Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012;7(4):e35633.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035633. Epub 2012 Apr 23.

Mixed emotional experience is associated with and precedes improvements in psychological well-being

Jonathan M Adler  1 , Hal E Hershfield
Affiliations

Mixed emotional experience is associated with and precedes improvements in psychological well-being

Jonathan M Adler et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Background: The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy.

Methods: 47 adults undergoing psychotherapy completed measures of psychological well-being and wrote private narratives that were coded by trained raters for emotional content.

Results: The specific concurrent experience of happiness and sadness was associated with improvements in psychological well-being above and beyond the impact of the passage of time, personality traits, or the independent effects of happiness and sadness. Changes in mixed emotional experience preceded improvements in well-being.

Conclusions: Experiencing happiness alongside sadness in psychotherapy may be a harbinger of improvement in psychological well-being.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Lyubomirsky S, King L, Diener E. The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin. 2005;131:803–855. - PubMed
    1. Payne TJ. Negative affect and health: The importance of being earnest. Cognition Emotion. 1999;13:601–635.
    1. Selye . The stress of life. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1956.
    1. Larsen JT, Hemenover SH, Norris CJ, Cacioppo JT. Turning adversity to advantage: On the virtues of the coactivation of positive and negative emotions. In: Aspinwall LG, Staudinger UM, editors. A psychology of human strengths: Perspectives on an emerging field. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association; 2003. pp. 211–216.
    1. Hershfield HE, Scheibe S, Sims T, Carstensen LL. Mixed emotions benefit physical health. Soc Psychological and Personality Science in press - PMC - PubMed

Publication types