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Coding of facial expressions is a simple, fast, inexpensive, and straightforward method to complement self-report research. This approach is particularly relevant for assessing psychological factors such as positive emotion that may be particularly susceptible to self-report biases. The goals of this paper are to 1) provide convincing evidence that this well-validated method should be used in emotion research and 2) provide information about specific facial coding techniques to investigators who are looking to incorporate these methods into their research. We discuss the value, strengths, weaknesses, and applications of four techniques: facial electromyography (EMG), the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), computerized approaches, and modified/simplified hand coding techniques. Taken together, this paper provides a foundation from which researchers can integrate comprehensive and objective assessments of positive emotion into their investigations of human behavior and lays the groundwork for future research to build upon these facial analysis techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new theory of joy as defined by the elation of right relation, i.e., an intense and temporary feeling of heightened positive emotion as a consequence of a just right fit between our identity and the moment we are experiencing. Diverse domains of joy are explored: emotional, social, cognitive, physical, communal, and ideological. Several 'paradoxical' forms of joy are also elucidated, including schadenfreude, self-denial, and 'killjoy' attempts to thwart the joy of others. Throughout the paper, promising research questions are presented. At the close of the paper, methodological issues in the investigation of joy are discussed. Researchers are encouraged to investigate joy among a wide range of groups – cultures, countries, ages, genders, and social classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the COVID-19 global health disaster continues to unfold across the world, calls have been made to address the associated mental illness public crisis. The current paper seeks to broaden these calls by considering the role that positive psychology factors can play in buffering against mental illness, bolstering mental health during COVID-19 and building positive processes and capacities that may help to strengthen future mental health. The paper explores evidence and applications from nine topics in positive psychology that support people through a pandemic: meaning, coping, self-compassion, courage, gratitude, character strengths, positive emotions, positive interpersonal processes and high-quality connections. In times of intense crisis, such as COVID-19, it is understandable that research is heavily directed towards addressing the ways in which people are wounded and weakened. However, this need not come at the expense of also investigating the ways in which people are sustained and strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the claim that feelings of gratitude to God are the proper measure for the authenticity and depth of gratitude to God. I want to illuminate what makes that claim seem obvious and then argue that it is false. I hope to show that feeling grateful to God, although not insignificant, is, from the Christian perspective at least, by no means the best barometer of gratitude to God. To those ends, first, I sketch out the structure of gratitude. Next, I explain four ways that gratitude to God stretches or breaks with the paradigmatic structure of standard interpersonal gratitude. I then show how current empirical studies of gratitude to God haven't been sufficiently attentive to the disanalogy between standard interpersonal gratitude and gratitude to God. Finally, I turn to the Bible to consider how we should rethink gratitude to God if we reject the commonsense view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the concept of 'societal emotional environment': the emotional climate of a society (operationalized as the degree to which positive and negative emotions are expressed in a society). Using data collected from 12,888 participants across 49 countries, we show how societal emotional environments vary across countries and cultural clusters, and we consider the potential importance of these differences for well-being. Multilevel analyses supported a 'double-edged sword' model of negative emotion expression, where expression of negative emotions predicted higher life satisfaction for the expresser but lower life satisfaction for society. In contrast, partial support was found for higher societal life satisfaction in positive societal emotional environments. Our study highlights the potential utility and importance of distinguishing between positive and negative emotion expression, and adopting both individual and societal perspectives in well-being research. Individual pathways to happiness may not necessarily promote the happiness of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has established that gratitude, a sense of appreciation for the benefits one has received, is a moral emotion that motivates reciprocity. How does gratitude influence moral evaluations generally? The current paper provides a novel investigation of the relationships between trait gratitude and moral outrage, an index of concern over specific moral violations. In two studies, we found that more grateful individuals expressed greater moral concern about domains in which harms were perpetrated against people, but not harm violations against animals or more trivial moral violations. In Study 2, we explore whether gratitude-based differences in moral concern might be explained by trait empathy or differences in commitment to specific moral foundations and find that empathy, specifically, largely accounts for gratitude's role in moral concern. This research expands understanding of gratitude's role in moral psychology and speaks to gratitude's importance in moral judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss issues in interpreting the results from mood induction experiments. In most cases, only small absolute changes in moods were induced, even though the effect sizes that compare the difference from the baseline are quite large. The balance of positive to negative moods was usually positive regardless of the mood manipulation and the measure used, meaning that even in negative mood inductions, people are often in a slightly positive mood, albeit less positive than before. These findings help bring the experimental findings in line with studies of long-term mood, where mild positive moods are sometimes more strongly associated with beneficial outcomes than stronger positive moods. It is possible that some of the benefits attributed to negative moods based on the experimental studies are in fact benefits of lower levels of positive moods. Recommendations are made to strengthen the inferences drawn from mood induction experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research shows that moral emotions can promote individual prosocial behaviors and adaptation during adversity. Integrating Affective Events Theory (AET) with two functionalist theories of emotions (social functions of emotions and broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions), we extend this line of research by focusing on other-oriented moral emotions as facilitators of individuals' adaptive behavior of voice during a major crisis. We conducted a four-wave survey study with 111 U.S. working adults during the early (acute) stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our path analyses in AMOS, coupled with PROCESS-aided analyses in SPSS, indicated that supervisors' companionate love expression elicited gratitude in subordinates, particularly when subordinates perceived high uncertainty of the crisis, which, in turn, broadened subordinates' in-role perceptions of, and promoted engagement in, voice behaviors. Our findings extend AET in meaningful ways and contribute to research on the moral emotions of companionate love and gratitude, stressing their value in managerial practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we used Cognitive Bias Modification to modify interpretation biases hypothesized to influence gratitude. Participants were randomly allocated to either a gratitude or a comparison non-gratitude training condition in which they were guided to disambiguate 80 ambiguous scenarios in terms of whether the reader perceived themselves as having benefited – or not – from help provided by another person. Following training, those allocated to the grateful condition made more interpretations of positive benefit when reading new ambiguous test scenarios than those in the comparison condition. Furthermore, participants in the gratitude training condition rated real personal events as having significantly greater benefit value and altruism of the benefactor. Finally, those in the grateful training condition showed greater post-training ratings of gratitude, increased joy, and decreased negative affect. We conclude that interpretations of benefit can be modified by training, and that enhanced benefit interpretations lead to congruent changes in gratitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has uncovered a downside to the pursuit of happiness; placing a high value on happiness can ironically lead to lower well-being. Not all approaches have this effect, however, and individuals who seek positivity within their day-to-day routines may experience higher well-being. The current research investigated whether the difference between these two approaches (valuing happiness vs. prioritizing positivity) exists in how people orient towards their negative emotions. Across two studies (n = 496) we find that feeling pressured to avoid feeling anxious or depressed partially mediated the relationship between valuing happiness and decreased well-being, but this was not the case for prioritizing positivity. The findings suggest the negative well-being effects of placing a high value on happiness may be partially explained by a related tendency to devalue negative emotions, providing evidence for a mechanism through which the pursuit of happiness can become detrimental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does trait gratitude shape leaders' behavior and thus followers' outcomes? We developed and tested a model linking leader's trait gratitude to ethical leadership and leader–member exchange (LMX), and examine their impacts on followers' felt psychological safety and thus creativity at work. Using multi-wave, multi-source survey data from 295 subordinates and 76 supervisors, we found that leader's trait gratitude was positively associated with ethical leadership at the team level and LMX at the individual (follower) level. In turn, both ethical leadership and LMX contribute to followers' felt psychological safety and ultimately improve creative performance at work. Our study extends gratitude research by examining how trait gratitude can shape leadership influence on followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The states of mind (SOM) model-related ratios of positive/negative affect to psychological functioning, findings that were later integrated into Lefebvre's mathematical model of self-awareness. Using a different mathematical model, Fredrickson and Losada proposed a 'tipping point' that distinguished 'languishing' from 'flourishing groups,' but a critique of their work led to a retraction. This cast doubt on positivity ratios and left the concept without mathematical underpinnings. This article highlights critical differences between tipping points and balance points, the latter used by the SOM model and not subject to the same criticisms. An experiment using Fredrickson's and Losada's model was re-analyzed comparing their method with the SOM model, revealing a higher concordance of ratios with existing norms using the SOM method. Since positive and negative affect are important mental-health indicators, restoring a valid mathematical model strengthens the scientific status of this phenomenon and provides a robust theory for positive psychology research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates in the Journal of Positive Psychology about the nature and usefulness of PERMA have created confusion about its contribution toward the understanding and prediction of well-being. This empirical study was designed to clarify several issues that have emerged in these recent articles. Using a multi-trait multi-method (MTMM) research design with 220 knowledable co-worker pairs (N = 440), it was found that the 5 PERMA building blocks of well-being (positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) and 4 additional potential building blocks of well-being (physical health, mindset, environment, and economic security) significantly predicted SWB above and beyond self-report and mono-method bias. This is one of the first empirical studies to test the PERMA building blocks of well-being beyond the sole use of self-reports, and illustrates that the building blocks can be strong predictors of well-being in some populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Awe is a self-expansive emotion, where the boundaries of a separate self are transcended to process a larger, complex reality. The current review integrates the existing scholarship on awe including the benefits, individual differences, and neuroanatomical correlates of the emotion. We also identify the attentional antecedents to awe experiences, the states and traits that may support or create barriers to experiences of the emotion, and theoretically guided methods to allow the emotion to be accessible in day-to-day life. We argue that awe may promote prosocial instincts through the recognition of one's place in a vast interconnected world and be particularly beneficial in this age of rapid technological progress and social unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-compassion is a healthy way of relating to the self, and helps to mitigate negative emotions during difficult experiences. Through four studies, we explored the influence of induced self-compassion on affect-biased attention (measured using a dot-probe task) among undergraduates after negative aspects of the self were made salient. We manipulated self-compassion through a writing task and compared its effects on the dot-probe task against a control (studies 1 and 2), self-esteem and emotion disclosure (study 3), and happiness condition (study 4). Prior to the self-compassion induction, feelings of inadequacies (studies 1, 3 and 4), or shame (study 2) were first elicited among participants. The self-compassion condition yielded faster negative disengaging relative to all comparison conditions across all studies. Our studies provide strong evidence that self-compassion does have an effect on automatic, antecedental emotional regulation processes, especially negative disengaging, following the experience of inadequacy, and even a more intense feeling of shame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]