Berezina, T. N. Measuring Positive Emotions By Means of a New Hard-Ware Approach

Abstract: The author of the article offers a new instrumental procedure for objective measurement of positive emotions experienced by a person in different life situations. It is assumed that when particular emotions are being experienced (‘true emotions’ as the author calls them), there are certain changes in the functional status of the entire body including physiology. It is also shown that in some cases these changes can be accompanied with the appearance of alcohol-like substances in the exhaled air which can be actually registered by the breathalyzer. The article contains the description of the results of the empiric research. According to these results, positive emotions cause this effect in 0.4-0.5% of life situations. These situations include a meeting with a beloved, enjoying food, perceiving artwork, controlling pain and etc. Noteworthy that exhaled alcohol-like substances were not registered in the control group of respondents who were in the functionally neutral status (in particular, students listening to a lecture).

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