POSITIVE EMOTIONS AND
WELL-BEING
NISHMA.V.M
,MSc.Apllied Psychology
Pondicherry university

WHAT ARE POSITIVE EMOTIONS?

Positive affect
 Cheerfulness , joy , contentment, and
happiness
Negative affect
 Anger, fear , sadness , guilt , contempt , and
disgust

Broaden-and –Build Model
 Provides an overview of how positive
emotions helps to build
physical,psychological, and social resources
that promote well-being.

Two distinctions
1) mood and emotion:
 mood is a more genaral concept than emotion
because it refers to our overall feelings
 In contrast emotions are more temporary states
that are tied to personally meaningful evnts
The theory is focused on positive emotions like joy,
love, interest, pride and contentment.
 Describes the effect of positive emotions as
oposit to the effect of negative emotions

2)Sensory pleasures and positive emotions
 positive emotions should not be confuced
with simple sensory pleasures.

FOUR OUTCOMES OF OSITIVE EMOTIONS-
1) Positive emotions broaden our thought-action repertoires:
Negative emotions- narrow our thoughts
Positive emotions - widen our thoughts
2) Positive emotions undo negative emotions:
it seem to produce oposit effects.
3) Positive emotions enhance resilience:
It will offset the effect of negative emotions.
4)Positive emotions build enduring resources and improve
well-being:

Positive Emotions and Health
Resources
 Both positive and negative emotions have
the potentials to set a verity of physical ,
psychological , and social changes that can
either compromise or enhance our health.

Physical Resource:
 Four resources which effect our health are
 Brain
 Nervous system as a whole
 The endocrine system
 Immune system

Psychological Resource:
 Positive emotions and coping with stress:
need of strength and effectiveness of our
intellectual, behavioural and emotional
efforts
 problem-focused coping:
 Emotion-focused coping
 Proactive coping

Social Resource:
 People who engaged in a close network and
supportive relationship enjoy better health
and more personal happiness than those who
lack such networks.
 Less sick and Live longer
 Lack of social ties, loss of significant
relationship Loneliness, depression,
personal distress & unhappiness

LIMITATIONS OF POSITIVE EMOTIONS
 Providing no guarantee for long and happy
life
 Traumatic experiences like death and spouse
can overwhelm our coping resources

Positive Emotions and Well-Being
 Positve emotions contribute to more flexible,
creative and resilient responses in the face of
challenge
 Happy people are more tolerant and less
prejudicial, more compassionate, more
focused on others, more helpful and more
enjoyable with others

Positive Emotions and success
 Happy people are greatly found to enjoy
greater success in marriage life , friendship ,
income , workand mental and physical
health.

Positive Emotions and flourishing
 It is the state of optimal human functioning.
 It is the complete mental health.

Cultivating positive emotions
 mental state of operation in which a person performing an
activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full
involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
 Act happy
 Seek work and leisure that engages your skills
 Take control of your time
 Daily exercise
 Sleep well
 Establish close relationship
 Focus beyond the self
 Spiritual activity

 Reading a book
 Going for a party
 Fixing a good meal with family
 Painting
 Photography
 Listening to music…

REFERENCE
 R.S.Baumgardner, K.M.Crothers (2009). Positive
psychology,newdelhi, Dorling kindersely
pvt.ltd,India.