Positive Emotions’
Effect on Buffering and Creativity:
An Experimental Design
Katrina Ong
Dean Craig Smith & Professor Leslie Kirby’s Lab
Positive Emotions
• Negative emotions specific action tendency vs.
positive emotions multiple action tendencies (Fredrickson 1998; Fredrickson, 2001)
• Positive emotions (and specifically optimistic
disposition) are correlated with increased health outcomes specifically with cardiac health (Agarwal, et al., 1995; Kubzansky et al., 2001; Scheier et al., 1999)
• Positive emotions can buffer against depression after stressful events (Tugade, et al., 2004; Seligman, et al., 1999)
Buffering & Creativity
The Undoing Hypothesis (Fredrickson,et al.,2000) as part of the Broaden and Build Theory (Fredrickson, 2001)
Buffering: When a positive emotion is first induced it may be able to prevent the effects of a negative emotion
Previous Attempts by the Lab & Pilots
• Bauman’s (2011) study
• Mood Induction (Differential Positive Emotions)
• Stressor (Singing at the Commons)
• Pilot 1 (Behavioral Mood Induction)
• Pilot 2 (Writing Prompts)
• Pilot 3 (J-task as a Stressor)
Methods
• Main Study: 83 Vanderbilt student participants (74% female)
• Instruments: REDcap, DEAL, LIWC, Physio
• Conditions: Positive or Neutral for Mood Induction based
on random assignment
1) Baseline DEAL and Physio
2) Mood Induction Writing Prompt 3) Manipulation Check DEAL
4) Stressor J-Word Task (number of words, number of word roots,
and avg. word length collected) 5) DEAL + Other questionnaires
Hypotheses
1) When using baseline and post-mood induction scores as covariates, the
participants in the positive condition would emotionally respond significantly less to the stressor task.
2) Participants in the positive condition would
show increased creativity in the stressor task
as measured by word count, number of word
roots, and average word length.
Results
Baseline Post-Induction Post-Stressor 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
46.03
56.16
42.83
0 48.65
42.64
37.67
0
Positive Affect vs. Time of Appraisal
Positive Neutral
Time of Appraisal
Positive Affect
Results What would
buffering look like?
Baseline Post-Induction Post-Stressor
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Negative Affect v. Time of Appraisal
Positive Neutral Time of Appraisal
Negative Affect (0-100)
Baseline Post-Induction Post-Stressor
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
18.55
12.63
29.41
12.06 11.76
26.54
Negative Affect v. Time of Appraisal
Positive Neutral Time of Appraisal
Results Behavioral Outcomes
• Participants in the positive condition (M=17.68) listed significantly more words than those in the neutral
condition (M=14.98), F(1,77)=4.497, p<.05.
Positive Neutral
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Number of Words Listed v. Condition
Condition
Number of J-words listed
Conclusions &
Discussion
• Found evidence to support Broaden and Build theory that positive emotions lead to increased creativity and cognitive flexibility
• Use more sensitive measures to creativity in the future
• No evidence of buffering even with a strong positive mood induction and mild stressor
• Buffering may not be related to the emotional state of happiness and optimism but rather trait values like an optimistic disposition
and/or emotion focused coping
THANK YOU
Craig Smith
Bonnie
Williamson Nora Kline Alena
Perszyck
Jennifer Yih
Sloane Sparks
Kellie Kuzmuk
Leslie Kirby