Positive Emotion

There has been an explosion of interest on happiness and positive emotion in both the scientific literature and the popular press. While positive emotion is generally considered a source of good outcomes, recent scientific work in psychology has highlighted the ways in which positive emotion facilitates the pursuit of important goals, contributes to vital social bonds, broadens our scope of attention, and increases psychological and physical well-being. But this wave of interest in positive psychology has to date neglected another important possibility regarding positive emotion--that it may, under certain conditions, be maladaptive.
Here, Gruber and Moskowitz propose that the field is now ripe to consider the costs, and not just the benefits, of positive emotion. This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of this phenomenon. It offers a comprehensive summary of current theoretical and empirical work on positive emotion and provides empirical examples of the 'light side' or adaptive benefits of positive emotion according to the degree, context (health, social relationships, coping), and type of adaptive outcome. It also provides empirical examples of the 'dark side' or maladaptive aspects of positive emotion organized according to the degree, context, type and reasons for pursuing positive emotion in healthy and clinical populations. It discusses therapeutic applications regarding how to cultivate and foster healthy positive emotion, and suggests future research to better understand the nature of positive emotion.

June Gruber is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University.
Judith Tedlie Moskowitz is Professor in Residence, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.

Table of Contents
Part I. Introduction
Chapter 1. Seeing it All: The Light and Dark Sides of Positive Emotion June Gruber, Hillary C. Devlin, & Judith Moskowitz
Part II. Unpacking Recent Discoveries in Positive Emotion Chapter 2. The Psychological Construction of Positive Emotion as a Window Into Well-BeingPaul Condon, Christine Wilson-Mendenhall & Lisa Feldman Barrett
Chapter 3. Origins and Functions of Positive Affect: A Goal Regulation Perspective Charles Carver, Michael F. Scheier, & Sheri L. Johnson
Chapter 4. Shared and Differentiating Features of the Positive Emotion Domain Belinda Campos & Dacher Keltner
Chapter 5. The Role of Positive Affect on Thinking and Decision-Making: A Tribute to Alice Isen Judith Moskowitz, Margaret S. Clark, Anthony Ong, & June Gruber
Chapter 6. Another Little Piece of My Heart: Positive Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System Michelle N. Shiota & Alexander F. Danvers
Chapter 7. Positive Emotion and the Brain: The Neuroscience of Happiness. Tabitha Kirkland, Vincent Y. Man, & William A. Cunningham
Part III. The Light Side: When and Why Are Positive Emotions Good for Us? Chapter 8. Understanding the Neurobiology of Core Positive Emotions through Animal models: Affective and Clinical Implications Jaak Panksepp
Chapter 9. Genetic and Environmental Influences on Positive Emotionality Ragnhild Bang Nes
Chapter 10. The Dark and Light Sides of Humor: An Emotion Regulation Perspective Andrea C. Samson & James J. Gross
Chapter 11. Positive Affect: A Pathway to Better Physical Health Sarah D. Pressman & Stephanie L. Bowlin
Chapter 12. How Positive Social Emotions Motivate Actions for the Future Self: Building Bonds, Attaining Ambitions, and Establishing Esteem Lisa A. Williams & David DeSteno
Chapter 13. Positive Affect and Adolescent Development: Emerging Levels of Understanding and Clinical Implications Dana L. McMakin & Ronald E. Dahl
Part IV. The Dark Side: When Positive Emotion Goes Wrong
Chapter 14. Older and Happier? Age-related effects on positive emotionMonika Lohani, Mary Jo Larcom, & Derek M. Isaacowitz
Chapter 15. Positive Emotions in the Aftermath of Loss Anthony D. Ong, George A. Bonanno, and C. S. Bergeman
Chapter 16. The Value of Positive Emotion: Philosophical Doubts and Reassurances Daniel M. Haybron
Chapter 17. On the Downside of Feeling Good: Evidence for the Motivational, Cognitive and Behavioral Disadvantages of Positive Affect Joseph P. Forgas
Chapter 18. Turning the Tables: How We React to Others' Happiness Margaret S. Clark & Joan K. Monin
Chapter 19. The Cultural Shaping of Happiness: The Role of Ideal Affect Jeanne Tsai and BoKyung Park
Chapter 20. The Paradoxical Effects of Pursuing Positive Emotion: When and Why Wanting to Feel Happy Backfires Brett Q. Ford & Iris B. Mauss
Part V. Just Right: Cultivating Healthy Positive Emotion Chapter 21. Positive Urgency and Negative Outcomes: The Dispositional Tendency to Rash Action During Positive Emotional States Melissa A. Cyders
Chapter 22. Positive Affect Systems in Depression: The Road Less Traveled Greg Siegle, Erika Forbes, Jennifer Silk
Chapter 23. Positive Emotion Disturbance in Bipolar Disorder across the Lifespan Elizabeth J. Reeves, Ellen Leibenluft, & June Gruber
Chapter 24. Positive Emotion: The Sirens' Song of Substance Use and the Trojan Horse for Recovery from Addiction Adam W. Carrico
Chapter 25. The How, Why, What, When, and Who of Happiness: Mechanisms Underlying the Success of Positive Activity Interventions Kristin Layous, Sonja Lyubomirsky
Chapter 26. Mindfulness and Balanced Positive Emotion Richard Bränström, Larissa G. Duncan
Chapter 27. Positive Affect Interventions to Reduce Stress: Harnessing the Benefit while Avoiding the Pollyanna Laura R. Saslow, Michael Cohn, & Judith Tedlie Moskowitz
Part VI. Conclusions
Chapter 28. Positive Emotions: The Good, The Bad, The Inert, and The Complicated Barbara Fredrickson