Positive emotions and positivity. What are Positive Emotions? Concept and characteristics

1. About the benefits of positive emotions

It is known from psychology that man very much needed positive emotions . For our mental and physical well-being, we just need to smile as often as possible, be in a state of contentment, happiness, optimism,. The more often this happens to us, the more confident and comfortable we feel in life, the more active and creatively oriented we are, the better our relationships with others, and the more positive our perception of the world in general. At the same time, our physical and mental health remains strong for a long time.

Scientists have proven that positive emotions have an unusually positive effect on our physical health and well-being. When we rejoice, laugh, smile, amazing transformations take place in our body: all spasms, clamps, tensions relax, blood circulation of all tissues and organs improves, the immune system is activated, vitality arrives, inflammations and tumors are resolved.

There are many known cases when using positive emotions people were cured of the most serious, incurable diseases.

2. About the reasons for the deficit of positive emotions in modern life

However, a person's life is too hard, difficult, sad, full of experiences and stresses, difficult circumstances, illnesses, obstacles, and he is often not at all to joy, not to laugh, not to positive emotions ... This is especially true of the life of a modern person. After all, the range of factors of our stress has expanded: we are no longer worried about the problems of our own and our loved ones. Television alone daily loads us with horror and suffering of all mankind, "entertains" with horror films, bloody scenes and scenes of violence, social conflicts, strains with political battles, etc., etc.

Well, problems with their own health, work, money, bosses, loved ones only intensify this whole bouquet of negative experiences ...

Maybe that's why Ukrainians, Russians, residents of other CIS countries are so bleak for the most part? Maybe that's why harsh statistics every year tell us about the rapidly decreasing number of our indigenous population; about the growth of crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, homelessness, the birth of disabled children, deaths from AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular diseases?

No, television, of course, tries to somehow compensate for the excess of negative information and supplies us with all kinds of shows, music concerts, comedy performances, comedy films, tries to set us up for a wave of positive emotions ... Probably, this helps us somehow stay afloat. ..

However, statistics on all social parameters are still bleak. It continues to show a sharp deterioration in all vital parameters of our population.compared with the Soviet period, a decrease in its number.

3. What is the solution?

What to do: how to return to our lives, to return optimism and happiness to our families, how to stop mortality and population degeneration?

Our people, as in ancient times, continues to hope for a new "good" priest-tsar-president, takes an active part in electoral battles, is indignant, protests against social injustices, conflicts with the authorities and with each other, condemns some politicians, hopes for others ... Is it only in them, in the politicians, in the presidents ?.

Maybe the reason for our negative emotions and experiences is not in politicians, presidents and mayors, not in the circumstances of life, but in ourselves? Probably, it is we ourselves who do not know how to rejoice at what we have, do not know how, and together with them to love life and her? Perhaps that is why politicians leave our environment so unprincipled, greedy, heartless?

So maybe the way out is still - in the restoration of national morality and ethics, in the revival of Christianity, as a nationwide, nationwide religion, the bearer of enduring moral values?

Happiness

Happiness is a state of a person that corresponds to the greatest inner satisfaction with the conditions of one's being, the completeness and meaningfulness of life.

Happiness = deep satisfaction with life + maximum positive emotions + minimum negative emotions. Manifestation:

The mouth smiles (open or closed).
Laughter is possible, but most likely not loud.
"Crow's feet" on the sides of sparkling eyes.
Slightly raised eyebrows.
The head is kept straight.

Joy

Joy is an inner feeling of satisfaction, pleasure, cheerful mood and happiness. There is joy from contemplation, from movement, joy from communication, knowledge, beauty, from life. This is the opposite of sadness and sadness.

You can distinguish joy from happiness; for this, pay attention to the speech of the interlocutor. He can use the following words: cheerful, playful, comfort, satisfaction, harmony, triumph. The manifestations are similar:

"Crow's feet" on the sides of the eyes.
The mouth is slightly open.
The corners of the mouth are raised up.

A wish

Desire is an average degree of will, between a simple organic desire, on the one hand, and a deliberate decision or choice, on the other. Not all psychologists and scientists consider this emotion positive, however, it all depends on the individual and the situation. For example, if determination is mixed with the desire to achieve the desired, then the person experiences a pleasant sensation, because he knows what to do.

The eyes are wide open, the pupils are dilated.
Slightly raised eyebrows.
The lips are smiling and at the same time slightly separated from each other.
The head is tilted forward, as if trying to take possession of the desired.

Delight

Admiration is a social emotion triggered by the approval of people who demonstrate their talent or skill beyond generally accepted standards.

Eyes wide open.
Unbreakable gaze.
A passionate desire to close the distance with the object of admiration.
Open mouth.
The face is relaxed.

Interest

Interest is a positively colored emotional process associated with the need to learn something new about the object of interest, increased attention to it.

For some psychologists, this is a neutral, for others - a positive emotion that allows a person to pay increased attention to an object, thought or interlocutor and receive satisfaction in this regard.

A steady look at the subject of interest.
Slightly raised eyebrows.
The lips are slightly pressed together.
The head is straight or forward.

Astonishment

Surprise can be pleasant or unpleasant, but we will consider the first case, since we are analyzing positive emotions.

Pleasant surprise is a cognitive emotion that occurs when an unexpected situation arises. It can arise as a reaction to a meeting with an old friend, a received compliment, a gift.

Eyes wide open.
Highly raised eyebrows.
The lower jaw is lowered.
The head is thrown back slightly.

Relief

Relief is a state of lightness, liberation from something. This emotion appears when a person was internally tense, waiting for news and tuned in to the worst case scenario. However, the news was good for him.

The outer edges of the lips are lowered.
The mouth is slightly tilted or smiles.
The head is tilted.

To correctly interpret human emotions, one sign is not enough. You will need to collect a variety of information. Pay attention to the following elements:

Hints: When a person thinks about something or experiences intense emotion, it is immediately reflected in his behavior, body language, gestures and facial expressions.
Changes in body language and behavior: if a person changes body language, behavior, facial expressions and gestures, then something significant has happened in his inner world. Try to understand what you said, how you behaved a few seconds before.
Clusters: Psychologists argue that it is much more effective for understanding human emotions to analyze not one clue, but several, combined into a so-called cluster. If your interlocutor first leans towards you slightly during the dialogue, listens carefully, and then slightly raises his eyebrows, this most likely indicates that he is interested. Try to treat clues as a whole group, rather than individually.
Character: you can be very mistaken in the interpretation of body language and behavior of the interlocutor if you do not know about his character and temperament. Choleric people, phlegmatic people, sanguine people and melancholic people behave completely differently when the same emotions are displayed, so try to create a psychological portrait of him first. Otherwise, you will perceive a phlegmatic person as a timid person, and a sanguine person's emotions as joyful, although in reality everything may turn out to be the other way around.
Context: Each situation is unique, so you first need to understand what the specific context means to your interlocutor. He can react to the same words in completely different ways. Also consider his current mood, general psychological state and the presence of other people. For example, in a dialogue, the interlocutor can open up from one side, and when a third person appears, behave completely differently. Always consider new factors to avoid misinterpretation.

It is important not only to contribute to the appearance of positive emotions in the person whom you want to understand and whom you will influence, but also to interpret them correctly. Joy and happiness are positive emotions, however, clearly learn to distinguish the first from the second, because this can have big consequences.

When you learn to recognize positive emotions, you will be able to bring the interlocutor out of an unproductive, negative state and lead to a positive one. Remember that influencing a person is much easier if he is comfortable with you and if you evoke positive emotions in him.

We wish you good luck!

Positive emotions are a concept with a very unsettled meaning. Generally, "positive emotions" means the same as "positive emotions", however there are some differences between these concepts.

Perhaps, under "positive" emotions, feelings and states it makes sense to understand everything that has a pleasant emotional background, is experienced as a kind of pleasure.

Usually these are the emotions that a person experiences when achieving a goal, when he gets what he wanted.

And "positive" emotions, feelings and states are a little different. These are emotions, feelings and states that receive a positive assessment from the person himself and / or others.

As a rule, these are emotions born of a positive attitude of a person, emanating from people who are loving, cooperative and benevolent.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to give a list of positive emotions. It can be daydreaming, etc., but these same emotions sometime may not please others at all, and sometime they may cause protest from the person himself.

Attraction to a loved one and impatience of passion - these emotions and feelings are extremely positive when it is in the plans of both yours and your loved one. If these feelings are inappropriate and have to be hidden, then it is difficult to call such soul-tearing emotions and feelings positive.

Most of the positive emotions are quite the same as the positive ones, and “joy at meeting” is usually both positive and positive emotions. However, sometimes there is an obvious discrepancy between positive and positive emotions.

The pleasure of eating is a positive emotion, but the pleasure of eating can irritate someone who wants to lose weight, and a person may consider eating pleasure a negative, harmful experience for himself.

On the other hand, if self-dissatisfaction prompts a person to lift himself off the couch and start doing something, he will evaluate the negative experience of “dissatisfaction with himself” as a positive state for himself.

Positive emotions and the formation of an atmosphere of communication

When two people meet, one of them always turns out to be the one who forms this or that emotional atmosphere. What is it? Indifference, closeness, isolation? Discontent, indignation, irritation? It is probably best if you are the author of the emotional atmosphere, and you can easily create a confident positive attitude. But which one? And how can you learn it? Cm.

It's no secret that only a person can experience a huge amount of emotions. No other living creature in the world possesses such a property. Although the disputes between the learned fraternity still do not subside, the majority is inclined to believe that our smaller, highly developed brothers are capable of experiencing some emotions. I completely agree with them. It is enough to look at the dog, which was shown a treat and immediately hid it.

But back to the person. What emotions are there in a person, where do they come from and in general, what are they for?

What is emotion. Do not confuse with feelings!

Emotion is a short-term reaction to a situation. And feelings do not disappear under the flow of emotions or current situations, they are stable and in order to destroy them, you need to try hard.

Example: A girl saw her boyfriend with another. She is furious, upset and resentful. But after talking with the guy, it turned out that this is his cousin, who came to visit today. The situation was resolved, the emotions passed, and the feeling - love, did not disappear anywhere, even at the moment of the most intense passion.

Hope you can tell the difference between feelings and emotions.

Besides, emotions are on the surface. You will always see when a person is funny, his fright or amazement. And feelings lie deep, you can't get to them so easily. It often happens when you despise a person, but due to the current circumstances, you have to communicate with him, while portraying a positive attitude.

Emotion classification

There are several dozen emotions. We will not consider all of them, we will focus only on the most basic ones.

Three groups can be distinguished:

Positive.
Negative.
Neutral.

There are quite a few emotional shades in each of the groups, so it is almost impossible to calculate the exact number. The list of human emotions presented below is not complete, since there are many intermediate feelings, as well as the symbiosis of several emotions at the same time.

The largest group is negative, followed by positives. The neutral group is the smallest.

Let's start with her.

Neutral emotions

These include:

Curiosity,
Amazement,
Indifference,
Contemplation,
Astonishment.

Positive emotions

This includes everything related to the feeling of joy, happiness and satisfaction. That is, with the fact that a person is pleased and really wants to continue.

Directly joy.
Delight.
Pride.
Confidence.
Confidence.
Delight.
Tenderness.
Gratitude.
Glee.
Bliss.
Calmness.
Love.
Sympathy.
Anticipation.
Respect.

This is not a complete list, but at least I tried to recall the most basic positive human emotions. If you forgot something - write in the comments.

Negative emotions

The group is vast. It would seem what they are for. After all, it is good when everything is only positive, there is no anger, anger and resentment. Why does a person need negative? I can say one thing - without negative emotions, we would not value positive ones. And, as a result, they would have a completely different attitude to life. And, as it seems to me, they would be callous and cold.

The shade palette of negative emotions is as follows:

Grief.
Sadness.
Anger.
Despair.
Anxiety.
A pity.
Malice.
Hatred.
Boredom.
Fear.
Resentment.
Fright.
Shame.
Mistrust.
Disgust.
Uncertainty.
Repentance.
Remorse.
Confusion.
Horror.
Indignation.
Despair.
A shame.

This is also far from a complete list, but even on the basis of this it is clear how rich we are in emotions. We perceive literally every little thing instantly and give out our attitude towards it in the form of emotions. Moreover, very often this happens unconsciously. After a moment, we can already control ourselves and hide the emotion, but it's too late - those who wanted to have already noticed and made a conclusion. By the way, this is the basis of the method of checking whether a person is lying or telling the truth.

There is one emotion - schadenfreude, which it is not clear where to stick it, either positive or negative. It seems that by gloating, a person evokes positive emotions for himself, but at the same time, this emotion produces a destructive effect in his own soul. That is, in fact, it is negative.

Do I need to hide emotions

By and large, emotions are given to us for humanity. It is only thanks to them that we are several stages of development higher than all other individuals of the animal world. But in our world, more and more often people get used to hide their feelings, hide behind a mask of indifference. This is both good and bad.

Good - because the less others know about us, the less harm they can do to us.

It's bad, because by hiding our attitude, by forcibly hiding our emotions, we become callous, less responsive to our surroundings, we get used to wearing a mask and completely forget who we really are. And this threatens, at best, a prolonged depression, at worst - you will live your whole life playing a role that no one needs, and will never become yourself.

That, in principle, is all that I can say so far about what emotions a person has. How to handle them is up to you. I can say one thing for sure: there should be a measure in everything. It is also important not to overdo it with emotions, otherwise not life will come out, but its grotesque semblance.

Negative emotions always seem to shout at you, and positive emotions are more like a whisper. This creates that very asymmetry between positive and negative, tilting our attention more towards the negative (and in some cases leads to a complete inability to experience positive emotions). And this is not an individual feature, this is how the human brain works: everything negative sounds louder for us, warning of danger. This secret is well known to the media: the fastest, most reliable and, most importantly, the cheapest way to attract our attention is a spark of fear (after all, all our "fearless" ancestors died out without evolving, didn't they?).

Good news, friends!

"Friendship" with 10 positive emotions will help you cope with negative ones!

Barbara Lee Fredrickson

The person I consider to be my guide to positive psychology is Barbara Lee Fredrickson (Barbara Lee Fredrickson), she is the head of the Laboratory of Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology, President of the International Association for Positive Psychology. This outstanding woman was at the origin of the study of positive emotions and remembers the time when these studies were considered meaningless, as well as the positive emotions themselves and their significance in human life. In her lectures on the types of positive emotions, Dr.Fredrickson deliberately forbade the use of the word "happiness", since it, due to too frequent use, has a rather generalized meaning and does not convey all possible emotional overflows.

Joy... That feeling, when something really works out well for you, may even be better than expected. We view the situation and the world as safe, familiar and improving all the time. The feeling of joy triggers the need to be playful. But it is during the game that we learn. So in the case of a feeling of joy, the most common outcome is the acquisition of skills.
Gratitude... It is a calmer emotion that is more socially related. It is perceived not just as something good that happened to you, but as if someone deliberately went out of their way to do this good deed for you. We feel it as an altruistic gift that we want to compensate somehow. Therefore, gratitude leads to giving (at the same time to the search for a creative way of giving), and the result of gratitude is social connections and the skill of intimacy and love. A characteristic feature of gratitude, in its normal course, is the duration and cyclicality of this feeling, when the exchange of good deeds between people continues.
Calmness... It feels like your current circumstances in life are so correct that you want to prolong that feeling. Many believe that calmness leads to passivity and laziness. Yes, a state of serenity is accompanied by a sense of security, confidence and low activity, but the main virtue of this feeling is the ability to enjoy, savor the moment and integrate the experience in yourself. The result of a feeling of calmness is a change in your I, outlook and the establishment of life priorities.
Interest... Yes, few people classify interest in positive emotions, and indeed in emotions in general. But this is his rightful place. You feel that the people, objects, circumstances around you are safe, but there is an element of novelty in them, something that you do not yet know, something mysterious. So interest provokes research activity and the result of this emotion is new knowledge and energy.
Hope... A unique positive emotion that is born in circumstances that can in no way be called positive. You sense that despair may well be the next emotion; it is the fear of the worst and the pursuit of the best that fosters our ingenuity, increases resilience during and in the face of difficult times.
Pride... I can already hear disgruntled grumbling ... In no case should I confuse it with pride and immodesty! Pride is always associated with socially significant achievements. It’s not just something that you did well, but it’s something good that is appreciated in your culture, that brings people together. You can be proud of your actions, as well as the actions of your family members, friends, colleagues, fellow citizens. This is not bragging. It is a feeling that inspires you and makes you dream great. So the result of pride is new achievements (and new reasons for pride).
Fun... Does fun begin with fun? It is associated with frivolity, slight social irrelevance. Your mistake does not lead to self-flagellation and condemnation, but to joint fun, laughter, and strengthening of ties. The outcome of the fun is not so insignificant - it is the creation of friendships, the development of creativity. Agree, for this you can afford to do a little stupidity!
Inspiration... This emotion awakens in us when we come into contact with human perfection. At the same time, the emotion of inspiration is more connected with interpretation: when you see that people are able to do something very well, talentedly, you say to yourself “This is great! I would like to be like this person, to do the same! ”. That is, it is a kind of combination of striving for one's own perfection and the ability to see and positively evaluate the superiority of another person. What does inspiration lead to? Of course, to the acquisition of new skills, creativity and the development of their own morality.
Awe... This emotion is similar to inspiration, but more personal. You feel overwhelmed by the greatness, you feel tiny compared to what is incredible around you. Reverence opens your heart and mind to the new, and the result of this emotion is the feeling that you are part of a greater whole.
Love... This is one of the most positive emotions. Its peculiarity lies in the fact that it accumulates in itself all the other positive emotions: this is joy, and serenity, and gratitude, and inspiration, and pride in a loved one, etc. But it is also not an individual experience - it is a joint experience of two people. A positive sense of belonging that allows you to dream, explore, enjoy, and play. Love bestows a sense of strong connection, trust, community, and overall health.

And in conclusion, a few more words about the asymmetry between positive and negative: bad is stronger than good, since negative emotions must scream in order to save our lives. Therefore, we notice the negative more often than the positive. But: in fact, positive events are more frequent than negative ones! There are corresponding scientific data in support of this. There are many good things in our life. But whether we allow positive events to turn into positive emotions is already a matter of choice and upbringing in the family. But whether you like it or not, you feel these mild positive emotions all the time throughout the day, although more often than not we call them medium or neutral. Neutral emotions are positive emotions that we do not recognize or are not aware of at the moment. And if you recognize them, start noticing them - you will strengthen them and provide them with the field for their magical inner work!