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Can Feeling Too Good Be Bad?

Can Feeling Too Good Be Bad? Positive emotions are vital to attaining important goals, nurturing social bonds, andpromoting cognitive flexibility. However, one question remains relativelyunaddressed: Can positive emotions also be a source of dysfunction and negativeoutcomes? An ideal point of entry to understand how positive emotion can go awry isbipolar disorder, a psychiatric disorder marked by abnormally elevated positiveemotion. In this review I provide an overview of recent experimental evidence fromindividuals at risk for, and diagnosed with, bipolar disorder. I present a novelaccount of positive-emotion disturbance, referred to as positive emotion persistence(PEP), and consider potential mechanisms. The central thesis guiding PEP is thatpersistent activation of positive emotion across contexts and not solely in responseto positive or rewarding stimuli is a marker of emotion dysfunction in bipolardisorder. I discuss implications for the study of bipolar disorder and positiveemotion generally. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Current Directions in Psychological Science SAGE

Can Feeling Too Good Be Bad?

Current Directions in Psychological Science , Volume 20 (4): 5 – Aug 1, 2011

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References (26)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2011
ISSN
0963-7214
eISSN
1467-8721
DOI
10.1177/0963721411414632
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Positive emotions are vital to attaining important goals, nurturing social bonds, andpromoting cognitive flexibility. However, one question remains relativelyunaddressed: Can positive emotions also be a source of dysfunction and negativeoutcomes? An ideal point of entry to understand how positive emotion can go awry isbipolar disorder, a psychiatric disorder marked by abnormally elevated positiveemotion. In this review I provide an overview of recent experimental evidence fromindividuals at risk for, and diagnosed with, bipolar disorder. I present a novelaccount of positive-emotion disturbance, referred to as positive emotion persistence(PEP), and consider potential mechanisms. The central thesis guiding PEP is thatpersistent activation of positive emotion across contexts and not solely in responseto positive or rewarding stimuli is a marker of emotion dysfunction in bipolardisorder. I discuss implications for the study of bipolar disorder and positiveemotion generally.

Journal

Current Directions in Psychological ScienceSAGE

Published: Aug 1, 2011

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