Cultivating positive emotions to optimize health and well-being.

Abstract

This article develops the hypothesis that intervention strategies that cultivate positive emotions are particularly suited for preventing and treating problems rooted in negative emotions, such as anxiety, depression, aggression, and stressrelated health problems. Fredrickson's (1998) broaden–and–build model of positive emotions provides the foundation for this application. According to this model, the form and function of positive and negative emotions are distinct and complementary. Negative emotions (e.g., fear, anger, and sadness) narrow an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire toward specific actions that served the ancestral function of promoting survival. By contrast, positive emotions (e.g., joy, interest, and contentment) broaden an individual's momentary thought–action repertoire, which in turn can build that individual's enduring personal resources, resources that also served the ancestral function of promoting survival. One implication of the broaden–and–build model is that positive emotions have an undoing effect on negative emotions. By broadening

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Cited by (55)

1. The broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions
   Fredrickson, Barbara L. · 2004 · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
2. Resilient Individuals Use Positive Emotions to Bounce Back From Negative Emotional Experiences.
   Tugade, Michele M., Fredrickson, Barbara L. · 2004 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
3. Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoires
   Fredrickson, Barbara L., Branigan, Christine · 2005 · Cognition & Emotion
4. The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions.
   Fredrickson, Barbara L. · 2001 · American Psychologist
5. Moral Emotions and Moral Behavior
   Tangney, June Price, Stuewig, Jeff, Mashek, Debra J. · 2007 · Annual Review of Psychology

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