Barbara L. Fredrickson - US grants

An experiment is proposed to investigate the psychophysiological functions of positive emotions, which are suggested to be quite distinct from those associated with negative emotions. Emotion researchers generally agree that negative emotions function to prepare individuals for specific, ancestrally adaptive actions by recruiting heightened physiological activation. This link between emotions and specific action tendencies is often taken as definitional for all emotions, even though supportive data from positive emotions is lacking. An alternative model, specific to the positive emotions, is offered to account for this gap in the empirical literature. This model proposes that positive emotions function to quell or undo the action tendencies and physiological activation generated by specific negative emotions. A laboratory-based experiment is proposed to test the generality this "undoing" model of positive emotions. Cardiovascular activity is monitored with continuous measures of heart rate, peripheral vasoconstriction and blood pressure. The experimental paradigm involves eliciting negative emotion with attendant cardiovascular activation in all subjects, then using a between-subjects design to test whether stimuli that elicit positive emotions speed recovery from heightened cardiovascular arousal faster than do comparable stimuli that do not elicit positive emotion. The proposed experiment tests the generality of the undoing function of positive emotion by using (a) multiple negative emotions to generate the initial cardiovascular activation (anger, disgust); (b)multiple means of eliciting these initial negative emotions (emotional memories, emotionally-evocative films); and (c) multiple stimuli to elicit positive emotions (films that elicit amusement, contentment). This research is motivated by the empirical evidence that implicates the cardiovascular reactivity associated with negative emotions in the etiology of cardiovascular diseases. Empirical evidence regarding the functions of positive emotions can inform prevention and treatment regimens designed to reduce risk for cardiovascular disease and promote physical and psychological health and well-being.

Empirical research on the interconnections between emotions and physical and mental health is flourishing. But this literature favors negative emotions and neglects positive emotions. This imbalance is unfortunate, because few would disagree that positive emotions contribute richly to the quality of life. Yet scientific evidence regarding the extent and mechanisms of the possible health benefits of positive emotions is lacking, and existing models of emotion offer little guidance. Many such models hold that emotions narrow individuals' action tendencies, a view that fits negative emotions better than positive ones. The Principal Investigator offers an alternative model of positive emotions that details their role in promoting personal growth as well as physical and mental health. Positive emotions, this new view holds, broaden an individual's momentary thought- action repertoire: joy creates the urge to play, interest the urge to explore, contentment the urge to savor and integrate. By consequence, positive emotions promote discovery of new actions, ideas, and social bonds, which in turn build that individual's physical, intellectual, and social resources. One key implication of this broaden-and-build model is that positive emotions have a special capacity to undo the physiological activation and narrowed thought-repertoires generated by certain negative emotions. The long-term objective of this research program is to test hypotheses that stem from the broaden-and- build model of positive emotions, and explore connections to both physical and mental health. The four proposed studies mark the first steps toward this objective. Two experiments (Studies 1 and 2) use between-subjects experimental designs to induce emotions (joy, contentment, anger, sadness, and neutrality) and test the hypotheses that positive emotions broaden the scopes of attention and action tendencies, whereas negative emotions narrow these same scopes. A third experiment (Study 3) induces anxiety in all participants, measures the effects on scope of attention and cardiovascular reactivity, then, using a between-subjects design, tests the hypothesis that positive emotions have a special capacity to broaden the scope of attention and speed cardiovascular recovery in concert. A final experiment (Study 4) tests the hypothesis that activities that are at times used to regulate negative emotions -- such as playing sports, taking nature walks or meditating -- not only elicit positive emotions but also broaden the scopes of attention and action, which in turn enable people to find positive meaning in adverse circumstances.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this research is to advance understanding of how positive emotions enhance health, mental health, and social relations. Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions provides the foundation. The theory states that, unlike negative emotions, which narrow people's ideas about possible actions (e.g., fight, flee), positive emotions broaden people's thought-action repertoires (e.g., play, explore), and build their enduring personal resources (e.g., health, resilience, social support, intellectual complexity). Nine studies target four Specific Aims. Studies 1-2 target Specific Aim I: To investigate and test the role of positive emotions in flourishing mental health. Study 1 uses a new survey method to assess whether flourishing mental health is associated with high ratios of positive to negative emotions. Study 2 uses a between-subjects experimental design and a new self-regulation intervention strategy to test whether increasing daily experiences of positive emotions increases symptoms of flourishing and decreases symptoms of depression. Studies 3-4 target Specific Aim I1: To test whether and how positive emotions build consequential and lasting personal resources. Study 3 uses a between-subjects experimental design and the same self-regulation intervention strategy to test whether increasing daily experiences of positive emotions builds resilience, which in turn alters people's emotional, cognitive, and physiological functioning. Study 4 tests whether cognitive broadening, assessed through linguistic markers, accounts for the building effects of positive emotions. Studies 5-6 target Specific Aim II1: To test whether and how positive emotions broaden interpersonal curiosity and build high quality connections between people. Each uses a between-subjects experimental design to induce emotions (joy, anger, or a neutral state) and test whether positive emotion increases people's curiosity about a new acquaintance, and thereby expands interpersonal understanding and empathy, and improves the ways individuals relate to one another. Studies 7-9 target Specific Aim IV: To test whether and how positive emotions build efficient social coordination and effective teamwork. Each uses a between-subjects experimental design to induce emotions (joy, anger, or a neutral state) and test whether positive emotion increases perceptions of group identity and thereby helps teams coordinate and economize their use of resources.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): People's day-to-day behavioral choices - including how to respond to stress and whether to be physically active - accumulate and compound to set their health risks and life expectancies. Indeed, two of every five premature deaths in the U.S. can be linked to unhealthy and ultimately modifiable behavioral choices. Despite good intentions to improve their health, people's attempts at midlife lifestyle change often fail, paving the way to late-life health limitations and costly chronic conditions. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate how positive emotions alter biological systems in ways that ultimately reinforce sustained positive behavior change. An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates the science of positive emotions with the emerging field of social genomics to describe pathways through which positive emotions may influence gene expression to undergird sustained behavior change. Specifically, we propose that positive emotions trigger peripheral biological changes that alter inflammation-related gene expression in ways that increasingly and implicitly reinforce wellness behaviors. Two studies - spanning laboratory and field - test this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to identify peripheral biological resources and genetic polymorphisms that moderate the link between wellness behaviors and their positive emotion yield; (2) to identify the biological signaling pathways that mediate the proposed association between increases in positive emotions and changes in inflammation-related gene expression; and (3) to investigate the pathways through which increases in positive emotions influence changes in inflammation-related gene expression, sustained wellness behaviors, and associated health outcomes. Study 1 is a controlled laboratory study that investigates whether candidate peripheral biological resources (i.e., oxytocin, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, blood pressure, and C-reactive protein) and inflammation-related genetic polymorphisms moderate the positive emotion yield of wellness behaviors and thereby fuel upward spirals of healthy lifestyle change. Study 2 complements and extends this laboratory study, by testing the full scope of the upward spiral model of lifestyle change using a longitudinal, randomized, dual-blind, placebo-controlled field experiment with repeated measures of peripheral biological and genomic markers. This rigorous and validated longitudinal design is unprecedented in human social genomics research and can illuminate how wellness behaviors and biological health mutually reinforce one another. This program of translational research stands to forge a unified science of behavior change, reshape public health interventions, and unlock hidden opportunities to promote healthy longevity.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The American Cancer Society estimates that 62% of all cancers could be prevented altogether through lifestyle change. Despite good intentions, people's attempts to alter their behaviors known to increase cancer risk - related to diet, physica activity, tobacco and alcohol use - often fail, which ultimately increases their risks for various cancers. In response to NCI's Provocative Question 4, the overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of positive emotions in facilitating successful lifestyle chang, defined as long-term adherence to cancer- preventive behaviors (e.g., nutritious eating, physical activity, tobacco, and alcohol use). An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates multiple streams of research in basic behavioral and brain sciences to position positive emotions as key active ingredients that not only seed non-conscious motivational pulls toward newly-adopted cancer-preventive behaviors, but also reshape key biopsychosocial resources in ways that increase the subsequent positive emotion yield of multiple cancer-preventive behaviors, creating a self- sustaining dynamic system. A longitudinal, dual-blind, placebo-controlled field experiment tests this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to identify biopsychosocial resources that moderate the link between cancer-preventive behaviors and their positive emotion yield; (2) to test whether and how positive emotions, experienced in daily life, produce a psychological propensity for wellness through the combined presence of (a) increases in non-conscious motives for cancer-preventive behaviors and (b) increases in biopsychosocial resources; and (3) to test whether positive emotions and a psychological propensity for wellness predict increasing and sustained cancer-preventive behaviors and improved health-related outcomes at 18-month follow-up. The proposed study tests the novel upward spiral model in daily life with densely repeated measures and physiological, behavioral, endocrine, and self- report indices of health-related outcomes. This program of translational research stands to reshape public health interventions and unlock hidden opportunities to drastically reduce the incidence of cancer.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The American Cancer Society estimates that 62% of all cancers could be prevented altogether through lifestyle change. Indeed, two of every five premature deaths in the U.S. can be linked to unhealthy and ultimately modifiable behavioral choices. Despite good intentions, people's attempts at midlife lifestyle change often fail, paving the way to increased cancer risk and other costly and life-limiting chronic conditions. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate the role of positive emotions in facilitating successful lifestyle change, defined as healthy behavioral decisions repeated daily, or near daily. An innovative upward spiral model of lifestyle change integrates multiple streams of research in basic behavioral and brain sciences to position positive emotions as key active ingredients that not only seed nonconscious motivational pulls toward a newly-adopted wellness behavior, but also reshape key biopsychosocial resources in ways that increase the subsequent positive emotion yield of that behavior, creating a self-sustaining dynamic system. Four tightly- controlled laboratory experiments test this new model by targeting three Specific Aims. These aims are: (1) to test whether and how positive emotions and physical pleasures differentially create nonconscious cognitive and affective processes that mediate behavioral decisions; (2) to identify biopsychosocial resources that moderate the link between a wellness behavior and its positive emotion yield, and in turn create nonconscious motives for that behavior; and (3) to test whether nonconscious motives shape daily behavioral decisions, which in turn foster positive emotions that further augment nonconscious motives in an upward spiral dynamic. Studies 1 and 2 use a 3-group experimental design with concurrent behavioral and psychophysiological measures to compare and contrast behavioral decisions that ensue following positive emotions versus physical pleasures, targeting the mediating mechanisms of nonconscious motives (Study 1), and broadened cognition (Study 2). Studies 3 and 4 use a 2 X 2 experimental design to test whether the modifiable resources of positive valuation (Study 3) and oxytocin (Study 4) boost the positive emotion yield of wellness behavior, with attendant benefits for nonconscious motives and subsequent daily behavioral decisions. This program of basic research stands to reshape public health interventions and unlock hidden opportunities to drastically reduce the incidence of cancer and other costly chronic conditions.

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Individuals raised in low socioeconomic (SES) households have been found to bear 20%-40% increased risk of costly chronic and infectious diseases and all-cause mortality, even after accounting for adulthood SES. Illuminating the biological mechanisms of these health risks, recent research has determined that severe and chronic stress endured early in life can embed a decades-long biological residue within the immune system, as reflected in leukocyte basal gene expression profiles, leukocyte telomere length, and levels of chronic inflammation indexed by C-reactive protein. These biological risk factors are further exacerbated by behavioral proclivities, namely, impulsivity (indexed by delay discounting) and mistrust, which are also more probable among those reared in low SES households. The overarching goal of the proposed research is to investigate whether and how this identified biological residue can be reversed in midlife. An innovative upward spiral theory o lifestyle change positions warm and empathic emotional states as key pathways to unlocking the body's inherent plasticity to reverse entrenched biological risk factors. The PI's team has identified an affective intervention - the ancient practice of loving-kindness meditation (LKM) - that produces salubrious biological effects in healthy midlife adults. The innovation of the present study lies in testing this affective intervention in a sample of midlife adults on poor health trajectories by virtue of having low childhood SES plus present-day pathogenic behavioral tendencies (i.e., impulsivity and mistrust). A dual-blind placebo-controlled randomized controlled trial (RCT) is designed to provide proof of principle that early-established biological risks factors are mutable, not permanent. It targets three Specific Aims: (1) To test whether LKM, through its effects on positive emotions, can reverse the biological residue of low childhood SES as reflected in (a) leukocyte basal gene expression (up-regulation of pro-inflammatory genes and down-regulation of antiviral and antibody genes), (b) leukocyte telomere length, and (c) C-reactive protein; (2) to identify plausible behavioral and biological moderators of the hypothesized benefits of LKM in this at-risk sample, with candidate moderators being (a) time spent meditating and (b) metabolic profile; and (3) to identify plausible biological, behavioral, and psychological mediators of the hypothesized biological benefits of LKM-induced positive emotions in this at-risk sample, with candidate mediators being improvements in (a) cardiac vagal tone, (b) delay discounting, and (c) mistrust. This research stands to identify evidence-based interventions to drastically reduce the disease burden that disproportionately affects Americans raised in low SES households.