The thought-action repertoire (TAR) is a theorized mechanism by which happiness might support health behavior change. At any given moment, the arsenal of thoughts and action urges or tendencies one can call up consciously is called the TAR [ 19 ].
Do Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoire?
Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought‐action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19 (3), 313-332.
How big is the thought-action repertoire?
Across all participants, the mean thought-action repertoire size, as indexed by the number of statements completed on the TST, was 11.60 (SD= 5.31). We tested for group differences in repertoire size using a 5 × 2 × 2 ANOVA (Film Group × Sex × Ethnicity). The main effect for film group was the sole significant effect, F(4,96) = 4.42, p= .003.
How do you assess momentary thought-action repertoire?
Breadth of momentary thought-action repertoires was assessed using a modified, open-ended Twenty Statements Test (TST; Kuhn & McPartland, 1954). Just after viewing the film, but prior to the TST, participants were asked to describe, in a word or two, the strongest emotion they felt while viewing the film.
Which positive emotion films produce the largest thought-action subtitles?
As for Experiment 1, the pattern of means shows that the two positive emotion film clips—Penguins and Nature— produced the largest thought-action repertoires. A priori contrasts confirmed that these two positive emotion films combined yielded significantly larger thought-action repertoires than did the neutral film, t(98) = 1.86, p= .033.

How are momentary thought-action repertoires defined?
A key proposition is that these positive emotions broaden an individual's momentary thought-action repertoire: joy sparks the urge to play, interest sparks the urge to explore, contentment sparks the urge to savour and integrate, and love sparks a recurring cycle of each of these urges within safe, close relationships.
What are the three things that Barbara Fredrickson has found about positive emotions?
In her article (1998), Fredrickson offers three possible explanations.Positive emotions are few and less differentiated. ... Problems demand attention. ... Theorists link emotions to action tendencies. ... Broadening thought and attention. ... Undoing negative emotions. ... Fueling psychological resilience and wellbeing.More items...•
What is the core point of broaden and build theory of positive emotions?
The broaden-and-build theory in positive psychology suggests that positive emotions (such as happiness, and perhaps interest and anticipation) broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds useful skills and psychological resources.
Do positive emotions broaden attention?
It states that positive emotions broaden the scopes of attention, cognition, and action, widening the array of percepts, thoughts, and actions presently in mind.
What are the most powerful positive emotions?
Barbara Fredrickson's research has revealed that there are 10 positive emotions that are most commonly used to offset bad moods. The most frequent (and by far the most powerful) is love, followed by joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration and awe.
What is the 3 1 positive emotion ratio?
The positivity ratio We've concluded that a ratio of at least three-to-one—three positive emotions for every negative emotion—serves as a tipping point, which will help determine whether you languish in life, barely holding on, or flourish, living a life ripe with possibility, remarkably resilient to hard times.
How do you cultivate good feelings?
Practicing mindfulness, recognizing your strengths, expressing gratitude, savoring good moments, and finding the silver lining in difficult situations will result in positive emotions. You will feel good that you are present and aware of your gifts.
Is empathy a emotion?
Researchers distinguish between two types of empathy. Especially in social psychology, empathy can be categorized as an emotional or cognitive response. Emotional empathy consists of three separate components, Hodges and Myers say.
When experiencing positive emotions What three things are we more likely to do?
When experiencing positive emotions, what three (3) things are we more likely to do? Help other people, be flexible in our thinking, and come up with solutions to our problems.
How do I recover from emotional avoidance?
10 Ways to Cope With Negative Emotions Without Repressing ThemUnderstanding how you relate to your emotions. ... Educating yourself about emotions. ... Understanding how emotions show up in your body. ... Learning the triggers to your emotions. ... Learning how to live with your emotions. ... Acknowledging your emotions.More items...•
What is the undoing effect?
First, the undoing effect occurs when the initial negative emotion generates a clear pattern of heightened sympathetic cardiovascular reactivity that is typical of anxiety, fear, and other health-damaging negative emotions. Second, the undoing effect is not limited to women, but occurs for men as well.
What are the two measurable components of happiness?
A synonym for overall happiness is 'life-satisfaction'. The components are referred to as 'hedonic level of affect' (affective component) and 'contentment' (cognitive component).
Which theory is Dr Barbara Fredrickson best known for?
Among the most highly cited scholars in psychology, Barbara Fredrickson is most known for her “broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions,” foundational within Positive Psychology for providing a blueprint for how pleasant emotional states, as fleeting as they are, contribute to resilience, wellbeing, and health.
What is positive emotion?
Positive emotions are emotions that we typically find pleasurable to experience. The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology defines them as “pleasant or desirable situational responses… distinct from pleasurable sensation and undifferentiated positive affect” (Cohn & Fredrickson, 2009).
What is the name of Phycologist experiencing positive emotions makes people see more possibilities?
Barbara FredricksonThe work of Fredrickson and her colleagues has had great impact on the science of happiness. Their study of positive emotions, specifically, “the big 10 emotions”.InterestHopePrideAmusementInspirationAwe“The big 10 emotions” have given life to many of the happiness habits.2 more rows
What is the basic starting point for positive psychology?
The study of positive psychology involves three essential pillars: positive experiences (the study of contentment with the past, gratefulness in the present, and optimism for the future), positive individual traits (the study of personal strengths), and positive institutions (the study of what fosters better ...
What is the breadth of momentary thought-action repertoires test?
Breadth of momentary thought-action repertoires was assessed using a modified, open-ended Twenty Statements Test (TST; Kuhn & McPartland, 1954). Just after viewing the film, but prior to the TST, participants were asked to describe, in a word or two, the strongest emotion they felt while viewing the film. Next, they were asked to step away from the specifics of the film and:
What are short lived experiences that produce coordinated changes in people's thoughts, actions, and physiological responses?
Emotions are short-lived experiences that produce coordinated changes in people’s thoughts, actions, and physiological responses. Several emotion theorists have explained these coordinated changes with the construct of specific action tendencies(Frijda, 1986; Lazarus, 1991; Levenson, 1994). During emotions , this reasoning holds, specific action tendencies infuse both mind and body, simultaneously narrowing individuals’ action urges (e.g., flight in fear, attack in anger) while mobilising appropriate bodily support for those specific actions (e.g., increased blood flow to large muscles in fear). Specific action tendencies are also invoked to explain the evolutionary adaptive value of emotions : The specific action urges called forth during emotions are said to represent those actions that best ensured our ancestors’ survival in life-or-death situations (Tooby & Cosmides, 1990).
What is Fredrickson's research?
Fredrickson’s research on positive emotions is supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH53971 and MH59615), a Rackham Faculty Grant, and Fellowship from the University of Michigan, and by an award from the John Templeton Foundation and the American Psychological Association (2000 Templeton Positive Psychology Prize).
How long is the TST in experiment 2?
After a 5 minute break, Experiment 2 began. Random assignment of participants to film condition in Experiment 2 was yoked to Experiment 1 so that no participant viewed the same film twice. After viewing the assigned film clip, participants learned that they had 5 minutes to complete the TST, described as an “Imagery Task”. A tone signalled the end of 5 minutes. Next, participants completed an Emotion Report Form to indicate how they felt while viewing the film clip.
Objective
This study examined if general population findings of positive correlations between happiness and breadth of thought-action repertoire (TAR) hold in substance use populations, and tests if the TAR is a modifiable intervention target.
Methods
Using data from a randomized online survey on 468 adults in recovery from problematic substance use, we compared 5 happiness exercises to two control exercises on participants' post-exercise TAR, as measured by Frederickson's Modified Open-Ended Twenty Statements Test (MOETST) and coded specifically for action tendencies.
Conclusions
Results indicate that momentary happiness is associated with broadened action tendencies among individuals in recovery. Brief, self-administered happiness exercises can successfully broaden this aspect of the thought-action repertoire in this population.
What is the broaden and build theory of positive emotions?
The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. At the crux of her theory, Fredrickson (1998) argues that while negative emotions narrow thought-action repertoires, positive emotions broaden these repertoires, enabling us to draw on a wide array of possible cognitions and behaviors in response to emotional stimuli.
What are the negative emotions psychologists study?
This focus ultimately influenced the way psychologists studied the experience of emotions; for years, investigations typically targeted negative emotions like anxiety, anger, and depression. Consequently, one critical question remained unanswered: What good are ...
Why Are Positive Emotions Understudied?
Everyone wants to feel positive emotions like happiness, excitement, and love. Despite this, research on how to cultivate such emotions has only recently begun to flourish with the rise of movements like positive psychology.
How do positive emotions undo negative emotions?
According to the theory, negative emotions narrow thought-action repertoires, while positive emotions broaden this same repertoire. This means that positive emotions should ‘undo’ the lingering effects of negative emotions by facilitating this broadening process.
How did Fredrickson and colleagues test this proposition?
To test this proposition, Fredrickson and colleagues designed an experiment where participants were required to prepare a speech in just one minute and told that their speech would be recorded and presented to their peers. This time pressure induced cardiovascular symptoms of anxiety, such as elevated heart rate and increased blood pressure, which were measured.
What are the findings of the Broaden and Build Theory?
First, experimental findings have repeatedly demonstrated that those experiencing positive emotions exhibit thought patterns consistent with those put forward by the Broaden-and-Build Theory.
Do positive emotions demand specific actions?
Positive emotions don’t demand specific action tendencies in the same way that negative emotions do, and this does not align with most models of emotion forwarded by theorists.
The fruit of the tree
The fruit of the tree and the water gushing from the rock is both the effect of a combination of natural processes in air and earth which have long worked together in secret to produce the phenomenon, and the beautiful acts of enlightenment and the dark deeds of sin are both the ripened effects of trains of thought which have long been harbored in the mind..
The natural outcomes of the thoughts
When it is seen that all sin and temptation are the natural outcomes of the thoughts of the individual, the way to overcome sin and temptation becomes plain, and its achievement a near possibility, and, sooner or later, a certain reality; for if a man will admit, cherish, and brood upon thoughts that are pure and good, those thoughts, just as surely as the impure, will grow and gather force, and will, at last, attract to themselves the opportunities which will enable them to ripen into act..
Overcome sin
Let no man think he can, overcome sin and temptation by wrestling with opportunity; he can only overcome them by purifying his thoughts; and if he will, day by day, in the silence of his soul, and in the performance of his duties, strenuously overcome all erroneous inclination, and put in its place thoughts that are true and that will endure the light, opportunity to do evil will give place to opportunity for accomplishing good, for a man can only attract that to him which is in harmony with his nature, and no temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that in his heart which is capable of responding to it..
Guard well your thoughts
Guard well your thoughts, reader, for what you really are in your secret thoughts today, be it good or evil, you will, sooner or later, become in actual deed.
What is the aspect of humanity that involves looking outside oneself and thinking about others as we care for and identify with them?
requires: 1) difficulty of the recipient is serious 2) recipients difficulties are not self-inflicted 3) able to observe their suffering. harmony.
What is reality negotiation?
reality negotiation- def. the ongoing process by which people arrive at agreed-upon world views or definitions. social constructions. perspectives or definitions that are agreed upon by many people to constitute reality- rather than some objectively defined "truth" that resides in objects, situations and people.
What is mental illness?
refers to a variety of problems that people may have- a catch all term for someone having severe psychological problems- being in the state of "suffering". positive psychology- def. the science and application related to the study of psychological strengths and positive emotions.
What is it called when a person has a limited response time?
Having a limited number of urges, called specific action tendencies, quickens a person's response time in these situations.
Which part of the brain is associated with both approach motivation and psychological narrowing?
Prior studies by the researches found similar results: participants who watched films about desirable desserts faced narrowed attention, and a 2009 neurophysiological study found that activation of the left prefrontal cortex is associated with both approach motivation and psychological narrowing.
How do positive emotions help?
Positive emotions help people who are distressed deal with what is occurring and move forward and away from the negative emotions. Also, because of their broadening effect, positive emotions increase the probability of finding good in future events. Individuals high in resiliency are those who experience more positive emotions even in the face of stress. In order to be resilient when dealing with negative emotions it is important to change your perspective. To overcome these negative thoughts you should focus on being grateful for what you have in life. Understanding that while your life may be difficult at times, others do not have the opportunities that you have. Adjusting your perspective in this way will help you become more resilient to negative emotions you may face and deal with them wisely and effectively.Having these positive emotions is what helps an individual build up resources to cope with negative emotional experiences.
What is the creative process?
The creative process is often studied in relation to this, as it involves a widening of the mind, building of personal resources, and both sides of the emotional spectrum.
How does writing about positive experiences help?
A study conducted by Chad M. Burton and Laura A. King showed that writing about intensely positive experiences improved subjects' happiness and health. Subjects were instructed to write about an intensely positive experience for twenty minutes each day for three days while a control group was instructed to write about a neutral topic for the same period of time. Following the study, the experimental group demonstrated an increase in happiness levels while the control group did not. The researchers recorded how many times the subjects went to the doctor for an illness over the next three months and found that the experimental group visited the doctor's office far less often than the control group. These results can be interpreted using Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory. Reliving positive experiences induces positive emotions, and positive emotions help us to broaden-and-build. Therefore, subjects who wrote about positive experiences were able to use those positive emotions to broaden their experiences and build relationships and skills. This broadening-and-building gave the subjects long-term benefits in well-being. Those subjects who did not write about positive experiences did not experience an increase in positive emotions and therefore did not build the resources to help them feel happier and healthier in the following months.
