Broaden and Build theory – What are Positive Emotions

Can you remember the last time you could look at the positive even when everything was not happening how you wanted it to? The chances of you remembering such an event are thin because the focus is always more on the negative than on the positive. This is why, most of the time, people face difficulty developing new ideas and feel uninspired. Also, productivity decreases.

The best way to deal with the situation is to feel positive and look at the possibilities and opportunities. When individuals are open to receiving things, their relationships become accessible and supportive, and things get done quickly.

Yet, most find thinking this way challenging and fail to appreciate what they have. If you are looking for a way to have a positive frame of mind, understanding the Broaden and Build theory will help. This theory explains how focusing on positive emotions helps build a happier life.

Positive emotions like happiness, joy, excitement, hope, etc., help increase awareness, boost coping ability, and improve resilience. Yet a negative emotional reaction, such as a fight or freeze, is experienced during an emergency.

This explains how both affect us differently and how positive emotions can help us experience life differently.

Key Takeaway

• Unlike negative emotion, positive emotion immediately and temporarily “broadens” attention, cognitive, and behavioral responses.
• Positive emotions help us understand and become aware of our surroundings.
• A person’s behavior becomes flexible when experiencing positive emotions.

What is the Broaden and Build theory?

Developed by social psychologist professor Barbara Fredrickson in 1998, the theory is linked with positive psychology. It was created to explore how positive emotions help in survival.

Positive emotions not only make you happy, joyous, and content. They even help you look for the positive and good in times of distress. The theory says positive emotions do more than just make us happy and content. They also broaden behavior, make you aware of how you want things, help you discover new things, and make you curious. As people experience more positive emotions, their thought-action repertoires work more comprehensively and become more flexible and creative.

Moreover, when an individual is happy, the network, skill set, and abilities to work and learn more increase. These resources last longer and lead to increased production. They also help cope with stress and unhappiness, making the person stay strong and stable in challenging situations.

The theory is based on positive emotions that broaden the outlook, awareness, and response to the event. They also build resilience and coping skills. The theory doesn’t disregard the idea of negative emotions. Instead, the Broaden and Build theory suggests that negative and positive emotions must coexist, which will help positive emotions build resources to cope with negative emotions.

This way, Broaden and Build theory and positive psychology make studying negative emotions easy.

Types of Positive Emotions

Although the list of positive emotions compared to negative emotions is low, when you start paying attention to these emotions, you will find that you experience positive emotions in your day-to-day life. These emotions are both reactions to something and feelings.

Admiration—When you see someone and find them attractive, you admire them. This is a type of positive emotion in which you look at the good in a person.

Affection—You feel this emotion for someone you care about and are attracted to. This emotion makes you fall for someone and do things the other person likes.

Amusement – This positive emotion is felt when something humorous, enjoyable, and funny is encountered or experienced.

Cheerful—Being optimistic or having a positive Outlook towards a situation makes you cheerful and happy. This positive emotion is experienced when you or your loved one achieves something.

Enjoyment—Feeling joyful while doing an activity you like or talking to someone elicits this positive emotion.

Enthusiasm – Being excited about something new makes you experience this positive emotion.

Euphoria – Pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness.

Gratitude – Being grateful for something or someone you have in life.

Happiness – Feeling contentment in the moment.

Hope – Looking forward to what lies in the future and expecting the best out of it

Interest – Bring attention to things you like and do them to feel happy.

Relief – Feeling calm about something that you wanted and that has happened.

Surprise – In a positive sense, it makes you feel happy even when you don’t know the outcome.

Optimism – Feeling hopeful about the future and keeping a positive outlook.

Benefits of Positive Emotions

Broaden and Build theory explains that positive emotion broadens the experience and helps build resources. Controlling negative emotions and switching to a positive mindset becomes easy when a person focuses on positive emotions. In addition to this, the person also experiences the following things:

Better health and mental well-being—Positive emotions enhance survival and help people learn coping mechanisms. They even allow individuals to flourish rather than survive. When a person experiences positive emotions, building skills becomes easy, and they can also look at things from a different perspective.

Resilience—The theory also suggests that positive emotions improve a person’s ability to bounce back from challenges and obstacles. As people learn how to manage negative emotions, they can improve psychologically and build resilience.

Look at life with a different Outlook—Positive emotions make negative emotions disappear. The context brought by these emotions helps to look at the current situation differently. Also, it helps change things for the better, and positive emotions give meaning to life, making an individual see good even in the worst situations.

How to Apply the Theory?

To apply the theory in the workplace, an environment where emotions can be broadened should be provided. As the surroundings change, the person can feel happiness, and the theory’s implementation will become smoother.

In addition, to improve morale, strengthen teamwork, and increase productivity, the person should be given resources to build on positive emotions.

Step 1 Broaden

In this step, individuals are helped to experience more positive emotions like joy, contentment, peace, gratitude, hope, amusement, inspiration, and friendship.

When people experience these emotions regularly, their thought process broadens, they become aware of how others behave with them, and they flourish. They also start to innovate and help others find work that satisfies and inspires them.

You can start by saying Thank You regularly to create a positive environment. When you do so, others feel appreciated and valued. This recognition improves their work and helps them build self-confidence.

In short, anything you do that makes others feel happy, content, grateful, and excited will help them broaden their thought receptors and make them do things better.

Tip: While building positive emotions, you must not stop giving feedback. Even if it is negative, you should give it. Appropriate feedback motivates an individual. Also, how people perceive your emotions will impact how they feel.

Step 2 Build

Once people start experiencing positive emotions, encourage them to build skills and mental resources. This can be done by giving them the tools and providing training.

This will help them see where they stand and what they need to do to grow. People develop their interests, skills, and flexibility in a positive environment. Also, they can learn and do their jobs correctly if the resources are available.

When this approach is taken and implemented properly, you can see changes in people and productivity. Also, teams bond better because of the positive environment and because they appreciate each other for their achievements. This creates a healthy environment and makes people happy as they see themselves and others growing together.

Positive versus Negative Emotions

Positive emotions surely have potential benefits. However, the role that negative emotions play cannot be overlooked. It is because of negative emotions people value positive emotions. If negative emotions had not existed, how would people understand positive ones and the difference between negative and positive ones?

Positive emotions like joy and interest differ from fear, anxiety, and sadness. While the former motivates you to do a task, the latter makes you procrastinate and be less productive.

Negative emotions relate to survival and make thinking beyond the situation difficult, whereas positive emotions promote expansion and open up resources for a person to look at things with a new perspective.

How do you Experience more Positive Emotions?

Experiencing positive emotions in life is not difficult. Once you feel these emotions, you will do everything to get the same feeling again.

The best way to start feeling positive is by adding small doses of positive energy to your day-to-day activity.

Below, we explain certain ways to help you add more positively to your life.

1. Practice self-care –

Caring for yourself or your well-being is not selfishness. It is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself. It promotes both physical and mental well-being. As you take care of yourself, you feel positive and food. Alongside taking care of yourself, watch funny movies and television shows, write about positive memories, and think about the things that make you feel.

This will keep you motivated and add a dose of positivity. If you are religious, you can get involved in some religious practices, do meditation, take long hot water baths to remove stress, do painting, or do things that make you feel lively. Take a walk in nature, as it will help you feel positive and energized.

2. Build more social connections—

When a social support system is built, you get the opportunity to talk to people about different things. As you interact with more and different people, you experience different emotions and are able to differentiate between positive and negative emotions. This will help you learn ways to be positive and change your body language to feel positive and stay active.

3. Do meditation-

Reflect within and see what you are doing and what you desire. Practice meditation, and be grateful for what you have. Show gratitude, identify the things that stress you out, and work on them to improve your situation.

Always look for a silver lining and help others by doing good. Be there for others but not at the cost of your well-being. You can work with NGOs to help people and do some social work. These activities will make you feel good and worthy, again positive emotions.

Make your Life better with the Broaden and Build theory

Generally, people think positive emotions cannot help when stuck in a negative cycle. This is a myth because positive emotions always help to make it a part of your life. You just need to start taking small steps. This will help you look at the positive aspects of things and feel the positive emotions.

This is the goal of the Broaden and Build theory. The theory also says you cannot separate both emotions. Only when you feel both emotions can you build resilience and positivity daily.

Although there will be more negative emotions, don’t let them destroy your positivity. As you give them the power to control you, your physical and psychological health will be affected. Therefore, look at the positive aspects and build positive emotions. It will help deal with mental health conditions such as depression and others.

As you build positive emotions, negative neural pathways build up over the years and start to change. The realistic outlook and new thought patterns start building, helping an individual look at positive aspects instead of negative ones. It develops a different perspective.

So, instead of saying negative words or looking at what is not right, you take one step towards positivity, and you will see things change.