Love is … (according to Fredrickson!)

Wayne, I think you are referring to the “Feeling Safe & Content” article by Gilbert, et al. They report on developing a new self-report instrument for positive emotions that reports on relaxed, safe/content, and activated positive emotions. They also suggest in the discussion that perhaps goal orientation and achievement — the province of the activated positive emotions — may have become over-emphasized in Western society. However, this is only a conjecture, not a conclusion from the research.

Gilbert et al. do suggest that, if talking about psychopathology, safe/content is even more negatively correlated than the other two, at least for their research sample that was 100% college undergraduates and over 80% female. However, it seems a bit of a stretc h to go from that to suggesting that these are the “powerful positive emotions.” For example, the Seligman, et al. research on the relation of character strengths to authentic happiness identified a “happy five” including zest and curiosity — not low energy states. Repeatedly in the research, including in the Gilbert article, we run across the notion that the positive emotions are highly interrelated. Thus, as a general matter in non-clinical work, i.e., not involving depression, anxiety, or other forms of psychopathology,

I am persuaded by Dr. Fredrickson’s suggestion that it is the positive/negative ratio that we should be focusing on to help folks move forward. However, just pursuing the emotions that come with goal-setting and goal-progress is just as one-sided as suggesting that goal- and achievement-related postive emtotions should be de-valued in favor of relaxed or safe/content emotions.

I thought you would be interested in the emphasis on meditation in Positivity. If no one covers it sooner, I mayu write about that next month, especially since Dr. Fredrickson goes beyond “awareness with acceptance” to look at the role of meditation in allowing those who sustain practice in it to become capable of generating a positive emotion (loving-kindness in this case) through an focused attention and will.

Finally, switching back to the Gilbert article and the suggestion that there are a set of “relaxed” emtions (relaxed, calm, peaceful, tranquil, laid back, sere) that differ in key ways from the set of “safe/content” emotions (safe, secure, content, warm). I have suggested that lawyers may be better able to tolerate the high levels of zero-sum and necessary evils they face within competitive contexts if they approach matters more like the zen martial arts masters. The existence of zen martial arts seems to fit with the Gilbert evidence that the relaxed emotional regulation system can be activated even when the “safe/content” system is not, i.e., in the presence of a threat. Just speculation, but the Gilbert article does open up some interesting avenues of thought.

Wayne, I didn’t say and didn’t think that mindfulness is emotionless. Dr. Fredrickson distinguishes between mindfulness meditation and loving-kindness meditation (metta) (Positivity, p.196). I understand her to say that both can lead to an open state, that this open state is also produced by the positive emotions, and that the mind is structured so that the open state can release positive emotions just as positive emotions can create the open state. Ellen Langer’s “do something different that only you would know” would then be another path to this open state and the accompanying positive emotions. I gather from her writings that she favors loving-kindness meditation because it directly stimulates powerful positive emotions of love, compassion, care, and kindness — which happen to be high in the safe/content valence.

Leanrainmakingmachine, googling “loving kindness meditation” produces a host of resources, many of which look pretty good. However, Fredrickson recommends finding a class, retreat, or teacher as a way of learning faster and better. So does the author of this article on mindfulness for attorneys: http://bit.ly/qKuGk.

Christine — yep, I’m looking for photos that would somehow illustrate to a general audience Dr. Fredrickson’s suggestion of love as the other nine positive emtions within a close, safe relationship. Photos with idiosyncratic meaning would be great for a positive psychology portfolio on love — Dr. Fredrickson discusses these in her book, drawing on James Pawelski’s experience and the assignment he gives in MAPP — but might not immediately communicate to a general audience.

For example, if you click on the picture above for inspiration to see a bigger version, or even use the URL under that bigger version to go to flickr and see an even larger version, you will see that written on this poster are statements evidencing the inspiration that it caused in others. (And one cynical, skeptical statement that might have been written by a lawyer!)

Louis, I suspect you could use the picture of you and your twin to talk about Fredickson’s concept of experiences of positive emotion within a safe relationship as love. You could identify times when you’ve experienced joy, gratitude, interest, serenity, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, and awe within the context of that relationship and how that was “love.” Am I right?