Although at face value sadness would be thought of as a negative emotion and it does have obvious negative aspects, it also has its positive side. A life without sadness would have less colour to it than one in which it is not possible to experience, say, mourning, even though it is painful to do so. Surely, sadness can only occur after the experience of positive emotion.
From Izard's (1991) differential emotions theory view, sadness is less tense than many of the other negative emotions. It is also somehow purer as an experience. Experientially, it is made up of downheartedness, discouragement, loneliness and isolation. Typical causes are the commonplace circumstances of everyday life, but especially those that usually involve loss. It seems to have the effect of slowing down the system and prompt s reflection. Izard argues that sadness is so commonplace that it frequently interacts with other emotions, such as anger, fear and shame. Stearns (1993a) makes an interesting analysis of the psychological approaches to sadness. One of the most promising of these is that of seeing emotions, including sadness, as enabling and motivating adaptive responses. Sadness is an emotion that concentrates attention on the self and is an indication that the person (the self ) needs help. It can be distinguished from fear and guilt in that they have something anticipatory about them, whereas in sadness the self is usually not responsible for what has happened.
Also, it has been argued that sadness occurs when a situation that is bad for the person is nevertheless reversible or can be changed in some way. Stearns also discusses anthropological and historical approaches to sadness. Some anthropological work, for example (Lutz, 1988), points to sadness not being regarded as negative in some societies. Also, although psychologists have suggested that a distinction between sadness and anger, say, comes from agency or cause, anthropologists suggest that it is a matter of knowing when, to what audience and in what language it is apposite to feel sadness or anger. Also, sadness does not always involve turning inward, Stearns viewing its expression in modern America as turning outward, for help. From a theoretical viewpoint, perhaps the most important point to emerge from considerations of sadness is that it is not always a negative emotion. As ever with human emotions, judgements about this are mixed up with the surrounding moral order, or values, or individual versus collective responsibility and so on.
