Exercise 1
•
Think of significant world events and tell
me 2 or 3 of them. Write these down.
Psychology
•
Positive emotions to Psychology were
viewed as an added extra or bonus,
usually only seen as an indicator that
someone was not suffering from
depression. Psychology did not see
them as serving a specific function.
•
•
•
•
Difficult to study in the lab, there
appear to be fewer positive
emotions
Positive emotions are fairly diffuse
in terms of autonomic activation
unlike the fight or flight response
The unique facial expressions
accompanying negative emotions
are easier to identify
Most positive emotions share the
characteristics of a basic smile Duchenne smile
Other main reason
•
•
Psychological research
was driven from World
War II onwards by a
focus on fixing people
and curing mental
illness
This meant that
Psychology had to
focus on understanding
negative emotions
Research imbalance
•
•
•
Anger 8, 072
Anxiety 57,800
Depression 70,856
• Life Satisfaction
• 5,707
• Happiness 2,958
• Joy 851
21:1
•
Psychology has ignored....
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5P6UU6m3cqk
Positive emotions
•
•
Why they matter
Their infectious nature
Positive emotions
•
Positive affect - positive emotions,
positive moods and positive attitudes –
may in fact be the single most important
active ingredient in the recipe for
human flourishing (Barbara
Fredrickson, 2005)
Benefits of positive emotions
•
•
•
Undo the negative
effects of stress
Broaden thought
action repetoire
Positive emotions
build up resilience
Nun study
•
Diary entries
and longevity
Duchenne smile
•
Yearbook
study.
Duchenne
smile
associated with
later well-being,
less negativity,
greater
competence
and more
positive ratings
by others.
• After bereavement, laughter and a
Duchenne smile predicted the duration of
grief, and whether the person was
engaged in life and dating again 2 half
years later
• Physicians make more accurate
diagnoses
Positive emotions matter
Yet it is very easy to be negative
Your exercise 1
It is very easy to be negative
•
•
•
•
Hard wired to be negative; it’s the
brains default position
Prioritise negative information
Left to our own devices we will
worry
Negative emotion always has the
ability to trump positive emotion
(Csikszentmihalyi)
Negativity bias
•
•
Losing money, being abandoned by
friends and receiving criticism makes
more of an impact than,
Winning money, gaining friend and
receiving praise (Baumeister, 2001)
When equal measures
•
Negative trumps positive
3:1 ratio
Barbara Fredrickson
There seems to be an ideal ratio of
positive to negative 3:1 for human
flourishing
Gottman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9SE315GtA
•
•
•
•
Exercise
2
Does the 3:1 ratio have implications
in your life?
Does the media tend to report more,
less or equal negative events?
What are the implications of this.
At work do people tend to focus on
weaknesses and what’s wrong, less
more or equal to the amount they
focus on what went well and what is
right?
What about relationships? The 5:1
ratio (or 21:1 ratio). Discuss with a
Caveat
• Context needs to be considered. Some
negative emotions can produce optimal or
positive outcomes and some positive
emotions can produce non optimal or
negative outcomes.