positive psych txt jan 19

What is the main purpose of studying pleasure in positive psychology?

To go beyond the old “pleasure principle” (instant gratification regardless of consequences) and explain how positive affect, positive emotions, happiness, and well-being work scientifically—including what they are, how they’re measured, what they do for us (benefits beyond pleasure), how they vary across cultures, and why increasing happiness must be approached equitably.

What are the key learning goals for this unit?

Be able to:

• Define and distinguish affect, emotion, mood, happiness, subjective well-being

• Explain key research on positive affect, especially Broaden-and-Build

• Summarize research on happiness + life satisfaction

• Apply findings to modern contexts (social media, COVID, etc.)

• Explain cultural differences in emotional experience

• Argue why increasing happiness matters for everyone, not just privileged groups

What is Ed Diener’s “Joy Juice” thought experiment and what does it show?

Diener asked whether people would want a hormone that made them ecstatically happy all the time. Only 2 of 60 said yes. This shows people don’t want nonstop happiness—happiness is complex, context-dependent, and not simply “max pleasure forever.” This moment sparked Shane Lopez’s interest in the science of happiness.

What is affect (in positive psychology terms)?

Affect is an immediate physiological response to a stimulus. It includes:

• Valence (pleasant vs painful)

• Autonomic arousal (body activation level)
  Frijda: affect involves appraising an event as pleasurable/painful plus arousal.

What is valence?

Valence is the pleasantness dimension of affect—whether an experience feels positive (pleasant) or negative (painful/unpleasant).

What is an emotion and how is it different from affect?

An emotion is more structured than affect and typically includes:

• awareness of affect

• appraisal + meaning

• a sense of what matters for well-being
  Emotions usually have an object (they are directed at something) and relate to goal pursuit (signals progress or threat).

What’s the “object” difference between emotion and mood?

Emotions usually have an object (about something—anger at a person, fear of an event). Mood is more objectless, free-floating, and long-lasting.

What is mood?

Mood is a longer-lasting, more diffuse emotional state that is often objectless (free-floating) and less specific than an emotion.

What is happiness and why is it tricky in science?

Happiness is a positive emotional state, but it is subjectively defined, meaning people vary widely in what they mean by “happiness.” That’s why it’s rarely used as a scientific term unless carefully defined.

What is subjective well-being (SWB) and why is it used as “scientific happiness”?

Diener defines SWB as:

• More positive affect (and less negative affect)

• + life satisfaction (overall cognitive judgment of your life)
  SWB is often used because it’s a clearer, measurable version of what people mean by happiness.

Are positive affect and negative affect opposites?

No. They are independent systems. You can experience both at the same time (e.g., gratitude + sadness at a funeral; fear + excitement in a scary movie).

What is PANAS / PANAS-X and what does it measure?

The PANAS is a widely used affect measure.

• PANAS-X has 60 items
  It measures two dimensions:

• Positive affect (e.g., joviality, self-assurance, attentiveness)

• Negative affect (general distress)
  Key point: these two are separate dimensions.

Can positive and negative affect happen at the same time? Give examples.

Yes. Examples:

• Scary movie: fear + excitement

• Funeral: sadness + gratitude/love
  This supports the idea they are not strict opposites.

When do positive and negative affect become more strongly inversely related?

They can look more “either/or” when:

• people are under heavy stress or taxing daily demands

• with age + high stress

• when events are highly personally relevant (stronger polarized response)

How do cultural groups differ in how positive and negative affect relate?

In many Asian cultural groups, positive and negative affect show a more consistent positive relationship (more “both/and”). This reflects dialectical thinking—holding multiple truths simultaneously—and supports emotional complexity that may help social intelligence in collectivist contexts.

What is dialectical thinking (in emotional experience)?

A thinking style that allows people to hold opposites at once (“both/and”), which can lead to emotional complexity (e.g., feeling joy and sadness together without needing to “pick one”).

What is the cultural takeaway about emotional “health”?

Emotional health is culture-shaped. What counts as healthy emotional life (e.g., high positivity vs emotional balance/complexity) differs across societies.

What did Alice Isen’s research show about mild positive emotions?

Mild positive emotions increase likelihood of:

• helping others

• flexible thinking

• better problem-solving

• more self-control

What is the “coin in the payphone” study and its key finding?

People who found a coin (a small positive emotion boost) were more likely to help others afterward (e.g., picking up papers). It’s evidence that small positive affect can increase prosocial behavior.

What did the physicians + candy study show?

A small gift (candy) improved medical reasoning: faster diagnosis but less jumping to conclusions, suggesting positive affect can improve judgment and decision-making.

What are some more recent findings about positive emotions and decision-making?

Positive emotions have been linked to:

• more utilitarian (less reactive) decisions

• risk-taking when high returns are expected

• increased career self-efficacy and less indecision

Why was Broaden-and-Build proposed?

Negative emotions had clear survival action tendencies (fight/flight), but positive emotions were understudied and treated as “just pleasure.” Fredrickson argued positive emotions have adaptive functions: they broaden thinking and buildresources over time.

What is the core claim of Broaden-and-Build?

Positive emotions:

• Broaden momentary thought–action repertoires (take off blinders, expand perceived options)

• Build durable resources (social, cognitive, psychological) over time

What is a “momentary thought–action repertoire”?

The immediate range of ideas and actions you can imagine in the moment. Positive emotions expand this range (more options, more creativity).

What evidence supports broadening (film clip experiment)?

Participants watched clips inducing joy/contentment vs fear/anger/neutral, then listed what they wanted to do “right now.”

• Joy/contentment → more possibilities

• Negative emotions → narrowed options
  Conclusion: positive emotions broaden immediate thinking/behavior.

Explain the hide-and-seek + snake example.

Joy supports creativity/play (new rules, exploration). Fear produces a narrow survival script (escape), ending play immediately. This illustrates broadening vs narrowing.

What does Broaden-and-Build say positive affect improves over time?

t can strengthen:

• relationships

• adaptation to change

• memory and visual attention

• social cognition

Why is playfulness considered a “builder” in Broaden-and-Build?

Joy promotes playfulness, and play helps build durable resources:

• social attachment

• creativity

• cognitive and brain development
  This makes play evolutionarily useful, not “extra.”

What outcomes are linked to playfulness?

Research links playfulness to:

• higher well-being and happiness (even controlling for personality)

• less stress and better coping (young adults)

• higher self-satisfaction (adolescents)

• better relationship satisfaction

• possible supportive role in trauma treatment

Do playfulness benefits appear across cultures?

Yes. Similar benefits were found in Chinese samples, suggesting playfulness may generalize across cultural contexts.

How does positive affect relate to personal change?

People often feel change is impossible under stress/anger, but doable when in a positive mood. Positive affect supports engagement with self-improvement and makes coping strategies more accessible.

How does gratitude relate to self-betterment and why does culture matter?

Gratitude increased self-betterment engagement in U.S. samples but wasn’t always replicated in East Asian samples. This shows interventions can work differently depending on cultural meaning.

What is the “upward spiral” of positive emotion?

Fredrickson & Joiner found:

• Positive emotions → increases broad-minded/creative coping over time

• Increased coping → later increases in positive emotions
  This forms a self-reinforcing cycle (the upward spiral), primarily for positive emotions.

What cultural refinement was found about the upward spiral?

In some Asian American samples, increasing positive affect alone wasn’t enough—people needed both increased positive affect AND reduced negative affect to start the upward spiral.

How can positive mood affect memory and learning (student-relevant)?

Positive mood can improve:

• spatial memory

• verbal memory

• working memory (especially when induced)
  This matters for studying and academic performance.

How does positive mood affect cognitive flexibility/problem-solving?

It increases flexible thinking and insight problem-solving, such as finding one word that connects three unrelated words (insight task).

What did the cross-race face identification study show?

White Americans with greater positive affect identified Black faces as accurately as White faces. This matters because cross-race identification errors can contribute to wrongful identifications and harm intergroup relationships.

How does this connect to Broaden-and-Build?

Positive affect broadens attention and cognition, improving recall and accuracy and supporting fairer judgments and better social cognition.

How might broaden-and-build connect to attachment security?

Researchers proposed attachment security may create a similar broaden → build cycle. Strengthening secure attachment could potentially reduce prejudice/discrimination/racism. This is promising but needs more evidence.

What is the “undoing hypothesis”?

The idea that positive emotions (joy/contentment) can undo lingering physiological effects of negative emotion by speeding recovery to baseline after stress.

What evidence supports undoing?

After a negative-arousal induction, people watched videos inducing mild joy to sadness-range. Cardiovascular recovery time was measured. Those in joy/contentment groups returned to baseline faster—showing positive emotions can help the body reset.

What are three major psychological theory types about happiness?

• Need/Goal Satisfaction

• Process/Activity

• Genetic/Personality Predisposition

What is the need/goal satisfaction theory of happiness?

Happiness comes from reducing tension, satisfying needs, and reaching goals. Examples include Freud/Maslow framing happiness as an outcome of satisfaction.

What is the process/activity theory of happiness?

Happiness comes from engaging in certain activities (not just outcomes), such as:

• Flow (challenge matches skill)

• goal pursuit generating energy

• positive practices (gratitude, kindness, optimism) raising well-being in some groups

• “stretch” positive behaviors that expand comfort zones (especially helps least-happy people)

What is the genetic/personality predisposition theory of happiness?

Happiness is relatively stable and linked to temperament/personality. Some studies show long-term stability, but set-points may vary person-to-person and culture can moderate how strongly personality predicts well-being. Genetic findings are complex and early.

What is hedonic well-being?

Well-being defined mainly as pleasure and positive feelings—often measured as subjective well-being (positive affect, low negative affect, life satisfaction).

What is eudaimonic well-being?

Well-being defined as meaning, virtue, authenticity, and purposeful living. It emphasizes flourishing beyond pleasure. Simple framing: well-being = happiness + meaning.

What are global patterns in sources of meaning across ages?

• #1 source across all ages: family

• #2 differs:

  • 18–29: friends

  • 30–64: occupation

  • 65+: material well-being
    Practical implication: generations prioritize different meaning sources, shaping conflict/misunderstandings.

What is Lyubomirsky’s architecture of sustainable happiness and its proposed breakdown?

Chronic happiness is shaped by:

• genetics (~50%)

• circumstances (~10%)

• intentional activities (~40%)
  Meaning: there are constraints, but a large portion is influenced by practice and intentional habits.

What happened to adolescents’ affect patterns during early COVID (daily diary study)?

• Negative affect increased

• Positive affect did not significantly drop

• Negative affect variability increased (more ups/downs)

• Positive affect variability decreased (more stable)

How did pre-COVID emotion regulation styles predict COVID emotional patterns?

• Savoring (replaying/expanding positive events) before COVID helped positive affect stay high and stable

• Dampening/rumination before COVID predicted worse patterns
  Caveat: protective effects were weaker when stress/isolation was extreme.

What is the key COVID takeaway about positive strategies?

Positive strategies (like savoring) help most when stressors are not overwhelming—so reducing stress and isolation matters for well-being.

How does money relate to life satisfaction across and within nations?

Across nations:

• poorer nations: money relates more strongly to life satisfaction

• wealthier nations: higher overall happiness
  Within nations:

• income matters most until basic needs are met

• above basic needs: diminishing returns
  In extreme poverty: many report happiness is impossible without needs met
  Also reverse direction: happier people may earn more later (especially in already high-income families).

How does “wealth definition” affect its link to well-being?

The relationship is stronger when wealth is defined as actual economic status and outcomes are measured as life satisfaction. Definitions of both “wealth” and “happiness” change observed results.

How can thrift relate to hedonic happiness?

Reducing spending/debt and savoring what you already have can relate to hedonic happiness because it reduces stress and increases appreciation of daily rewards.

What does research suggest about relationships/marriage and happiness?

In many Western samples, married people report higher happiness, but effects vary by age, income, education, and race/ethnicity. Marital quality is crucial. Same-sex legal unions are linked to higher well-being depending on social legitimacy.

What is hedonic adaptation in relationships and how can it be slowed?

People return toward baseline happiness over time even after positive events like marriage. Strategies to slow adaptation:

• create more positive events/emotions

• increase variety

• keep aspirations realistic

• cultivate appreciation

What gendered pattern has been observed after marriage in some studies?

Some findings show women’s life satisfaction can drop after marriage while men’s rises, possibly linked to unequal role expectations and increased chore/role load for women.

How can hypermasculine beliefs affect well-being?

Hypermasculine beliefs can reduce empathy and positive emotion by framing care as weakness. Reframing (“Real men care”) can increase empathy and allow access to benefits of caring and connection.

What do findings about the happiest students show?

The happiest 10% of U.S. college students consistently show strong relationships and good mental health. Social functioning is necessary but not sufficient for happiness.

Why can “social online” be different from “good social”?

Algorithms shape what people see and feel. Pew findings highlight amusement as the most frequent positive emotion online and anger as the second most frequent overall emotion. So online social exposure can increase connection but also increase anger and conflict.

What is the difference between feelings and traits (Seligman)?

• Feelings are temporary emotional states.

• Traits are enduring dispositions that increase the likelihood of certain states.
  Using signature strengths supports well-being by building trait-like foundations of authenticity and meaning.

How does Seligman distinguish pleasant life vs meaningful life?

Pleasant life focuses on positive feelings. Meaningful life goes beyond pleasure and includes living in alignment with strengths, values, and purpose.

What aspects of happiness does culture shape?

Culture shapes:

• how happiness is defined

• how happiness is expressed/displayed

• how much happiness is valued

• what predicts happiness

• how accurate happiness measures are across groups

How do collectivism and individualism shape predictors of SWB?

Collectivism vs individualism strongly predicts SWB differences across nations (even controlling income).

• collectivist contexts: harmony and emotional support matter more

• individualist contexts: pride and self-satisfaction matter more

Why must we be cautious using Western happiness scales across cultures?

A scale can be linguistically equivalent (translated accurately) but not conceptually equivalent (not measuring the same “meaning”). Cultural differences in what happiness is can distort results.

Give an example of cultural differences in how happiness is described (East vs West).

Chinese essays often emphasize spiritual cultivation and transcendence. U.S. essays often emphasize enjoying present life. This reflects different cultural frameworks of what happiness means.

What is “aversion to happiness” and where does it appear?

In some non-Western groups, people may fear too much happiness because they believe it leads to bad outcomes or that happiness is less important than other values. This affects how people report and pursue happiness.

What is within-culture diversity in well-being (examples)?

Even within one country, predictors differ across groups. Examples:

• African American well-being may relate to strong ethnic identity and religiosity

• Latinx well-being may relate differently to faith/religiosity and identity variables
  Meaning: culture isn’t one single category—subgroup experiences matter.

What is the Complete Mental Health Model?

Complete mental health is not just absence of illness—it includes multiple well-being domains plus minimal recent illness.

What are the components of complete mental health?

• Emotional well-being: SWB (positive affect + life satisfaction – negative affect)

• Social well-being: acceptance, actualization, contribution, coherence, integration

• Psychological well-being: self-acceptance, growth, purpose, mastery, autonomy, positive relations
  Plus: absence of recent mental illness

What does it mean that the model is dimensional AND categorical?

• Dimensional: well-being and symptoms exist on continua (low → high)

• Categorical: distinct states are possible (e.g., flourishing vs languishing)
  States can change and vary by cultural context.

Can people learn to be happier?

Research suggests yes, through strategies and habits, but effects vary depending on culture, context, stress level, and social conditions.

Why don’t happiness interventions work the same for all cultures? (gratitude example)

Gratitude increased well-being in U.S. samples but decreased well-being in South Korean samples where gratitude can be tied to indebtedness. Cultural meaning determines whether an intervention helps.

How does cultural tailoring improve interventions? Give examples.

• Muslim gratitude framed through Islamic principles improved happiness more than secular gratitude

• Yup’ik wellness improved when cultural context was central
  Tailoring aligns interventions with values, meaning systems, and social norms.

Why is an equity lens essential for well-being?

Well-being is harmed by racism, sexism, discrimination, and inequity. A human rights framing argues well-being requires equitable access to opportunities, health, culturally competent services, and living without oppression. Without equity, well-being becomes unreachable for many.

Why do humans naturally focus on negative information?

Due to evolutionary survival needs and modern media patterns, negative stimuli get more attention, which can bias perception and reduce happiness.

What matters more for happiness: objective circumstances or perception?

Perception often matters more than objective circumstances because interpretation shapes emotional experience and life satisfaction.

What does it mean for nations to track well-being as “national accounts”?

Countries can track well-being alongside economic measures to inform policy, funding, and priorities—treating well-being as a measurable public outcome, not just personal responsibility.

How does the comedy PANAS pretest–posttest mini-experiment work?

• Take PANAS (baseline)

• Watch 5–20 minutes of good-natured humor

• Take PANAS again

• Compare positive vs negative affect shifts
  It demonstrates mood induction and affect measurement.

What is the “Movie, Then What?” broaden-and-build mini-experiment?

Compare a sad movie vs feel-good movie. After each, ask: “If you could do anything right now, what would you do? What else?” Count number of ideas and excitement. More options after feel-good movie illustrates broadened thought–action repertoire.

What is the “Commonsense definitions of happiness” activity and what does it show?

Ask people how they define happiness and signs they’re happy. You’ll see huge variety shaped by culture, values, and life stage—showing why “happiness” must be clarified scientifically.

Define: pleasure principle

The idea (linked to Freud) that humans seek immediate gratification and pleasure, sometimes without considering long-term consequences.

Define: specific action tendency

A narrow behavioral script tied to certain emotions (e.g., fear → flee; anger → fight).

Define: broaden-and-build

A theory that positive emotions broaden momentary thought–action repertoires and build durable psychological and social resources over time.

Define: eudaimonia

Well-being based on meaning, virtue, authenticity, and flourishing—not just pleasure.

Define: flow

A state of deep engagement where challenge matches skill, producing absorption, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation.