WIKIMEDIA, STEVE EVANSA British psychology student and two co-authors have published a damning critique of a highly cited 2005 American Psychologist paper, which used a mathematical model to assert that the ratio of positive to negative feelings must be above 2.9013 for a person to “flourish,” reported The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Barbara Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina, and Marcial Losada, a Chilean psychologist and consultant, authored the original paper. Frederickson also used this research as the basis for her 2009 book Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3 to 1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life. But the latest paper, published last month in the same journal, suggested that Frederickson and Losada’s conclusions had been “based on a series of erroneous and, for the most part, completely illusory ‘applications’ of mathematics.”
The tale of the takedown began when Nick Brown, a grad student in applied positive psychology at the University of East London, read the 2005 paper as part of a course. He was far from convinced, so he got in ...
