Abstract
I recently read about a contest to determine who had the most creative vanity license plate. The inscription on the winning license plate was “AXN28D+.” For those who, like myself, are less than skilled at decoding some of these tags, the plate translates into “Accentuate the Positive.” Although certainly a valuable guide for living life, this phrase also reflects the approach that social and behavioral researchers have taken in their investigations of social interactions and relationships. Rather than focusing on the broad spectrum of human behavior, emphasizing both the positive and negative facets of personal relationships, scientists studying personal relationships have tended to “accentuate the positive.”
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Kowalski, R.M. (1997). The Underbelly of Social Interaction. In: Kowalski, R.M. (eds) Aversive Interpersonal Behaviors. The Springer Series in Social/Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9354-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9354-3_1
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