Are You Positive?

Fredrickson does not initially define positivity, but she tell us what it does and how it works: “It reigns whenever positive emotions—like love, joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, and inspiration—touch and open your heart” (p. 16). And “positivity fundamentally changes the way we humans see the world, how we think, and what we do” (p. 17). Positivity, she tells us, is more than the absence of negativity and health risks; it “doesn’t simply reflect success and health, it can also produce success and health” (p. 18).

What good is positivity? Fredrickson provides six facts about positivity: It feels good, it changes how your mind works, it transforms your future, it puts the brakes on negativity, it obeys a tipping point, and you can increase your positivity (pp. 9–11). Fredrickson’s most important contribution to the understanding of how positive emotions affect our lives is what she calls the broaden-and-build principle: “They broaden people’s ideas about possible actions, opening our awareness to a wider range of thoughts and actions than is typical” (p. 21). And “by opening our hearts and minds, positive emotions allow us to discover and build new skills, new ties, new knowledge, and new ways of being” (p. 24). From an evolutionary point of view, Fredrickson believes that positive emotions, through the mechanisms of broadening and building, helped our human ancestors build behavioral resources and traits that helped them survive in the face of threats and that they still serve a similar purpose in day-to-day life.

Negativity, positivity’s antonym, hardly appears until later in the book. We learn that while positivity promotes curiosity and openness to new experiences, negativity inhibits curiosity and openness and constrains one’s knowledge and experience of the world. Positivity encourages exploration and involvement; negativity encourages caution and holding back. Individuals dominated by negativity have fewer and less diverse experiences with the world and thus fail to experience and learn as much as those who are more positive.

But wait—if positivity is so good and negativity so bad, would our lives be better if they were 100 percent positive? Not at all, says Fredrickson. She agrees with Diener and Biswas-Diener (2008) that a little negativity is a good thing. “To experience 100-percent positivity,” says Fredrickson, “defies and denies the humanness of life. It would mean that you’d buried your head in the sand, and it would eventually drive others away from you” (p. 32). If that brief rationale seems insufficient, the reader must wait over 100 pages to get a more thorough explanation of why entertainer Mae West was wrong when she said, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful” (West, n.d.).

Fredrickson explains the difference between necessary and gratuitous negativity. Necessary negativity is based on the facts in one’s life and is commensurate with those facts; this sort of negativity is grounded in reality and is healthy. Gratuitous negativity is excessive and disproportionate to the circumstances—and it leads to no good outcomes.

Fredrickson was sure, from her extensive research, that positivity was very good, but what was its relationship to negativity? Fredrickson had a fortunate encounter and collaboration with Marcial Losada, a social and organizational psychologist who was studying the performance of business groups. Losada developed a mathematical model of Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory. Analyzing statements made by members of corporate teams, Losada (1999) discovered that high-performance teams were those that maintained a positivity/negativity ratio higher than 2.9 (the best teams had ratios around 5:1). Fredrickson wondered whether these ratios, which applied to business teams, would also apply to individuals: “Would people who I could identify as flourishing have positivity ratios greater than 3:1? Would the ratios for those who were languishing fall below 3:1?” (p. 129). Her research revealed that most people have ratios about 2:1; those who are flourishing average slightly above 3:1 (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005).

Can there be too much positivity? Losada’s data and his model suggested that the upper level for flourishing is around 11:1. Although the research to test this tipping point has not yet been done, Fredrickson speculates that positivity provides a lift that promotes flourishing while “appropriate negativism” provides grounding in reality. Using the metaphor of a sailboat, she notes: “Although it’s the sail hanging on the mast of positivity that catches the wind and gives you fuel, it’s the keel of negativity that keeps the boat on course and manageable” (p. 137).

Fredrickson, like other writers in positive psychology, has undertaken the difficult task of presenting self-help information in a scientific context. Founded in 1998 by then-APA president Martin Seligman, positive psychology’s early emphasis was on building a research foundation. A cadre of mostly young researchers, including Fredrickson, was attracted to the new field, and generous funding from foundations provided support that moved research rapidly forward.

Seligman, who strongly urged and facilitated the early research emphasis, was the first to write a research-based book for the general public encouraging, as his subtitle states, Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (Seligman, 2002). Positivity is the most recent of several such books by positive psychologists that have followed, including Happier (Ben-Shahar, 2007), Thanks! (Emmons, 2007), Happiness (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008), and The How of Happiness (Lyubomirsky, 2008).

Fredrickson describes her credentials and her view of herself as a scientist, but a scientist who has found something so valuable that she had to write this book:

Frankly it was hard for me to start this book. The new discoveries about positive emotions are so compelling that it was difficult to pull myself away from the laboratory and from writing scientific articles to write this book. Yet I felt called to do so. You need to know the news about positivity. . . . You will never look at feeling good the same way again. (p. 13)

Consistent with that intent, Fredrickson has divided her book into two sections: Part I, which focuses on how her research developed, and Part II, which provides self-evaluation instruments and methods of increasing one’s positivity. In my opinion, Fredrickson has achieved an admirable balance between a careful explanation of her research and theories and a warm-hearted invitation to readers to deal with their own positivity ratio.

Ben-Shahar, T. (2007). Happier: Learn the secrets to daily joy and lasting fulfillment. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Emmons, R. (2007). Thanks! How the new science of gratitude can make you happier. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60, 678–686. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.60.7.678

Losada, M. (1999). The complex dynamics of high-performance teams. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 30, 179–192. doi:10.1016/S0895-7177(99)00189-2

Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The how of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. New York, NY: Penguin.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York, NY: Free Press.

West, M. (n.d.). Too much of a good thing is wonderful. Retrieved from http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/504.html