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Delineating the Full Range of Distinct Positive Emotions

This research, led by Aaron Weidman, aims to uncover the distinctive subjective content of each positive emotion typically studied, and to identify the extent to which each of these emotions are experienced distinctly. Over the past decade, there has been a considerable increase in psychological research on the subjective experience of distinct positive emotions, yet little work has been done to derive empirically based definitions of each of these emotions (by examining the full range of thoughts, feelings, and action tendencies that lay persons experience during episodes of these emotions), and no work has examined the interrelations among all positive emotions. The goal of this project is to address these two issues and, in doing so, construct a comprehensive taxonomy of subjectively experienced distinct positive emotions.