Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being pp 183–190Cite as

The Eudaimonics of Positive Emotions

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

In this chapter, Fredrickson empirically explores the dynamic interrelationships between experiences of hedonia and eudaimonia. She first reviews her team’s recent research that relates these two forms of wellbeing to a genomic marker of physical health comprised of an evidence-based 53-gene composite assayed from participants’ circulating white blood cells. Across two independent studies (N = 198), results reveal that when measures of hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing are simultaneously used to predict gene expression profiles, only eudaimonic wellbeing significantly associates with a healthy pattern of gene expression. This association was replicated in two additional studies (N = 107 and 108), each using a distinct but related measure of eudaimonia. Fredrickson next discusses the role of positive emotions – one core aspect of hedonia – in fostering human health and longevity by reviewing evidence that positive emotions forecast and cause increases in eudaimonia. Building on this evidence, she describes a recent re-analysis of data that tests for an indirect path from hedonic wellbeing to healthy profiles of gene expression, as mediated by eudaimonic wellbeing. Results suggest that hedonic wellbeing, measured in a variety of ways, predicts a healthy pattern of gene expression, as mediated by eudaimonic wellbeing. Fredrickson concludes that, in line with the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, hedonic states broaden people’s mindsets in ways that help them to discover and build self-transcendent experiences of purpose, meaning, contribution, and interconnectedness. Hedonia and eudaimonia are thus dynamically intertwined facets of wellbeing, each of which plays a vital role the process of human flourishing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Boehm, J. K., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2012). The heart’s content: The association between positive psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. Psychological Bulletin, 138(4), 655–691. doi:10.1037/a0027448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, N. J. L., MacDonald, D. A., Samanta, M. P., Friedman, H. L., & Coyne, J. C. (2014). A critical reanalysis of Fredrickson et al’.s study of genomics and well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(35), 12705–12709.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cabanac, M. (2010). The dialectics of pleasure. In M. L. Kringelbach & K. C. Berridge (Eds.), Pleasures of the brain (pp. 113–124). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chida, Y., & Steptoe, A. (2008). Positive psychological well-being and mortality: A quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70(7), 741–756. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31818105ba.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. W. (2012). Social regulation of gene expression in the immune system. In S. Segerstrom (Ed.), Handbook of psychoneuroimmunology (pp. 254–273). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. W. (2013). Social regulation of human gene expression: Mechanisms and implications for public health. American Journal of Public Health, 103(Suppl 1), S84–S92. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.301183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. W., Conti, G., Arevalo, J. M. G., Ruggiero, A. M., Heckman, J. J., & Suomi, S. J. (2012). Transcriptional modulation of the developing immune system by early life social adversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(50), 20578–20583. doi:10.1073/pnas.1218253109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. W., Hawkley, L. C., Arevalo, J. M. G., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2011). Transcript origin analysis identifies antigen-presenting cells as primary targets of socially regulated gene expression in leukocytes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(7), 3080–3085. doi:10.1073/pnas.1014218108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. W., Levine, M. E., Arevalo, J. M. G., Ma, J., Weir, D. R., & Crimmins, E. M. (2015). Loneliness, eudaimonia, and the human conserved transcriptional response to adversity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 62, 11–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1–53. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00001-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and Emotion, 19(3), 313–332. doi:10.1080/02699930441000238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1045–1062. doi:10.1037/a0013262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., Grewen, K. M., Algoe, S. B., Firestine, A. M., Arevalo, J. M. G., Ma, J., et al. (2015). Psychological well-being and the human conserved transcriptional response to adversity. PloS One, 10(3), e0121839.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L., Grewen, K. M., Coffey, K. A., Algoe, S. B., Firestine, A. M., Arevalo, J. M. G., … & Cole, S. W. (2013). A functional genomic perspective on human well-being. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(33), 13684–13689. doi:10.1073/pnas.1305419110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmon-Jones, E., Gable, P. A., & Price, T. F. (2013). Does negative affect always narrow and positive affect always broaden the mind? Considering the influence of motivational intensity on cognitive scope. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(4), 301–307. doi:10.1177/0963721413481353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, J. A., Schlegel, R. J., & King, L. A. (2010). Social threats, happiness, and the dynamics of meaning in life judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(10), 1305–1317. doi:10.1177/0146167210381650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, J. A., Trent, J., Davis, W. E., & King, L. A. (2012). Positive affect, meaning in life, and future time perspective: An application of socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 181–189. doi:10.1037/a0023965.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, P. L., & Turiano, N. A. (2014). Purpose in life as a predictor of mortality across adulthood. Psychological Science, 1–5. doi:10.1177/0956797614531799.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howell, R. T., Kern, M. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). Health benefits: Meta-analytically determining the impact of well-being on objective health outcomes. Health Psychology Review, 1(1), 83–136. doi:10.1080/17437190701492486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, M. R., & Cole, S. W. (2011). Reciprocal regulation of the neural and innate immune systems. Nature Reviews Immunology, 11(9), 625–632. doi:10.1038/nri3042.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isgett, S. F., Boulton, A. J., Cole, S. W., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2016). Coda: Positive emotions, mediated by eudaimonic well-being, predict potentially salutogenic leukocyte gene expression profiles. In preparation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222. doi:10.2307/3090197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M. (2006). The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) for adults. http://www.sociology.emory.edu/downloads/MHC-SF_Brief_Description.pdf2006

  • Keyes, C. L. M. & Annas, J. (2009). Feeling good and functioning well: Distinctive concepts in ancient philosophy and modern science. Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 197–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 1007–1022. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.82.6.1007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., & Hicks, J. A. (2009). Detecting and constructing meaning in life events. Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(5), 317–330. doi:10.1080/17439760902992316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 179–196. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.90.1.179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamers, S. M. A., Westerhof, G. J., Bohlmeijer, E. T., ten Klooster, P. M., & Keyes, C. L. M. (2011). Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF). Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(1), 99–110. doi:10.1002/jclp.20741.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001). Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition. Psychological Review, 108(2), 291–310. doi:10.1037//0033-295X.108.2.291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salzberg, S. (2011). Real happiness. New York: Workman Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slavich, G. M., & Cole, S. W. (2013). The emerging field of human social genomics. Clinical Psychological Science, 1(3), 331–348. doi:10.1177/2167702613478594.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. A., Tong, E. M. W., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2014). The differentiation of positive emotional experience as viewed through the lens of appraisal theory. In M. M. Tugade, M. N. Shiota, & K. N. Kirby (Eds.), The handbook of positive emotions (pp. 11–27). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tung, J., Barreiro, L. B., Johnson, Z. P., Hansen, K. D., Michopoulos, V., Toufexis, D., … & Gilad, Y. (2012). Social environment is associated with gene regulatory variation in the rhesus macaque immune system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(17), 6490–6495. doi:10.1073/pnas.1202734109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waterman, A. S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(4), 678–691. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.4.678.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Wiese, D., Vaidya, J., & Tellegen, A. (1999). The two general activation systems of affect: Structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 820–838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Barbara L. Fredrickson

Authors
  1. Barbara L. Fredrickson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara L. Fredrickson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    Joar Vittersø

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fredrickson, B.L. (2016). The Eudaimonics of Positive Emotions. In: Vittersø, J. (eds) Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42445-3_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42445-3_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-42443-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-42445-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation