2.3: The Function of Positive Emotion

Positive and Negative Emotions

Negative emotions have a lot of specific action tendencies that keep us alive.

For example: 

• Fear → run away
• Disgust → spit out
• Anger → fight

 

All negative emotions involve focusing and attention narrowing. So, what does feeling positive do for you?

Positive emotions help us think more creatively and creatively problem solve. They also widen our attentional scope and open us to experiences. The broaden and build theory, for example, says that positive emotions help widen our thoughts and actions. 

How is this helpful to survival, do you think? Positive emotions generally communicate safety to both oneself and others, often through actions like smiling. Consequently, these emotions facilitate the formation of relationships, provide support, and contribute to the development of skills and health.

Additionally, we will explore a couple hypotheses regarding the advantages of positive emotions starting with the undoing hypothesis. In psychology, the undoing hypothesis suggests that experiencing positive emotions after stressful situations can help alleviate their effects (i.e., psychological arousal and negative impact of the initial experience). Similarly, the stress buffering hypothesis proposes that social support can help protect individuals from the negative effects of stress.

 

Positive emotions can change:

1. How you appraise stress
2. How you respond to stress
3. How you recover from stress

 

Read Does Positive Affect Influence Health?¹², by Dr. Sarah D. Pressman and Dr. Sheldon Cohen, a paper on the association of positive affect (PA) and physical health.

 

Some other benefits of positive emotions include: 

• Marker that we are flourishing
• Leads to growth, wellness, and better relationships over time
• Reduces/Cancels/Offers resilience against stress
• Resource when coping with (e.g., positive affect (PA) itself can produce esteem, confidence)
• Triggers upward spirals → finding meaning in bad → triggers PA → broadens thinking → find more meaning

 

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson and Dr. Thomas Joiner examine how positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being¹³ (2002) to learn about the original work on the idea of upward spiraling.

The Broaden and Build Theory

The broaden and build theory (previously mentioned) tells us that positive emotions may activate us but in broad ways (versus negative that narrows us). 

• Joy: play, be creative
• Content: savor the moment
• Pride: share good news
• Interest: explore

These positive emotions broaden our awareness and encourages novel and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this builds skills and resources.

 

Resource building through Broaden & Building:

• Intellectual Resources:
  • Develops problem solving skills
  • Learn new information
• Social Resources:
  • Strengthen existing bonds (e.g., friends, spouse)
  • Makes new bonds
• Physical Resources
  • Develops coordination 
  • Develops strengths & cardiovascular health
• Psychological Resources
  • Develops resilience & optimism
  • Develops sense of identity

 

Positive psych interventions (PPI) are simple positive activities that increase well-being. Although PPIs (positive psych interventions) have generally been shown to be effective (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009)¹⁴, not every positive activity that a person performs will increase their well-being. To understand when a PPI will work and why it sometimes doesn’t, it helps to understand the “active ingredients” that contribute to their success, i.e., the ones that need to be present to build wellbeing. A central active ingredient in PPIs is positive emotions. Recent advances in affective science provide a solid foundation to understand both the specificity and variety of positive emotions. We’re beyond simple/basic positive vs. negative categories.

 

Examples of Positive Psych Interventions (PPI):

Writing letters expressing gratitude	Acts of kindness
Cultivating strengths	Visualize positive future self
Meditate	Count blessings
Savoring

 

The positive activity model (Layous & Lymbomirsky 2013)¹⁵ focuses on promoting well-being through engaging in activities that generate positive emotions and foster personal growth. This explains how simple activities change well-being. Moderators play a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of activities aimed at increasing happiness. Various features of the activity, including dosage, variety, sequence, and the presence of built-in social support, can influence their success in boosting happiness levels.

For instance, greater variety is often associated with better outcomes, and certain activities may serve as better “starter” options. Moreover, different activities may have varying efficacy at different doses, and factors like whether they are outer-focused or inner-focused can interact with cultural differences, such as collectivist versus individualistic societies and time orientation. Additionally, individual characteristics, such as motivation to become happier, belief in the effectiveness of the activities, level of depression, and demographic factors, also influence the outcomes. Furthermore, the fit between the person and the activity is crucial, as enjoying an activity tends to lead to better overall results in terms of happiness enhancement. 

One issue of this is that happiness is relative to your point of comparison. The Social Comparison (SC) Theory by Leon Festinger¹⁶ states that individuals assess their own qualities and abilities by comparing themselves to others, which affects their self-esteem and emotions. In Social Comparison Theory, downward social comparison occurs when individuals compare themselves to others who they perceive as less fortunate, which has been linked to improved well-being in cancer patients. Conversely, upward social comparison can have both positive and negative effects, potentially serving as a source of inspiration or leading to a blow to one's self-esteem.

 

 

 

We generally hover around the same set point of well-being. The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is a theory positing that people repeatedly return to their baseline level of happiness, regardless of what happens to them. Changes that modify the impacts of exceptionally positive or negative events include contrast effects, where highly salient events diminish the influence of others, the introduction of new pleasures counteracted by the loss of old ones (such as gaining a large sum of money leading to new experiences but also diminishing the enjoyment of previous ones), and habituation, where the initial excitement or harm of something new gradually fades away, returning individuals to their baseline level of satisfaction. 

 

Hedonic adaptation can be compared to a treadmill. The happiness treadmill, for example, is a concept where no matter how much running on it you do, you just stay in place (Deiner et al., 2009)¹⁷. We adapt pretty quickly (i.e., adapting to a bad smell). Our set point is based on our genetics and temperament.

 

Intentional activities matter because despite major positive or negative events or life changes, we quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness. So, as a person makes more money, expectations and desires rise in tandem, which results in no permanent gain in happiness. Activities are the key to making lasting changes in happiness because such activities are more resistant to adaptation. We can deliberately engage in activities that make us happy while varying them enough to ward off adaptation. 

Interestingly, age matters for well-being too.

 

Interestingly, age matters for well-being too. The Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Susan Charles & Laura Carstensen, 2010)¹⁸ states that the older we age, we focus less on negative emotions, engage more deeply with emotional content of days, and especially savor the good stuff (e.g., relationships). It’s important to note that older people have a positivity bias where they remember good stuff more quickly and don’t remember the bad stuff as much (Mather & Carstensen, 2005)¹⁹.

 

In sum, we learned that positive emotions have functions that are different from negative emotions. These positive emotions are a key ingredient of intentional activities that can change our well-being. Well-being can be hard and slow to move (genetics, circumstances), but with intentional activities, we can change our daily positive emotions which can then change our behavior, deepen our well-being, and more. 

 

Definitions 

 

The Undoing Hypothesis 

experiencing positive emotions after stressful situations can help alleviate their effects

Stress Buffering Hypothesis

proposes that social support can help protect individuals from the negative effects of stress

Positive Affect

the experience of pleasant emotions (i.e., happiness, joy, contentment)

The Positive Activity Model

focuses on promoting well-being through engaging in activities that generate positive emotions and foster personal growth

The Social Comparison (SC) Theory

individuals assess their own qualities and abilities by comparing themselves to others, which affects their self-esteem and emotions

 

Attribution

¹²Pressman, S. D., & Cohen, S. (2005). Does positive affect influence health? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 925–971. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.925

¹³Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13(2), 172–175. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00431

¹⁴Sin, N. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(5), 467–487. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20593

¹⁵Lyubomirsky, S., & Layous, K. (2013). How do simple positive activities increase well-being? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(1), 57–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721412469809

¹⁶Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202

¹⁷Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. (2009). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being. In E. Diener (Ed.), The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener, (pp. 103-118). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2350-6_5 

¹⁸Charles, S. T., & Carstensen, L. L. (2010). Social and emotional aging. Annual review of psychology, 61, 383-409. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100448

¹⁹Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2005). Aging and motivated cognition: The positivity effect in attention and memory. Trends in cognitive sciences, 9(10), 496-502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.08.005