The pleasant life - happiness comes from past presesnt and future emotion
The good life - Happiness from persuing activities that absorb and engage us
The meaningful life - living for a purpose bigger than yourself
Positive connections to others
Establish life regualtion policies e.g. wisdom and knowledge (things you can use)
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Authenticity of Goodness and Excellence
Feelings of positivity is jsut as natural as feelings of anxiety and stress
Supported by Seligman 2007
Said we have signature strengths which we should nuture e.g. kindness and generosity
Useful in therapy
Therapists can help a person focus on the postive aspects of a persons life instead of negative ones which in turn could help reduce depression
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Acknowledgement of Free Will
We are able to make our own descions and choices about our happiness
Seligman says we acheive happiness by recognising our own strengths and minimizing negative feelings
Hapiness is not due to genes
But biological psychologists would say happiness is 100% genetic
Behavourist would say due to tabula rasa we learn our happiness from experiences
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Myers and Deiner
Asked about
Methodolgy or/and procedures
Findings
Conclusions
Evaluation
Can be asked for 3 specific evaluations points:
Ethical and social implications
Alternative evidence
Methodology and procedures
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Myers and Deiner methodology and procedures
Lit review on pple around the world of all ages and both genders
Lit review is looking at lots of research that is already published and comparing similarites and differences
Procedure
Self-report
Questionares (e.g. closed questions "how happy are you from 1-10"subjctive wellbeing)
Interveiws
Observations
Beeper/pager used (when it went off they had to report hat they were doing and how they were feeling)
Correlations
Established a relationship between co-variables (e.g. Happiness and age/gender/religion etc.)
Reviews
Looked at other lit reviews (lit review within a lit review)
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Myers and Deiner Findings
Age:
No difference and 80% were found to be happiy
Gender:
No difference and 80% of both
Religion/Culture/Race:
Some difference- 10% of Portegese reported to be happy and 40% of Dutch happy
Money:
Adults thought more money would make the happy
Forbes richlist- 30% were less happy than average American
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Myers and Deiner Findings
Traits e.g. personality (introvert or extrovert):
Optimism, extraversion and self-esteem leads to happiness
Relationships:
In a relationship are happier but can also cause more stress
More friends means healthier
Work:
The employed are happier- Czisentimihalyi said you experienced flow by being enganged in your job
Faith:
More faith means more happiness (Subjective Wellbeing)
pple who are religious siad they are happier because they feel closer to God
Measured faith in frequency of praying and how long for they worshiped for
Those who were more religious were also healthier
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Myers and Deiner Conclusions
Adaption- 3 months to adapt to life events (e.g. if you win the lottery you will only be happier for 3 months)
Cultural world veiw- Your culture affects how you see life affecting your subjetive wellbeing e.g. some culture see the world as controllable vs uncontrollabe
Values and Goals- money is only important if it helps you acheive your goals
Make pple happier- Know how to increase happiness in society e.g. by targeting certain groups
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Myers and Deiner evaluation Ethics and Social Impl
Could lead to stereotypes
pple may feel they have to say they are happy so need to debreif
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Myers and Deiner evaluation Alternative Evidence
Happy gene found (5-HTT gene) -report being more happy/more satisfied with life (Schinkd 2004)
Self report so could pple coud lie
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Myers and Deiner evaluation Methodology
Self report = bias
Corelations- no cause and effect seen e.g. marriage cause happiness or vice versa
Mainly Western sample- ethnocentric
different pple see happiness in different ways e.g. individualist culture vs collectivist cultures
Subective wellbeing different pple see happiness in different ways
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