From ancient philosophers to modern psychologists, people have propounded lists of emotions. Among these, I find the list offered by the positive psychologist Barbara Fredrickson to be a useful one in my emotion management training sessions.

Here are the 10 positive emotions in Fredrickson’s list: awe, confidence, gratitude, hope, inspiration, interest, joy, love, peace, and playfulness. Here’s an equal number of negative emotions in this list: anger, contempt, embarrassment, fear, guilt, hate, humiliation, nervousness, revulsion, and sadness.

Synopsis

The participants identify typical and unusual emotional reactions to a workplace scenario that usually elicits negative feeling. Later, the group selects an unlikely positive reaction and discusses the possible logic behind that choice.

Purpose

To choose, feel, and justify a positive emotional reaction to an unpleasant event.

Participants

Minim: 3
Maximum: Any number, divided int smaller groups
Best: 12 to 30

Time

20 to 40 minutes

Handouts

List of 20 positive and negative emotions identified by Barbara Fredrickson

Equipment

Stopwatch
Whistle

Flow

Organize groups. Divide the participants into groups of 3 to 6 members each. Seat each group around a table.

Distribute handouts. Give a copy of the lists of emotions to each participant. Ask everyone to review these emotions and ask questions if they don’t understand any of the terms. Clarify by giving explanations and examples of any ambiguous terms.

Present a scenario. Give a realistic workplace scenario that would likely produce negative emotional reactions.

Examples:

You are fired.
Your manager criticizes you in public, in front of your colleagues.

Identify probable emotional reactions. Ask the group members to independently think of the likely reactions of the people experiencing this scenario. Point out that this does not have to be the member’s personal reaction, but a typical reaction felt by most people in this situation.

Discuss the emotional reactions. Ask each group member to share the emotion that he or she selected. For each selected emotion, For each selected emotion, ask the participants to identify the logic that suggests this emotion. Make a note of different emotions and different causes for each.

Identify infrequent emotional reactions. Point out that different people may react differently to the same event. Ask each group member to independently think of an unusual emotional reaction to the scenario.
Discuss the logic behind atypical reactions. Ask each group member to share the uncommon emotion that he or she selected. As before, ask the participants to discuss the logic behind each specific emotion. Make a note of different emotions and different causes for each.

Ask the group to select a positive reaction. Ask the participants to reflect on the positive emotions from Fredrickson’s list and somewhat randomly select one of them.

Explain how this reaction could be logically supported. Ask the group members to discuss how this positive emotional reaction could make logical sense to someone in the situation presented in the scenario. Encourage the group to come up with several alternative justifications.

Conduct a debriefing discussion. Steer the discussion toward these two learning points:

The same event may produce different emotional reactions among different people.
It is possible to choose and justify positive emotional responses to an apparently negative situation.

Continue the debriefing discussion. Ask the participants to apply their insights to a current negative situation in their work life. Ask them to reflect how they could choose, feel, and justify a positive emotional reaction to an apparently negative situation