The article looks at a study carried out to ascertain the effect positive emotional variability has on mental health. It is looking at theories and previous researches that have associated emotional variability with either improved mental wellbeing or a deterioration and degeneration of someone’s mental health. However, this study narrows down to positive emotion variability rather than general emotional variability as has been the subject of study by previous researchers. Similar research on negative emotion variability indicates that it spawns depression and enhances vulnerability to mental illnesses. On the flip side, research also points to variability of emotions leading to remarkable improvements in psychological health. This perspective relates emotional variability to emotional flexibility that accustoms one to changing circumstances. These two perspectives inform the objective of this study that is to measure the role positive emotion variability plays in mental health.
A methodology based on the structuring of the whole research into two studies. A study of this nature requires a comprehensive sampling strategy and identification of methods. In the case of this research, the first study was set in Colorado. Participants in the study were recording their change in the positive emotion on a daily basis. This was done for 14 consecutive days in which participants were reporting fluctuations in their levels of excitement and happiness (Gruber, June, Aleksandr Kogan, Jordi Quoidbach, and Iris Mauss 1). They also monitored their daily activities to track the events that made them stressed. This information was used to calculate the frequency of occurrence of stressful activities by averaging them over 14 days. This approach is good for the study for it leads to acquisition of more information than the original study seeks to collect. This is, for example, about the reasons why people get positive emotion variations on certain days more than others (Gruber et al. 3).
The results upheld the perspective that the positive emotion variability had adverse psychological effects on mental health. This led to it deducing that people should do what they can to ensure they enhance their positive emotion stability. The study methods were a high strength of this study given that they focused on a great population that had varying experiences. This is also multifaceted by the fact that the study was more of self-assessment by the participants and, therefore, reliability of findings is high. However, the research was advancing on pre-empted outcomes as presented by earlier theories and researches on psychological effects of emotional variability. The research question was too obvious as it did not hold enough complexity, and, therefore, results and conclusions could easily be pre-determined (Gruber et al. 2-3).
However, the limitations of the research do not compromise the implications of its findings. It provides information on how positive emotional variability affects mental health is of paramount importance. It is also a pioneering study focused on positive mental emotions. It, therefore, adds to the existing repository of knowledge on emotional stability versus variability studies.
Work Cited
Gruber, June, Aleksandr Kogan, Jordi Quoidbach, and Iris B. Mauss. "Happiness is best kept stable: Positive emotion variability is associated with poorer psychological health. " Emotion 13.1 (2012): p.1-6. Retrieved From: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/features/emo-a0030262.pdf
