Interrelations among Regulation Focus, Authenticity and Emotional Responses to Frustration of Self-Related Experiences among University Students in Turkey

The aim of this study is to investigate the possible interrelation of regulatory focus, authenticity and negative emotional responses to the frustration that surrounds relational and independent self-aspects in Turkey, both of which are witnessing a rise among the educated-urbanized population. Previous findings show that both independent self-aspects and relational self-aspects may be experienced authentically, while authenticity of self appears to be associated more closely with promotion focus than prevention focus. We proposed a model in which authenticity mediates the relationship between promotion focus and emotional responses to independent and related self-frustration, while prevention focus directly predicts emotional responses to relational self-frustration, and promotion focus directly predicts emotional responses to independent self-frustration. The proposed model is tested on self-reported data collected from Turkish university students (N = 317). The results reveal that promotion focus was a direct predictor of emotional responses to frustration of the independent self-aspect, while prevention focus predicted directly the emotional responses to frustration of the relational self-aspect. Authenticity was found to mediate the relationship between promotion focus and the emotional responses to frustration of the relational self-aspect. These results suggest that relational goals, such as safeguarding the interests of significant others, may be regulated not only with prevention strategies, but also with promotion strategies, through perceived authenticity.