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They have documented that people experiencing positive affect show patterns of thought that are notably unusual ( Isen, Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985), flexible and inclusive ( Isen & Daubman, 1984 see also Bolte, Goschke, & Kuhl, 2003), creative ( Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987 see also Phillips, Bull, Adams, and Fraser, 2002), integrative ( Isen, Rosenzweig, & Young, 1991), open to information ( Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997), and efficient ( Isen & Means, 1983 Isen et al., 1991).

So, to the extent that positive emotions are linked to increments in personal resources, they can be viewed as evolved psychological adaptations that indirectly helped our ancestors survive inevitable threats to life and limb.įoundational evidence for the broaden hypothesis can be drawn from two decades of experiments on the effects of positive affect on cognition conducted by Isen and colleagues (for a review, see Isen, 2000). Indeed, a recent study of elderly nuns found that those who expressed the most positive emotions in early adulthood lived an average of 10 years longer than those who expressed the least positive emotions ( Danner et al., 2001 for related findings, see Levy, Slade, Kunkel, & Kasl, 2002 Moskowitz, 2003 Ostir, Markides, Black, & Goodwin, 2000 Ostir, Markides, Peek, & Goodwin, 2001). As such, these resources can function as reserves to be drawn on later, to improve coping and odds of survival. Importantly, the personal resources accrued during states of positive emotions are durable-they outlast the transient emotional states that led to their acquisition. These resources may include physical resources (e.g., physical skills, health Boulton & Smith, 1992 Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001), social resources (e.g., friendships, social support networks Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna, & Heyman, 2000 Lee, 1983), intellectual resources (e.g., knowledge, theory of mind, intellectual complexity, executive control Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde, 1998 Lesley, 1987 Panksepp, 1998), and psychological resources (e.g., resilience, optimism, creativity Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000 Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003). Broadened thought-action repertoires gain significance because they can build a variety of personal resources ( Fredrickson, 1998, 2001).

Whereas the narrowed thought-action repertoires of negative emotions were likely adaptive to our ancestors within specific threatening instances, the broadened thought-action repertoires of positive emotions were likely adaptive over the long-run. Instead, they are distinct and complementary: Whereas many negative emotions narrow individuals’ momentary thought-action repertoires 1 by calling forth specific action tendencies (e.g., attack, flee), many positive emotions broaden individuals’ momentary thought-action repertoires, prompting them to pursue a wider range of thoughts and actions than is typical (e.g., play, explore, savour, and integrate Fredrickson, 1998, 2001). If positive emotions do not share with negative emotions this hallmark feature of promoting and supporting specific action, then what good are they? Do positive emotions have any evolved adaptive value? Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions suggests so, but contends that the form and function of positive and negative emotions are not isomorphic. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions

To the extent that autonomic reactivity supports specific action tendencies, these two observations go hand-in-hand: If no specific action is called forth during positive emotional states, then no particular pattern of autonomic reactivity should be expected. A second is that positive emotions are often characterised by a relative lack of autonomic reactivity ( Levenson, Ekman, & Friesen, 1990).

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One is that the action tendencies identified for positive emotions (e.g., free activation in joy, inactivity in contentment) are vague, better described as nonspecific than specific ( Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998).

We base this conclusion on multiple observations within the scattered empirical and theoretical literature on positive emotions. Although most emotion theorists who discuss specific action tendencies extend their theorising to include positive emotions like joy and contentment (e.g., Frijda, 1986 Lazarus, 1991), we have argued ( Fredrickson, 1998 Fredrickson & Branigan, 2001 Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998) that such extension is unwarranted.

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