Barbara Fredrickson

Barbara Fredrickson

Barbara Lee Fredrickson (born June 15, 1964) is an American professor in the department of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology.

Fredrickson is a social psychologist who conducts research in emotions and positive psychology. Her main work is related to her broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which suggests that positive emotions lead to novel, expansive, or exploratory behavior, and that, over time, these actions lead to meaningful, long-term resources such as knowledge and social relationships. She is the author of Positivity, a general-audience book that draws on her own research and that of other social scientists.

Fredrickson earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1990. She was a professor at the University of Michigan for 10 years before moving to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fredrickson's mentors include Robert Levenson and Laura Carstensen.