The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology :

In this article, the author describes a new theoretical perspective on positive emotions and situates this new perspective within the emerging field of positive psychology. The broaden-and-build theory posits that experiences of positive emotions broaden people's momentary thought-action repertoires, which in turn serves to build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. Preliminary empirical evidence supporting the broaden-and-build theory is reviewed, and open empirical questions that remain to be tested are identified. The theory and findings suggest that the capacity to experience positive emotions may be a fundamental human strength central to the study of human flourishing. The mission of positive psychology is to understand and foster the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). What role do positive emotions play in this mission? On first consideration, the answer seems simple: Positive emotions serve as markers of flourishing, or optimal well-being. Certainly moments in people's lives characterized by experiences of positive emotions— such as joy, interest, contentment, love, and the like—are moments in which they are not plagued by negative emotions—such as anxiety, sadness, anger, and despair. Consistent with this intuition, the overall balance of people's positive and negative emotions has been shown to predict their judgments of subjective well-being (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). Building on this finding, Kahneman (1999) suggested that “objective happiness” can best be measured by tracking (and later aggregating) people's momentary experiences of good and bad feelings (but see Fredrickson, 2000c). According to these perspectives, positive emotions signal flourishing. But this is not the whole story: Positive emotions also produce flourishing. Moreover, they do so not simply within the present, pleasant moment but over the long term as well. The take-home message is that positive emotions are worth cultivating, not just as end states in themselves but also as a means to achieving psychological growth and improved well-being over time. A review of current perspectives on emotions, affect, and their respective functions provides an important backdrop. A selective review follows. Perspectives on Emotions and Affect Working definitions of emotions and affect vary somewhat across researchers. Yet despite ongoing debate (e.g., Diener, 1999; Ekman & Davidson, 1994), consensus is emerging that emotions are but a subset of the broader class of affective phenomena. Emotions, according Copyright 2001 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Barbara L. Fredrickson, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 525 East University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109. [email protected].. Author's note. Barbara L. Fredrickson, Department of Psychology and Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. NIH Public Access