Considerable publicity has surrounded research on sex differences in negative emotional experiences, especially the tendency for women to experience greater depression, personal discomfort, and mental disorganization than men (e.g., Gove, 1978; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1987). However, an exclusive focus on sex differences in negative affect could suggest that women's emotional states in general are more negative than men's. Adopting a broader perspective on emotion that includes positive emotions reveals quite a different picture of sex differences. As we will demonstrate in our present review of the research literature, women not only report experiencing more negative feelings, but also more positive emotions.

The seemingly paradoxical finding that women report more positive as well as negative emotions than men can be understood if positive and negative affect are conceptualized as separate, unipolar dimensions. When research participants rate their global experience of good versus bad emotions, these two dimensions typically emerge as statistically independent (Diener, 1984; Diener & Emmons, 1985; Warr, Barter, & Brownbridge, 1983; although see Green, Goldman, & Salovey, 1993). The independence of positive and negative affect in reports of global emotions is apparently due to the combined effects of two qualities of emotion, intensity and frequency. Ratings of emotional intensity typically are positively correlated, so that people possess a characteristic level of emotional intensity across both positive and negative dimensions. That is, some people typically experience intense, passionate emotions (both positive and negative ones) and others experience relatively placid, subdued emotions (Diener, Larsen, Levine, & Emmons, 1985; Diener, Suh, Smith, & Shao, 1995; Moore & Isen, 1990).