseresults were also independent from positive affectivity trait.
Next, it was hypothesized that positive EMN would be associatedwith the elicitation of positive emotions, independently of groupmembership and positive affectivity trait. To test this, the same multiple regression analysis was conducted (see above), substituting resilience for positive EMN. An interaction term was also computed
between Group  Positive EMN and entered as an independent
variable to examine if positive EMN would have a different effectaccording to group membership. As expected, results revealed anonsigniﬁcant interaction (b 5 .07, ns), but three signiﬁcant main
effects predicted positive emotions reported on the PANAS-O. Positive EMN emerged as the most important signiﬁcant effect (b 5 .31,
po.05). Groups also yielded a signiﬁcant effect (b 5  .24, po.05)
as well as positive affectivity trait (b 5 .29, po.05).7 This indicatesthat the signiﬁcant effect of positive EMN on positive emotions was
independent of the experimental activation of self-representations, as
shown by the nonsigniﬁcant interaction term between positive EMN
and group membership and by the independent predictive value ofboth variables.
Finally, the last hypothesis posited that positive EMN would mediate the relationship between resilience and positive emotions. First,
the correlation between psychological resilience and positive EMN
7. Negative EMN was not a signiﬁcant predictor when added in the regression
analysis, nor was its interaction term with group membership.

166

Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletier

was assessed. Results showed that there was a signiﬁcant correlation
between the two, r 5 .27, po.05. This correlation remained the sameafter controlling for the effect of group or positive affectivity trait(both rp 5 .26, po.05). Finally, positive emotions were regressed on
resilience, positive EMN, and group membership, controlling for
positive affectivity trait. Results revealed that positive EMN predicted signiﬁcantly positive emotions (b 5 .28, po.01). Group membership (b 5  .25, po.01) and positive affectivity trait (b 5 .23,
po.05) were also signiﬁcant predictors. However, resilience was nota signiﬁcant predictor of positive emotions anymore (b 5 .15,
p 5 .16).8 In line with Shrout and Bolger’s (2002) recommendations
for testing mediation effects with small sample sizes, a bootstrap
sample of 1,000 cases was created. Controlling for the covariables of
positive affectivity trait and group membership, results showed thatbias-corrected bootstrap 95% conﬁdence intervals did not include 0[.05; .46], thus suggesting that the mediation effect was signiﬁcant at
po.05.
In sum, the present results showed that EMN can be activated in a
relative independent fashion, while all activated networks will have a
predictive value at the emotional elicitation level during a stressful
task. In addition, in line with Study 1, the memories that were sampled mediated the relationship between resilience and positive emotions experienced in the face of an oral presentation task.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The purpose of the present research was to examine the role of emotional memories as psychological processes of resilience. A number
8. The alternative model that positions positive emotions as a mediator between
resilience and positive EMN was tested in Studies 1 and 2. Results showed that
resilience was still a signiﬁcant predictor of positive emotional memories networks(B 5 .14, po.05) after controlling for positive emotional elicitation to the ﬁlm
excerpt (B 5 .32, po.01). This result thus suggests that the original model (resilience ! positive emotional memories networks ! positive emotions) should
be preferred. In Study 2, results showed that positive emotions were not a signiﬁcant mediator in the relationship between resilience and positive emotional
memories networks, as resilience was still a signiﬁcant predictor of positive EMN(B 5 .24, po.05) after controlling for positive emotions. Thus, overall, the modelthat places positive EMN as a mediator between resilience and positive emotions
ﬁts the data better.

Resilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

167

of ﬁndings emerged. First, in line with past research (Fredrickson,
2001; Ong et al., 2006; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), Study 1
showed that psychological resilience was positively associated withpositive emotions in general and right after the induction of sadness
relative to a theme of loss. In addition, results showed that psychological resilience was positively associated with positive EMN, which
also positively predicted positive emotions elicited after the induction. Study 2 replicated these results in the context of an induced
experience of anxiety. Finally, Studies 1 and 2 showed that positive
EMN fully mediated the relationship between psychological resilience and the elicitation of positive emotions after inductions ofsadness (Study 1) and anxiety (Study 2), even after controlling forpreinduction positive mood (Study 1) and positive affectivity trait(Study 2).
The present research also proposed a theoretical framework toassess emotional memories as networks of emotional informationand tested the validity of an instrument to measure it, the EMNA.
Overall, results provide strong initial indications of the validity of
the EMNA. First, a principal components factor analysis revealed
that the bivalence structural validity of the measure was adequate
when assessing EMN related to loss, as the three positive and thethree negative components of the EMN loaded on two different
factors. In addition, all components of the network had high loadings on their respective factor. The internal reliability of each of thetwo factors was also found to be adequate in Studies 1 and 2. Second, Study 1 showed that positive and negative scores of EMN were
not inﬂuenced by the nature of the loss-related events reported in the
primary emotional memory but only by the actual emotional experience of that event. This ﬁnding is in line with research that showedthat the nature of a distressing life event might differ from one individual to another in regard to the subjective emotional intensity ofthat event (Lazarus, 1991).
Additional evidence for the validity of EMN is that ﬁndings revealed that positive and negative components of EMN, as well as theglobal measures of positive and negative EMN, were all associatedwith some broad adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation constructs and outcomes in theoretically expected ways. These results
are in line with research that showed that memories and personality
traits might be causally linked (Singer & Salovey, 1993; Sutin &Robins, 2005). Interestingly, secondary components of the network,

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Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletiersuch as the number of links of the principal memory and the intensity of these links, were sometimes more strongly correlated withthese broad emotion regulation measures and outcomes than thevalence of the primary emotional memory assessed. This suggeststhat the binding structure between emotional memories might play asigniﬁcant role in emotion regulation traits and emotional outcomes(e.g., depression). These results are in line with the binding assumption of the Emotional Memory Networks Theory, which posits thatthe internalization of a subjective event into a relatively positive
emotional memories network is the decisive factor inﬂuencing thequality of its regulation, rather than emotional valence and intensity
alone—although they do play an important role. Therefore, thebinding structure of a network might play a critical role in regulating
experienced events, which might over time be reﬂected in trait emotional regulation measures. Future research might beneﬁt from further examining such an avenue.
Finally, Studies 1 and 2 showed that the EMNA sampled emotional information that was context dependent, as the theme reported in the memories were principally related to the inductor.
Furthermore, Study 2 showed that EMN could be activated in a
relatively independent fashion, as activation of self-representations
did not overlap with the parallel activation of EMN related to oralpresentations. However, all activated EMN (self-representations andoral presentations) could independently predict emotional elicitation
outcomes. These results support the idea of a parallel processing of
EMN (McClelland, 1995), where all activated information would
combine at a higher cognitive level to inﬂuence one’s emotional elicitation. Although they consist of preliminary evidence of this phenomenon, the present ﬁndings highlight interesting avenues for
future research.
The present research also provided a number of additional contributions. First, results from Study 1 showed that psychological resilience was associated with positive emotions in general and also
after an induction of sadness relative to a theme of loss. This is theﬁrst study, to our knowledge, that assesses the relationship between
resilience and the self-generation of positive emotions through sadness with an experimental induction. In addition, Study 2 corroborated prior research (Fredrickson, 2001; Tugade & Fredrickson,2004) in showing that psychological resilience was associated withpositive emotions when faced with an anxiety-inducing task. TheseResilience, Positive Emotions, and Emotional Memories

169

ﬁndings provide support to the idea that psychological resilience isassociated with positive emotions in general (Klohnen, 1996), as wellas with positive emotions experienced during negative emotionalarousing events, such as a loss or an oral presentation (Fredrickson
et al., 2003; Ong et al., 2006; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). This also
highlights the importance of mixed emotions, that is, experiencing
both positive and negative emotions at the same time in order tocope with adversity (Larsen, Hemenover, Norris, & Cacioppo, 2003).
Another contribution of the present research is that Study 1
showed that psychological resilience was entirely mediated by positive EMN in its relationship with positive emotions experienced
following an induction of sadness. Study 2 showed the same mediation effect between psychological resilience and the elicitation of
positive emotions during the preparation of an anxiety-provoking
oral presentation. These results shed light on the underlying processes that might allow resilient individuals to self-generate positive
emotions when faced with emotionally disturbing events. More speciﬁcally, resilient people might be able to thrive through taxing situations because they can rely on positive EMN related to thesesituations. These positive EMN might thus, in turn, help them tocope with the stress and threat of the situation. It would thus appear
that resilience is not synonymous with invulnerability (Luthar &Zigler, 1991), as it would depend in part on the activation of contextual resources by relevant external cues of events. Additionally,
psychological resilience might also develop in a reciprocal process
involving the self or personal traits and the internalization of contextual experiences as emotional memories (Block, 2002; Sutin &Robins, 2005). In this perspective, experienced events would be ﬁrst
inﬂuenced by stored EMN. These newly experienced events would
thus be internalized as new emotional memories that would be integrated into a network and inﬂuence in return global personality
traits (Singer & Salovey, 1993), such as psychological resilience.
More research is needed in order to better understand how this process might take place.
Some limitations of the present research need to be underscored.
First, cross-sectional correlational designs were used in Studies 1 and2. We thus cannot infer causality from the present results. Future
research involving longitudinal designs is needed in order to betterdelineate the role of resilience in the development of positive EMN
and vice versa. A second limitation is that the measure of EMN was

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Philippe, Lecours, & Beaulieu-Pelletiercompleted after the experimental emotional induction had takenplace. Methodological restraints from the present research prevented
the measurement of EMN before the inductions, as participants
could not report what emotional memories would be activated before the induction method activated them. However, results from
Studies 1 and 2 showed that participants reported positive EMN
along with negative EMN even if the ﬁlm excerpt and the oral preparation process induced sadness and anxiety predominantly. Therefore, it would appear that these emotional inductions did not
inﬂuence participants to focus predominantly on sad or anxious
memories, as they recruited context-dependent memories rather thanmood-dependent memories. Future research is needed, however, inorder to examine this issue in detail. A third limitation is that thepresent results do not allow us to fully rule out some alternative explanations. For instance, the memories reported might not totally
reﬂect the participants’ prior memories organization as activated by
the inductive condition, as they might also be the product of a deliberate strategy to cope with the inductive condition by explicitly
recalling certain types of memories. Similarly, it is also possible thatan experience of positive emotions facilitates the recall of positive
memories. However, our ﬁndings indicate that this might not be thecase. Indeed, the alternative model resilience ! positive emotions! positive EMN did not ﬁt well the data in both studies, and positive memories were not positively predicting negative emotions after
the inductions—whereas this should have been the case if participants had deliberately recalled positive memories to alleviate their
negative mood. Nevertheless, the present research did not fully ruleout the possibility of an explicit recall of memories. Therefore, developing ways to assess EMN long before the experimental induction
or measured outcomes would appear relevant in order to clearlyhighlight the role of memories organization on the self-generation of
positive emotions. It would also be of interest in future research todisentangle mood repair or mood-incongruent effect (e.g., Josephson, Singer, & Salovey, 1996) from the effect of the activation of apositive emotional memories organization. Finally, Study 2 did notuse a neutral experimental group. Such a group might be necessary
to understand whether a minimal level of stress is required for resilient people to activate positive EMN or whether they might
be able to generate positive EMN related to any type of inductor,
including a neutral one. Despite these limitations, the present study

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provides preliminary information on the role of EMN in psychological resilience. It would appear that resilient individuals self-generate positive emotions in distressing contexts by the use of theirpositive EMN. Additional research on this issue and further examinations of the role of EMN would therefore appear to be worthylines of investigation.
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