Emotion And Negative Emotions

Happiness is one of the many emotions a person will experience in his or her lifetime. It plays a substantial part in the well­being of humans. Over the last twenty years, psychologists have switched their research from focusing on mental health to focusing on human well­being or positive psychology. Positive psychology is geared toward the study of happiness and what causes it. If happiness is the only emotion a person experiences, their decision­making process can be affected along with their thought process. Other emotions are needed to have healthy reactions to important situations a person may face throughout their life. Although being happy all of the time seems ideal, sadness, fear, and anger play a beneficial role in human development.

They cause a person to think more observantly because it triggers a more systematic way of thinking. A person needs negative emotions in order to experience the broad spectrum of human emotion. David explains, “People in negative moods tend to be less skeptical, while happy folks may accept easy answers and trust false smiles” (125). Negative emotions keep the human mind balanced and on track. They are just as valuable as positive emotions, if not more valuable. If a person is too trusting, it can lead to them being stuck in dangerous situations. Negative emotions also cause slower processing, which allows the mind to pay more attention to the faint aspects of any given situation. Coauthors of the article “A Balanced Psychology and a Full Life,” Martin E.P. Seligman, Acacia C. Parks, and Tracy Steen, state, “Even if we were asymptotically successful at removing depression, anxiety, and anger, that would not result in happiness” (Seligman etal. 418). A person cannot truly understand what happiness is if he or she have never experienced any type of negative emotions. Experiencing a variety of emotions is needed to be completely happy. Although negative emotions are unpleasant, they are necessary in order for a person to function