The role of positive emotions in well-being : an exploratory study

Abstract

The broaden-and-build theory holds that positive emotions broadens our moment-to-moment thought-action repertoire which then triggers a upward spiral of building our personal resources in the long run. Under this theoretical framework, the current study examined 1.) whether retrieval of episodic memories involving positive and negative emotions is related to experience of emotions in daily life; and 2.) the role of positive emotions in well-being and personal resources. A total of 40 participants (11 male and 29 female) from the University of Hong Kong took part in the current study. They were asked to recall events in which they experienced positive and negative emotions respectively, and then filled in a set of questionnaires measuring their experience of positive and negative emotions, general well-being, and variables of personal resources. The results of the current study did not support retrieval of emotional episodic memories as a valid and reliable assessment of daily emotion experience. On the other hand, the results coming from regression analyses using psychometric measures suggested that experience of positive emotions predicted better well-being and more adaptive personal resources (i.e. higher level of optimism and more adaptive coping styles), while experience of negative emotions predicted poorer well-bring and more maladaptive personal resources (i.e. lower level of optimism and less adaptive coping styles). Preliminary evidence seemed to support the broaden-and-build theory. Limitations and future directions were discussed towards the end of this paper.