04 Nov Beyond happiness…to other positive emotions
Happiness is the most widely studied positive emotion in Psychology (and not quite coincidentally the topic of one of the most read blog posts on psychologytoday.com for October). The benefits of experiencing happiness go far beyond merely “feeling good”, and include a range of physiological and behavioral responses. For example, happiness energizes, motivates, and keeps us healthy by positively influencing our immune system.
While happiness comes in many shades and flavors, and despite the fact that we often use happiness as a catch-all term for all good feelings, happiness is in fact not the only game in town, when it comes to positive emotions. There exist other positive emotions that similar to happiness supply us with good feelings of their own, and cause behavioral responses that are quite distinct from happiness. One class of such emotions are the “other praising” emotions.
To read more about happiness and other positive emotions – click here