Feel Good or Do Good? A Valence–Function Framework for Understanding Emotions

Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 29, pp. 388–393

Abstract

Previous thinking has often categorized emotions as either pleasant or unpleasant or examined to what extent they are functional or dysfunctional. We suggest that researchers should consider the positivity or negativity of discrete emotions on both dimensions: subjective feelings and constructiveness of outcomes. We discuss how, across contexts, a specific emotion can potentially be categorized differently within the framework. We further suggest that this approach is particularly useful in unique, complex contexts that involve clashes among goals, interests, or values, such as violent intergroup conflicts. Using this context, we demonstrate how emotions that feel good to people can lead to behaviors and attitudes that sustain violence and thwart conflict resolution, whereas emotions that promote conflict resolution are often unpleasant. Such clashes may depend on the presence of embedded contextual factors, such as group membership and relative power. Thus, this framework will be useful for examining specific emotions while taking contextual factors into consideration. Finally, we examine several important questions stemming from our framework and suggest directions for future research.

Authors 3

1. Smadar Cohen‐Chen corresponding

   University of Surrey

   Affiliation as printed

   Surrey Business School, University of Surrey

2. Ruthie Pliskin Aachen Department of Psychology, Leiden University

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Psychology, Leiden University

3. Amit Goldenberg

   Harvard University

   Affiliation as printed

   Harvard Business School, Harvard University