title: Mixed emotional experience is associated with and precedes improvements in psychological well-being.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The relationships between positive and negative emotional experience and physical and psychological well-being have been well-documented. The present study examines the prospective positive relationship between concurrent positive and negative emotional experience and psychological well-being in the context of psychotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  47 adults undergoing psychotherapy completed measures of psychological well-being and wrote private narratives that were coded by trained raters for emotional content.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The specific concurrent experience of happiness and sadness was associated with improvements in psychological well-being above and beyond the impact of the passage of time, personality traits, or the independent effects of happiness and sadness. Changes in mixed emotional experience preceded improvements in well-being.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Experiencing happiness alongside sadness in psychotherapy may be a harbinger of improvement in psychological well-being.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Franklin W Olin College of Engineering, Needham, Massachusetts, United States of America. jadler@olin.edu
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Adler
authors.forename: Hal E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Hershfield
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011613:Psychotherapy