The role of positive emotions and clinical psychology: Vital hut undervalued

Abstract

In this paper we outline the vital but under-appreciated role that an understanding of positive emotions, and their dysfunctions, can play in clinical psychology. Positive affects are functionally distinct from the negative affects that are the usual focus of our work. Basic research on positive emotions suggests that positive affects play a critical role in the capacity for flexible behaviour and new learning, as well as the capacity to be motivated by distal goals. In this respect, positive affects are vital to adaptive behaviour, and often act to buffer individuals against stress. The role of low levels of positive affect in vulnerability to depression and schizophrenia is explored, as is the importance of assessing the capacity for positive experience for diagnostic processes. Finally, we describe a recently developed extension of cognitive behavioural techniques, known as “Well being therapy” that focuses on enhancing the client's ability to achieve well being across a wide variety of domains, including environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, autonomy, self-acceptance and positive relations with others. These techniques appear to very promising for treating a variety of psychological disorders, and may have specific relevance for the prevention of relapse. If clinical psychology is to embrace a definition of health that includes not just the absence of disease, but also values positive aspects of well-being and optimal functioning, then a greater focus on the role of positive emotion in psychological disorder and its treatment will be vital.