ABSTRACT
Feeling rules and display rules are learns beginning in early childhood and often govern the appropriateness of emotion experience and expression, respectively. Perceptions of individuals and their partners are particularly relevant to the process of display rule negotiation within the context of personal relationships. Whereas emotion education in childhood teaches cultural and sociological feeling and display rules, the process of emotion education is further developed and refined within close relationships through what Buck describes as a 'social biofeedback process'. Self-Report Research Design methodology was modified for use in two self-report studies of emotions. The respondents were provided the same list of emotions that was used in the laboratory methodology. Aune et al. developed an assessment tool to measure nonverbal and verbal display rules via the intensity of experienced, expressed, and perceived appropriateness of emotions. The results of the studies utilizing the methodology of display rule assessment revealed that level of relationship development, valence, and biological sex influenced emotions.
