psych 2500 test 2
cross cultural finding leisure
-Amount of leisure -Personality Research results from around the world, with cultures as distinct as rural China and the Amazonian rain forest, have found remarkable similarities in the effects of leisure on happiness. Not surprisingly, there are great variations in the amount of leisure time that different cultures have, largely associated with poverty levels or degree of technological advancement. However, those differences in amount of leisure do not affect the basic finding that participating in engaging leisure pursuits is associated with greater levels of life satisfaction. For extraverts, social activities appear to be most important, and extraverts appear to have some advantage over introverts in attaining satisfying leisure activities.
evaluating leisure activity
-Interest -Absorption -Renewal How do you know if you're making the best use of your leisure time? As with other self-awareness, it is useful simply to take a conscious look at what you are doing and what its impact is. You can either look at last weekend or plan to monitor next weekend to see how you used your leisure time. How did you feel during and after the experience? Were you interested, engaged, or absorbed in the activity? If you ever felt bored during the activity, that is a signal that you weren't using your time well (unless you were studying, in which case, remember, it wasn't leisure activity!). Did you feel happier or refreshed during or after the activity? If so, then it was time well spent. If you spent the weekend in front of the tv, that's fine, but did it really make you feel better? If so, maybe there was a particular reason (a marathon of your favorite show, or some other event that was particularly interesting for you).
retirement
-Overall increased life satisfaction -Leisure activities -Volunteering Since we've talked about work, and now about leisure, it seems appropriate to spend a few minutes on retirement. Retirement represents a transition between work and leisure, so there can be significant impacts on a person's sense of identity and well-being. You'll be happy to know that, on average, people report being happier after retirement. Of course, that's an average. There are lots of people that aren't happier after retirement. I'm sure that you would predict that having a well developed set of leisure activities is important to happiness after retirement, and you would be right. How central a person's work is to their identity will also help to determine how happy they are after retirement. These days, with baby boomers starting to retire, there is a huge industry to help them plan and prepare for retirement so that they won't become isolated, lonely, and depressed. Many retirees find that volunteering is a great way to use the skills they developed in the workplace without the monotony and structure of the work environment. You don't have to be actually leaving paid employment to have this kind of transition - the so-called "empty nest syndrome" is another example of a transition from a busy, structured life to more leisure time. When a parent or other primary caretaker's children leave home, they can experience the same deficit in leisure activities that occurs at retirement. So, having an active leisure life is valuable while you're working to increase your enjoyment of life, and necessary to prepare you for a happy retirement. Take home message: don't put off doing things that you think you would enjoy - learning something about them now might prepare you to be able to enjoy them even more in the future.
social class and education
-Related to income and happiness -Occupation -Environment -Perceived control -Health -Lowered expectations Two factors that are clearly related to income are social class and education. Of course, social class is partially defined by income and educational levels. Occupation is also related to social class and education. People who work more menial jobs, have lower educational levels, and lower social status tend to report lower life satisfaction than people with higher skill jobs, more education, and higher social status. That isn't terribly surprising, is it? Does it lead you to wonder how people get trapped in these unhappy circumstances? According to social comparison theory, you should be feeling pretty happy right now, knowing that you are, at this very moment, doing something that will lead to better future outcomes for you! Social class can be intergenerational because of the environmental deficits associated with low income neighborhoods. So, children in these neighborhoods have poorer schools, less help at home with schoolwork, perhaps less emphasis on the value of education, and higher likelihood of dropping out of school. You probably know people from working class families who have told their children that a job in the mill is the best they should hope for. Lower socioeconomic status is associated with living in more dangerous neighborhoods (drugs, violence) and much higher rates of chronic disease (diabetes, heart disease). Lower educational levels lead to lower perceived (and real) occupational choices and lower perceived control over life outcomes (success, however a person might define it). And, as often as I've mentioned unrealistically positive expectations, this is an example of how having low expectations for the future can result in a lack of persistence in school and other endeavors. Happy people are often anticipating something positive in the near future. Feeling trapped in a situation that cannot be changed is a recipe for unhappiness. Does this mean that if you're born rich that everything will be rosy for you? Obviously not. Adaptation level and social comparison theories would tell you that there are more ways for such individuals to be unhappy than happy. And, research indicates that there is a plateau in the relationship between social class and happiness. Happiness increases as social class increases from the lowest levels, but then flattens out as you reach the middle social classes. I'm sure you can think of lots of people who had all the privileges, but managed not to be happy. Being rich doesn't protect you from having inflated expectations, or a lack of direction. Likewise, people who were born into poverty aren't doomed to repeat that cycle. Many people are very resilience and able to rise above circumstances. It is possible for individuals to overcome the odds and succeed, even without obvious environmental assistance. A person has to be able to see an alternative future, and formulate a goal and a plan to get there, to make this happen.
developing leisure activities
Access Health Social/Solitary Trial and error Leisure activities are behaviors, so they are subject to the same approaches to modification as any other behavior. First, it's important to look at issues of access. You don't want to pick an activity that will be very difficult to do in your local environment. So, if your passion in life is snow skiing, your participation is going to be limited while you're living in South Carolina. Similarly, you need to take into account your abilities, whether because of physical fitness, age, health, or related issues. It isn't reasonable for me to take up gymnastics, for example, because this isn't something middle aged women are likely to really enjoy or be good at. But tennis, well...that's a different ballgame altogether (no pun intended). And, what is your balance of social to solitary activities, and how does this fit your preferences? Extraverts clearly need a variety of social outlets, while introverts might reasonably have fewer social leisure activities. When you need a new social activity (because of an increase in leisure time or inability to participate in a former activity), then you might need to simply take a guess at something new you might like to do (based on what? Observational learning?). Sometimes you will be correct and find the activity reinforcing, which will make you want to do it again. Sometimes you'll be wrong, not find any reward in the behavior, and never do it again. Remember what Gilbert says - we make some predictable errors in our thinking about the future. I may see other people enjoying wakeboarding, and be able to picture myself happily skimming over the lake. However, I may not appreciate that those other people have more upper body strength than I do, and that they really enjoy being in the water, as well as skimming over it. When I try it, I may be greatly disappointed in the experience. One of the characteristics of mentally healthy people is continuing to try new things, developing the ones that are reinforcing, and discarding the ones that aren't. Developing new behaviors keeps you motivated and also protects you from the loss of valued activities, because you already have something to replace it.
what do our theories tell us
Adaptation level theory Social comparison theory We've talked about two theories that speak specifically to when, why, and how people experience happiness. Adaptation level theory would say that we adjust to our level of monetary resources, and our happiness is only affected when that level changes. So, if we're relatively poor and suddenly win or inherit a fortune, we'll be happier, but then we get used to having the money and return to our usual level of happiness. So, that theory suggests that money, in and of itself, isn't going to be a long-term determinant of our level of happiness. Social comparison theory says that we look around at our peers to see how we're doing, and when we're better off, we're happier. That theory would say that having more money and possessions than our friends and neighbors would tend to make us relatively happier. But when you're better off than your friends and neighbors, you might decide to move to a better neighborhood and start hanging out with the rich people. Then your social comparison changes. You won't be better off than your reference point anymore, so your level of happiness will decrease accordingly. So, here are two reasons to think that money wouldn't make people happier over the long term.
simplify
Anti-consumer "Green" In response to the negative cycle of consumerism, a movement toward simple living has developed, focused on owning only what is necessary, living a sustainable existence, and making conscious choices about investing time, effort, and money. While consumerism tends to point individuals outside themselves, simple living is more introspective, focusing the individual on examination of their values and beliefs. There are many approaches to simple living, some of which are derived from cultures that have been around for a long time. An American example of this culture is the Amish community. Practitioners of Buddhism are also often oriented toward simple living. In the US, sustainability and "green" practices are often associated with a rejection of consumerism. This lifestyle is theorized to reduce the desire for more and better possessions, allowing greater appreciation for what one already has, including character traits, friends, and family, as well as possessions. Some people get great satisfaction from living "off the grid," liberated from reliance on bought goods and government assistance. Depending on what you're used to, however, it can be a difficult lifestyle to adopt. If you're interested in learning more about the pros and cons of this lifestyle, you might consider reading Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.
top 10 satisfying jobs
Clergy Firefighters Physical Therapists Authors Special Education Teachers Teachers Education Administrators Painters and sculptors Psychologists Security and Financial Services Salespeople In the General Social Survey conducted by the University of Chicago, a sample of 27,000 Americans described, among other things, their job satisfaction. These are the ten jobs that were rated as most satisfying. Clergy, firefighters, physical therapists, authors, special education teachers, teachers, education administrators, painters and sculptors, psychologists, and security and financial salespeople. Level of perceived prestige associated with the job was related to satisfaction, but not all prestigious jobs were associated with high degrees of satisfaction (note, for example, that doctors and lawyers are not on the list). The satisfying jobs also appear to relate to caring for and teaching others, and creative activities. This is particularly interesting to me because many of you mentioned in your first reflection paper that one thing that made you happy was caring for the needs of others. Food for thought for you as you think about a chosen profession.
factors in dissatisfaction work
Conflict between coworkers Conflict with supervisor Paid less than worth Inadequate equipment or resources Lack of respect and status Lack of opportunity for promotion Lack of decision authority Fear of losing job through downsizing or outsourcing. Factors that produce satisfaction and those that produce dissatisfaction are, ironically, not one and the same thing, at least according to industrial/organizational psychologists. Of course, the biggest factor in job satisfaction is having a boring job (like working an assembly line), or a job that is poorly suited to your educational level, skills, or interests. Beyond that, the major sources of dissatisfaction are conflict with coworkers, conflict with supervisors, being paid less than you're worth, having inadequate equipment or resources for the job, lack of opportunity for promotion, lack of decision authority, and fear of losing the job. Knowing these factors can give you a strategy for evaluating work situations for potential problems. On the job selection side, you can ask about some of these characteristics when you look at a position. Once you're in a job, you can be on the lookout for these factors if you find that you aren't happy about work. Once you become aware of the problem, you can develop a strategy to change the situation (or start looking for another job!).
what is leisure
Discretionary activity Pleasurable activity What is leisure? One way to look at the concept is to think about free time - that is, time not devoted to work, meals, sleep, or other personal care. The remainder of your day is leisure time. A second aspect of leisure is that it is presumed to be pleasurable activity. An important aspect of leisure to know right up front is that leisure represents a luxury. If surviving is taking up all of a person's time, then leisure drops out of their life. It is only when we are doing well enough to take time out from work and other responsibilities that we can do pleasurable activity. So, the other significant factor about leisure is that our choices for leisure activity should really be central to our identities. How we spend our leisure time is highly descriptive of us as individuals, at least if we're using it well.
what does your future hold
Education v. training Single v. multiple career paths We all know now that we aren't very good at correctly anticipating our futures, yet we continue to do it. It's important because of the motivating effect it can have on our behavior (if we anticipate positive outcomes). What might your futures be like? You are seeing a college degree. You've chosen education over training. Education prepares you broadly for any of a number of anticipated or unanticipated career paths. Training is job-specific. So, you are taking some courses that you think, "Why will I ever need that?" Whereas if you were getting a certificate in welding at TriCounty Tech, you would only take courses that were obviously relevant to your chosen career. There is also more likelihood that you will have multiple career paths in your future. Most college graduates are doing something unrelated to their degree by the time they are twenty years past graduation. Many of you may end up in a career that doesn't even exist yet, or is changed in some major way by the time you enter the field. I can assure you that when I was a college student, I never thought I would end up teaching. I certainly never thought I would be teaching students that weren't in the room with me! The only distance delivery in those days was through educational television. You'll have lots of issues to consider about the way you want to spend your time and the importance of income and status, in addition to what jobs you are prepared for. Education helps you keep your options open.
popular activities - us 2013
Going to Movies Exercise Watching TV Reading Computer/Internet Spending time with friends/family A 2013 survey of adult Americans indicated that the most popular leisure activities were watching movies, exercising, watching TV, reading, spending time on the computer, and spending time with family and friends. Know that, as you get older, your activity preferences may change. Another thing to note about this list is that these activities are readily available to almost anyone. In fact, people often report that their selection of leisure activities is partly based on what is easily accessible to them.
benefits of being a happy worker
Happy workers earn more money Happy workers perform better Happy workers are more creative at work Happy workers tend to stay in the same job and are less likely to quit Happy workers are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (behaviors not part of the job itself but that help co-workers and the organization)
are there happy lawyers
Highest level of depression and suicide High level of responsibility Low perceived options Win-lose One profession that has received a great deal of attention is practicing law. As a profession, it requires a high level of education. It is a relatively high status job, yet there is a high level of dissatisfaction among lawyers and also a high level of depression and suicide. One explanation for these findings is that practicing law entails a high level of responsibility, but few options as to particular jobs. Law is also perceived as a win-lose job, meaning that whenever one lawyer wins a case, another loses, so overall the level of perceived loss is quite high (as opposed to something like being a teacher, where you generally have many more 'wins' than losses). Let's look at some specific factors in work satisfaction and the benefits of being a happy worker.
function of friendship
Identity support Shared world view Emotional support Companionship In talking about our attachments to friends, Francis Bacon said "It redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half." Although that basically sums up why we have friends, it's an interesting question, one, however, that I'll bet you've never spent much time thinking about it. One frequently cited reason for friendship is that your friends support your view of yourself. Part of how you know who you are is how your friends perceive you. Your friends can also bolster your world view - they agree with you most of the time, because you selected them based on similarities in important beliefs. Friends also provide emotional support. They understand your situation and your emotional state, and can enable you to express those emotions or distract you when you need relief from unpleasant emotions. Friends also provide companionship, someone to share activities with or just to be with. As we've discussed before, other human beings are a great source of stimulation and relief from boredom, so having a friend to hang out with or to do something with is a great resource in terms of promoting positive moods. You can see from this list that different people have different priorities for their friendships. For some people, emotional intimacy and self-disclosure are critical elements of friendship. Other people are much more interested in having someone to play video games with or go to basketball games with. And yes, there is a tendency for women to desire emotional intimacy and self-disclosure, while men look for shared activities, but of course that is a generalization that doesn't apply to everyone. There are, of course, also cross-cultural differences. A study of American and South Korean men (Horton, Kline, and Zhang, 2008) found that South Korean men self-disclosed more in their friendships than American men do. In cultures such as Japan, where expression of negative emotions is particularly considered inappropriate, friendships tend to be more ritualized and activity based, while in many South American cultures friendships are strongly emotional and openly expressive (often to the point of making Americans uncomfortable).
overcoming a dead end job
Improve your job skills Develop your own project Mentor a coworker Since you are pursuing lofty educational goals, this probably won't happen to you, but it's good for you to know in case you can help other people (which contributes to happiness). There are some strategies that you can use to increase job satisfaction, even if you have completely mastered your job and it offers no new challenges for you. This is an opportunity for you to identify your own new challenges. One way to do this is to develop new job skills, through training or continuing education. There are always new skills or new technologies that you could learn that might make you more valuable in your current position or a more desirable one. Second, you could work with your employer or team to identify a specific new project that you could develop and have authority over, providing the sense of challenge and autonomy that are characteristic of satisfying jobs. Third, if you have mastered your job, you could mentor a new employee, which would enable you to use your relevant job skills and also possibly develop some new management and supervisory skills.
flow at work
In addition to what was on the previous slide, dissatisfaction at work can also be produced from being overwhelmed or being underwhelmed. The former leads to anxiety, the latter to boredom. Between these two lies "the zone," where challenges match our skills. In this zone, we experience "flow." To experience flow, people need to find challenge and meaning in work, and to find experiences that tap into their talents. The concept of flow was named by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chick-sent-me-hi). Flow means a state of complete absorption in a task. When in a state of flow, you are completely attuned to the activity, unaware of what is going on in your surroundings, and time seems to fly by. The experience of flow boosts our self-esteem, competence, and well-being. A key factor in satisfying work is whether or not the work is challenging. Unfortunately, many workers don't feel challenged. Researchers have found that 25% of the time, the average worker is not even working during work hours but rather day-dreaming, gossiping, or doing some kind of personal business (probably texting). However, to experience flow, the challenges presented to us can't be significantly beyond our skill level or they will become overwhelming.
bottom line
Income, social class, and education are correlated with happiness, but do not explain it Personal characteristics and behavior can overcome most deficiencies associated with any of these variables Let me give a one-slide summary. Yes, income, social class, and education are related to happiness, but only within limits (like the lower range of income). Rich, educated, upper class people have not captured the market on happiness. In fact, personal choice still exerts a great degree of influence over who is and will be happy. The more you believe that you are in control over your own destiny and actually assert that control, the more likely you are to be satisfied
cultural differences in work satisfaction
Individualist societies Foster independence Promote individual achievement Egalitarian relationships Flexible roles Privacy, private property Collectivist societies Foster interdependence Promote group success Stable, hierarchical roles Shared information, ownership When you look at the differences between individualist societies and collectivist societies, it isn't surprising that members of those societies have different preferences in work environments. Individualistic societies (like the US, England, and Australia) value independence, individual achievement, egalitarian relationships, flexible social roles, and private ownership of property and information. Collectivist societies (such as Israeli kibbutz, China, and Native American tribes) value interdependence, group success, social hierarchies, and shared ownership. Both cultures value high levels of productivity, but individualist societies also focus on the achievement of the individual in the workplace, so some workers are seen as being better than others. In collectivist societies, the focus is on the workplace as a whole. It is productive and well functioning, or it isn't. The contributions of individual members are not recognized. Individualist societies value autonomy and upward mobility, including in the workplace. In the US, for example, it is important to most workers that they believe they have opportunities for advancement. In collectivist societies, roles are largely determined within the group, and there is little opportunity to increase status. Finally, individualist societies value private property, so an individual may develop a new product and hold ownership of the patent. In a collectivist society, the group shares its resources equally, so new ideas are also the property of the group rather than an individual. You can see that it is easy to place a judgment about which of these approaches might be better. However, there are lots of situational and personal differences in these characteristics, too. Even in the US you will find some examples of collective culture. For example, labor unions place emphasis on hierarchies and treating everyone within a job category the same. Social interaction, strongly held norms for behavior, and a high level of support are characteristic of collectivist workplaces. Autonomy, creativity, and competition are hallmarks of individualist workplaces.
money and culture
Individualist v. Collectivist Values, Ideas, Norms Wealthy Nations How does culture add to our understanding of the relationship between money and happiness? Our culture helps us to establish our expectations about what we are going to have in terms of possessions, and how valuable these things are to us. In collectivist cultures, particularly, individuals don't want to stand out from the group, so there wouldn't be any benefit to having more than other people. Competitiveness is more characteristic of individualist cultures, and is associated with greater satisfaction related to comparison level. So, for typical Americans, social comparison theory would suggest that having a better car or house might make us happier at least in the short run, while for collectivist cultures like Native Americans, being like the other members of the group is the key to happiness. Societies with the highest life satisfaction are wealthy ones. Most of the unhappiest nations are extremely poor ones. In fact, the wealth of nations is one of the strongest predictors of the life satisfaction of societies. But, remember that people in poor societies are still reasonably happy, above the neutral point. Think of it this way, if you are in a very poor nation, as income goes up, life satisfaction goes up to a point. Presumably because, if you are super poor, you aren't getting your basic needs met. If you live in a wealthier nation, there is no real correlation between income and life satisfaction. Here's another interesting tidbit for you. The correlation between income and happiness has remained stable over time. If you look at average happiness scores in the 1940s, let's say (mean happiness = 7.5 out of 10), it does not differ significantly from average happiness ratings in 2015 (mean happiness = 7.2 out of 10).
approaches to work
Job - required to earn a living Career - opportunity for advancement Calling - love their jobs How a person views their work can have a significant impact on their work experience. People who think of their work as a job focus primarily on the financial rewards. In fact, the nature of the work may hold little interest for them. What's important is the money. If a job with more pay comes their way, they'll likely move on. These people are said to have a "job orientation." If you approach work as a career, you're interested in advancement. You want to climb the career ladder as far as possible or be among the most highly regarded professionals in your field. You're motivated by the status, prestige and power that come with the job. These people have a "career orientation." If you approach your job as a calling, you focus on the work itself. You work less for the financial gain or career advancement than for the fulfillment the work brings. These people have a "calling orientation." Calling oriented workers are the ones who say they would do the work even if they weren't getting paid for it. About 1/3 of people in any occupation are calling oriented. Calling-oriented workers differ from workers in the other two categories in that they engage in "job crafting." They are people who go beyond just doing their job...but rather take initiative to construct an even better job.
least satisfying jobs
Laborers, except construction Clothing sales Packers and handlers Food preparers Roofers Cashiers Furniture sales Bartenders Freight handlers Waiters and servers Contrast the most satisfying jobs with this list, the least satisfying jobs from the same survey. The bottom 10 jobs included laborers (other than construction), clothing sales, packing and handling, food preparation, roofing, cashier, furniture sales, bartending, freight handling, and waiting or serving. These positions are low-skill and many involve a high degree of customer service and expectation.
Marriage
Life satisfaction ---> Marital satisfaction Outcomes -Mental health -Physical health Gender differences Lucas, Clark, Georgellis, and Diener (1993) found in a 15-year study of 24,000 Germans that marital satisfaction was best predicted by general life satisfaction before the marriage. So, people who are generally happier overall are also happier with being married. These people reported only a slight increase in happiness due to getting married, which quickly returned to the previous level (sounds like set point we talked about earlier). On the other hand, people who were dissatisfied with life prior to marriage experienced a larger increase in happiness immediately following marriage, but then became more dissatisfied. What does this indicate? Perhaps unrealistically expecting another person to "cure" your dissatisfaction? This study also found that, although the death of a spouse produced a drop in satisfaction, over time most people returned to their previous level of satisfaction. As I've mentioned before, scholars have found that marriage is related to mental health and physical health. However, as Bella DePaulo has pointed out, the results are not as clear for women as they are for men. Also, never married people show some advantages in health over divorced people. And, at least in Western cultures, the gap between single and married people is closing. Many social scientists believe that this change is occurring because it is more socially acceptable now to remain single, so that the previous findings were due to both social stigma associated with never marrying, and pressure for people who were able to get married to do so. So, don't get married expecting that it will make you happier than you've ever been. And certainly don't assume that it's going to solve your problems! Maybe even more importantly, don't think you're going to solve the other person's problems. If they've always been unhappy, they'll probably continue to be unhappy.
friendship in stressful situations
Listening Distracting Supporting emotions Practical assistance Problem-solving One of the most important functions that our friends can have is to support us during stressful times. But friends don't come with an instruction manual. In the most difficult circumstances, we frequently find that we don't know how to help. Here's social science to the rescue! Research indicates that the most often desired responses from friends are: listening (just letting the person talk about the stressful situation), distracting (taking them out to do something), supporting emotions (validating that you understand why they feel the way they do), practical assistance (laundry, taking them places they need to go, grocery shopping), and last (and least of all) comes problem solving. Most of us are so adept at problem solving that when a friend tells us they have a problem, we jump right in there and start giving advice. That's usually the worst approach. Listening is much more valued.
consumer culture leisure
Marketing leisure Golf There is a growing industry in the US, Europe, Japan, and China devoted to getting people to spend money on leisure pursuits. The tourist industry, of course, is one example of how people spend money on leisure. Major marketing campaigns are devoted to making us think that particular activities will make us happy, particularly if we're wearing the right clothes and have the right equipment. Golf is a great example of the connection between industry and leisure. You can play golf, but people want you to buy DVDs to improve your game, go on golf vacations, watch the Golf channel on tv, buy the newest clubs, etc. The purchases also help to commit you to continue playing the game, which is good for all those businesses that you will continue to support. This isn't a criticism, just a commentary. If you read a magazine based on a leisure activity, then you're participating in the economy of that activity.
leisure and social engagement
Meeting people with similar interests Spending time with friends Engaging activities Social support/distraction Leisure time can also be a way to interact with other people. For unmarried individuals, leisure activities can be a way to meet potential partners. As long as the activity is something that you're truly interested in, this can increase your opportunity to meet other people with similar interests (on the other hand, if you start doing something you don't like just to meet people, it might result in meeting people you don't like). You don't have to be looking for a romantic interest to enjoy social leisure, however. Leisure activities are also an opportunity for pleasurable interactions with friends. Common activities and experiences provide a basis for deepening friendships. Activities with other people can be highly stimulating (mentally as well as otherwise), which provides positive exchanges that produce positive moods. These other people can also offer social support or distraction from stressors in your life. You may already be thinking about this, but there are major differences among people in what kind of social activities they prefer. Even among activity-based relationships, there are significant differences. Some people prefer cooperative activities, such as playing music or sewing quilts, while others prefer competitive activities such as sports or other games. Some activities, such as volunteer tutoring, are focused on the other person. Other activities, such as playing video games, are primarily focused on the activity itself. Almost any of these social leisure activities can be an important way for a person to feel connected to others, which has been demonstrated to have positive effects on mental and physical health and longevity.
coworkers
Not voluntary Commonalities -Same employer -Work environment -Structure -Autonomy -Expectations -Training, education -Activities? Outcomes Many of us spend more time with coworkers than we do with friends or family. Having positive relationships with coworkers can be a tremendous source of satisfaction. Most of us don't pick our coworkers, but again there are factors like proximity that tend to cause us to think of them as friends, anyway. We can also have a lot in common with coworkers. They have the same employer, and may even bond over their shared difficulties with the "boss." Coworkers may share the same job structure (work hours, breaks, responsibilities), degree of autonomy, and work expectations. These aspects of the job make coworkers feel that they are all "in it together." Coworkers may be similar in level of training or education, which also forms a basis for friendship. Finally, coworkers often participate in activities together outside work (anything from happy hour to bowling leagues), which also contributes to a sense of friendship. Positive relationships with coworkers contribute to job satisfaction and retention in the workplace. It also contributes to work productivity. It reduces time out of work, as well. So, smart employers are sensitive to building good relationships among employees and provide support for social interactions.
friendship behaviors
Personal space and touching Self-disclosure Emotions Activities It can be revealing to look at friendship behaviors to understand our relationships with other people. An obvious example is how physically close we expect other people to get to us, and our rules for who touches whom, and how. I'm sure all of you have had the experience of someone standing too close to you when you were talking. It's very uncomfortable, and usually results in your stepping back to try to get a more comfortable distance. People have different rules about touching, too, that often have a cultural basis. The more personal the touch is, the more rules there are about when it is appropriate. It's bad to be hugged by someone you don't want touching you, but being kissed is even worse! Friendships are, to at least some extent, based on personal knowledge of one another. Therefore, self-disclosure is a part of most friendships. Rules guide this process, too. Disclosure in personal relationships generally proceeds in an orderly fashion, with small reciprocated increases in intimacy. In other words, you start by telling superficial things about yourselves, and gradually increase the depth of the disclosures. If one person stops the process, the friendship doesn't progress beyond that level of intimacy. A particular illustration of this principle is disclosure of emotions. Most of us don't tell other people about important feelings unless we believe the other person would also tell us. Think about emotions that you would share, and times when you try to hide your feelings from friends. Clearly, there are cultural rules about sharing emotions (remember - the Japanese generally avoid displaying any negative emotion.) There is also a gender component to emotional disclosure. This plays into a stereotype, but it's a stereotype based on data (as many are). Men, in general, are more reluctant to disclose feelings than women are. Friendships are also based on shared activity. A very important part of friendship is doing things together. So, lasting friendships tend to revolve around enjoying the same activities. I spend a lot of time playing tennis. So, most of my friends also play tennis. However, it's important to realize that your interaction with friends can change with circumstances. If a tennis buddy became very sick or had a death in the family, other tennis players in the group would probably offer emotional support. Recently, one of my tennis teams was in the playoffs. Some of my tennis friends from another team came to watch me play my match and it actually helped me play better. Plus, it was a lot more fun.
what is the function of money
Provide opportunities Reduce barriers Enable self-reinforcement Reduce frustrations Social good Why do we believe that money would make us happier? Let's look at some of the potential functions that money might have. I don't mean for this to be an exhaustive list, but it's a place to start the discussion. One function that money might have for us is to provide new opportunities that we didn't have previously. We might imagine that these new opportunities would make us happier. But you know what Daniel Gilbert would say about that - our imaginations often place us into a future that doesn't match the reality, so these alternatives to our present don't make us as happy as we thought they would. A second potential function of money is to reduce barriers - to enable us to go places, achieve things, or get things we couldn't before. Having money should make it easier to get a college degree, to drive a decent car, etc., which should, in turn, make us happier. However, having more or better isn't necessarily a key to happiness. Third, money enables us to self-reinforce (that is, reward ourselves for positive behavior). Self-reinforcement is certainly important for most adults to keep ourselves motivated and moving in the right direction. Money can enable us to provide more effective reinforcers; however, remember that a reinforcer must be associated with a particular behavior. Buying yourself presents on random occasions can actually have the effect of reducing your motivation to behave appropriately. So, as long as you use the ability to self-reinforce the right way, it can be a positive event in your life. Money can also reduce frustrations, such as not being able to pay bills or having too little leisure time. You can apply the money to these situations and reduce stress (by paying the bills and hiring other people to do some of your chores). Finally, money can be used to promote social good, such as promoting literacy, reducing domestic violence, or educating people about preventing diabetes. Lots of very rich people have discovered that it can be very satisfying to spend money on creating positive change in the world. Bill Gates, for example, has given millions of dollars for preventing and treating health problems like malaria in underdeveloped countries. The challenges of this kind of project, as well as the positive feedback they generate, can make lasting contributions to a person's level of happiness. So, overall, the way the money is used will determine the effects.
consumerism and happiness
Pursuit of wealth Unrealistic expectations regarding consumer goods Marketing Neuroticism Desire: famous happiness formula Happiness = what we have (attainments) ------------------------------------ what we want (aspirations) One reason that people believe that money will make them happy is that the advertising industry wants us to believe it. The United States (and lots of other places) has a vast consumer culture that is organized around pursuing wealth and acquiring more possessions. The negative side of this equation is that, as we come to believe that what we need to be happy is more money and more possessions, the next target for advertising is already being developed. So, the happiness is never achieved, or only for brief moments, before we have to start the pursuit of the next magic object. I think the cosmetics industry is a good example of this cycle. The advertisements convince people who are willing to believe it that buying the right face cream, eye shadow, or whatever, will change their lives for the better. It doesn't, of course, but then the next generation product is developed, and the cycle begins again. It's the same with video game consoles. Advertisers and companies need for us to keep buying, so it's in their best interest that we aren't satisfied with what we have. I have a car with over 90,000 miles on it, and the dealer keeps calling me to see when I'm going to get the new model. People who become obsessed with having the newest and best are always disappointed, because there's always something newer and better coming along. This pursuit of possessions can become a neurotic behavior pattern, associated with increased anxiety when there's something you "have to have," and depression when it doesn't have the anticipated effect. The happiness formula suggests that our happiness results from dividing our attainments by our aspirations. We could say that it is better to have more money rather than less, but individual variation in desire helps to explain why some poor individuals are happy and some wealthy ones are not. It is important for you to remember as you go through life that no matter how much money you earn, you can always want more, thereby feeling poor along the way. With more money, your aspirations change, which means that your happiness level does not necessarily change. Also, keep in mind that, when aspirations are focused on physical comfort and luxury goods, it is called materialism. Research shows that materialistic people are less happy than others. The pursuit of money by materialists takes their attention away from more important pursuits in life.
solitary leisure activites
Reading Watching TV Napping Shopping Cooking/Projects Many people also pursue solitary leisure activities. A recent survey of Americans indicated that the most frequent solitary activities were reading, watching tv, napping, shopping, and cooking or working on other household projects. I'm sure that this list would be different if we asked a college-age sample. Think about this list in terms of how engaging these activities are. There are considerable data indicating that watching tv is not engaging, and that it is associated with less positive moods. Napping, of course, is by definition not an engaging activity. Shopping may be highly engaging for some people, but does not generally provide the opportunity for "flow" that defines optimal human performance. Reading can be highly engaging, as can project-based activity, including cooking. So, it appears that there is some tendency toward ineffective use of leisure time, if our goal is to promote happiness.
kinship
Relationship based on family membership Commonalities -Culture -Experiences -Environment Differences -Experiences -Environment Families are also important determinant of our happiness. Most of us don't choose our families, so the voluntary aspect of friendship isn't at play, but if you look at determinants of friend selection, many of them apply to family, too. Family members generally share culture, experience, and environment, so they have many similarities that cause them to enjoy being together. However, all those commonalities also produce a high level of expectation for intimacy that doesn't always occur. Even siblings that are close in age have very different experiences in the same family and also different environments (birth order, perceptions of other family members, schools, peers) that make us individuals. Also, our interpretation of our experiences can lead us to very different conclusions and behaviors. Family relationships are an important training ground for other relationships because they are expected to be life-long. You are free to fight with family members and reasonably expect the relationship to survive. Having a positive relationship with even one parent is a predictor of greater resilience to stress later in life.
technology leisure
Social Networking Video Games iPhones Technology has changed leisure just as it has changed other aspects of society. Do you spend some of your leisure time on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or some other social networking site? Technological leisure activities would seem to have the same dimensions as other activities - they may be social or solitary, engaging or not engaging. Technology actually offers us opportunities to interact that may have been difficult otherwise. You can play games with people anywhere in the world, or be friends with them through a networking site. Technology allows us to combine listening to music, watching videos, etc., with other activities, so leisure can become a multitasking opportunity. They are also opportunities for social science research. There is research taking place on Facebook all the time (those surveys aren't just for fun, or at least not all of them are), and many, many unanswered questions about the short and long term effects of cell phones, computers, and other devices on the amount and quality of leisure time.
stay positive at work
Stop negative thoughts Put things in perspective Learn from your mistakes Be grateful If you can't change your work situation, you can still control your thoughts about it. The same cognitive distortions that can cause you to feel anxious or depressed in other areas of your life can cause you to feel that way about work, too. So, the same strategies apply. First, you have to become aware of negative thoughts and stop them. Second, be sure you don't overgeneralize - everybody has a bad day at work sometimes. A bad day or a bad week doesn't mean your job is terrible and won't ever get better. Third, learn from your mistakes. It's actually easier to learn from mistakes than from getting things right, because you typically get better feedback about what you did wrong! Fourth, whatever your work situation is, look for the positives. Do you have even one coworker that you really enjoy being with? Is there one project that you're proud of? Do you have a nice window in your office? Sometimes it's enough to be grateful for the paycheck.
whats very important in life?
The American Freshman Survey began surveying freshman in 1967. The last year for which data are recorded is 2005. They look at national norms every couple of years. In 2005, they surveyed 263,710 students from 385 schools. In response to the question, What's Very Important in Life, in 2005, being well off financially was perceived as very important, much more important than developing a meaningful philosophy on life. Note the reversal of this pattern for freshman in 1967 (Santos, 2020). This raises the question, however, of whether money really does make people happier. statistics in powerpoint day 12
income and satisfaction levels
This is a graph that illustrates the typical relationship seen between income and satisfaction. At very low income levels, there is a moderate positive relationship, so happiness increases noticeably as income increases. But when you reach a moderate income, the relationship levels out, so increases in income are no longer associated with an increase in happiness. Remember we're talking about averages, so any individual could deviate from the pattern represented here.
lottery winners
Unrealistic expectations Life changes I would like to win millions of dollars. Wouldn't you? But, as you know from your readings, lottery winners are often disappointed by the effects of their good luck. I'm guessing that you have already identified the significant factors in their failure to anticipate the effects of their win. First, they imagine the fabulous benefits of the windfall, but don't think about the negative aspects. People will start harassing you for money, including your relatives. Everyone thinks they deserve a share. Charities suddenly develop an interest. Clemson people start hanging around. You realize that you don't know who you can trust anymore, when this has never been an issue. The other factor is that people often make dramatic life changes because of the money, without considering the negative consequences. Quitting your job, moving to Palm Beach or Malibu, joining exclusive country clubs. All of these activities sound desirable and glamorous, but transitions always involve some stress and unanticipated consequences. It isn't healthy to sit by the pool and drink martinis every day. People who cope well with a big lottery win make changes slowly, keeping their routine until they know what they want to do and are ready for the transition. So, you can be a happy lottery winner if you are smart about it. Fortunately, most of us don't have to worry about this one.
overcome boredom at work
Use breaks to refresh yourself Cross-training Volunteer for new activities Csikszentmihalyi has four suggestions for eliminating boredom at work: -Set goals: set an achievable goal in work or play -Immerse yourself in the activity - some might call this engagement -Pay attention to what is happening - for ex., if you are watching sports, keep stats on your favorite player - Enjoy the immediate experience Boredom on the job often reflects excessive repetition or a mismatch between ability level and job demands. Again, there are strategies to help allay boredom. First, most workplaces are required to provide employees with morning and afternoon breaks, in addition to lunchtime. These breaks can be a great opportunity to spend a few minutes doing something different or thinking about something different, so that you come back to the job refreshed. Second, you can investigate the option of cross-training with other employees that have different job duties. You learn something new, which relieves the boredom, and it also provides backup for you and the other participants if you have to be out of work. Third, when new projects or opportunities come up, volunteer to participate. Csikszentmihalyi generated four specific suggestions for eliminating boredom at work. They are described on the slide.
finding your calling
Use your strengths It's not about the money It's not about the power Use your strengths to increase your happiness. This may seem really obvious, and yet lots of people don't do it. I'm sure you know plenty of fellow students who selected their major on the basis of how much money they could make if they stuck to a certain major. Of course, many of those students end up being so miserable in college that they change majors or even drop out. Some people don't even pay attention to what their strengths are, so their job choice may almost be random. The more of your time you can spend doing things that fit with your abilities, the less you will feel that you are just putting hours in at a job
exercising choices
Value-driven life Flexible schedules Personal growth Community engagement There is a frequently cited bit of data about the correlation between intelligence and income (note Bill Gates, who does not have a college degree, but has done very well for himself - the book Outliers talks about Bill Gates and others who are born at the right time for their intelligence to pay off). However, the correlation has lots of exceptions, including college professors. College faculty generally make a conscious decision that other aspects of life are more important than salary. Summers off (well, not for all of us), flexible schedules, and choice about job activities are generally very important to faculty members. The ability to choose research areas, controlling what they spend their time thinking about, is something that faculty generally put at the top of the list of things they like about their jobs. So, if you have strongly held values that you want to be part of your working life as well as your private time, you may find that you don't take the highest paying job, either. The impact of values on happiness can be seen at the other end of the socioeconomic scale, as well. There are many, many examples of individuals with little education or financial resource to draw on, who have made marvelous lives for themselves through community engagement. We've already talked about the many problems in low income neighborhoods. These problems can represent challenges for individuals who are motivated to make a positive difference. People have started inner city gardens, recreation programs, arts centers, and lots of other programs with very little capital. You don't have to be a genius or a billionaire to make a difference in the world, and these activities have a payoff in terms of life satisfaction. As a related aside, help others with what you have to offer whether that be money or talent or time. I'm completely of the philosophy that, while some people may be more educated or better off financially, no one is really any better than anyone else. At the end of the day, we are all just people moving through our lives. But, since some people do have advantages that others do not, they should use those to help others.
what makes work satisfying
When work contributes to our personal identity When work allows us to identify with a community When work adds to our purpose in living When our work allows us to have a sense of personal control For most people, work adds to their sense of personal identity...it helps to define them. If you don't believe this is true, then ask someone who has recently been laid off. Work also adds to our purpose in living. As David Myers says "happiness is loving what you do, and knowing it matters." Who doesn't want to feel that way about their job? In an examination of the degree to which people actually loved what they did, a group of individuals were asked if they would continue to work if they suddenly inherited a sizable fortune. Three out of four of the people surveyed said yes. When asked if they would choose the same work again, four in five people who said that their job provided them with identity and purpose said yes. In terms of personal control, workers, not surprisingly, report much great job satisfaction when they feel they have personal control while at work. For example, auto workers who work as part of a team and rotate positions in assembling the car report much higher job satisfaction than those who do the same job over and over again on an assembly line.
your long term outcomes
expectation engagements education all go into happiness Another way to look at the relationships among social class, income, education, and happiness is to think about an individual's long term outcomes. You won't be surprised to hear me say that expectations play an important role in our outcomes. If you establish positive expectations, it will help to keep you motivated in the face of obstacles or difficulties. Likewise, education prepares you to make the best of the situations you find yourself in (and please note that you won't ever complete your education. When you stop learning, stagnation sets in immediately). Then, you have to be actually engaged in your life, whether it is family, work, or community development. So, what I'm proposing here is that your outcomes are essentially equivalent to your inputs. If you quit inputting, output will diminish. This approach makes happiness a process rather than a product. Since most of our discussions have talked about happiness as a short term phenomenon, this illustrates why that might be so. You can't make a change and expect permanent happiness - you have to keep at it. The nice part of this model is that happiness is, in fact, reinforcing, so you should be motivated to continue working for it.
lots of unanswered questions
online relationships In recent years, whole new areas of investigation have opened up. A major one has been in the area of on-line relationships. Do they have the same dimensions and impact as face-to-face relationships? Do these friendships contribute to our happiness in the same way as conventional friendships? Are you really friends with the people with whom you play games like World of Warcraft? Telephones and cheap airline tickets have changed relationships. More recently, we've seen new technological advances that may be changing the way we think about friendship. These changes occur over time, so my friendships aren't as likely to change as much as yours are, and your younger siblings may have different opinions than you do. "Digital natives" (people who were born into the digital world) are different from "digital immigrants" (people who used cameras with film in them). A study by Chang and Chen (2008) of Hong Kong internet users found that offline friendships involved more interdependence, breadth, depth, code change, understanding, commitment, and network convergence than online friendships. The qualities of both online and offline friendships improved as the duration of the relationship increased, and the differences between the two types of friendships diminished over time. Furthermore, contrary to the evidence typically found for offline friendships, the qualities of cross-sex online friendships were higher than that of same-sex online friendship. So, the physical distance of the internet may actually promote the development of friendship between men and women.
friendship
voluntary interdependence between two persons over time, that is intended to facilitate social emotional goals of the participants, and may involve varying types and degrees of companionship, intimacy, affection, and mutual assistance
How do we choose our friends?
¢Proximity ¢Association ¢Similarity ¢Reciprocity ¢Physical Attractiveness We may think that we select our friends through a sophisticated cognitive process. There's a lot of research on the factors involved in who we become friends with. Proximity is one major factor. The vast majority of our friends live close to where we live, or at least where we lived during the time period the friendship developed (Nahemow & Lawton, 1975). Obviously, friendships develop after getting to know someone, and this closeness provides the easiest way to accomplish this goal. Having assigned seats in a class or group setting would result in more friends whose last name started with the same letter as yours (Segal, 1974). Association is a second factor involved in selection of friends: We tend to associate our opinions about other people with our current state. In other words, if you meet someone during a class you really enjoy, they may get more 'likeability points' than if you met them during that class you can't stand. So, your present level of happiness actually impacts how likely you are to form a new friendship today. Similarity is a factor that is easy to understand as a basis for friendship: Researchers have found that we choose friends who share attributes, beliefs, and activities in common with us. Reciprocity: Simply put, we tend to like those better who also like us back. This may be a result of the feeling we get about ourselves knowing that we are likable. If we feel good when we are around somebody, we tend to report a higher level of attraction toward that person. And finally (you knew it was coming), physical attractiveness: Physical attraction plays a role in who we choose as friends, although not as much so as in who we choose as a mate. Nonetheless, we tend to choose people who we believe to be attractive and who are close to how we see our own physical attractiveness (this is called the matching hypothesis). Ever wonder why very attractive people tend to 'hang around' other very attractive people? Or why wealthy men seem to end up with physically attractive, perhaps even much younger, women? There is some truth to these stereotypical scenarios because we tend to assign "social assets" or "attraction points" to everyone we meet. These points are divided into categories such as physical attractiveness, sense of humor, education, and wealth. If we view education as very important, we may assign more points to this category making it more likely that our friends or our mate will have more education. If we view wealth as more important then we will be more likely to find a mate who has more money. We rate ourselves on these same categories and, at least at some level, know our score. We tend to then pick friends and partners who have a similar score that we do. Hence, an attractive person hangs with other attractive people; or a wealthy older man gets the beautiful younger woman. Think about your friends and how you would rate them in these categories to find out what is important to you.
