Too Much of a Good Thing: The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U
Too Much of a Good Thing: The Challenge and Opportunity of the Inverted U
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DOI：
10.1177/1745691610393523
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
影响因子：
12.6
通讯作者：
Schwartz, Barry
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Grant, Adam M.;Schwartz, Barry
亚里士多德提出，为了获得幸福和成功，人们应该培养介于不足和过度之间的中等或中间水平的美德。与这种美德代价高昂的说法形成鲜明对比的是，大量的心理学研究集中于证明积极特质、状态和经历的幸福感和绩效益处。这种关注掩盖了非单调倒 U 形效应的普遍性和重要性，即积极现象达到其效应转为消极效应的拐点。我们追踪心理学中非单调效应的证据，并为概念和实证进展提供建议。我们的结论是，对于一般心理学和特别是积极心理学来说，亚里士多德的中庸观念可以作为发展对幸福和成功的描述性和规范性解释的有用指南。
Aristotle proposed that to achieve happiness and success, people should cultivate virtues at mean or intermediate levels between deficiencies and excesses. In stark contrast to this assertion that virtues have costs at high levels, a wealth of psychological research has focused on demonstrating the well-being and performance benefits of positive traits, states, and experiences. This focus has obscured the prevalence and importance of nonmonotonic inverted-U-shaped effects, whereby positive phenomena reach inflection points at which their effects turn negative. We trace the evidence for nonmonotonic effects in psychology and provide recommendations for conceptual and empirical progress. We conclude that for psychology in general and positive psychology in particular, Aristotle's idea of the mean may serve as a useful guide for developing both a descriptive and a prescriptive account of happiness and success.