Positive Emotions and Emotional Developments

Running Head: POSITIVE EMOTIONS
POSITIVE EMOTIONS
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1POSITIVE EMOTIONS
Positive Psychology and Emotional Developments
Positive emotion is a kind of feeling that lacks in negativity. These are situations
where no discomfort or pain is realized. The prime positive emotions, as identified by
Frederickson (2009) are the most common ones. These include the feelings of Hope, Joy,
Gratitude, Inspiration, Serenity, Awe, Interest, Pride, Amusement and Love.
The article “Positive psychology: An introduction” discusses the importance of
Positive Emotions in life of an individual, in developing the person’s traits, improving the
person’s quality of life and majorly enables ones to prevent the pathologies that arise from
the grim situations of life. It occurs mostly when one considers his or her life to turn
meaningless and barren. The exclusive factors that focuses on one’s pathology has resulted in
creating a major dominance in one’s life, barring the person to enjoy the positive emotions
that makes one’s life worth living.
The article focusses on the American culture and looks at the impact created by the
modern lifestyles and beliefs, restricting positive emotions. Seligman and Csikszentmihaly
(2014) state that the emotions of Wisdom, Creativity, Hope, Future mindedness, Spirituality,
Courage, Perseverance and Responsibility are often ignored or justified as conversions of a
more authentic form of negative impulse. The articles published in the American
Psychologist are used in this article to point out the qualities or feelings of enabling happiness
through autonomy, optimism, self – regulation, wisdom, hope and creativity. It also looks at
the factors how hope affects health, talent reflects in creativity and a sense of autonomy or
self – regulation can result in happiness.
The aim of Positive Psychology is to facilitate a process of change to gather focus on
the aspect of psychology from a state of preoccupation alone. This is to repair the things in
life, which have turned worst by building a set of positive qualities. The subjective

2POSITIVE EMOTIONS
experiences that are valued are contentment, well-being and satisfaction (of the past),
optimism and hope (for the future) as well as a sense of happiness and flow (for the present).
These qualities discussed above rest at the individual levels. However, altruism,
responsibility, moderation, citizenship, nurturance, tolerance, work ethics and civility are
other essential factors that encourages and boosts psychological positivism at the group level
(Seligman and Csikszentmihaly 2014). The paper lists instances from the various issues of
the American Psychologist to understand the evolutionary perspectives, understand the
positive personal traits, apply for physical as well as mental health besides fostering
excellence and analyzing the challenges for the future.
In the article ‘Positive intelligence’, the article states three ways, using which an
individual can cultivate and gain the sense of individual well – being in order to set
themselves up for success. An example of a company, namely Burt’s Bees is presented in this
article that is underwent a change in the year 2010, in July, as it expanded to 19 new
companies (Seligman and Csikszentmihaly 2014). The leaders flooded the inboxes of their
deputies with urgent demands that put them all in a situation of high – pressure. This
conditioning increases the anxiety level in a person, activating the part of the brain that
courses threats and fears — the amygdala — and steals information and abilities from the
prefrontal cortex that is accountable for active problem solving.
However, the then CEO of Burt’s Bees, John Replogle, resorted to a different track
(Seligman and Csikszentmihaly 2014). He would send an email to praise his team members
for the work they put forth on a global rollout. This was also associated with his attempts to
interrupt his own presentations or expansion plans to look into the well-being of his
employees by laying an emphasis on fostering positive leadership. This enabled his managers
to remain engaged and cohesive in the work process and transform into a global venture
smoothly.