An empirical ratio in search of a theory

Comments on the article by Frederickson and Losada (see record 2005-11834-001). In this comment, we show how to account for the phenomenon of the 3:1 ratio using a mathematical model of reflexive awareness (Lefebvre, 1977, 1992; Schwartz, 1997) that captures the property of the mind to model self and other at increasing levels of awareness. The model has successfully predicted the frequency of positive choices in people's evaluations of self and others (Grice, McDaniel & Thompsen, 2005) and distinguished pathological, normal, and optimal states in children (Ronan & Kendall, 1997) and adults (Schwartz et al., 2002). We apply this model to represent an individual who can be happy or unhappy and is capable of making a choice between the positive and negative poles.