Barbara L Fredrickson
Dr Barbara L. Fredrickson is Director of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory (PEP Lab) at UNC-Chapel Hill, Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), and also of the Society for Affective Science. Among the most highly cited scholars in psychology, Barbara Fredrickson is most known for her Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions, foundational within Positive Psychology for providing a blueprint for how pleasant emotional states, as fleeting as they are, contribute to resilience, well-being, and health.
Dr. Fredrickson has published > 150 peer-reviewed articles, and her general audience books, Positivity (2009, www.PositivityRatio.com) and Love 2.0 (2013, www.PositivityResonance.com) have been translated for more than 30 foreign markets. Dr. Fredrickson’s research has received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NCI, NIA, NCCIM, NIMH, NINR) and has been recognized with numerous honors, including the inaugural Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the Career Trajectory Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, the inaugural Christopher Peterson Gold Medal from the International Positive Psychology Association, and the Tang Prize for Achievements in Psychology, awarded to recognize exceptional career contributions to the well-being of humanity.
In 2015, through a partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill and Coursera, Dr. Fredrickson began teaching a free, online course on Positive Psychology that has attracted ~340,000 learners across ~200 counties worldwide. Through this and other means, her work influences scholars and practitioners worldwide, within education, business, healthcare, the military, and beyond.
Dr. Fredrickson was born and raised in Minnesota and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota (1986). She received her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University (1990), with a minor in organizational behavior, and post-doctoral training in psychophysiology from the University of California at Berkeley (1990-1992). Prior to joining the faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, she held faculty positions at Duke University and the University of Michigan.