Eliciting discrete positive emotions with vignettes and films: a validation study

Abstract

Current research is heavily focused on negative emotions and the action-tendencies they produce. This validation study juxtaposes the emphasis on negative emotions and builds off of my Vanderbilt undergraduate honors work to make important progress towards producing a validated database of elicitation methods that can be utilized in future positive emotional induction studies. Two methods for elicitation (1) vignettes and (2) films were assessed by participants through online surveys using the DEAL emotional rating measure. Results were used compose emotional profiles that were analyzed using Euclidean distances. Elicitation methods that exhibited empirical profiles closest to the idealized profile (high levels of the target emotion, relatively low levels of all other emotions) were considered the most successful elicitation materials. The development of elicitation techniques is important to the field of positive psychology as we currently lack a validated database of elicitation methods to be used in empirical studies and clinical settings.