Subjective meaning of reflective positive emotions and feeling of happiness

Many psychological concepts link the frequency of experiencing positive emotions with a global feeling of happiness. The presented study was based on the assumption that the regulative role of positive emotions depends on their origin. In particular, we distinguish positive emotions of automatic genesis (affective, related to sensual 1. homeostatic and 2. hedonic experiences) or reflective genesis (intellectual, related to conceptual 3. self-standards and 4. transgressive axiological standards). We assume that the automatic emotions are basic for subjective happiness, but the higher level of happiness depends on the reflective emotions. The aim of the experimental study was to examine relationship between evaluation of importance of different emotions and the feeling of happiness. Results showed that the declared feeling of happiness was related to importance of reflective emotions: participants who rated them higher declared also to be happier then students who rated reflective evaluative standards lower. This effect was independent from experimental manipulation. peerReviewed publishedVersion