•Neurophysiological correlates of positive emotions contribute to wellbeing.•Brain networks that implement positive emotions are flexible and modifiable.•Developmental, social, and environmental ...factors impact positive emotions.•Meditation, contemplative practices, and flow cultivate positive emotions.•Linguistic dimensions contribute to advancing the neuroscience of positive emotions.
This review paper provides an integrative account regarding neurophysiological correlates of positive emotions and affect that cumulatively contribute to the scaffolding for happiness and wellbeing in humans and other animals. This paper reviews the associations among neurotransmitters, hormones, brain networks, and cognitive functions in the context of positive emotions and affect. Consideration of lifespan developmental perspectives are incorporated, and we also examine the impact of healthy social relationships and environmental contexts on the modulation of positive emotions and affect. The neurophysiological processes that implement positive emotions are dynamic and modifiable, and meditative practices as well as flow states that change patterns of brain function and ultimately support wellbeing are also discussed. This review is part of “The Human Affectome Project” (http://neuroqualia.org/background.php), and in order to advance a primary aim of the Human Affectome Project, we also reviewed relevant linguistic dimensions and terminology that characterizes positive emotions and wellbeing. These linguistic dimensions are discussed within the context of the neuroscience literature with the overarching goal of generating novel recommendations for advancing neuroscience research on positive emotions and wellbeing.
Integrating the theoretical foundations of symbolic interactionism, parasocial interaction, direct affect transfer, push and pull motivational framework, and narrative transportation, this study ...investigates the determinants of tourists’ intention to visit a destination using Heidi, a famous literary and television series persona, as a stimulus. Place attachment, ad-evoked positive affect, and motivation were theorized as antecedents of intention to visit and imagination proclivity as a moderator. The model was tested using data collected from 410 prospective Spanish tourists. Results show motivation and place attachment as key determinants of intention to visit among individuals with higher imagination proclivity, while positive affect was most relevant for individuals with low imagination proclivity. Findings expand our understanding of travel intention toward unvisited destinations, providing empirical support that place attachment, positive affect, and motivation are engendered by prior media exposure and moderated by tourists’ imagination proclivity.
Emotion regulation (ER) is a central target in the study of psychological and neurobiological processes of emotions for numerous psychological disorders. Ecological momentary assessments, overcoming ...retrospective self-reports, allow a better understanding of the relation between the use of ER strategies and daily life affective experiences. A systematic review and meta-analyses of studies testing these relations through experience sampling methods (ESM) and daily diaries were conducted. ESM studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between negative affect (NA) and rumination, suppression, and worry, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between positive affect (PA) and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in prospective relations between NA and rumination, and PA and distraction; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and suppression. Daily diary studies showed significant large effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between NA and rumination and suppression, and in both contemporaneous and prospective relations between PA and reappraisal; medium effect sizes in contemporaneous relations between PA and acceptance, and problem-solving; and a small effect size in the prospective relation between NA and reappraisal. These findings shed light on the temporal relations between the use of ER strategies and affective experiences and highlight conceptual and methodological limitations in the field.
•A meta-analysis of daily life emotion regulation strategies and affect was conducted.•37 experience sampling methods (ESM) and 39 daily diary studies were included.•Reappraisal, acceptance, problem-solving were related to ongoing positive affect.•Reappraisal and distraction were prospectively related to next-time positive affect.•Rumination and suppression were related to ongoing and next-time negative affect.
Both mindfulness and emotional intelligence are associated with positive life outcomes, including greater subjective well-being. The present study examined whether emotional intelligence mediates the ...relationship between mindfulness and subjective well-being. Participants completed measures of characteristic mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and affect and life satisfaction as indices of subjective well-being. Higher levels of mindfulness were associated with greater emotional intelligence, positive affect, and life satisfaction and lower negative affect. Higher levels of emotional intelligence were associated with greater positive affect and life satisfaction and lower negative affect. Emotional intelligence mediated between mindfulness and higher positive affect, lower negative affect, and greater life satisfaction. These results provide information regarding a possible process through which mindfulness exerts its beneficial effects.
Increasing urbanisation, changing disease scenarios, and current predictions of climate change impacts require innovative strategies for providing healthy and sustainable cities, now and in the ...future. The recently coined concept, Nature-based solutions (NBS), is one such strategy referring to actions that are inspired by, supported by, or copied from nature, designed to address a range of environmental challenges. The objective with this article is to evaluate the evidence on public health benefits of exposure to natural environments and explore how this knowledge could be framed within the NBS concept. We conducted a systematic review of reviews following established methodology, including keyword search in several databases, predefined inclusion criteria, and a data extraction in accordance with the PICOS structure. We reviewed literature on associations between public health and natural environments in relation to pathways – sociobehavioural/cultural ecosystem services (e.g. stress and physical activity) and regulating ecosystem services (e.g. heat reduction) – or defined health outcomes (e.g. cardiovascular mortality). The results show that there is strong evidence for improved affect as well as on heat reduction from urban natural environments. These conditions may mediate the effect seen on cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related mortality by exposure to natural environments. By also reviewing existing literature on NBS and health, we phrase the results within the NBS context, providing guidelines on how public health and well-being could be integrated into implementation of NBS for resilient and liveable urban landscapes and health in a changing climate.
•The nature-based solution (NBS) concept insufficiently incorporates human health.•There is strong evidence on the effect of urban nature on affect state.•There is strong evidence on the effect of urban nature on urban heat reduction.•Positive affect and heat reduction can mediate urban nature's effect on mortality.•Health effects of urban nature can be framed in the nature-based solution concept.
Positive Emotions at Work Diener, Ed; Thapa, Stuti; Tay, Louis
Annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior,
01/2020, Letnik:
7, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Positive organizational scholarship has led to a growing interest in the critical role of positive emotions for the lives of both workers and organizations. We review and integrate the different ...perspectives on positive emotions (i.e., positive valence, positive emotion regulation strategies, and positive adaptive function) and the four main mechanisms (i.e., cognition, affect, behavior, and physiology) that lead to positive organizational outcomes. There is growing evidence that positive emotions influence variables vital for workplace success such as positive beliefs, creativity, work engagement, positive coping, health, teamwork and collaboration, customer satisfaction, leadership, and performance. We additionally review dynamic features of positive emotions (i.e., intraindividual variability, reactivity, inertia, cycles, feedback loops) and their relation to psychological and work outcomes. Finally, we discuss additional questions and future directions for consideration.
The study examined trait emotional intelligence as a predictor for emotional reactions experienced during the first full week of the lockdown in Poland (from 16th to 22nd March). One hundred and ...thirty persons (101 women and 25 men; 4 did not report their gender)participated in the baseline measurement of trait emotional intelligence, positive and negative affect, and affect intensity and in a one-week daily diary. Trait emotional intelligence correlated positively with baseline positive affect and positive intensity, while negatively with baseline negative affect and negative intensity. Trait emotional intelligence marginally significantly predicted a lower frequency of anger, disgust, and sadness during the first week of the pandemic. Trait emotional intelligence predicted a lower intensity of fear, anxiety and sadness. The study showed a complex dynamics of emotional experiences during the first week of the COVID-19 pandemic. Positive states of relaxation and happiness were experienced more frequently and more intensely compared to the negatively-valenced emotions. The protective role of trait emotional intelligence during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak was mainly associated with experiencing negative emotions (fear, anxiety, and sadness) less intensely, but not less frequently.
Psychosocial treatments targeting the positive valence system (PVS) in depression and anxiety demonstrate efficacy in enhancing positive affect (PA), but response to treatment varies. We examined ...whether individual differences in neural activation to positive and negative valence incentive cues underlies differences in benefitting from a PVS-targeted treatment. Individuals with clinically elevated depression and/or anxiety (N = 88, ages 18 to 55) participated in one of two randomized, waitlist-controlled trials of Amplification of Positivity (AMP; NCT02330627, NCT03196544), a cognitive and behavioral intervention targeting the PVS. Participants completed a monetary incentive delay (MID) task during fMRI acquisition at baseline measuring neural activation to the possibility of gaining or losing money. Change in PA from before to after treatment was assessed using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. No significant associations were observed between baseline neural activation during gain anticipation and AMP-related changes in PA in regions of interest (striatum and insula) or whole-brain analyses. However, higher baseline striatal and insula activation during loss anticipation was associated with greater increases in PA post-AMP. This study provides preliminary evidence suggesting neural reactivity to negative valence cues may inform who stands to benefit most from treatments targeting the PVS.
•Depression and anxiety disorders evince positive valence system (PVS) dysfunction.•Amplification of Positivity (AMP) is an emerging intervention targeting the PVS.•We examined neural predictors of change in positive affect after AMP.•Neural activation during gain anticipation did not predict outcomes.•Higher activation during loss anticipation predicted greater AMP treatment gains.
Effective motor performance is important for surviving and thriving, and skilled movement is critical in many activities. Much theorizing over the past few decades has focused on how certain practice ...conditions affect the processing of task-related information to affect learning. Yet, existing theoretical perspectives do not accommodate significant recent lines of evidence demonstrating motivational and attentional effects on performance and learning. These include research on (a) conditions that
enhance expectancies
for future performance, (b) variables that influence learners’
autonomy
, and (c) an
external focus of attention
on the intended movement effect. We propose the OPTIMAL (Optimizing Performance through Intrinsic Motivation and Attention for Learning) theory of motor learning. We suggest that motivational and attentional factors contribute to performance and learning by strengthening the coupling of goals to actions. We provide explanations for the performance and learning advantages of these variables on psychological and neuroscientific grounds. We describe a plausible mechanism for expectancy effects rooted in responses of dopamine to the anticipation of positive experience and temporally associated with skill practice. Learner autonomy acts perhaps largely through an enhanced expectancy pathway. Furthermore, we consider the influence of an external focus for the establishment of efficient functional connections across brain networks that subserve skilled movement. We speculate that enhanced expectancies and an external focus propel performers’ cognitive and motor systems in productive “forward” directions and prevent “backsliding” into self- and non-task focused states. Expected success presumably breeds further success and helps consolidate memories. We discuss practical implications and future research directions.
Although impressive progress has been made toward developing empirically‐supported psychological treatments, the reality remains that a significant proportion of people with mental health problems do ...not receive these treatments. Finding ways to reduce this treatment gap is crucial. Since app‐supported smartphone interventions are touted as a possible solution, access to up‐to‐date guidance around the evidence base and clinical utility of these interventions is needed. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 66 randomized controlled trials of app‐supported smartphone interventions for mental health problems. Smartphone interventions significantly outperformed control conditions in improving depressive (g=0.28, n=54) and generalized anxiety (g=0.30, n=39) symptoms, stress levels (g=0.35, n=27), quality of life (g=0.35, n=43), general psychiatric distress (g=0.40, n=12), social anxiety symptoms (g=0.58, n=6), and positive affect (g=0.44, n=6), with most effects being robust even after adjusting for various possible biasing factors (type of control condition, risk of bias rating). Smartphone interventions conferred no significant benefit over control conditions on panic symptoms (g=–0.05, n=3), post‐traumatic stress symptoms (g=0.18, n=4), and negative affect (g=–0.08, n=5). Studies that delivered a cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)‐based app and offered professional guidance and reminders to engage produced larger effects on multiple outcomes. Smartphone interventions did not differ significantly from active interventions (face‐to‐face, computerized treatment), although the number of studies was low (n≤13). The efficacy of app‐supported smartphone interventions for common mental health problems was thus confirmed. Although mental health apps are not intended to replace professional clinical services, the present findings highlight the potential of apps to serve as a cost‐effective, easily accessible, and low intensity intervention for those who cannot receive standard psychological treatment.
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