The term fortology refers to the origins of strength, and is used as an alternative to positive psychology. The purpose of the review is to highlight extant knowledge and the research potential of the field. In the first section of the review, positive emotions are considered as lived experiences, and their significance explained with reference to Fredrickson's Broaden-and-Build Theory. Both short-duration and longer-term effects of positive emotions are reviewed. The contributions of humour, optimism and gratitude to positive emotions are considered, as are ways of increasing the frequency of positive emotions. The second section of the review considers positive emotionality, which is the trait that forms the background to positive emotions. Finally, an overview is given of the role of genetics, the behavioural approach system, natural killer cells and dopamine — each of which plays a part in subjective experiences.
AntonovskyA. (1987). Unraveling the mystery of health: How people manage stress and stay well.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
2.
AshbyF. G.IsenA. M.TurkenA. U. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 529–550.
3.
AspinwallL. G.BrunhartS. M. (1996). Distinguishing optimism from denial: Optimistic beliefs predict attention to health threats. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 993–1003.
4.
AspinwallL. G.RichterL.HoffmanR. R.III (2002). Understanding how optimism works: An examination of optimists' adaptive moderation of belief and behavior. In ChangE. C. (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research and practice (pp. 217–238). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
5.
BonannoG. A.KeltnerD. (1997). Facial expressions of emotion and the course of conjugal bereavement. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 126–137.
6.
CarverC. S. (2003). Pleasure as a sign you can attend to something else: Placing positive feelings within a general model of affect. Cognition and Emotion, 17, 241–261.
7.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. F. (2002). Optimism. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 231–243). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8.
CarverC. S.WhiteT. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 319–333.
9.
ChangE. C. (2002). Introduction: Optimism and pessimism and moving beyond the most fundamental question. In ChangE. C. (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research and practice (pp. 3–12). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
10.
CoganR.CoganD.WaltzW.McCueM. (1987). Effects of laughter and relaxation on discomfort thresholds. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 10, 139–144.
11.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R.NorrisA. H. (1981). Personal adjustment to aging: Longitudinal prediction from neuroticism and extraversion. Journal of Gerontology, 45, 317–328.
12.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R.ZondermanA. B. (1987). Environmental and dispositional influences on well-being: Longitudinal follow-up of an American national sample. British Journal of Psychology, 78, 299–306.
13.
CousinsN. (1976). Anatomy of an illness (as perceived by the patient). New England Journal of Medicine, 295, 1458–1463.
14.
DannerD.SnowdenD.FriesenW. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the Nun Study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 803–813.
15.
DavidsonR. J. (2000). Affective style, psychopathology and resilience: Brain mechanisms and plasticity. American Psychologist, 55, 1196–1214.
16.
DavidsonR. J.CoeC. C.DolskiI.DonzellaB. (1999). Individual differences in prefrontal activation asymmetry predict natural killer cell activity at rest and in response to challenge. Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 13, 93–108.
17.
DavidsonR. J.EkmanP.SaronC. D.SenulisJ. A.FriesenW. V. (1990). Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: Emotional expression and brain physiology I. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 230–341.
18.
DavidsonR. J.IrwinW. (1999). The functional neuroanatomy of emotion and affective style. Trends in Cognitive Science, 3, 11–21.
19.
DavidsonR. J.JacksonD. C.KalinN. H. (2000). Emotion, plasticity, context and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 890–909.
20.
DepueR. A.CollinsP. F. (1999). Neurobiology of the structure of personality: Dopamine, facilitation of incentive motivation and extraversion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 491–569.
21.
DepueR. A.LucianaM.ArbisiP.CollinsP.LeonA. (1994). Dopamine and the structure of personality: Relation of agonist-induced dopamine activity to positive emotionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 485–498.
22.
DienerE. (2003). What is positive about positive psychology: The curmudgeon and Pollyanna. Psychological Inquiry, 14, 115–120.
23.
DienerE.SuhE. M.LucasR. E.SmithH. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.
24.
DimasioA. R. (1994). Descartes' error: Emotion, reason and the human brain.New York: Putnam.
25.
EkmanP.DavidsonR. J.FriesenW. V. (1990). The Duchenne smile: Emotional expression and brain physiology II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 342–353.
26.
EmmonsR. A.McCulloughM. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389.
27.
EstradaC. A.IsenA. M.YoungM. J. (1994). Positive affect improves creative problem solving and influences reported source of satisfaction in physicians. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 285–299.
28.
FranklV. (1964). Man's search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy (Rev. ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Original work in German published 1946; I. Lasch, Trans.).
29.
FredricksonB. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.
30.
FredricksonB. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 218–226.
FredricksonB. L. (2002b). Positive emotions. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 120–134). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FredricksonB. L.LevensonR. W. (1998). Positive emotions speed recovery from cardiovascular sequelae of negative emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 191–220.
35.
FredricksonB. L.ManuscoR. A.BraniganC.TugadeM. M. (2000). The undoing effect of positive emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 24, 237–258.
36.
FredricksonB. L.TugadeM. M.WaughC. E.LarkinG. R. (2003). What good are positive emotions in crises? A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 365–376.
37.
FurnhamA. (1981). Personality and activity preference. British Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 57–68.
38.
GibsonB.SambonmatsuD. M. (2004). Optimism and pessimism and gambling: The downside of optimism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 149–160.
39.
GillA. (1988). The journey back from hell: Conversations with concentration camp survivors.London: Grafton Books.
40.
GrayJ. A. (1981). A critique of Eysenck's theory of personality. In EysenckH. J. (Ed.), A model of personality (pp. 246–276). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
41.
GrayJ. A. (1990). Brain systems that mediate both emotion and cognition. Cognition and Emotion, 4, 269–288.
42.
GrayJ. A. (1991). Neural systems, emotion and personality. In MaddenJ. (Ed.), Neurobiology of learning, emotion and affect (pp. 273–306). New York: Raven Press.
43.
HarkerD.KeltnerD. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women's college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 112–124.
44.
HeadeyB.WearingA. (1991). Subjective well-being: A stocks and flows framework. In StrackF.ArgyleM.SchwartzN. (Eds.), Subjective well-being (pp. 49–71). Oxford: Pergamon.
45.
IsenA. M. (1999). Positive affect. In DalgleishT.PowerM. (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 521–539). Chichester, UK: Wiley.
46.
IsenA. M. (2002). A role for neuropsychology in understanding the facilitating influence of positive affect on social behavior and cognitive processes. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 528–540). New York: Oxford University Press.
47.
IsenA. M. (2003). Positive affect as a source of human strength. In AspinwallL. G.StaudingerU. M. (Eds.), A psychology of human strengths: Fundamental questions and future directions for a positive psychology (pp. 179–195). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
48.
IsenA. M.BaronR. A. (1991). Positive affect as a factor in organizational behavior. Research on Organizational Behavior, 13, 1–53.
49.
IsenA. M.RosenzweigA. M.YoungM. J. (1991). The influence of positive affect on clinical problem solving. Medical Decision Making, 11, 221–227.
50.
JangK. L.LiveseyW. J.VernonP. A. (1996). Heritability of the Big Five personality dimensions: A twin study. Journal of Personality, 64, 577–591.
51.
JungC. G. (1971). Psychological types. In The collected works, Vol. 6. London: Routledge & Kegan-Paul. (Original work in German published 1921; H.G. Baynes & R.F.C. Hull Trans.).
52.
KangD. H.DavidsonR. J.CoeC. L.WheelerR. E.TomarkenA. J.ErshlerW. B. (1991). Frontal brain asymmetry and immune function. Behavioral Neuroscience, 105, 860–869.
53.
KeltnerD.BonannoG. A. (1997). A study of laughter and dissociation: Distinct correlates of laughter and smiling during bereavement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 687–702.
54.
LathemE. C. (Ed.) (1969). The poetry of Robert Frost.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.
55.
LazarusR. S. (2003). Does the positive psychology movement have legs?Psychological Inquiry, 14, 93–109.
56.
LykkenD.TellegenA. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7, 186–189.
57.
MandelaN. (1994). Long walk to freedom.Randburg: Macdonald Purnell.
58.
MastenA. S. (2001). Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development. American Psychologist, 56, 227–238.
59.
McCulloughM. E.EmmonsR. A.TsangJ. A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 112–127.
60.
PavotW.DienerE.FujitaF. (1990). Extraversion and happiness. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 1299–1306.
61.
PetersonC.BossioL. M. (2002). Optimism and physical well-being. In ChangE. C. (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research and practice (pp. 127–145). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
62.
PetersonC.ParkN. (2003). Positive psychology as the evenhanded positive psychologist views it. Psychological Inquiry, 14, 143–147.
63.
RedelmeierD. A.SinghS. M. (2001). Survival in Academy Award-winning actors and actresses. Annals of Internal Medicine, 134, 955–962.
64.
ReedM. B.AspinwallL. G. (1998). Self-affirmation reduces biased processing of health-risk information. Motivation and Emotion, 22, 99–132.
65.
RøysambE.TambsK.Reichborn-KjennerudT.NealeM. C.HarrisJ. R. (2003). Happiness and health: Environmental and genetic contributions to the relationship between subjective well-being, perceived health and somatic illness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1136–1146.
66.
SchedlowskiM.FalkA.RohneA.WagnerT. O. F.JacobsR.TewesU.SchmidtR. E. (1993). Catecholamines induce alterations of distribution and activity of human natural killer (NK) cells. Journal of Clinical Immunology, 13, 344–351.
67.
ScheierM. F.CarverC. S.BridgesM. W. (2002). Optimism, pessimism and psychological well-being. In ChangE. C. (Ed.), Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research and practice (pp. 189–216). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
68.
SchneiderS. L. (2001). In search of realistic optimism: Meaning, knowledge and warm fuzziness. American Psychologist, 56, 250–263.
69.
SegerstromS. C.TaylorS. E.KemenyM. E.FaheyJ. L. (1998). Optimism is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1646–1655.
70.
SeligmanM. E. P. (1991). Learned optimism.New York: Knopf.
71.
StawB. M.BarsadeS. G. (1993). Affect and managerial performance: A test of the sadder-but wiser vs. happier-and-smarter hypotheses. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 304–331.
72.
StrümpferD. J. W. (1995). The origins of health and strength: From ‘salutogenesis’ to ‘fortigenesis’. South African Journal of Psychology, 25, 81–89.
73.
SuttonS. K.DavidsonR. J. (1997). Prefrontal brain asymmetry: A biological substrate of the behavioral approach and inhibition systems. Psychological Science, 8, 204–210.
74.
TaylorS. E.ArmorD. A. (1996). Positive illusions and coping with adversity. Journal of Personality, 64, 873–898.
75.
TaylorS. E.BrownJ. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193–210.
76.
TaylorS. E.BrownJ. D. (1994). Positive illusions and well-being revisited: Separating fact from fiction. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 21–27.
77.
TaylorS. E.KemenyM. E.ReedG. M.BowerJ. E.GruenewaldT. L. (2000). Psychological resources, positive illusions and health. American Psychologist, 55, 99–109.
78.
TellegenA. (1985). Structures of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self-report. In TumaA. H.MaserJ. (Eds.), Anxiety and the anxiety disorders (pp. 681–706). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
79.
TellegenA.LykkenD. T.BouchardT. J.WilcoxK. J.SegalN. X.RichS. (1988). Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031–1039.
80.
ThoreauH. D. (1886). Waiden.London: Walter Scott.
81.
WatsonD. (2002). Positive affectivity: The disposition to experience pleasurable emotional states. In SnyderC. R.LopezS. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 106–119). New York: Oxford University Press.
82.
WatsonD.ClarkL. A. (1997). Extraversion and its positive emotional core. In HoganR.JohnsonJ.BriggsS. (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 767–793). San Diego: Academic Press.
83.
WatsonD.TellegenA. (1999). Issues in the dimensional structure of affect – Effects of descriptors, measurement error and response formats: Comments on Russell and Carroll (1999). Psychological Bulletin, 125, 601–610.
84.
WissingM. P.van EedenC. (1997, September). Psychological well-being: A fortigenic conceptualization and empirical clarification. Paper presented at the Annual Congress of the Psychological Society of South Africa, Durban, South Africa.
