Appendix A.

Material for Experimental Manipulation of Vantage Resource (Prioritizing Positivity⁺) and Control Condition

Prioritizing Positivity+ Reading Passage

SCENTIFIC AMERICAN

Mind Matters – January 29, 2012

Prioritizing Positive Emotions is Beneficial

By Francesca Orbizzi

What is the best way to organize your day? Scientific evidence suggests that when making decisions about how to spend your time, you should take into account your potential to experience positive emotions. Growing evidence suggests that good feelings lead to good health. Yet research also shows that if you simply “will” or “wish” yourself to feel positive emotions, it can backfire, ironically making you feel worse. By contrast, a recent study by Andrea McDevitt of the University of Arizona finds that people who devote time each day to activities that generate positive emotions (e.g. interest, amusement) fare the best. They experience more vitality, less stress, and have lower levels of inflammation in the body, a biological indicator of physical health. Setting aside time each day for feel-good activities, then, may be as vital to your health as eating your vegetables and staying active.

In the text box below, please make an argument for why one’s potential to experience positive emotions should be one of the primary considerations when making decisions about which activities to engage in after work or deciding which career to pursue. Feel free to call upon personal examples from your own life and other people you know, as well as basic logic. The length of the arguments should be about 1–2 paragraphs long.

Control Reading Passage

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

Mind Matters – January 29, 2012

The Neuroscience of Positive Emotions

By Francesca Orbizzi

In recent years, psychological scientists have been studying the physiological underpinnings of positive emotions, and perhaps some of the most consistent findings in the literature point to the involvement of the left hemisphere of the prefrontal cortex. For instance, when people are induced to experience good feelings in the laboratory, they show increased activity in their left prefrontal cortex, in comparison to their right prefrontal cortex. Similarly, when the left prefrontal cortex is temporarily paralyzed, positive emotions are affected. In a study carried out by Andrea McDevitt of the University of Arizona, participants were injected with a substance that paralyzed the left prefrontal cortex. These participants also displayed significant deficits in positive emotions (e.g. interest, amusement). When the substance eventually wore off, however, participants began experiencing typical levels of positive emotions. Experiencing feel-good moments, then, seems to be aided by very specific brain areas.

In the text box below, please make an argument for why continuing to conduct scientific research on the brain is worthwhile. Feel free to call upon personal examples from your own life and other people you know, as well as basic logic. The length of the arguments should be about 1–2 paragraphs long.