Broaden-and-Build Theory
Fredrickson's theory that positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoires.
Broaden-and-Build Theory was developed by Barbara Fredrickson at the University of Michigan and presented in 'What Good Are Positive Emotions?' (Review of General Psychology, 1998) and 'The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology' (American Psychologist, 2001). The theory proposes that whereas negative emotions narrow attention and the action repertoire to specific survival-relevant responses (fight, flee, withdraw — products of evolutionary pressure), positive emotions broaden the momentary thought-action repertoire (joy invites play, interest invites exploration, contentment invites integration), which over time builds enduring personal resources — physical, intellectual, social, and psychological — that enhance survival and flourishing. The theory's signature empirical claim is the upward spiral: positive emotions broaden cognition and behavior, which builds resources, which produce more positive-emotion-eliciting experiences. Fredrickson's 2005 specific 'positivity ratio' claim (3:1 positive-to-negative emotion required for flourishing) was substantially retracted following Brown, Sokal, and Friedman's 2013 critique that the underlying nonlinear-dynamics math was incorrect, but the broader broaden-and-build framework remains substantially supported empirically.
Core components
- Negative emotions narrow thought-action repertoire (evolutionary survival logic)
- Positive emotions broaden thought-action repertoire
- Broadening over time builds personal resources (physical, intellectual, social, psychological)
- Upward spiral
- Connection to attention research and cognitive-flexibility findings
- Positivity-ratio claim (subsequently retracted on methodological grounds)
Primary use case
Positive Psychology research and intervention design; emotion regulation research; workplace and team-effectiveness interventions; relationship and couples research; complement to negative-emotion-focused clinical research; framework underlying many gratitude and savoring practices.
Common criticisms
- The 'positivity ratio' (3:1) claim was substantially retracted following Brown, Sokal, and Friedman's 2013 critique that the underlying nonlinear-dynamics math was incorrect — Fredrickson published a partial correction
- subsequent meta-analyses of positive-emotion intervention effects show modest and decaying effects
- popular adoption substantially overstates what evidence supports
- broadening claim more robustly supported than building claim (which requires longitudinal evidence)
- cultural variation in positive-emotion experience and expression underweighted
- risk of pathologizing necessary or appropriate negative emotion in popular adaptations.
Lineage
- Child of
- Positive Psychology
- Siblings
- Positive Psychology, Flow Theory
- Derived from
- Positive Psychology