2012/04/30 by Hal E. Hershfield, Susanne Scheibe, Tamara Sims +1 · 124 citations
Psychology · #Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction #Mental Health Research Topics #Aging and Gerontology Research #Psychology #Feeling #Neglect #Physical health #Social psychology #Experience sampling method #Developmental psychology #Well-being #Mental health
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/1948550612444616
published in Social Psychological and Personality Science 4(1), 54-61 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2012/04/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Traditional models of emotion-health interactions have emphasized the deleterious effects of negative emotions on physical health. More recently, researchers have turned to potential benefits of positive emotions on physical health as well. Both lines of research, though, neglect the complex interplay between positive and negative emotions and how this interplay affects physical well-being. Indeed, recent theoretical work suggests that a strategy of "taking the good with the bad" may benefit health outcomes. In the present study, the authors assessed the impact of mixed emotional experiences on health outcomes in a 10-year longitudinal experience-sampling study across the adult life span. The authors found that not only were frequent experiences of mixed emotions (co-occurrences of positive and negative emotions) strongly associated with relatively good physical health, but that increases of mixed emotions over many years attenuated typical age-related health declines.