Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In a series of five studies we examined the relationship between sharing positive experiences and positive affect using a diary method (Study 1) and laboratory manipulations (Studies 2 and 3). All of these studies demonstrated that sharing the positive experience heightened its impact on positive affect. In Study 4, we conducted a four-week journal study in which the experimental participants kept a journal of grateful experiences and shared them with a partner twice a week. Control participants either kept a journal of grateful experience (without sharing), or kept a journal of class learnings and shared it with a partner. Those who shared their positive experiences increased in positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction over the course of four weeks. Study 5 showed that those who received an “active-constructive” response to good news (enthusiastic support) expressed more positive affect than participants in all other conditions, indicating that the response of the listener is important. In sum, our findings suggest that positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction reach a peak only when participants share their positive experiences and when the relationship partner provides an active-constructive response.

Keywords

capitalization friendship positive affect

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Baker

J. R.

Moore

S. M.

(2008). Blogging as a social tool: A psychosocial examination of the effects of blogging. Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 11, 747–749.

Baumeister

R. F.

(1998). The self. In Gilbert

D. T.

Fiske

S. T.

Lindzey

(Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 680–740). New York: Random House.

Beach

S. R. H.

Tesser

(1995). Self-esteem and the extended self-evaluation maintenance model: The self in social context. In Kernis

M. H.

(Ed.), Efficacy, agency, and self-esteem (pp. 145–170). New York: Plenum Press.

Burns

A. B.

Brown

J. S.

Sachs-Ericsson

Plant

Curtis

J. T.

Fredrickson

B. L.

Joiner

T. E.

(2008). Upward spirals of positive emotion and coping: Replication, extension, and initial exploration of neurochemical substrates. Personality and Individual Differences, 44, 360–370.

Burton

C. M.

King

L. A.

(2004). The health benefits of writing about intensely positive experiences. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 150–163.

Cohen

(1968). Weighted kappa: nominal scale agreement with provision for scaled disagreement or partial credit. Psychological Bulletin, 70, 213–220.

Diener

Emmons

R. A.

Larsen

R. J.

Griffin

(1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75.

Emmons

R.A.

McCullough

Me.E.

(2003). Counting blessing versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and positive emotion in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 377–389.

Feingold

(2009). Effect sizes for growth-Modeling analysis for controlled clinical trials in the same metric as for classical analysis. Psychological methods, 14, 43–53.

10.

Fredrickson

B. L.

Joiner

(2008). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13, 172–175.

11.

Gable

Haidt

(2005). What (and why) is positive psychology? Review of General Psychology, 9, 103–110.

12.

Gable

Reis

Impett

Asher

(2004). What do you do when things go right? The intrapersonal and interpersonal benefits of sharing positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 228–245.

13.

Gable

S. L.

Gonzaga

Strachman

(2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Social support for positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 904–917.

14.

Gollwitzer

P. M.

(1986). Striving for specific identities: The social reality of self-symbolizing. In Baumeister

(Ed.), Public self and private self (pp. 143–159). New York: Springer.

15.

Hicks

A. M.

Diamond

L. M.

(2008). How was your day? Couples’ affect when telling and hearing daily events. Personal Relationships, 15, 205–228.

16.

Kuo

(2009). Can blogging enhance subjective well-being through self-disclosure? Cyber Psychology & Behavior, 12, 75–79.

17.

Koo

Algoe

Wilson

T. D.

Gilbert

D. T.

(2008). It’s a wonderful life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people’s affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1217–1224.

18.

Lambert

N. M.

Gwinn

A. M.

Fincham

F. D.

Stillman

T. F.

(2011). Feeling tired?: How sharing positive experiences can boost energy levels. International Journal of Wellbeing, 1, 307–314.

19.

Langston

C. A.

(1994). Capitalizing on and coping with daily-life events: Expressive responses to positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1112–1125.

20.

Leary

Baumeister

(2000). The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory. In Zanna

M. P.

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 1–62). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

21.

Lenhart

Fox

(2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the internet’s new storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life Project.

22.

Lyubomirsky

Lepper

H. S.

(1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46, 137–155.

23.

Lyubomirsky

Sousa

Dickerhoof

(2006). The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life’s triumphs and defeats. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 692–708.

24.

Pennebaker

J. W.

Mehl

M. R.

Niederhoffer

(2003). Psychological aspects of natural language use: Our words, our selves. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 547–577.

25.

Reis

H. T.

Smith

S. M.

Carmichael

C. L.

Caprariello

P. A.

Tsai

F. F.

Rodrigues

Maniaci

M. R.

(2010). Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 311–329.

26.

Ryan

R. M.

Frederick

C. M.

(1997). On energy, personality and health: Subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being. Journal of Personality, 65, 529–565.

27.

Tesser

Millar

Moore

(1988). Some affective consequences of social comparison and reflection processes: The pain and pleasure of being close. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 49–61.

28.

Vittengl

J. R.

Holt

C. S.

(1998). A time-series diary study of mood and social interaction. Motivation and Emotion, 22, 255–275.

29.

Watson

Clark

L. A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

27.30 MB

A boost of positive affect

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material