In our in-centre study, we utilised both an open-ended question and the modified Differential Emotions Scale to assess donors’ current emotion. At each of four time points (i.e., in the waiting area, in the donation chair prior to needle insertion, in the donation chair during the blood draw, and in the refreshment area), donors first typed in the word(s) that currently captured their emotional experience and then rated the intensity of that emotion on a 5-point scale. Next, donors completed the modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson et al., 2003), which assesses 20 discrete emotions through 10 positively valenced items (e.g., “How glad, happy, or joyful do you feel right now?”) and 10 negatively valenced items (e.g., “How stressed, nervous, or overwhelmed do you feel right now?”) on 5-point scales anchored by not at all and extremely. The 10 positively valenced items capture amusement, awe, calm, gratitude, hope, inspiration, interest, joy, love, and pride. The 10 negatively valenced items capture anger, contempt, disgust, embarrassment, fear, guilt, hate, sadness, shame, and stress.

References:

Fredrickson BL, Tugade MM, Waugh CE, Larkin GR. What good are positive emotions in crisis? J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003; 84(2): 365–376.

My answer, in two parts. First, I think this line of research, and the results of our in-centre study of donors’ current emotions in particular, highlight the importance of the interplay between different discrete emotions in comprising donors’ experience and influencing downstream outcomes. It’s not just the presence/absence of stress, it’s the combination of that with the presence/absence of positive emotions that appears to matter. Fortunately, that means I don’t have to choose a favorite!

Second, it likely depends. We know from other areas of emotion research that individuals vary in their tendency to discriminate between different emotions – termed emotion differentiation. It may well be the case that among donors high in emotion differentiation, feeling calm in particular (for example) might be particularly important for future donation. For donors low in emotion differentiation, who tend to experience good or bad, the overall valence of experience (i.e., general positivity) may be more important. Future research is needed to identify the influence of such emotion-related individual difference variables.