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Susan Folkman, University of California - San Francisco
"An Expanded View of the Stress Process: The Role of Positive Emotions"
This talk will include theory, research, and clinical application regarding the role of positive emotions in the stress process. A number of studies have documented the occurrence of positive emotions under conditions of intense and prolonged stress such as providing care for a loved one with a serious illness, bereavement, and spinal cord injury. Until recently, little attention was given to this phenomenon. Drawing on a program of research that we have been conducting over the past 15 years, this talk will make the case that positive emotions have an important role in the stress process. I shall summarize findings regarding the co-occurrence of positive and negative emotion in the context of severe stress and discuss evidence regarding whether they matter, what their adaptive functions might be, and the kinds of coping processes that generate and sustain them. The theoretical and clinical implications of this perspective will be discussed. There will also be a personal "take home" message for members of the audience.
Biography
Susan Folkman, Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine, the Osher Foundation Distinguished Professor of Integrative Medicine, and the Director of the University of California-San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Folkman received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, where she remained until joining UCSF in 1988. She is internationally recognized for her theoretical and empirical contributions to the field of psychological stress and coping. Her work over the past 18 years has been funded by the NIH and has focused on stress and coping in the context of chronic illness and especially on issues having to do with caregiving and bereavement. Her more recent research focuses on mind-body approaches to care. Dr. Folkman served on the NIH/NIMH National Advisory Mental Health Council. She has chaired or been a member of various NIH study sections, served on Institute of Medicine and NIH workgroups, and was co-chair of the American Psychological Association task force on ethics in research with human participants. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society.
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Charles Spence