Abstract:

Recent studies have found that the more positive emotion people pursue, the less likely they will feel happy. Its psychological mechanism may be：when pursuing positive emotion comes to be a major goal, people tend to (1) set a too high standard for happy emotion; (2) obtain happiness through ineffective ways; (3) monitor the process of getting happy instead of immersing in it. There are many questions should be further explored: (1) Revealing the consequences of pursuing positive emotion comprehensively; (2) The neural mechanisms of pursuing positive emotion’s negative effects; (3) The cross-culture differences of pursuing positive emotion; (4) To explore the way to gain positive results in pursuing positive emotion.

Key words: pursuit positive emotion, subject well-being, paradox, goal orientation, self-monitoring