Psy 158 UCSB

Domains studied

• School settings and learning • Health settings, health behaviors • Environmental actions (e.g., recycling) • Prosocial behaviors

Jobs and Income

• Studies measuring happiness/SWB at Time 1 predict outcomes at Time 2 - likelihood to called back for 2nd job interview - High SWB = Reemployment within 1 year after unemployment - Supervisory evaluations in high SWB better 1.5 yrs later - Income How much $$? (Diener 2002) • Positive association between T1 cheerfulness (1-5) and income - Strongest for those with higher parental incomes - $25,000 between 1 and 5 on cheerfulness!

I-data: ask someone who knows

Judgments of an informant - Close acquaintance - Trained clinician (e.g., diagnosis) Advantages: Large base of info (less than self report tho), real-world basis (what other ppl see you do), common sense, definitional truth Disadvantages: Limited base of info compared to S, lack of access to private info, error, bias

L-data: looking at the "residue"

Life-outcome data - Verifiable, concrete, real-life outcomes • e.g., Arrest records, medical records, photos, income Advantages: objective/verifiable, intrinsic importance, psycholgical relevance Disadvantages: multi-determinism, possible lack of psychological relevance, often not collected for a study so may not be what the researcher needs

Mood (well-being)

general emotional feelings unconnected to a specific object

Affect (well-being)

general response to an object - Valence—good or bad (for me) - Autonomic arousal—high or low

Cultural Self-Schemas

independent people separate other relationships from their sense of self whereas interdependent cultures have overlapping views of self and others

Self-Determination Image

o If you are not motivated or not regulating your behavior, this is an impersonal locus of causality (not trying to impact your environment at all) o Extrinsic motivation • External regulation - you are only going to work because you get paid, so that if that was taken away, you would stop working • Introjected regulation - you see a value of being at your job, but its still mostly due to getting paid and not being punished • Identified regulation - this job is important and has some influence and you see some importance, but not engaged in activity for enjoyment • Integrated motivation - synthesize job with yourself so that it becomes a part of who you are

Study: Early Positive Emotion Experiments

oPositive moods or specific emotions are associated with: -Positive views of self and others -Sociability and activity levels -Pro-social behavior -Creativity and problem solving oEarly work did not fit into theoretical models of emotions very well

Culture and Subjective Well-Being: Mean levels

Independent cultures tend to score higher on SWB than Interdependent cultures, especially Asian cultures (do not group Latin American countries in this pattern) - Active positive affect is less emphasized in collectivist cultures--contentment is more focused on -Pride and guilt are differently emphasized (Western cultures emphasize pride more, eastern cultures do not consider guilt negative, it just means that you are responsible for relationships)

Corey Keys (eudaimonia)

Social Well-Being needs to be integrated with concept of well-being - Social acceptance • Positive attitudes toward people - Social actualization • Society is evolving positively - Social contribution • You are of value to society - Social integration • Feel part of a community

Genetics / Set-point (50%)

• Happiness/SWB is partly determined by individual differences in personality— which is partially genetics • Genetic contribution largely is to the baseline level to which people return after life events (positive and negative) -We all have different set-points, so if something happens to one person they may not react to it the same as another person

Summary of Review of SWB/Happiness Correlates

• Happiness/subjective well-being precedes - Job prospects, higher income - Positive social relationships - Health and mortality • Caveats - Reciprocal relationships abound - Most studies reviewed from western cultures - Third variable problem still exists

According to the article "What and why is positive psychology?", which of the following is not one of the three reasons the authors give for the fields' prior predominant focus on the negative or distressing aspects of human life.

a. Human nature: Psychologists, like most other people, are predisposed to notice and pay more attention to negative stimuli than positive stimuli. b. Reality: Many more negative events and interactions occur in people's lives than positive events and interactions. Correct c. Compassion: Those who are suffering should be helped before those who are already doing okay. d. Pragmatic reasons: Many funding agencies prioritized understanding mental illness after WWII.

In Diener & Diener's "Most People are Happy" article, the researchers asked participants to estimate the percentage of people in the US and the percentage of people from specific groups (e.g., unemployed men, the elderly) who have high (above neutral) well-being. They then compared these estimates to the actual numbers from previous surveys. Overall, participants tended to ________ the percentage of people who have high well-being.

a. underestimate Correct b. estimate accurately c. overestimate

Trait and Explanatory Style Optimism

• Highly correlated with one another • Associated with many of the same outcomes • Explanatory styles approach suggests specific route to change - Retraining explanatory styles

Volitional activities (40%)

• Activities that change well-being - Structural changes to circumstances: -Life circumstances: changing jobs to reduce commute times - Making long-lasting change in factors related to well-being: social relationships, thinking style, motivation, gratitude

adaptation theory revised

• Adaptation may not be the same for all people or all events o Differences in coping abilities o Differences in savoring and gratitude • Different set points for different aspects of well-being (There are different components! Ex. life satisfaction, positive feelings, negative feelings may have different set points, we should not generalize them all together) • Some life events leave long-term changes to one's set-point

Possible Cultural Variation (Iyengar & Lepper, 1999)

• Asian-american and anglo-american childres (2nd-4th grade) • Did anagram tasks (6 different topics) o Chose their own topic o Experimenter chose o Mom chose (Asians spent hella time on the task compared to white kids) -When they had their own choice for the topic, Anglo-American and Asian-American kids have higher engagement in the activity (spent more time) o Both groups were low when it was experimenter's choice o When their mom chose, Asian American children spent the most time on the anagram task during free-play, whereas Anglo-American children treated this similar as the stranger/experimenter did • Therefore, there are some cultural differences, however intrinsic motivation is pretty universal

More Broadening Effects (Fredrickson, 2000)

• Assigned randomly to one of 5 film clips • Asked to list all the things they would like to do at that moment Results: Broader momentary action repertoire in positive emotion states -Main Idea → The function of positive emotions aren't meant to narrow our behavior process into a smaller pattern, but they open up our minds to think more globally and think about things we hadn't been thinking before

Positive illusions are sometimes more healthy

• Associated with indicators of mental health - Happiness and contentment - Ability to care for others - Capacity for creative, productive work • Mechanisms to maintaining illusions - Selective attention, benign forgetting - Pockets of incompetence - Negative self-schemas

what are our basic needs?

• Autonomy o Feeling that youendorse your behaviors, do them of your own volition (have a choice in what we are doing) • Competence o Feeling of effectively negotiating internal and external environment • Relatedness o Feeling of connection to others

Are positive emotions different than negative emotions?

• Broaden and Build hypothesis for positive emotions, Barbara Fredrickson (2000) - Momentary thought-action repertoire function of emotions - Positive emotions broaden momentary thought- action repertoire • This broadening can build resources

Hope

• C. R. Snyder's research and theory of hope - closely related to optimism • Hope has two components: - Ability to plan pathways to desired goals, despite obstacles - Agency or motivation to use these pathways • Hope has a developmental trajectory - Child encounters barriers to desired outcomes -->Plans ways around them --> Actively executes them - Genesis of hope --> Psychological immunization—resilience • Hope predicts - Many of the outcomes related to optimism - Related to adjustment to chronic conditions •Hope based therapy teaches people to imagine these pathways and agency to get around obstacles

Experience of flow

• Concentration on task/loss of self- awareness -Focus is on the task, not the self -Lapse in concentration or bouts of self- criticism can stop the flow experience • Sense of control - Heightened sense of control coupled with reduced anxiety about losing control (even when task is risky) - Adjusting to feedback in task makes you feel like you have control • Time transformation - With repetitive tasks time "flies by" - With rapid complex skills time slows down

Adaptation/Hedonic Treadmill

• Dan Ariely: people can get used to or change the way they think about circumstances to incorporate them in their everyday life • We become accustomed to good and bad events in our lives • Novelty, adjustment period wears off (hedonic treadmill) - For positive events, the threshold is raised and we want more, better, different - For negative events, we cope and change • Lottery winners, paralyzed accident survivors, imprisonment return to baseline

Thwarting needs, Undermining Intrinsic motivation

• Punishment, threats of punishment • Pressured evaluation - Imposing goals, deadlines, directives • Rewards for task completion - Particularly when viewed as controlling

Nun study (Danner, Snowden, & Freisen, 2001)

• Roman Catholic Nuns recruited 1986 for a study on Alzheimer's - In 2001 295 (of the 678) were alive, all over 85 • All had written autobiographical essays when entered the sisterhood - (average age 22) - Essays were coded for positive emotions Longevity: -Strong linear effect, more negative words = more dead -Strong for positive emotion words, higher for variation in positive emotion words

But...some positive emotions do narrow attention (P. Gable & Harmon-Jones)

• Theory that positive emotions with strong approach motives should actually narrow attention (high activation = high approach) - Film clip induction • Kittens playing (amusement—low approach) • Yummy desserts (desire—high approach) - Global/local attention task • Amusement condition replicated previous study, more global • Desire condition reversed it, more local

Optimism

• Two research traditions - Trait optimism (Dispositional Optimism) (from personality health literature) - Explanatory style (from clinical literature)

Self-Determination Theory: Ed Deci and Rich Ryan

• View humans as active organisms, oriented toward growth - We have inclinations towards spontaneous interest, exploration, mastery of new information, skills, and experiences • These tendencies can be expressed when our basic needs are met - Autonomy (feeling that you endorse your behaviors and do them out of your own volition), competence (effectively negotiating internal and external environment), and relatedness (feeling of connection to others)

Miswanting

• Wanting is based on what we think we will like - I want the new car, it will make me happy, cool, and content. • Miswanting occurs when we misjudge the intensity or duration of our liking

Duchenne Smile Indicators

•Action of the zygomatic major muscle indicates when you have wrinkles around your mouth, it means that there's a lot of action •Action of the orbicularis oculi muscle (crows feet) Social Smile - when you're smiling but its not a Duchenne

Theories of Emotion

• Emotions have a behavioral function: to narrow down our behavioral options, narrowed into Specific action tendencies • Ex: fear...you see a stimulus that makes you feel fear, your behavior is narrows down so that you run, and you end up survive...In other words, having an emotion helps you survive and serves a FUNCTIONAL purpose • Anger (need for protection)/Shame(need for social acceptance)/ Jealousy/Sadness(need for healing) • Problem: Work based on negative emotions rather than positive

Optimistic Explanatory Style (Peterson, Seligman)

• Explaining negative events as caused by - External (not internal) - Unstable (not stable, one time thing or will it keep happening?) - Specific (not global; isolated incident, or does it happen on all domains of life?)

Flow Research

• Flow associated with positive affect, well- being • Individual differences in propensity for flow - Adolescents who report more flow grow up to have more creative achievements and are mentally healthier • Flow in education—try to encourage - Scaffolding challenges tailored to be just above skill level

Goal clarity and feedback

• Flow experiences have clear, not vague goals -rock climbing has goal to get to the next level , competitive sailing has clear goals • Feedback is immediate—know how you are doing on a moment to moment basis - Automatic, well-developed skills respond to this feedback (automaticity of action)...We aren't thinking about how to respond because we have a good challenge and skill balance

Nun study conclusions

• Happiness and satisfaction predicted all- cause mortality 60 years later - 2.5-4.0 increase in mortality risk from bottom quartile to top

Social Relationships

• Happiness at Time 1 predicts later - likelihood to be married (2 high panel studies) -Happiness predicts relationship quality! - marital satisfaction6 yrs later - closeness with social network 4 yrs later -more supervisor support on the job - Volunteer work 3 yrs later

Flow at all stages of skill

•Scaffolding: giving kids increasing levels of difficulty as their skill develops •Need to make sure that as your skill increases, the challenge is also increasing •If the challenge rises to quickly before skill increases, then there is anxiety

Volitional Activities subject to adaptation too

•Timing and refractory period are important to understand o Just like you can adapt to positive and negative events (life circumstances), you can adapt to volitional changes, effects are moderated by when they receive these changes and the amount of time they spend doing these exercises •Outcome of Volitional activities - Variation is important! o Example - it is important to increase your time around nature because it positively impacts SWB, but you get an even bigger impact if you vary what you are doing

Personality and Happiness

SWB/happiness positively correlated with - Self-esteem - Personal control - Optimism - Not having psychological disorder symptoms

Health and mortality

-Happiness was related to better self-reported health 5 years later -Lower incidents of specific health issues later on (stroke, heart disease) -Faster recovery from illness (heart surgery 6 mo. later, spinal cord injury survival 11 yrs later) -Lower rates of fatal accidents and suicide -Predicts all-cause mortality (avg 20 mo. longer)

Eckman's Emotional Coding (Facial Action Coding)

-Display rules for the 5 emotions that are pretty universal -there are differences in smiles because there are different reasons to smile -Social smile is dictated by the situation and does not indicate the internal state -Genuine smiles (Duchenne) indicate internal state

B-data: Watch what the person does

"Behavioral"data— - Natural B data: systematic recordings in daily life and natural settings (unobtrusive observations, ambulatory assessments, tweets) - Laboratory B data: systematic recordings in contrived setting: • performancedata(e.g.,scoreontest,reactiontime) • some personality tests (e.g. marshmallow test, TAT) • physiologicalmeasures(e.g.,fMRI,bloodpressure) • coded behavior from lab (e.g., count smiles during interaction) Advantages: wide range of contexts, appearance of objectivity Disadvantages: Uncertain interpretation (real or fake smile?), multi-determinism

Affective forecasting

People have difficulty predicting the duration and intensity of their future emotions -year after tenure study

Who is likely to be happy?

-Don't need to know age, gender, race -Can get an IDEA if you know personal income (esp. if above basic necessity level), country income and culture, personality (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness).. SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP QUALITY

Contributions to Happiness

-Genetics (50%) -Actions and thoughts (40%) -External Circumstances (10%)

CTRA

-Immune cells (Conserved Transcriptional Response to Adversity) -Comes into play when there ere Extended periods of stress, threat, or uncertainty associated with -One system: Increase of expression of genes involved in inflammation (e.g, IL1B, IL6, IL8, TNF, in response to wounds) -Second system: Decrease of expression of genes involved in antiviral responses and antibody synthesis (e.g., IFI, OAS, IGJ, when you are attacked by sickness) >If I have to increase my response, then all the energy in the inflammatory (first system) goes down to respond to this antiviral threat

What does happiness and well-being predict?

-Many of the current studies are correlational, that means there is a possible 3rd variable problem. -We should turn to longitudinal studies

Happiness levels in twins

-Monozygotic twins reared apart: SWB correlated 0.53 -Monozygotic twins reared together: 0.44 (still the same regardless of if they were apart or together) -Dizygotic twins together and apart have not string correlation because they don't really hare the same genetic makeup that monozygotic twins share -Across time and across twins with the same makeup these findings were stable

Religion and Happiness

-Religiosity and commitment, belief in God positively associated with happiness -Belief in God or some higher power moderately correlated with happiness • Other studies find no differences in religious activities of happy vs. non-happy individuals

Culture and SWB (graph)

-SWB increases as GDP per capita increases -There are cultural differences, such as ex-communist countries that are on the upward trend financially but still have SWB levels lower than the baseline happiness ex: latin american countries tend to have higher SWB despite lower GDP, Western cultures tend to be higher GDP and SWB

Other obstacles to happiness

-Social Comparisons: evolutionarily adaptive process -Losses loom more than gains: losing $100 is a stronger (painful) feeling than the joy felt from gaining $100

Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

-Sometimes called happiness -High SWB= high satisfaction with life (cognitive component) -High positive emotions and less negative emotions (emotional component)

Well-being and human genome (S. Cole and colleagues)

-What are biological processes underlying health advantages of well-being? (high well-being = improved health, what are the biological processes that make us feel better?) -21,000 genes that have evolved to help us survive and thrive -Current study targets CTRA, immune cells that have a genetic code (genes determine how your immune system works... the environment will turn on and off your immune system to a certain degree)

Daily Lives of Happy People: Shallow or Deep (Mehl, Vazire, et al., 2010)

-What are happy ppl doing that is different from unhappy people? (used EAR device) - Coded (Alone or with others, Small talk versus meaningful conversations) • Rated subjective well-being and happiness • Two friends family also rated happiness -The more alone you were on a daily basis, the lower your SWB -The more often you were talking to someone else, the higher your happiness (The amount of small talk wasn't a prob, but the more small talk in relation to the more meaningful convos correlated with lower SWB) Conclusions: Happy life is social not solitary, and conversationally deep rather than superficial

Independent Culture Self-Construal

-define oneself in terms of ones own internal thoughts, feelings, actions -Western cultures tend to be independent

Interdependent Culture Self-Construal

-defining oneself in terms of ones relationships with other people and recognition that thoughts, actions, feelings, are dependent on other people -Ex: eastern cultures.... HOWEVER, latin american countries tend to have this view but also have higher SWB,

Four kinds of sources of data

BLIS - B data: Behavioral - L data: Life outcomes: ask someone who knows - I data: Informant report - S-data: Self-report: asking the person directly

Motivation: Reinforcement Theory

Behavior that is enforced through reward will be repeated •Deci (1971): challenged this notion Method→ had people play enjoyable puzzles called Soma Puzzles and either paid or did not pay people for playing them Results→ During free period, people in the paid condition were less likely to continue to play with them This challenges reinforcement theory, because people that were rewarded did not want to do it as much

Measured well-being: H and E (Keyes' Flourishing Measure)

Conclusions: Hedonic (H) and Eudaimonic (E) go together • Most people had higher H than E • The more E you had relative to H: - Lower inflammation, higher antiviral & antibody -higher meaning in life is associated with lower stress pattern • The more H you had relative to E: - Higher inflammation, lower antibody - Less healthy, looks like stress sample (same pattern seen for loneliness in other samples)

In Diener & Diener's "Most People are Happy" article, they found that across time in the US and across many nations, the large majority of people had high subjective well-being (above the midpoint on the scale). However, one big problem with their review is that they only summarized studies that used one-time self-report scales and thus their conclusions may be due to methodological issues.

FALSEEEEE... they used multiple different designs including longitudinal design

Characteristics of flow

Features of flow 1. Intrinsic interest in the task 2. Challenge—skill balance 3. Goal clarity and feedback -Automaticity of action Experience of flow 1. Concentration on task/loss of self-awareness 2. Sense of control 3. Time transformation

Trait Optimism (Carver & Scheier)

Global expectation that more good things than bad will happen in the future • Fairly stable over time - about 25% heritable - parental warmth, financial security = ↑ optimism • ↑ optimism respond better (less stress, more well-being) to adversity • Use more effective coping strategies (in contrast, pessimists avoid, ignore, or withdraw from stressors) • Optimists tend to be healthier than pessimists (based on recovery) • Optimists tend to persist longer in face of difficulties •LOT (Life Orientation Test): 6 items are given with 4 fillers Example - In uncertain times, I usually expect the best; I'm always optimistic about my future...

Very Happy People (Diener & Seligman, 2002)

Identified very happy, moderate, and unhappy people.. looked at: • Global SWB • Informant reports • Daily affect balance • Memory event recall task • Trait self-description • Suicide measure • Top 10% very happy, bottom 10% unhappy; middle 25% moderate -The very happy people self-report having more friends, strong family ties, stronger romantic relationships.. they outperform very unhappy people on peer/informant ratings -no differences in gender or income, just relationship quality -can't be high in SWB unless you have existent satisfying close relationships -happiness=contagious? can feel happiness/unhappiness in relationships up to 3 degrees of separation

Flourishing (Keyes)

Integrating the two perspectives (Ryff, keyes, Diener) To flourish is to have emotional, social, and psychological well-being... just as you can diagnose someone with a disorder, you can diagnose someone as flourishing or not -Diagnosed as flourishing if you had 1/3 hedonic well-being every day or almost everyday AND felt 6/11 positive functioning symptoms everyday or almost everyday Otherwise, you are languishing.......

Mills College Yearbook Study

Longitudinal study that originated about personality... would personality at T1 predict later personality?? -Participants started at age 21, were revisited at 27 and 52 -Went back to yearbook photo and coded them on a scale of 1-5 (1=minimal intensity, 5= extreme intensity) Results: Smiling at age 20 predicted: • Marital Status @ age 27, r = .19* • Marital Satisfaction @ age 52, r = .20* (unrelated to divorce) • Personal Well-Being @ age 52, r = .27*

Empirical Data on Hedonic vs. Eudaimonic Well-Being

Many more studies that measure subjective well-being than eudaimonic well-being (but The two are highly correlated, about .79) • Researchers often assume that satisfaction with life or happiness captures "meaning" (doesn't mean it's true) • Some studies compare them

Autotelic personalities (intrinsic motivation)

People have meta- skills that enable them to enter and maintain flow states more often - Curiosity and interest •People that rate highly on curiosity and interest will most likely partake in autotelic tasks or have more rewarding activities

Carol Ryff (Eudaimonia)

Psychological well-being needs the following: - Self-acceptance (Positive attitude toward self) - Personal growth (Feelings of continued development, wanting to change) - Purpose in life (Have goals, sense of direction, things you want to accomplish) - Environmental mastery (Feel competent and able to manage environment, challenges) - Autonomy (Self-determined, whether or not you feel like your actions are originating within yourself rather than your environment) - Positive relations with others (Have warm, satisfying relationships with others)

S-data: asking the person directly

Self-judgments - Open ended self-reports •"Tell us about your most creative moment." - Close-ened reports (questionnaires, very common) • Example—creativity facet, trait of openness 5 = strongly agree, 4 = agree, 3 = neutral (neither agree nor disagree), 2 = disagree, 1 = strongly disagree -Advantages: large base of info, access to thoughts, feelings, and intentions, definitional truth, easy -Disadvantages: Ppl may not be able to tell you because they may not have access to the info, may not want to reveal certain info, too simple? are they just breezing through questionnaires?

Ed Diener

Subjective well-being - Evaluation of one's current status (often referred to as happiness in media) - Two components: 1. Positive affect minus negative affect (emotional component) 2. General life satisfaction (evaluative component, questionnaires)

Emotion (well-being)

Suite of reactions to an object: cognitive evaluations, physiological changes, subjective changes, and behavior (or impulses toward a behavior). Functional.

Autotelic task (intrinsic motivation)

Task is an end, in and of itself, and not a means to an end. The activity is immediately rewarding

Priming Self-Construals

Temporarily make one aspect of the self more salient = priming • Several experimental manipulations that achieve this - Example: "List 15 ways in which you are ____ your family and friends" • Independent = "different/unique from" • Interdependent = "similar to/have in common with" -Priming self-construals effects HOW satisfaction is judged For Americans, your emotions have higher weight in determining life satisfaction when you are thinking of the independent self, and when you prime the relational self, social appraisal and emotions have similar weight in determining life satisfaction In Korea, if you prime independent self, the emotions have a much higher weight in determining life satisfaction, and when primed with relational self, social appraisals weigh more in determining life satisfaction

Life Goals and SDT

The content of some goals are more compatible with the three basic needs - Not all goals are created equal • Intrinsic aspirations → growth, community, relationships • Extrinsic aspirations → wealth, fame, image

Culture and Subjective Well-Being: Components of Well-being

The correlation between the affective and cognitive components of SWB are lower in interdependent cultures -Culture may influence how we evaluate life satisfaction: -In collective cultures, social appraisals are weighed heavier than social appraisals -In individualist cultures, balance b/w positive and negative affect are weighed heavier than social appraisals -However, there are variations within cultures as well, can manipulate self-construal as well

Broadening Effects (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005)

Used film clips to induce amusement, contentment, anger, anxiety, or neutral • Gave participants series of test items Results: More global thinking for positive emotions o Results: Inducing amusement and contentment resulted in more global selections; • Fear had the next highest number of global selections • Neutral and anger has smallest number of global selections

Well-being: Eudaimonia

considers expressing "virtue" as the good worth pursuing; reaching the best within us, expressing true self (e.g., Aristotle, 4th century BC; Nichomachean Ethics) Top-Down (criteria that fit)

Well-being: Hedonism

considers pleasure (of mind and body) as the sole good worth pursuing (e.g., Arristippus, Hobbes, Desade) Bottom-up (subjective first)

Intrinsic motivation:

desire to engage in activity because it is enjoyed

Extrinsic motivation

desire to engage in activity for rewards or pressures - does not mean you do not like to engage in them - Sometimes we do things because we do not want to disappoint

Physical disabilities and hedonic treadmill

people were asked how much functionality they lost with a disability (avg 50%) o The more loss of functionality, the less life satisfaction o If you lose 25% of functionality, you will most likely return to baseline o If you lose more than 25%, than you do not return to baseline within the 5 year mark (according to this data) o THEREFORE adaption theory should be revised

German Socioeconomic Panel

started in 1986-1994, surveyed people every year, attrition very low... short, "rough" data from a short survey, can pull out major events in a 20 year span to see how it affects SWB • Unemployment → well-being goes down at unemployment and their SWB has variation thereafter, but it does not return back to set point (not adaptive) Some people are much worse off from baseline while some people get close • Marriage → subjective well being climbs up past set point until they get to marriage and then it starts to decline back to baseline • Divorce → SWB starts lower on baseline and is declining (because of unhappy marriages) and then well-being increases after the divorce and goes past the set-point • Widowhood → huge drop in SWB at widowhood (and decrease before because most likely getting sick or ill) and then their SWB climbs back up to set point • Birth of a child → goes up until you have a child, SWB declines during the first few years and then happiness begins to climb back up to set point (adaptive)

what is positive psych?

the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions. • It is empirical, data-heavy, and descriptive -Scientific examination of how to optimize well-being · Framed as a reaction to a predominantly clinical focus · Draws on methods & findings of clinical and experimental sciences

Flow

• "You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger." -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi • This idea came out of data

Positive illusions

• 1988 Taylor and Brown article - Challenged then-current assumptions that Accurate, realistic views of the self necessary for mental health • illusions about the self were pathological - Proposed instead accurate perceptions of self not necessary for mental health • Most people do not hold accurate view of self • Some inaccuracies may promote mental health

Positive Patterns of thinking: Three research lines

• Positive illusions • Optimism • Hope

Methods of Emotion Research

• Induce positive emotions/positive moods - Velten (guided meditation) - Film clips (ex: fear clips) - Pictures - Idiographic recall/imagine tasks (last time you felt a certain way, then express feelings about it) - Motor movements (part of the emotional experience) - Gifts ("her's a bag of candy") - Sounds/music (induce emotion through certain sound clips)

Self-determined Behavior

• Intrinsically vs. Extrinsically motivated tasks - More interest, excitement, vitality - Confidence in task - Enhanced performance (even when skill levels are held constant) - Higher creativity in task • More intrinsic behaviors you have - Higher self-esteem, more confidence - Greater well-being

Study: Rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation

• Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett (1973) - Found an activity that most children enjoyed a great deal (drawing with interesting markers) • Created a reward for the activity - Three groups: No reward, known reward, unexpected reward • Measured time played with markers during free choice period If kids expected a reward, they spent little time playing with markers as compared to unexpected reward and no reward o No reward group spent slightly less time than unexpected reward, but this is marginally different

Life Circumstances (10%)

• Many correlates we have discussed already are proposed - Culture, wealth (a little), social relationships (who you are surrounded by) • Some we have not discussed - Education, recreation, physical environment (e.g., commute, parks, community space) • Positive and negative life events (most amount pf research on this aspect)... ex. getting sick, getting married

Positive Emotions: Summary

• Much more known about negative emotions than positive emotions • New theoretical models of positive emotions that account for differences - Ongoing refinement of theories

SDT: Basic premises

• Needs are innate and universal - When needs are met: - Healthy development - Psychological well-being -Effective performance - Intrinsic motivation likely - When thwarted • Unhealthy development • Psychological ill-health • Extrinsic motivation or amotivation likely

Obstacles to happiness

• Not picking the "right" things ("I should save that money, but do I?") - Predicting our future feelings • Affective Forecasting/Miswanting • Social comparisons - Evolutionarily adaptive, perhaps not so now • Losses loom larger than gains - Losing $100 is often more painful than gaining $100 is joyful

Supporting Needs, Intrinsic Motivation

• Offering choices • Opportunities for self-direction • Feedback that performed well - Not failure feedback (When learning a new skill, one way to support basic needs is to tell them when they do well and not only point out when they make mistakes)

Illusions of control and future are common

• People believe they have control over chance events • People estimate chance of positive experiences in future as higher than peers' chances • People's estimation of own performance is higher than objectively warranted

Positive illusions are common

• People view themselves in unrealistically positive terms • People believe they have greater control over environmental events than they do • People hold views of the future that are more rosy than base rates justify

Building Aspects of Positive Emotions (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002)

• Positive emotions measured at Time 1 - Predicted broad minded coping at Time 2 • Broad minded coping at Time 1 - Predicted positive emotions at Time 2