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Positive emotions and importance
Effects of emotions
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Positive psychology describes the effects a positive attitude can have on one’s enjoyment of a situation, people, and life as whole. If one is able to find something good about every situation they encounter, then their overall life experience will be positive. It explains that one’s mindset determines the outcome of a situation, including how well they get along with people around them. Positive emotions are capable of changing not only one's outlook on life, but also their life as a whole. By viewing every situation in a positive way stress can be reduced, and both physical and mental discomfort will be limited.
Thinking positively has been studied and proven to help patients battling diseases, and going through physical therapy. These results are attributed to positive emotions ability to overcome negative emotions (Leading With Positive Emotions 1). By outlasting the effects of negative emotions positivity causes feelings of satisfaction and happiness. It also explains how these positive feelings can lead to a happier person who is content with their decisions, and is therefore successful.
Psychology is a field that is constantly evolving to incorporate discoveries within different fields. The study of positive emotions and how they relate to overall happiness is receiving more attention lately, because it was previously overshadowed by the study of mental disorders, due to lack of funding (Seligman 1379). They are also more difficult to study because the emotions that are considered positive are hard to distinguish from one another (The Value of Positive Emotions 330). Recently, more researchers have dedicated their lives to exploring what the definition of happiness is, what makes people happy, and how to allow other peop...
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...Positive Emotions: The Emerging Science of Positive Psychology Is Coming to Understand Why It's Good to Feel Good."American Scientist 91.4 (2003): 330-35. JSTOR. Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Web.
Google. "Hypochondriasis." Google. Google, n.d. Web.
Schwartz, Barry. The Tyranny of Choice. Washington D.C.: Chronicle of Higher Education, 2004. Swarthmore.edu. Scientific American. Web.
Seligman, Martin E.P., Acacia C. Parks, and Tracy Steen. "A Balanced Psychology and a Full Life." The Royal Society (2004): 18 Aug. 2004. Web.
Snyder, C. R., Shane J. Lopez, and Jennifer T. Pedrotti. Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2007. Print.
Staw, Barry M., Robert I. Sutton, and Lisa H. Pelled. "Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at the Workplace." JSTOR. N.p., n.d. Web.
Personality predispositions can determine levels of extraversion, which determine the levels to which one seeks social support, thus determining positive affect. Similarly, personality predispositions can determine levels of neuroticism that may influence one’s style of coping in the face of both positive and negative external factors which can determine negative affect (Diener, 1996). Happiness, a core aspect of positive subjective wellbeing, involves maintaining a superior level of positive affect in comparison to negative effect, based on specific positive or negative emotions linked to the recent experiences in one’s life (Emmons & Diener, 1985). Positive emotions such as joy and pride must trump negative emotions such as frustration and sadness in the recent past or present in order for an individual to feel happy. Life satisfaction builds on this and is a cognitive valuation of the quality of an individual’s experiences as a sum throughout their entire life (Emmons & Diener, 1985). Individual personality traits have been found to influence the different patterns and levels of life satisfaction, positive and negative affects and simply general, overall happiness (McCrae, 1983).
MLA: Wallis, Claudia, et al. “The New Science of Happiness.” Time. 17 Jan. 2005. Academic Search Premier. Yale University Library. 11 Jan. 2006.
The studies given as examples and discussion focuses on teenagers and young adults, but includes anyone is struggling to find happiness. Evidence to Support Thesis: Point 1: The level of well-being is emphasized as more people continue to lose track of what makes them happy. Shawn Anchor is reminding people to capture the essence of simple contentment and asking his audience to think about what they value. Anchor’s book provides seven principles that involve having an open mind to becoming happier. Anchor includes other research studies as evidence to his claims throughout the book.
A fair criticism of the first one hundred years of the science of psychology is that the emphasis has been on addressing what makes life unbearable-mental illness, anxiety, neurosis, stress and so on, as stressed by Sligman & Cziakzemtmihalyi, 2000; see also Jahoda, 1958. (Kaiser & Overfield, 2011) Positive Psychology focuses on the good that could possibly increase a person’s quality of life. Positive Psychology a growing utilization in the workplace. Thus the development of strength-based leadership.
Positive Psychology is a new millennium version of the power of positive thinking movement. In other words it’s a new millennium health scam. Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that supports the theory that an individual’s happiness is under their personal control, independent of any external influences or validation. However, part of the problem is that this is just one of the many definitions of positive psychology. So if that definition doesn’t suit you, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2014) define positive psychology as the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels that include the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions
Positive Psychology is the strengths and virtues a person or a community poses that lead to its optimal performance and allow it to thrive.This is a beneficial study that has the chance to improve the lives of many as well as preventing some negative situations. This review looks into what Positive Psychology is and how it impacts our lives. The sources I selected look into a broad overview of Positive Psychology, and it looks into deeper more specific aspects of Positive Psychology. This review has to lead me to believe that if we see ourselves and the future in a positive way it will have a positive effect on our lives.
In the book, The How of Happiness, author and researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky sets her book apart from other self-awareness books by being the first to utilize empirical studies. She uses data gained through scientific method to provide support for her hypothesis. This hypothesis consists mainly of the idea that we have the ability to overcome genetic predisposition and circumstantial barriers to happiness by how we think and what we do. She emphasizes that being happier benefits ourselves, our family and our community. “The How of Happiness is science, and the happiness-increasing strategies that [she] and other social psychologists have developed are its key supporting players” (3).
Humans gravitate towards safe, loving, and happy experiences. But sometimes it’s difficult to be positive, especially when experiences feel overwhelming. In recent years, there has been a lot of research conducted on regulating emotions. With these strategies, we can learn how to control our feelings. There are two types of strategies: savoring and dampening. Savoring is the idea of noticing and relishing experiences, hardwiring your brain to focus on positivity. Dampening, on the other hang, is the act of suppressing or down-regulating positive emotions, out of fear, shyness, or modesty. There are many ways to promote positive emotions, but the focus of this paper will be on the differing implementation strategies. While there’s consensus amongst scholarship that savoring and dampening are effective ways in influencing life satisfaction, the scholars differ in their approaches leading to their conclusions.
By assessing the personal meaning of events, emotion comes up. What’s more, positive emotions have not only a role of marking happiness, but also a function to continue
Whether an individual has positive or negative attitude is not a major contributor to their happiness and a realistic attitude would be ideal for those trying to increase their
The Psychology of Happiness provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of analysis into the character of happiness and where it stems. Using analysis from the disciplines of social science, physiology and economic science still as psychological science. Argyle explores the character of positive and negative emotions, and therefore the psych. He describes the effects of positive moods and happiness. Since science is the study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment many people feel that using science in research is very effective in preparing an argument. I feel that this text will be helpful
Positive psychology can definitely help change ones perspective on many situations and teach them how to make the best out of negative circumstances in their life. Having a positive outlook on life is great for someone’s wellbeing because it helps reduce stress and it can also improve your health. Before taking this course, it was somewhat difficult for me to see the positive in many problems that I faced. Now that I have completed this course, I can now look back at situations in my life and manage them more appropriately.
...chological well-being (including as identified in this report, the value of need-based goal setting), will provide, as suggested by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 5), protection against mental illness, empowering individuals, families, communities and societies to prosper. Myers and Diener (1996, p. 72) add that researching the habits of happy people may suggest how we can modify our behaviour to improve happiness. This in turn will help people to achieve the maximum satisfaction that they can from their own particular circumstances. In addition, as the body of empirical evidence grows in support of this positive psychology, the focus can once again, (as Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) intend it should), return to the two objectives previously abandoned by psychology, namely fostering excellence and making ordinary people more resilient and productive.
Moreover, stress and anxiety take a toll on the person’s positivity. A person under stress or in a state of anxious apprehension tends to have more of a negative affect and find less room for positive emotions, at least for the short span during which anxiety is experienced. This can, in turn, affect their entire world view and gradually lead to a loss of psychological well being. It is therefore very crucial to take note of it and address it through effective measures by managing stress and
...ed and accepted. This is because not only does it aid those who are have mental illnesses but it is also designed for the betterment of society as a whole. Additionally, there are also medical treatments such as drugs for these kinds of mental diseases and although both have had successes both also have limitations. As drugs come with side effects, have high relapse possibilities and there are also dosage problems whereas, in positive psychology the debate over how happiness is measured in the first place is controversial. As a result, using past experiences like in ww2 psychologists have designed positive psychology so that it is helpful of all people in society and not only those in need of help. All in all, it can be said that although there are limitations to both of these fields under psychology both also have numerous success and benefit society as a whole.