What are positive emotions in psychology? (+ List and Examples) (2023)

Most people like to feel good, and positive emotions just feel good.

They don't necessarily need a reason or cause behind them for us to appreciate them; we just do it.

Experiencing emotions like happiness, excitement, joy, hope, and inspiration is vital for anyone who wants to lead a happy and healthy life.

Fortunately, you don't have to experience them all the time to reap the benefits of positive emotions. Those often fleeting moments can be the ones that make all of life's hard work and struggles worthwhile, the spice that adds flavor to your life.

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What are positive emotions? A definition

Before we delve into positive emotions, we need to start by making sure we're all on the same page about emotions, and positive emotions in particular.

Positive emotions are not simply “happy feelings” that we pursue for momentary pleasure; I like it morenegative emotionsThey play an important role in everyday life.

There are many ways to define "emotion", but they generally fall into one of two camps:

1. Emotions are a state or feeling that cannot be invoked at will, or;
2. Emotions are attitudes or responses to a situation or an object, such as judgments (Zemach, 2001).

Most current scholars fall into the second camp, seeing emotions as the result of something, triggered by an action, or being the recipient of an action.

The implications of taking one point of view over the other are fascinating, but to understand positive emotions and their role in psychology, it is not necessary to choose between the two camps; Whether we can consciously choose our positive emotions or whether they are the direct result of some action or experience, it is primarily their effects that interest the practitioner of positive psychology.

Sticking to positive emotions, there are two popular ways to define them that roughly correspond to the two camps mentioned above. They have been defined as “multi-component response tendencies” that last for a short period of time (Fredrickson, 2001), aligning more or less with the second point of view, and as mental experiences that are intense and pleasurable (Cabanac, 2002). , adhering more than closely at first glance.

Whichever definition you think fits best, the most important things to know about them are (a) what emotions are, (b) what their purpose or goal is, (c) how we can improve our experience with them. . in quantity or quality, and (d) what effects they have on us.

Positive emotion words that people use

Let's dive right into point A: which emotions are positive.

The list of positive emotions that people experience is almost endless. Not all of these words refer to emotions as understood by academics, but they are the words most people use to describe their own emotions, giving us a good foundation for positive emotions as commonly experienced.

• Joy: A feeling of euphoria, happiness, and maybe even joy, often experienced as a sudden spike because something good is happening.
• Gratitude– a feeling of gratitude, for something specific or just all-encompassing, often accompanied by humility and even reverence.
• Serenity: a calm and peaceful feeling of acceptance of oneself.
• Interest: A sense of curiosity or fascination that demands and captures your attention.
• Have hope– a feeling of optimism and anticipation about a positive future.
• Pride: A feeling of self-approval and pleasure in a personal accomplishment, skill, or attribute.
• Fun: A sense of carefree pleasure and enjoyment, often accompanied by easy smiles and laughter.
• Inspiration: feeling engaged, encouraged and motivated by something you have witnessed.
• Awe: An emotion evoked when you witness something grand, spectacular, or impressive that evokes an overwhelming sense of appreciation.
• Elevation: The feeling you get when you see someone involved in aact of kindness, generosity or inner goodness, urging you to aspire to a similar action.
• Altruism: Generally referred to as an act of altruism and generosity towards others, but it can also describe the feeling you get when you help others.
• Satisfaction– a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction that comes from achieving something or satisfying a need.
• Relief: The feeling of happiness you experience when an uncertain situation turns out for the best or a negative outcome is avoided.
• Affection: emotional attachment to someone or something, accompanied by affection for them and a sense of pleasure in their company.
• Joy: a feeling of being bright, optimistic, and visibly happy or cheerful; feeling that everything is going in your favor.
• Surprise (the good kind!): A feeling of delight when someone brings you unexpected happiness or a situation is even better than you expected.
• Trust– emotion involving a strong sense ofself-esteemand belief in oneself; it can be specific to a situation or activity, or more universal.
• Admiration: a feeling of warm approval, respect, and appreciation for someone or something.
• Enthusiasm: a feeling of excitement, accompanied bymotivationand commitment.
• Anxiety – as a less intense form of excitement; a feeling of readiness and enthusiasm for something.
• Euphoria – An intense, all-encompassing feeling of joy or happiness, often experienced when something extremely positive and exciting happens.
• Satisfaction: feeling of peace, comfort and discretion ofhappiness and well-being.
• Pleasure: a feeling of enjoyment of what is happening around you, especially in situations such as a leisure activity or a social gathering.
• Optimism– positive and hopeful emotion that encourages you to look towards a bright future, in which you believe that things will work out for the best.
• Happiness– feeling of pleasure and satisfaction with the progress of things; a general feeling of enjoyment and zest for life.
• Love: Perhaps the strongest of all positive emotions, love is a feeling of deep and lasting affection for someone, coupled with a willingness to put their needs before your own; It can be addressed to an individual, to a group of people or even to all of humanity.

This list captures a good deal of the positive emotions we experience, but it's certainly not an exhaustive list. I'm sure you can think of at least one or two more!

Now that we have an idea of ​​the types of emotions we're talking about, we can move on to another important question: what's the point?

Why do we need positive emotions? They are good?

Besides just feeling good, positive emotions are also an important piece of the happiness puzzle.

While you are unlikely to achieve lasting happiness and well-being based on temporary things,hedonic pleasureAlone, positive emotions often provide the basis for fleeting butsignificant momentsthat make life worthwhile; For example, the joy of saying “I do” to your partner, the love that overwhelms you when you hug your newborn for the first time, or the immense satisfaction that you get when you achieve something great in your career.

While positive emotions seem to serve little purpose beyond making us "feel good," they actually do a very important job.

The role of positive emotions in psychology

The "point" of positive emotions depends on who you ask; you are likely to get a different answer from experts in different fields.

An evolutionary psychologist might answer "to increase the chances of survival and reproduction of human beings."

A social psychologist might say "to form the bonds that connect us with others."

A positive psychologist might say “make life worth living”.

Or, you could say "to broaden our awareness and develop our inner resources." This is the essence of Barbara Fredrickson's revolutionary “Build and Build Theory” of positive emotions. Read on to learn more about this theory.

A brief summary of Fredrickson's construction and construction theory

Fredrickson introduced theExtend and build theoryof positive emotions in 1998.

The theory provides a compelling explanation of the "point" of positive emotions: opening our minds, broadening and expanding our awareness, and facilitating the building and development of resources, including knowledge, skills, abilities, and relationships.

In Fredrickson's own words:

“…these positive emotions broaden an individual's momentary repertoire of thought and action: joy awakens the desire to play, interest awakens the desire to explore, joy awakens the desire to savor and integrate, and love awakens a recurring cycle of each of these impulses within a safe environment, intimate friendships."

(2004, p. 1367).

The effects of these emotions are in stark contrast to the effects of negative emotions, or those experienced in a dangerous situation (eg, fear, terror, anxiety), which often have the effect of narrowing our focus and limiting our myriad of options to just one. . or two more suitable for survival.

In such situations, these automatic responses are vital to ensuring that we make it out alive; however, in non-life-threatening situations, we don't need such a narrow perspective or limited options.

This is where positive emotions are most advantageous: instead of limiting our scope, they broaden it to allow for creative thought and action. Rather than limit our focus to one or two answers,expand our consciousnessto absorb the much wider range of responses from which we can choose.

This broadening of our horizons allows us to play, learn, and gain lasting knowledge and skills that we can carry with us for a lifetime. These resources can be physical, emotional, psychological, social, and even mental, but no matter what kind of resources we acquire through this upgrade, they are long-lasting.

These resources acquired and developed through the experience of positive emotions have been shown to result in many benefits in the various domains of life.

In the broad domain ofphysical and psychological health, positive emotions can have fantastic effects.

The health benefits of positive emotions

among the manyhealth benefitsof positive emotions is a reduction in stress and an increase in general well-being. Positive emotions can actually act as a buffer between you and stressful events in your life, allowing you to cope more effectively and preserve your mental health (Tugade, Fredrickson, & Barrett, 2004).

Also, in 2006, researchers confirmed that experiencing positive emotions helps modulate your stress response and allows you to recover from the negative effects of stress more quickly (Ong, Bergeman, Bisconti & Wallace).

Positive emotions can also protect you from colds! Students who were randomly assigned to write about intense, positive experiences for three days, 20 minutes a day, visited the student health center significantly less for symptoms of illness compared to students who wrote about a neutral topic (Burton & King , 2004).

Experiencing positive emotions can also encourage people to make healthier choices, indirectly contributing to better health. Herzenstein (2008) found that various positive emotions lead to a variety of health benefits, including:

• Happiness resulted in increased risk-seeking and variety and gain-focused behavior and,
• Satisfaction resulted in increased risk avoidance and loss-focused behavior.

Positive emotions can also facilitateeffective coping, which improves health by dampening the symptoms of depression (Dolphin, Steinhardt, & Cance, 2015). Furthermore, being mindful of and taking the time to savor positive emotions can provide additional protection against symptoms of depression, increasing psychological well-being and life satisfaction (Kiken, Lundberg, & Fredrickson, 2017).

Another health benefit of positive emotions is that they can result in a stronger heart; Kok and his colleagues (2013) found a connection between a healthy heart rate and experiencing positive social emotions. Similarly, a meta-analysis of several studies found that well-being was significantly related to cardiovascular fitness, general health, and overall longevity (Howell, Kern, & Lyubomirsky, 2007).

How positive emotions promote resilience and improve memory

In addition to promoting good physical and psychological health, positive emotions have been found to be associated with both.resilienceand memory

A study by Peng and colleagues (2014) found that positive emotions and resilience are positively correlated, indicating that one leads to the other or that they share a two-way relationship.

We also know that resilience is significantly relatedemotional regulation, suggesting that the experience of many positive emotions (and the management of negative emotions) allows some individuals to “recover” better than others (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004).

Finally, a study by Cohn and colleagues found that positive emotions have a direct effect on resilience, which in turn helps build a strong sense of life satisfaction (2009).

These effects may be due to the “widening and building” that positive emotions seem to evoke; The more positive emotions a person experiences, the stronger their perception of a positive reference state to "bounce back" after failure or tragedy.

Additionally, experiencing consistent positive emotions can encourage a person to seek a wide variety of sources of meaning and satisfaction, sources that they can rely on to get them back on their feet when they fall.

In general, there is evidence to suggest that positive emotions may protect against memory decline (MacKenzie, Powell, & Donaldson, 2015). It is not clear how this protection could work, although it could also be explained by construction and construction theory. Positive emotions can expand focus and memory capacity and increase the ability to recall central and peripheral details (Yegiyan & Yonelinas, 2011).

Both improved resilience and better memory can provide benefits in many domains of life, including the workplace. In fact, there are several ways that positive emotions can lead to better productivity and more effective work.

How positive emotions can improve the workplace

Positive emotions have been shown to have apositive impact on relationships(romance, friends, and family), therapy and counseling outcomes, academic grades and achievement, and personal development (Linley, Joseph, Maltby, Harrington, & Wood, 2009); Now we can add one more domain to this list: the workplace.

As much as we try to separate them, our emotions and personal lives impact our work. Fortunately, this can work both positively and negatively.

Positive emotions led to improvements andimprovements in professional life, physical and mental health, social relationships, community participation, and income (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005), all of which are directly or indirectly related to work.

Improve employee engagement

A recent study by Goswami, Nair, Beehr, and Grossenbacher (2016) consolidated the relationship between positive emotions and employee engagement, as well as showing a link between leaders' use of humor and employee engagement.

In addition, positive emotions encouraged organizational citizenship behavior (an employee's voluntary commitment to non-mandatory or non-mandatory tasks that benefit their organization) as well as increased work commitment; In addition, they had a double positive impact by reducing negative attitudes and behaviors that are not aligned with organizational values ​​(Avey, Wernsing, & Luthans, 2008).

Improve job satisfaction

Positive emotions were found to result in greaterself-efficacy, higher job satisfaction and better overall mental health (Schutte, 2014). They have even been shown to be connected to increased job satisfaction during task conflict (Todorova, Bear, & Weingart, 2014).

More specifically, the positive emotions of interest and appreciation are linked to higher job satisfaction, whilegratitudeit also positively impacts satisfaction with co-workers and supervisors (Winslow, Hu, Kaplan, & Li, 2017). The same study that produced these results also found that both interest and gratitude predicted an employee's satisfaction with their promotion.

Positive emotions not only increase job satisfaction, but also reduce turnover intentions and reduce the effects of stress on employees (Sui, Cheung, & Lui, 2015).

These findings are intuitive; It makes sense that experiencing more positive emotions at work, such as joy, interest, gratitude, and happiness, would increase job satisfaction. Greater job satisfaction is clearly and directly related to the intention to remain in the position.

effective leadership

Positive emotions in the workplace can make it easiereffective leadershipin addition to increasing job satisfaction.

A 2013 study surveyed followers to assess the relationship between transformational leadership and positive emotions, on the one hand, and the impact on task performance, on the other; the study found that transformational leadership and positive emotions have a positive effect on task performance (Liang & Steve Chi, 2013).

Not only was the effect of transformational leadership on performance enhanced, but its impact on job engagement was also enhanced by positive emotions (Wang, Li, & Li, 2017).

Similarly,authentic leadershipit has been found to lead to more effective follower innovation when combined with positive emotions (Zhou, Ma, Cheng, & Xia, 2014).

Another leadership style, known as thought-building leadership, is most effective in increasing employee job satisfaction, effort, and effectiveness when positive emotions such as enthusiasm, hope, pride, happiness, and inspiration complement the leadership (Zineldin, 2017).

Improve company results

When employees experience positive emotions at work, they experience a broader perspective and can develop important capabilities.

Early research on the effects of positive emotions on employee achievement and productivity found that the more positive emotions a person experiences at work, the higher their pay and the better their supervisors' evaluations 18 months later (Staw , Sutton and Pelled, 1994). .

Staw and colleagues also found that MBA students with higher positive emotions performed more accurately on a decision-making task than students with lower levels of positive emotions (1993).

Subsequent research found that increased positive emotions resulted in greater clarity around one's role expectations, effective and value-congruent use of organizational resources, role fulfillment, improved relationships at work, and a general increase in ownership that employees feel over their work and creativity that drives innovation and contributes to organizational success (Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2002).

Furthermore, the expression and amplification of positive emotions can lead to better goal achievement, whether the expression of emotions is directed towards co-workers or superiors (Wong, Tschan, Messerli, & Semmer, 2013).

Finally, positive emotions (in the form of hope, optimism, and resilience) not only increase job satisfaction, happiness at work, and organizational commitment, but also improve employee performance, as measured by self-report and organizational performance reviews. (Youssef & Luthans, 2007).

A message to take home

There has never been more interest in positive emotions and their effects on our lives, and for good reason!

Positive emotions are linked to numerous benefits in relationships, health and wellness, and the workplace. Keep an eye on positive emotion news, and you'll be following a bright and vibrant area of ​​research.

Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback on positive emotions or would like to suggest further reading, please let us know in the comments section below.

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