Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the 3-to-1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life

Top positive review

Inspiring and Informative Book on Positivity Barbara Fredrickson

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 18, 2015

Barbara Fredrickson is inspiring, a dynamic force within the field of Positive Psychology. This is the most comprehensive and empirically-grounded account of Positivity that I have ever read to date. Reading this book with it's clearly presenteed scientific evidence for becoming more positive,was totally informative and enjoyable. Her perspective provides guidlines for improving our quality of life and interactions with people.

2 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Cam

For super negative people only.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 5, 2022

Started reading this book and it describes someone having a day going poorly because of their negative outlook and then suggests how much better it would be with a positive mindset. I must be a positive person because I could not relate to the example of the person having a bad day based on their mindset.

So I put the book down and never picked it up again. I heard great stuff about the book and author, so figured I would benefit from giving it a read but I don’t feel I am the target audience for it’s approach.

One person found this helpful

668 total ratings, 164 with reviews

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From Canada

shirley rolland

Inspiring and Informative Book on Positivity Barbara Fredrickson

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 18, 2015

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2 people found this helpful

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Cam

For super negative people only.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 5, 2022

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One person found this helpful

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H.M

Great book

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 27, 2017

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Great book. Thanks Barbara Fredrickson for such amazing and informative book.

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Brad Jones

Book Made In Heaven

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 23, 2016

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Perfect in all degrees! Infinity Stars , to be more like it!

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Harry Stefanakis, Ph.D. (author of CORE Living and Through Silence and Ash)

Many of my clients have reported positive feedback after I recommended this book to them

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 25, 2017

Sounds principles from the field of positive psychology expressed in straightforward way. Many of my clients have reported positive feedback after I recommended this book to them. Fits well with my lectures and writing on how to live well and overcome obstacles.

Helpful

AMB

Extremely boring

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 7, 2014

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The author just rambles on and on without any clear direction or concrete helpful steps one can take. Had to stop reading. Total waste of money. The first 2 chapters are encouraging which lead me to purchase the book but after that, it was mind-numbing and of no value.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rob I MacDonald

Buy this or light your money on fire... The results are both the same.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on January 17, 2016

Incredibly generic advice. The author will state an argument, such as positivity is good. Rather than quoting or stating specific well-designed research, the author simply appeals to their own authority. ie./ Positivity is good, trust me I know, I am a scientist who works on it. Of course, a (likely fictional) anecdotal story will follow, to demonstrate how positivity is good. Thanks Bob the truck driver for showing us how your life was better when you started being 3:1 ratio positive.

This book could be written by a junior high student. It's disorganized, repetitive, generic, uninspired, uninspiring, junk for someone with a required reading comprehension level of grade 3. Nothing profound, no good ideas are found, just obvious and contrived ones. The author patronizes any reader by stating boring advice as if it's profound.

I was going to donate this book to charity, but instead I recycled it so that no other human has to be insulted by it. I'm really upset money was wasted on such a pathetic waste of paper.

6 people found this helpful

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From other countries

Most worthwhile, useful book I've read in some time.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book is a very worthwhile read. I would disregard the reviews slamming the author as an over-privileged, white, upper-class yada yada yada etc. You know, some people are a little too attached to their position of coming from the School of Hard Knocks. A bit too proud of their misfortune, which only chains them to it.
I have lived through plenty of trial and tribulation - some of it was pretty hellish - and the reserves of positivity I had in me carried me through. I didn't have a high enough + ratio so I was still surviving, but I knew I wanted to thrive and not just survive. I've worked to be cognizant of my thought patterns and change them, and have read much on the brain, the mind, the subconscious mind, etc. I like some of the self-help genre of books, but I deeply value books with scientific and medical background which are credible and provide some backbone to the information presented. I also like that, while the author is an academic and scientist, her writing is very readable, it flows well, and it's not dry. I enjoyed reading it, and eagerly looked forward to absorbing a few more pages on my lunch break every day!
This is a valuable work, and it's no wonder it received some fantastic reviews from experts in the field of psychology. This is what we need. I have been using her (free) online tool to track my positivity for some time now, and I love it, do it daily over my coffee. I've raised my ratio by a whole point! And, no she doesn't try to make you join her site and buy things, some people seemed to think she did. I have seen authors do that, it's slimy. She give you the option to use the positivity tracker forms provided in the book, or use her website (without even joining it) or you have the option to create a user log-in and you can choose whether or not to allow her to (anonymously) use your data (if you choose to sign up and provide it) in her research. I chose yes because why not, it will benefit her research, which benefits us all.
Anyway, I love the way she explains how positivity and negativity work, I clearly see precisely what she describes when I look at my life, and the lives of those I know - people I love, strangers, coworkers. I can see exactly what she describes. I also saw how positivity & negativity acted in my life. The funny thing is, when you shift your perspective and find your inner wellspring of positivity, and when you do practices to increase your positivity, you truly realize what you thought was bad, really isn't that bad at all! My relationship improved and began to flourish again. Old friendships that had taken a wrong turn a long while back (due to negativity) were rekindled with forgiveness and gladness since reading the book! Work opportunities opened up for me, and when I tried to get those same connections and opportunities a year ago, in a less positive state, I got absolutely nowhere. With my new, higher positivity ratio, I was able to make contacts, doors opened, people began to work with me gladly. It's wonderful. A phrase I commonly heard was "I like your energy!" People really notice your energy - positive or negative.
I haven't reached the 3:1 ratio but I will! I'm working on it, and am so excited to get there and maintain it and live a life rich with joy, appreciation, and goodness. I always wished to flourish, I spent a few decades surviving and wanting to thrive, and this book shows the way. Very glad I read it, and it's dog-eared and underlined and I'll be using the material for years to come, and spreading it to others to benefit from, too.
I don't know if the author ever reads her reviews here, but if she ever does, I'd like to say "thank you" for your wonderful work and research and thank you for taking time out from your laboratory to share your findings with the rest of us.

9 people found this helpful

homesteadlite

2.9013 to 1

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 31, 2022

Verified Purchase

You know that method where you sandwich something someone needs to improve in between two compliments or positive statements, to soften the blow a little? Well, the premise of this book is that people need THREE positive interactions for every negative one in order to feel as though they're satisfied with their life or flourishing (as opposed to languishing). Positive Psychology guru Frederickson had figured it all along as 3:1, but it was scientifically determined to be 2.9013 to 1. A good lesson for all of us to put a little sugar on it. Frederickson offers numerous ways to enhance these positive moments for others or ourselves.

One person found this helpful

Coert Visser

Positivity is a wise choice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 8, 2009

Verified Purchase

Barbara Fredrickson, Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina, and a pioneer of positive psychology, specializes in research on positive emotions and human flourishing. She is best-known for her so-called broaden-and build theory of positive emotions.

This book describes in an accessible and captivating way what the research by her and her colleagues has taught her about what positivity is and what is does. In her explanation of what positivity is, she mentions ten forms of positivity: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love. As to what positivity does, maybe it is best to start with six facts she mentions about positivity: 1) positivity feels good, 2) positivity changes how your mind works, 3) positivity transforms your future, 4) positivity puts the brakes on negativity, 5) positivity obeys a tipping point, 6) you can increase your positivity. A briefer way of describing what positivity amounts to is that it opens your mind and helps you get on a positive trajectory, an upward spiral. In other words: it makes you flourish. Flourishing is more than being happy. In Barbara Fredrickson's words: "Flourishing goes beyond happiness, or satisfaction with life. True, people who flourish are happy. But that's not the half of it. Beyond feeling good, they're also doing good -adding value to the world. People who flourish are highly engaged with their families, work, and communities."

But that is not the whole story. The effects of positivity are not simple and linear. Rather, they are subtle and non-linear. Human flourishing works like a nonlinear dynamic system. In nonlinear systems, there are one or more tipping points at which the properties of the system can suddenly change dramatically. An example of such a non-linear system with a tipping point is how ice melts at zero degrees Celsius. Consultant and researcher Marcial Losada has helped Barbara Fredrickson uncover a tipping point in the positivity ratio. The positivity ratio is the ratio of people's experiences of positive to negative emotions. Fredrickson's and Losada's research show that there is a tipping point above which flourishing starts and below which it doesn't. This positivity ratio tipping point is 3-1. When there are three times or more as many positive experiences than negative ones, flourishing will start with all of its beneficial consequences. There also turns out to be a second tipping point, by the way, of 11-1, which is the upper bound of flourishing. Above this upper bound it seems that there is too much positivity. In other words, there will always remain a useful role for some negativity. Fredrickson has found that most people have more positive than negative experiences but are below the 3-1 tipping point. Fortunately, there are many known ways to raise your positivity (many of them are described in the book) so that flourishing is attainable for anyone.

I can hardly say how impressed I am with this book. This book presents the best that positive psychology has to offer. The writing is very clear and pleasant. At the same time, everything that is being written is linked to scientific findings (which are mentioned explicitly). My suggestion is: do yourself a favor and buy yourself this book.

15 people found this helpful

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