Barbara Fredrickson

Barbara L. Fredrickson is a prominent researcher in emotions and social psychology and one of the leaders in positive psychology. Her most famous work is on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which suggests that positive emotions lead to novel, expansive, or exploratory behavior, and that over time these actions lead to meaningful, long-term resources such as knowledge and social relationships. Fredrickson earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1990. Her work on positive emotions evolved during her 10-year professorship at the University of Michigan. In 2006 she moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology. She continues her positive emotions research with colleagues at both North Carolina and Michigan.

Fredrickson's mentors include Robert Levenson and Laura Carstensen.

Broaden-and-build
Studies from Fredrickson's lab have randomly assigned participants to watch films that induce positive emotions such as amusement and contentment, negative emotions such as fear and sadness, or no emotions. Compared to people in the other conditions, participants who experience positive emotions show heightened levels of creativity, inventiveness, and "big picture" perceptual focus. Longitudinal studies show that positive emotions play a role in the development of long-term resource such as psychological resilience and flourishing.

The undo effect
When people experience stress, they show increased heart rate, higher blood sugar, immune suppression, and other adaptations optimized for immediate action. If individuals do not regulate these changes once the stress is past, they can lead to illness, CHD, and heightened mortality. Both lab research and survey research indicate that positive emotions help people who were previously under stress relax back to their physiological baseline.

Sex differences in self-objectification
Prior to her work on positive emotions, Fredrickson researched social and environmental cues that can carry sexist messages and enhance stereotypical gender differences. She found that when women are randomly assigned dress in a way that calls attention to their bodies, they show impaired performance on a math task and were literally more likely to "throw like a girl." This research suggested that drawing attention to women's bodies also activated stereotypical beliefs about their gender.

Recognition
Fredrickson received the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2000 for her work on the broaden-and-build theory, which included a $100,000 grant to fund her work. She received tenure at the University of Michigan and is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina. Her work has been published in American Psychologist, the general professional publication of the American Psychological Association, and in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, which is the most prominent journal in the fields of personality psychology and social psychology. Her work is supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Fredrickson's work on the broaden-and-build theory addresses the feelings and accomplishments that make life fulfilling and worthwhile. Thus, she is a popular speaker at both academic conferences and other psychological and professional gatherings.