Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Shatin)

Child Education and Community Services Discipline

Enrichment Module

CEC4211 Applied Positive Psychology

Lesson 5: Positive Emotion

Lesson intended learning outcome

Upon finishing this lecture students should be able to:
1. Nature of positive emotions and its advantages
2. Strategies of achieving positive emotions

What is positive emotion?

Six basic emotions: anger, joy, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear
Positive emotions, or positive feelings, are much more than just feeling
happy, which include joy, pleasure, excitement, surprise, delight,
interest, fun, pride, love, desire, awe, wonder, contentment, enjoyment
and, of course happiness
Feeling positive emotion is important to our well-being, not just for the
good feeling it gives us, but also as an agent in our personal growth,
development and health

Benefits of positive emotion?

Health:
Negative emotions have negative impacts on our health
E.g. Chesney and Rosenman (1985):

Increased risk of
Prolonged Anger & coronary heart diseases
Hostility and other physical
disorders
Positive emotions have positive impacts on our health
Patients with positive emotions have a better chance to cure
E.g. In the study of American School Sisters of Notre
Dame
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 Happy Sisters 90% of the
Positive most cheerful
emotions sisters lived up
expressed in to 85 years old
diary

Unhappy Sisters
Less positive Only 34% lived
emotions up to 85 years
expressed in old
diary

Life satisfaction:
Duchenne smiles: genuine smile, real, sincere
Pan American smile: smile of flight attendants
Study by Keltner and Harker (1960):
Studied 141 senior-class photos in Mills College year book

Contact Contact Contact

___________________________________________
27y.o. 43y.o. 52y.o.

Duchenne Women
More likely to:
Get married
Stay married
Feel happy
More satisfied

Cognitive function:
According to Broaden-and-Build Model: By Barbara
Fredrickson
Positive emotions lead to cognitive change: broader
attention, greater working memory, enhanced verbal
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 fluency, and increased openness to information.
Positive emotions __________________ our awareness
and then __________________ upon our learning to
create future emotional and intellectual resources
Positive emotions open our minds
Feeling good has a beneficial effect that builds our
intellectual, social, psychological and physical abilities
Positive emotion as a positive resource, and maximize our
future resources
To try new activities and goals
Have more skills and resources to draw on from the
past activity while feeling good
For example:
Children learn through plan
Doctors could think of more and better methods to cure
liver disease when they were given candies
Adults were asked to: attach a candle on wall, but wax
would not drip on the floor. A group could think of more
creative ideas if they were given candies and required to
read positive words aloud.

Concepts Related to Emotion

Cognitive appraisal a person's assessment of the personal meaning of
his or her current circumstances

Subjective experience the affective state or feeling tone that colors

private experience

Thought and action urges to think or act in particular ways

tendencies

Internal bodily changes physiological responses, particularly those

involving the autonomic nervous system such as
changes in heart rate and sweat gland activity

Facial expression muscle contractions that move facial

landmarks—like cheeks, lips, noses, and
brows—into particular configurations

Responses to emotion how people regulate, react to, or cope with their
own emotion or the situation that triggered it

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The ‘broaden-and-build’ theory of positive emotions

• Negative emotions are to rapidly respond to the environmental threats

with specific action tendencies. Positive emotions help preserve the
organism by providing a different service.

• Positive emotions also provide the spark for changes in cognitive

activity that can lead to newer and more adaptive thought action
tendencies. This means people think in a certain way that can lead to
certain actions.

• Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build model points that positive emotions

broader our awareness and then build upon the resultant learning to
create future emotional resources (Fredricksons’ 1998).

• Fredricksons (1998) states positive emotions help undo the after effects
of stress reactions in a shorter period of time.

• positive affective experiences contribute and have a long-lasting effect

on our personal growth and development

• (a) Positive emotions broaden our thought-action repertoires

First of all, positive emotions broaden our attention and thinking, which means
that we have more positive and a greater variety of thoughts. When we are
experiencing positive emotions, like joy or interest, we are more likely to be
creative, to see more opportunities, to be open to relationships with others, to
play, to be more flexible and open-minded.

• (b) Positive emotions undo negative emotions

It’s hard to experience both positive and negative emotions simultaneously,
thus a deliberate experience of positive emotions at times when negative
emotions are dominant can serve to undo their lingering effects. Mild joy and
contentment can eliminate the stress experienced at a physiological level.

• (c) Positive emotions enhance resilience

Enjoyment, happy playfulness, contentment, satisfaction, warm friendship, love,
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and affection all enhance resilience and the ability to cope, while negative
emotions, in contrast, decrease them. Positive emotions can enhance
problem-focused coping, positive reappraisal, or infusing negative events with
positive meaning, all of which facilitate fast bouncing back after an unpleasant
event.

• (d) Positive emotions build psychological repertoire

Far from having only a momentary effect, positive emotions help to build
important physical, intellectual, social and psychological resources that are
enduring, even though the emotions themselves are temporary. For example,
the positive emotions associated with play can build physical abilities and
self-mastery, enjoyable times with friends – increase social skills.

• (e) Positive emotions can trigger an upward developmental spiral

More than that, just as negative emotions can lead one into downward spirals of
depression, positive emotions can trigger upward developmental spirals
towards improved emotional well-being and transform people into better
versions of themselves. The broaden-and-build theory urges us to consider
positive emotions not as an end in themselves but as a means of leading a better
life

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How to increase lasting positive emotion?
1. Be open and curious – open your mind
Curious  Open to continuous learning (know more about yourself
and the world)  having a growth  happiness and well-being
Your expectations shape your experience and your feeling.
 If you expect something to be bad it probably will be, and if you
expect something to be great you may experience disappointment
when it is not

2. Open your eyes for what you have

Look for what is good in your life
Look for things that you take for granted
 Increase your well-being in all areas of your life

3. Self-awareness
Negative thoughts about someone is offending you would easily result
in hatred and anger  vicious cycle  Blocking positive emotions
and satisfaction

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 Negative thought: someone is
offending you

Blocking positive emotions Hatred & Anger

and satisfaction

Self-awareness  reduces anger, fear and stress, and increase

optimism  health

4. Help others
Bernard Rimland found that “the happiest people are those who help
others”
Exercise: List ten people you know and rate them from 1 – 10
according to how happy you think they are:

5. Be with other people

Being with others is one of the greatest sources of happiness and
immediate pleasure as we are social animals
Research found that spending time with family or friends during
weekend is much happier than making more money
Making new friends is also important as different people share with
you your different needs and interests

6. Be real – open yourself

Authentic is important
Being real is knowing who you are at your best and happiness
You will find yourself being real when you are happy and you are
happiest when you are able to be all that you are

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 The ‘broaden-and-build’ theory of positive emotions
Tips & Tools
How can we increase positive emotions?
The emotion of contentment can be enhanced by engaging in relaxation
practices, such as progressive muscle relaxation, yoga and imagery exercises.
Meditation exercises help achieve a state of mindfulness, which brings many
other benefits.

References
Biswas-Diener, R., & Dean, B. (2007). Positive Psychology Coaching: Putting
the Science of Happiness to Work for Your Clients. USA: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
Boniwell, I. (2008). Positive psychology in a nutshell: A balanced introduction
to the science of optimal functioning. Personal Well-Being Centre.
Chesney, M. A. and Rosenman, R. H. (1985). Anger and Hostility in
Cardiovascular and Behavioral Disorders. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Compton, W. C. (2005). An Introduction to Positive Psychology. Thomson
Wadsworth: Belmont, CA USA.
Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?. Review of
general psychology, 2(3), 300.
Gerrig, R.J., & Zimbardo, P.G. (2010). Psychology and Life (19th Ed). USA:
Pearson.
Ingleby, E. (2010). Applied Psychology for Social work (2nd Ed.). UK:
Learning Matters Ltd.
Nicolson, P., Bayne, R., & Owen, J. (2006). Applied psychology for social
workers (3rd Ed.). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Seligman, M.E.P., Parks, A.C., & Steen, T. (2004). A balanced psychology and
a full life. The Royal Society, 359,1379-1381.
Seligman, M.E.P., Steen, T., Park. N. & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive
Psychology Progress: Empricial Validation of Interventions. American
Psychologist, 60 (5), 410-412.
Snyder, C.R., Lopez, Shane J. and Pedrotti, Jennifer Teramoto. (2011). Positive
Psychology: the scientific and practical explorations and of human
strengths. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE.
Weiten, W. (2010). Psychology: Themes and variation (8th Ed.). USA:
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Worthington, E. L. (2003). Forgiving and Reconciling: Bridges to Wholeness
and Hope. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
岳曉東 (2008)做個A+青少年，香港城市大學出版社: Chapter 1, 7
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