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Positive Psych Test 1 Study Guide (Question 1: What makes Societies Happy?…
Positive Psych Test 1 Study Guide
Question 1: What makes Societies Happy?
Environmental/Lifestyle Factors
According to Video of Ed Diener at the symposium, greenspace is associated with higher level of satisfaction, executive functioning
Higher level of pollutions associated with lower life satisfaction (Diener Video)
Long commutes associated with more stress and less quality time
Material
(Diener Video) After covering all the basic human needs (up to 75,000), happiness increases very slightly with increased income
Need money for food, shelter, security to reach a high level of happiness
Societal Factors
From Diener Video (predictors of happiness in a society):
Can you trust others? Corruption has inverse relationship with happiness of society
Psychological Factors
Has autonomy over own life
Constantly learns though their job
Uses strengths every day
Question 2: What are the Effects of being happy?
From Class lecture:
Increased perception of safety
Are more decisive
Trust other people
are more productive at work
Are more creative and tolerant
Have better relationships
Select more challenging goals, persist longer
Have stronger physical health (immune system + cardio)
are more empathetic
find a greater sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.
From Nun study:
Most cheerful group of nuns survived until 85 at a 25% higher rate than least cheerful, and a 34% higher rate at 93
Smile study (Harker & Keltner): Authentic Happiness (measured with faked vs real smiles) lead to
higher competence
more relationships throughout life
Barbara Fredrickson's research on benefits of happiness
Physical (skills, health, longevity)
Social (friendships, social support networks)
Intellectual (expert knowledge, intellectual complexity) and
Psychological (resilience, optimism, creativity)
Is positive Psych just happiology?
No, because you're not necessarily feeling/showing exuberance when you're engaged in positive, productive, and meaningful activities. (flow state)
Positive psych is the study of what makes life worth living (lecture)
More complicated than just happiology - 3 pillars of positive psychology:
Positive Institutions
Individual traits
Subjective experiences
Research on able vs disabled in text:
Even though Pollyanna lost her legs and went through a lot of hardship, she takes advantage of the human brain's potential for resilience in the face of tragedy. She shows the effect we discussed in class where tragedies have a larger perceived long term negative effect on well being than the reality. for example: 128 paralyzed people wanted commit suicide soon after the incident, but after one year most described their quality of life as good or excellent. This correlates to Dan Gilbert's research on quality of life of lottery winners compared to parapalegics.
Psychological immune system - cognitive processes that change the way you think about events to minimize negative emotions
Is happiness an individual phenomenon?
No
Factors like trust in the government, economic opportunity, and ability to do what you love are significant for happiness (from diener Video). These factors are also societal factors, so if a society provides these positive factors, an individual is more likely to be happy.
As mentioned in the slides, positive psychology can be broken down into institutional scale, positive character, or pleasure
Yes
An individual's unique temperment, upbringing, and other psychological traits play a significant part in their ability to reach happiness. These intrinsic characteristics are solely vary based on the individual, and help illustrate how happiness is partly a phenomenon on the individual scale
3 types of happy lives
Pleasant
Can only be satisfying if you have the good and meaningful life
belonging
in hierarchy of needs
Activities
going out with friends
Eating really good food
Buying comfortable clothes
Attributes:
Hedonistic
Socially active
Exuberant
Positive emotion
Good
A life of engagement - self actualization in hierarchy of needs
Use strengths to improve your life
Activities
Spending time with family/parenting
Career advancement and meaningful work relationships
Attributes
Engagement with other people or institutions
Flow State
Flow state
When time stops and your completely in the moment
Natural focus
Not a state of exuberance, but neutral existence in the moment
Meaningful
Related to self transcendence/actualization
Knowing highest strengths and use them in service of a cause larger then yourself
Activities
Donating to charity
Starting own non-profit