A popular notion, shared by the general public and scientists alike, is that keeping one's emotions bottled up is unhealthy, as indicated by the commonly heard prescriptions to "blow off steam" and "get it off your chest." However, Robert Emmons, an associate professor of psychology at UC Davis, says that expressing emotion in and of itself may not necessarily be beneficial. What seems to be of more importance, he says, is how a particular person feels about expressing his or her emotions. Emmons specializes in the study of the link between emotional expression and health. In a recent study published last summer, 50 married couples rated themselves and their spouses on emotional expression, ambivalence over expression and forms of controlling emotion. The results showed that emotional expression alone had no effect on psychological well-being, but suggested that personal conflict over expression and aspects of emotional control did. The study also suggested that withholding one's emotional expressions may be a favorable rather than harmful choice at times, depending on one's attitudes toward expression.