Expressions of positive emotion in women's college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood

To test hypotheses about positive emotion, the authors examined the relatio nship of positive emotional expression in women's college pictures to perso nality, observer ratings, and life outcomes. Consistent with the notion tha t positive emotions help build personal resources, positive emotional expre ssion correlated with the self-reported personality traits of affiliation, competence, and low negative emotionality across adulthood and predicted ch anges in competence and negative emotionality. Observers rated women displa ying more positive emotion more favorably on several personality dimensions and expected interactions with them to be more rewarding; thus, demonstrat ing the beneficial social consequences of positive emotions. Finally, posit ive emotional expression predicted favorable outcomes in marriage and perso nal well-being up to 30 years later. Controlling for physical attractivenes s and social desirability had little impact on these findings.