ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses important conceptual issues relevant to a psychology of savoring and then addresses the need to establish means of measurement. People may deliberately structure and respond to positive experiences in ways that maximize their hedonic benefits. For some kinds of positive experiences, savoring the past through rosy retrospection might produce a more intense emotional response than savoring the present as it is unfolding. A more complex and less frivolous savoring comes when people feel connected to others as part of the savoring experience. E. A. Styles lists many different ways that scientists have tried to define consciousness and suggests that these multiple modes of consciousness are correlated with different modes of attention. Savoring a relationship can have interactive consequences with the person or persons who make up that relationship. When savoring does apply to a person, then it can be a strong causal force in affecting an interpersonal transaction.
