Motivation and emotion/Book/2024/Positivity ratio

Positivity ratio:
What is the positivity ratio and what are its implications?

Overview

In order for humans to be able to have flourishing mental health, there must be the correct ratio of positive experience and negative experience that an individual experiences. This is the positivity ratio which was developed by Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada in 2005. Flourishing mental health is described by Fredrickson (2005) "to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience". According to research done by the pair on this theory, the critical tipping point for flourishing mental health is 3 positive experiences for every negative experience, however this changes throughout the lifespan. This ratio is strongly correlated with improved mental health, better resilience, and more perceived social support. When the positivity ratio is not correctly balanced, this can have a significant impact on wellbeing. Having a positivity ratio that is too high or too low has been found to be correlated with increased depressive symptoms, increased stress, and decreases perception of social support. Positivity ratio is crucial to wellbeing by looking at the balance between positive and negative experiences and how that can shape an individual's perception of their experiences.

Case Study

Lily has been offered a new job at a coffee shop in her local shopping centre. It is her first day and she has been scheduled for the morning shift and is being trained by her manager. She arrives for her shift eager to start learning and meet everyone. Through out the shift, her manager is getting easily frustrated at her for not being able to use the machines correctly and does provide positive feedback or encouragement. The coffee shop gets busy during the morning rush and Lily is struggling to keep up with her manager's demands. She leaves the shift feeling defeated and that maybe this is not the right job for her. Lily begins to experience stress and anxiety before her shifts especially when she knows her manager will be there and does not think she is good at her job despite her having barista experience in the past.

Food for thought:

- Why has Lily's confidence been effected, even though she has barista experience?

- How has Lily's positivity ratio changed from when she first started the job?

- How has this changed Lily's attitudes towards her skill level for the job?

What is the positivity ratio?

Definition and origin of the positivity ratio

The theory of the positivity ratio was developed by Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada in Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing (2005) as well as Fredrickson's 2009 book, Positivity. The positivity ratio is defined as "a critical tipping point positivity ratio that bifurcates mental health into human flourishing and human languishing" (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005). The theory is further discussed by Fredrickson in Updated Thinking on Positivity (2013). Fredrickson discusses that empirical evidence suggests that the "critical tipping point" is 3:1, where for every one negative experience, an individual must experience three positive experience.

Why is it important?

The positivity ratio is crucial when discussing wellbeing as it increases an individual's capacity to deal with life challenges. In Applied Positive Psychology, the authors discuss that "positive emotions broaden people's awareness allowing them to step beyond the narrow confines of negativity to explore new emotions". Furthermore in Set points of positivity ratio for different levels of well-being: A latent profile analysis (2017) , the authors looked at college students and found that "integrated index of positivity ratio is a better emotional indicator than the separate indices of positive and negative emotion".

figure 1: The bell shape of the graph represents an individuals ability to flourish based on their positivity ratio

The positivity ratio also highlights the importance of experiencing negative emotions just as much as positive emotions. Fredrickson (2013) discusses that "negativity can either promote healthy functioning or kill it, depending on its contextual appropriateness and dosage relative to positive emotions" which is further supported by a 2017 journal by Matthew and colleagues in Too Much of a Good Thing: Curvilinear Effect of the Positivity Ratio on Emotional Dysfunction and Perceived Resources in Adolescent Females. The study reports that participants "with excessive positivity reported less available resources as dissatisfaction motivates individuals to strive for self improvement".

The research shows the importance of having balance in life and the reality that going through negative emotions is unavoidable throughout life. The positivity ratio is crucial in giving individual's the tools to deal with these negative emotions and to be able to bounce back from negative experiences.

How does it change across the life span?

Throughout the lifespan, an individual's capacity to main positive affect changes. In The ratio between positive and negative affect and flourishing mental health across adulthood by Manfred Diehl, Elizabeth L. Hay & Kathleen M. Bergyounger, they found that "adults had the lowest mean positivity ratios, followed by middle-aged adults, and then older adults.". They further explain that "this pattern is consistent with a growing body of research suggesting that age is associated with a better ability to maintain positive affect" and that the results"showed that older adults had the highest mean positivity ratio, followed by middle aged adults, and then young adults" as well as "indicating that age is associated with increased low-arousal positive affect (and stability in high-arousal positive affect) "The findings in Positivity ratio of flourishing individuals: Examining the moderation effects of methodological variations and chronological age by Amit Shrira Ehud Bodner & Yuval Palgi suggest that "emotional and social changes taking place across the lifespan support the hypothesised age-related increase in positivity ratio". This could be a result of "awareness of the limited time available in late life produces a motivational shift from focusing on knowledge related goals in young adulthood to adopting emotionally meaningful goals in older age"

How does positivity ratio effect life satisfaction?

Resilience

An individual with a positivity ratio at the flourishing point is able to cope with stress more effectively than an individual with a positivity ratio outside of the flourishing point. In Positivity ratio of flourishing individuals: Examining the moderation effects of methodological variations and chronological age by Amit Shrira, Ehud Bodner & Yuval Palgi in 2015 found that "Positivity ratio was significantly associated with less psychological distress".

Perceived social support

Individuals with a flourishing positivity ratio have been found to have increased perceived social support from friends, family, and classmates. Orkibi et al (2015) found that "high positivity ratio that reflect personal flourishing, as well as their perceived availability of social support". Similarly, in a study Pathways to Adolescents' Flourishing: Linking self control skills and Positivity Ratio Through Social Support (2018) found correlation between high positivity ratios in adolescents aged 12 to 15 years old and their perceived amount of social support from parents and class mates. The research shown suggests that the positivity ratio increases perceived sSupport from others during stressful times is essential, support from others is helpful during stressful times- easier to reach out for help

Mental health

In research looking at positivity ratio and mental health, the findings are consistent in demonstrating a strong correlation between the two variables. Having a higher positivity ratio is associated with better mental health. Mental health is described as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” (Berg, Diehl, & Hay, 2011)Berg et.al (2015) also found that "Our data showed that adults who were, at baseline, categorized as having flourishing rather than languishing mental health experienced a higher ratio of positive to negative affect on subsequent days. This finding is in keeping with extant research suggesting that the ratio of positive to negative affect is an important predictor of mental health"

What happens if we experience too many of either positive or negative emotions?

As shown above in figure 1, if we experience too many negative emotions, or too many negative emotions, it could result in a decrease in wellbeing In Too Much of a Good Thing: Curvilinear Effect of the Positivity Ratio on Emotional Dysfunction and Perceived Resources in Adolescent Females, it shows the implications of having a positivity ratio that is too high. The results showed that "extremely high levels of positivity were associated with increased emotional dysfunction (stress, depressive symptoms) and downturned perceived personal (resilience, hope) and environmental". Lower Positivity ratios are associated with depression and anxiety. "participants with positivity ratios lower than 2.9:1 were disproportionately languishing, whereas those with positivity ratios above 2.9:1 were disproportionately flourishing". This is further supported in The Ratio between Positive and Negative Affect and Flourishing Mental Health across Adulthood "consistent with the interpretation that low positivity ratios (i.e., under 2.9) are a strong indicator of poor mental health"

Quiz

Conclusion

To conclude, the positivity ratio theory explains the optimal ratio of postive to negative experiences for an individual to have flourishing mental health. The positivty ratio is crucial to wellbeing as it improves resilience, perceived social support, and mental health

References

Chen, S.‐M., Gao, L., Zhang, Y., & Sun, P.‐Z. (2017). Set points of positivity ratio for different levels of well‐being: A latent profile analysis. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 20(3-4), 211–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12185

Diehl, M., Hay, E. L., & Berg, K. M. (2011). The ratio between positive and negative affect and flourishing mental health across adulthood. Aging & mental health, 15(7), 882–893. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2011.569488

Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. F. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. The American psychologist, 60(7), 678–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.7.678

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Updated thinking on positivity ratios. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033584

Lehrer, H. M., Janus, K. C., Gloria, C. T., & Steinhardt, M. A. (2017). Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear effect of the positivity ratio on emotional dysfunction and perceived resources in adolescent females. J Depress Anxiety, 6(286), 2167-1044. : https://doi.org/10.4172/2167-1044.1000286

Moroń, M. (2018). Perceived emotional intelligence and life satisfaction: the mediating role of the positivity ratio. Current Issues in Personality Psychology, 6(3), 212-223. https://doi.org/10.5114/cipp.2018.75650

Orkibi, H., Hamama, L., Gavriel-Fried, B., & Ronen, T. (2018). Pathways to adolescents’ flourishing: Linking self-control skills and positivity ratio through social support. Youth & Society, 50(1), 3-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X15581171

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