long period. Love as the foundation of close relationships is critical in providing human beings with the necessary social support in their lives (pp. 305-7).
Although Fredrickson has provided creative examples of positive emotions, she does not address the inherent complexity of the spectrum of human emotions. Apart from experiencing a blend of positive emotions, human beings often feel both positive and negative emotions at the same time. Essentially, Fredrickson's description has failed to acknowledge the dynamic and complex nature of human feelings.
In fact, Fredrickson's thorough discussion of the differences between positive and negative emotions is representative of the researchers who believe in the bipolarity of positive and negative emotions. From their perspective, there are several features that differentiate positive emotions from negative emotions. Most noticeably, there are many more negative emotions than positive emotions. While negative emotions can be easily discerned from the facial expressions, individual positive emotions generally do not provide the same visual cues. Even more significantly, negative emotions are generally associated with a response to threats, thus enabling human beings to respond in a way that allows them to save their lives. Negative emotions trigger "specific action tendencies" that pushes the individual to act. In contrast, people experiencing positive emotions are not likely to demonstrate their emotions in an overt fashion and act in a specific way (Fredrickson, 1998, p. 301).
B. Misconceptions about positive emotions
In spite of its weakness, Fredrickson's article on positive emotions has highlighted the common misconceptions about positive emotions. A prevalent misconception about positive emotions is that it does not have a concrete purpose. The emphasis that emotions should trigger specific action tendencies and physical activity has minimized the importance of positiv...