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Euphoria

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Cheerfulness; Elevated mood; Happiness; Positive mood; Well-being

Definition

Euphoria is a type of affect that involves positive or elevated mood.

Introduction

Euphoria is a state or symptom of mood or affect that involves the experience of positive mood.

Euphoria

The term has be used to describe a state of “cheerfulness” (Rodgers and Bland 1996), “contentment” (Finger 1998), “intense happiness” (Pearsall 1999), and “extreme happiness and well-being” (Brookes et al. 2004). Although, as it can be seen, definitions tend to vary, it is important to note that euphoria is distinct from a number of other, apparently similar, symptoms of mood and affect. For example, euphoria is different from a manic episode, which is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition (American Psychiatric Association 2013) as including elevated or irritable mood and increased energy that persists for at least 1 week and is accompanied by a number of additional...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Amy L. Duncan

Authors
  1. Amy L. Duncan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy L. Duncan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Lodz, Smugowa 10/12, 91-433, Lodz, Poland

    Monika Wróbel

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Duncan, A.L. (2017). Euphoria. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_515-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_515-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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