Just a quick blog today about conferences coming up next year.
The first is the First Australian Positive Psychology Conference on the 5th and 6th April at the University of Sydney. This conference is being cosponsored by ten Australian universities and promises to be an exceptional event. The International Advisory Board reads like a Who's Who of the Positive Psychology movement with names like Seligman, Diener, Fredrickson, Linley, Peterson, Shahar, Lopez, and Sheldon. Co-chairs are Sydney's Anthony M Grant and Melbourne's Dianne Vella-Brodrick.
The second is the Third Happiness and Its Causes Conference on the 8th and 9th May at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. Last year's conference was a sellout and very well received by attendees, with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as star attraction. A CD of recordings from the conference is available on the website.
08 November 2007
27 October 2007
More about positive emotions
What else could positive emotions be for? Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson believes that positive emotions work differently than negative emotions. Whereas fear, anger, and disgust prompt us to fairly specific behaviours, positive emotions such as joy, interest and love make us feel safe and enable us to broaden our behavioural repertoire, so that we develop new skills and acquire knowledge that may be useful in the future. She calls this the broaden and build theory.
Her experiments have found that people who experience positive emotions have broader attention, greater working memory, enhanced verbal fluency and increased openness to information" (Peterson, 2006). We are better able to solve problems and accomplish tasks if we are "feeling good" than if we are feeling sad, or stressed.
Positive emotions also undo the effects of negative emotions, reducing stress in experimental subjects just by showing them a short film about puppies or waves on a beach. The subjects that got the sad films stayed stressed. This may explain the gallows humour shown by emergency workers under very stressful conditions.
Experiments outside the laboratory are rare at the moment, but you could try some yourself. You may have already done so. Try playing some of your favourite music when you are feeling stressed, or watch a favourite movie or TV show at the end of a long hard day. Play that favourite music before you need to perform some difficult task or when you are trying to solve a tricky problem. If you've been struggling with a problem all day, come back to it next morning when you are feeling more relaxed.
A mood is more like a state than a fleeting emotion. We might be in a good mood all day, or we maight have "got out of bed on the wrong side". A mood is more likely to be described in behavioural terms such as cranky, chirpy, or good-natured, and do not usually have a specific object - something that has caused the mood. Moods are likely to influence what we do and think.
It appears that a person's capacity to experience good moods or bad moods remains fairly constant. Difficult babies become crabby children and cranky old men and women. It also appears that mood stability remains constant, so moody children become changeable adults.
Good moods, or positive affectivity as the scientists would have it, are more likely to be shown be people who are happily married and enjoy their jobs. We don't know whether the good moods cause the good marriages and jobs or whether it is the other way around. Religion is another factor in the lives of people with high positive affectivity, although again we do not know which comes first - the religion or the good moods.
It appears from studies of twins raised apart that positive affectivity is influenced in part by your genes. This means that to some extent we get it from our parents, but the glass is also half full - we can influence our general mood by knowing more about what affects our moods; by paying more attention to our actions than our thoughts, and by understanding that striving towards goals gives us more good cheer than achieving them (Watson, 2002).
Source:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Another big thanks to Chris' marvellous book, which I am reading again as part of a course he is giving on Positive Psychology.
Her experiments have found that people who experience positive emotions have broader attention, greater working memory, enhanced verbal fluency and increased openness to information" (Peterson, 2006). We are better able to solve problems and accomplish tasks if we are "feeling good" than if we are feeling sad, or stressed.
Positive emotions also undo the effects of negative emotions, reducing stress in experimental subjects just by showing them a short film about puppies or waves on a beach. The subjects that got the sad films stayed stressed. This may explain the gallows humour shown by emergency workers under very stressful conditions.
Experiments outside the laboratory are rare at the moment, but you could try some yourself. You may have already done so. Try playing some of your favourite music when you are feeling stressed, or watch a favourite movie or TV show at the end of a long hard day. Play that favourite music before you need to perform some difficult task or when you are trying to solve a tricky problem. If you've been struggling with a problem all day, come back to it next morning when you are feeling more relaxed.
A mood is more like a state than a fleeting emotion. We might be in a good mood all day, or we maight have "got out of bed on the wrong side". A mood is more likely to be described in behavioural terms such as cranky, chirpy, or good-natured, and do not usually have a specific object - something that has caused the mood. Moods are likely to influence what we do and think.
It appears that a person's capacity to experience good moods or bad moods remains fairly constant. Difficult babies become crabby children and cranky old men and women. It also appears that mood stability remains constant, so moody children become changeable adults.
Good moods, or positive affectivity as the scientists would have it, are more likely to be shown be people who are happily married and enjoy their jobs. We don't know whether the good moods cause the good marriages and jobs or whether it is the other way around. Religion is another factor in the lives of people with high positive affectivity, although again we do not know which comes first - the religion or the good moods.
It appears from studies of twins raised apart that positive affectivity is influenced in part by your genes. This means that to some extent we get it from our parents, but the glass is also half full - we can influence our general mood by knowing more about what affects our moods; by paying more attention to our actions than our thoughts, and by understanding that striving towards goals gives us more good cheer than achieving them (Watson, 2002).
Source:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Another big thanks to Chris' marvellous book, which I am reading again as part of a course he is giving on Positive Psychology.
For your pleasure
Pleasure can be defined as positive subjective emotional states. There are different kinds of pleasure and different intensities, so that the pleasure you feel when you are getting a foot rub is different from the pleasure when your football team wins the grand final, and different again when your girlfriend agrees to marry you. There are individual differences and preferences as well. To each his own, as they say.
Why do we feel pleasure? What is it for? The so-called negative emotions are likely to be an aid to survival. We get angry when we are attacked so that we are better able to defend ourselves. We feel fear when threatened with something much bigger or more dangerous than we are. So perhaps the positive emotions - pleasure - are useful to survival as well. We enjoy eating, sleeping and having sex so we try to perform these activities as often as comfortably possible, thus ensuring our own survival and that of our genes. Children like to play and so learn and practice valuable skills for later in life.
We also get pleasure from memories of activities or situations that have given us pleasure in the past, although we are more likely to remember the high (or low) points and what happened at the end - the peak-end effect (Kahneman, 1999). We also tend to forget how long the experience lasted - duration neglect. These effects may be worth remembering when planning a holiday - it can be short as long as it ends on a high note.
We like what we are used to and we consistently overestimate how long we will feel good (or bad) after a good (or bad) event. If your boyfriends leaves you you think you will never be happy again, but eventually this devastation subsides. You may think that if you win the lottery you will live happily ever after, but studies of lottery winners show that they very quickly revert to their previous levels of happiness. We adapt to the pleasure. The first bite of that rich, dark chocolate is sublime, the second less so, and by the third or fourth it could be any old choclate that you are eating. This effect has led to the hedonic treadmill, where it takes higher and higher levels of pleasure to reach the same effect (Brickman and Campbell, 1971). That payrise just ends up being spent on stuff you didn't really need and soon you need more money to buy the better stuff that you now think you need.
Perhaps this is a good thing. If our pleasures were prolonged and so distracting that we didn't notice threats to our survival we wouldn't last long. Further, this adaptation to pleasures allows our interest to wane and then to enjoy them all over again. You would enjoy a single square of that chocolate per day over a few days far more, and for far longer, than if you ate the whole lot in one go.
What can we learn from all this? Enjoy your guilty pleasures in small doses more often, and hold off buying that bigger TV - it will seem too small soon enough. When bad things happen try to remember that they won't last as long as you think they will.
Source:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Why do we feel pleasure? What is it for? The so-called negative emotions are likely to be an aid to survival. We get angry when we are attacked so that we are better able to defend ourselves. We feel fear when threatened with something much bigger or more dangerous than we are. So perhaps the positive emotions - pleasure - are useful to survival as well. We enjoy eating, sleeping and having sex so we try to perform these activities as often as comfortably possible, thus ensuring our own survival and that of our genes. Children like to play and so learn and practice valuable skills for later in life.
We also get pleasure from memories of activities or situations that have given us pleasure in the past, although we are more likely to remember the high (or low) points and what happened at the end - the peak-end effect (Kahneman, 1999). We also tend to forget how long the experience lasted - duration neglect. These effects may be worth remembering when planning a holiday - it can be short as long as it ends on a high note.
We like what we are used to and we consistently overestimate how long we will feel good (or bad) after a good (or bad) event. If your boyfriends leaves you you think you will never be happy again, but eventually this devastation subsides. You may think that if you win the lottery you will live happily ever after, but studies of lottery winners show that they very quickly revert to their previous levels of happiness. We adapt to the pleasure. The first bite of that rich, dark chocolate is sublime, the second less so, and by the third or fourth it could be any old choclate that you are eating. This effect has led to the hedonic treadmill, where it takes higher and higher levels of pleasure to reach the same effect (Brickman and Campbell, 1971). That payrise just ends up being spent on stuff you didn't really need and soon you need more money to buy the better stuff that you now think you need.
Perhaps this is a good thing. If our pleasures were prolonged and so distracting that we didn't notice threats to our survival we wouldn't last long. Further, this adaptation to pleasures allows our interest to wane and then to enjoy them all over again. You would enjoy a single square of that chocolate per day over a few days far more, and for far longer, than if you ate the whole lot in one go.
What can we learn from all this? Enjoy your guilty pleasures in small doses more often, and hold off buying that bigger TV - it will seem too small soon enough. When bad things happen try to remember that they won't last as long as you think they will.
Source:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
04 October 2007
How to age well
It is a sad fact that for many of us the prospect of getting old is quite scary. We look around and see old people hobbling slowly along the street and we look away. We think of retirement homes with distaste, if not with outright horror. Is that what will happen to us? Will we become old and sick and unable to function normally? We can hardly bear to think about it.
Of course, if we do think about it we can all identify old people who are mentally and physically active and lead satisfying lives. But it seems a matter of chance - some are lucky, some are not. Better not to dwell on it.
However, it is not a matter of chance - it's not about genes or bad luck, or being born into the wrong family. Studies by George Vaillant (2004) of the same people over 60 years show that aging well can be attributed to certain controllable factors, and they are not the ones we might think that they are.
He defined positive aging as consisting of six dimensions:
Sources:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Vaillant, George E. (2004). Positive Aging. In P. Alex Linley & Stephen Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp.561-578). New York: Wiley.
Of course, if we do think about it we can all identify old people who are mentally and physically active and lead satisfying lives. But it seems a matter of chance - some are lucky, some are not. Better not to dwell on it.
However, it is not a matter of chance - it's not about genes or bad luck, or being born into the wrong family. Studies by George Vaillant (2004) of the same people over 60 years show that aging well can be attributed to certain controllable factors, and they are not the ones we might think that they are.
He defined positive aging as consisting of six dimensions:
- absence of objective physical disability as rated by a doctor
- subjective physical health as rated by the person themselves
- length of undisabled life - whether the person had lost any years before age 80 to actual or perceived disability
- objective mental health as rated by success in work, love, play, and avoiding psychiatric care
- objective social supports - good connections with wife, children and grandchildren, siblings, playmates (eg golf, tennis, sailing) and social networks (clubs, etc) as rated by others
- subjective life satisfaction as rated by the person themselves
He used these dimensions to classify over 500 subjects from different class backgrounds (college and inner-city) along a continuum that ranged from "happy-well" to "sad-sick" at age 70-80. The happy-well tended to have high ratings in most or all of these dimensions; those with low ratings were more likely to be sad-sick, or had died before age 70-80. Then he looked at factors that had been measured earlier in their lives to see what contributed to this rating.
First let's look at what did not predict positive aging. The happy-well did not have longer-lived ancestors, higher cholesterol, higher social class, warmer childhoods, more stable childhood temperaments, or higher stress than the sad-sick. Contrary to what we would believe, better genes, low cholesterol, social class, upbringing, temperament and stress-free living do not contribute significantly to a healthy and happy old age.
So what did contribute to a happy and healthy old age? Each of the following variables were shown to lead to a positive old age, regardless of social class or other factors:
- Not being a smoker or stopping smoking before age 45. Not smoking heavily before age 50 was the single best predictor of healthy aging, but if they quit smoking completely before age 45 the effect at 70-80 was much the same.
- Using adaptive coping styles. Coping styles involve the use of defense mechanisms to deal with stressful situations. We all use them, but some, such as humour, altruism and stoicism are "more mature" than others such as denial and passive-aggression. It is more adaptive, and healthier, to laugh at misfortune than to deny it is happening.
- Not abusing alcohol. Alcohol abuse was defined as "the evidence of multiple alcohol-related problems" with family, work, health, and the law.
- Healthy weight. Weight was measured using the body mass index (BMI). Being overweight (BMI> 28) or underweight (BMI<22) class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">positive aging.
- Stable marriage. Getting to age 50 without divorce, separation or serious problems contributed to positive aging.
- Exercise. Regular exercise of more than 500 kilocalories per week was required.
- Years of education. Those with higher education tended to stop smoking, eat sensibly and drink in moderation because they were higher in self-care, future orientation and perseverance.
Sources:
Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Vaillant, George E. (2004). Positive Aging. In P. Alex Linley & Stephen Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp.561-578). New York: Wiley.
26 September 2007
Are you a maximizer or a satisficer?
One thing you can say without fear of contradiction about the modern world is that we have more choice than ever before. Choice about careers; lifestyles; which city or suburb to live in; which house to buy; which car to buy; which school to send our kids to; which university to go to ourselves; which supermarket to shop in; which clothes to wear; which washing powder to buy; how to have our coffee; a never-ending list of choices assail us everywhere we go. How do we make these choices?
Research by psychologist Barry Schwartz from Swarthmore College in the States has shown that people consistently make choices in different ways. Some are maximizers – they keep looking until they have found the best possible choice among all of the alternatives. Others are satisficers – they search until they have found a choice that is good enough and then stop. People are all somewhere along this continuum, so some are more maximizers (more obsessive!) than others, and some satisficers are less selective than others. Where are you?
Comparing myself and my husband I have to say that I am a maximizer and he is a satisficer. When we are shopping for new spectacles, for example, I find a pair of spectacles I like and then I keep looking to see if there is anything better that I like more. He will find one that he likes, presumably that meets the criteria he had set, and buys them then and there. We constantly amaze (and annoy) each other to the point where it’s better if we don’t go shopping together.
Which decision style is better? Schwarz found that maximizers spent longer making a decision, as you would expect, but then they were less satisfied with their choices than the satisficers. Satisficers make a decision, are satisfied with the decision, and then move on. Maximizers, perhaps, are still looking around afterwards to see if they could have made a better choice even after it is too late. Satisficers are happier.
If you have identified yourself as a maximizer, how can you be more satisfied with the choices you make? Well, for a start, you might try to be more selective about which decisions you agonise over. If you are spending more than five minutes choosing a birthday card or a washing powder then perhaps you are not valuing your own time sufficiently. Keep the agonizing for the big decisions – the choice of schools, jobs, homes, partners, and set yourself goals for the small decisions to choose within a set time limit or within a restricted range.
Source:
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Research by psychologist Barry Schwartz from Swarthmore College in the States has shown that people consistently make choices in different ways. Some are maximizers – they keep looking until they have found the best possible choice among all of the alternatives. Others are satisficers – they search until they have found a choice that is good enough and then stop. People are all somewhere along this continuum, so some are more maximizers (more obsessive!) than others, and some satisficers are less selective than others. Where are you?
Comparing myself and my husband I have to say that I am a maximizer and he is a satisficer. When we are shopping for new spectacles, for example, I find a pair of spectacles I like and then I keep looking to see if there is anything better that I like more. He will find one that he likes, presumably that meets the criteria he had set, and buys them then and there. We constantly amaze (and annoy) each other to the point where it’s better if we don’t go shopping together.
Which decision style is better? Schwarz found that maximizers spent longer making a decision, as you would expect, but then they were less satisfied with their choices than the satisficers. Satisficers make a decision, are satisfied with the decision, and then move on. Maximizers, perhaps, are still looking around afterwards to see if they could have made a better choice even after it is too late. Satisficers are happier.
If you have identified yourself as a maximizer, how can you be more satisfied with the choices you make? Well, for a start, you might try to be more selective about which decisions you agonise over. If you are spending more than five minutes choosing a birthday card or a washing powder then perhaps you are not valuing your own time sufficiently. Keep the agonizing for the big decisions – the choice of schools, jobs, homes, partners, and set yourself goals for the small decisions to choose within a set time limit or within a restricted range.
Source:
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
13 September 2007
The Wayside Chapel of the Cross
I've just received my weekly newsletter from Graham Long, the wonderful pastor at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross here in Sydney, which has cheered me up immensely, as it always does. A few years ago I used to be a volunteer crisis counsellor at the Wayside and even though I don't go there any more I love getting the weekly update on how things are going there.
Graham is a warm and generous human being who has a good word to say about the sort of people that most of us would avert our eyes from. He can see past the drug-taking and mental illness to the humanity within and sees his place as that of walking with the person for a while and witnessing their pain. He is a great comfort to the people who use the Wayside as a refuge from all the truly terrible things that have happened to them, and are still happening to them right now.
I recommend his newsletter to you, you can sign up at www.thewaysidechapel.com.
Cheers
Carole
Graham is a warm and generous human being who has a good word to say about the sort of people that most of us would avert our eyes from. He can see past the drug-taking and mental illness to the humanity within and sees his place as that of walking with the person for a while and witnessing their pain. He is a great comfort to the people who use the Wayside as a refuge from all the truly terrible things that have happened to them, and are still happening to them right now.
I recommend his newsletter to you, you can sign up at www.thewaysidechapel.com.
Cheers
Carole
How optimistic are you?
Optimism has been broadly defined as the expectation that things will go well in the future. It can be broken down in terms of how an individual explains the causes of good and bad events. Optimists explain bad events as having external, unstable and specific causes (This exam was really hard) and good events as having internal, stable and global causes (I'm really good at this subject).
Pessimists are the opposite - they explain bad events as having internal, stable and global causes (I'm no good at exams) and good events as having external, temporary and specific causes (The exam was easy this time). Optimism has been shown to have a positive effect on health, sporting success, work success, avoiding depression and other mood disorders. You can test your optimism and pessimism yourself at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/.
We can also distinguish between Little Optimism and Big Optimism. Little Optimism is about the small things in life, like whether I will be able to find a parking spot. Big Optimism is about broader, more general things, like whether the world will solve the greenhouse gas problem. Little Optimism may directly influence your behaviour and lifestyle choices, whereas Big optimism may influence your general mood, and perhaps your immune system.
It is possible to have different levels of the two types of optimism, and different expectations about different types of goals. You may be optimistic about the future, and so don't see the need to recycle, but pessimistic about whether you will get a parking spot or get the promotion at work.
Are optimistic people happier? If you are working towards your goals in the expectation that you will achieve them then I would argue that you are. If you consider all effort to be hopeless then you won't aspire to reach goals and you won't even try try to achieve them. I was at uni in the early 1980s when we all thought there would be a nuclear war at any moment, and I'm sure that expectation did nothing to help us do well at uni.
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism. Sydney: Random House, 1992.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness. Sydney: Random House, 2002.
Pessimists are the opposite - they explain bad events as having internal, stable and global causes (I'm no good at exams) and good events as having external, temporary and specific causes (The exam was easy this time). Optimism has been shown to have a positive effect on health, sporting success, work success, avoiding depression and other mood disorders. You can test your optimism and pessimism yourself at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/.
We can also distinguish between Little Optimism and Big Optimism. Little Optimism is about the small things in life, like whether I will be able to find a parking spot. Big Optimism is about broader, more general things, like whether the world will solve the greenhouse gas problem. Little Optimism may directly influence your behaviour and lifestyle choices, whereas Big optimism may influence your general mood, and perhaps your immune system.
It is possible to have different levels of the two types of optimism, and different expectations about different types of goals. You may be optimistic about the future, and so don't see the need to recycle, but pessimistic about whether you will get a parking spot or get the promotion at work.
Are optimistic people happier? If you are working towards your goals in the expectation that you will achieve them then I would argue that you are. If you consider all effort to be hopeless then you won't aspire to reach goals and you won't even try try to achieve them. I was at uni in the early 1980s when we all thought there would be a nuclear war at any moment, and I'm sure that expectation did nothing to help us do well at uni.
We can learn to be more optimistic. Martin Seligman advocates disputing your pesimistic beliefs and expectations, and if you do this enough it replaces the habits you learned when you were younger. He also recommends teaching optimism to your children by letting them master tasks on their own and showing them that their actions have consequences - not just negative consequences, but positive ones as well.
Seligman gives a lovely example of the gales of laughter his daughter produces when they play the game of banging on the table - she bangs once on the table, everyone else at the table bangs on the table. She then bangs three times on the table, and then so does everyone else. She is learning that she can have an effect on the people she loves, and that that she matters to them.
Surely optimism, and general happiness, is made of stuff like this.
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism. Sydney: Random House, 1992.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness. Sydney: Random House, 2002.
31 August 2007
Modern happiness using ancient wisdom
This title is a play on the word of the subtitle of a book on happiness called The Happiness Hypothesis, Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by social psychologist Jonathon Haidt. I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who is seriously interested in what happiness is and where it comes from. I've been reading it, and it seems to me that the best way to understand and process it is to write about it - after all, we learn by thinking about things afterwards; by reflection.
So here, for your enjoyment and edification, is my potted summary of Chapter 1. You really must read it for yourself to understand it properly, and then think about what it says. I'm just writing this to help me understand it, and it in no way represents an accurate summary of the book. Any errors are mine.
The human mind is split. We are divided in ourselves. Even though we intend to do something, like go to the gym, and we tell people we are going to go, we don't. We are controlled by something other than our conscious will. One way to look at this is to imagine an elephant being controlled by a rider. The rider is smarter but the elephant is big and doesn't always do what it is told by the rider.
This division can be seen in four different ways:
1. Mind and Body - our bodies behave independently of our minds. Our skin sweats, our stomachs rumble, our sexual organs seem to have "minds of their own". No matter how determined we are that these things won't happen to embarrass us, they do.
2. Left and Right Brain - the two hemispheres of our brains are responsible for different functions and can act independently of each other. This has been shown in studies of people with damages parts of the brain, and where the connection between the two hemispheres has been cut for medical reasons. The left hand may suppress, or work against, what the right hand is doing. People make up stories to explain what has happened, or what they have done, that do not reflect the facts. This is called "confabulating" and can be seen everywhere, not just in the brain-damaged.
3. New Brain and Old Brain - the "old brain" is the more primitive parts of the brain that we share with the "lower" animals, such as the hypothalamus, the hippocampus and the amygdala, which control basic drives, memory, and emotional learning and responding, respectively. The "new brain" is the neocortex - the grey matter that mammals, particularly primates, have that performs more complex thinking and decision-making. So the neocortex is perhaps what makes us rational and releases us from the mercy of our basic drives and emotions.
Part of the neocortex, however, the orbitofrontal cortex, is responsible for emotional reaction when we are making judgements or decisions. If it is removed then people are LESS able to make decisions, which shows that emotions do not get in the way of decision-making, but rather emotions make decision-making possible by letting us know how we feel about the options. We make the many everyday decisions without conscious thought, and this is not possible without our emotions. So emotion and reason are not as divided as we think.
4. Controlled and Automatic Mind - the older, more primitive parts of the brain have been functioning for millions of years in an automatic way to keep the animal, the primate, and then the human alive and reproducing. The newer, rational, thinking parts have not had as much time to evolve and perfect the way they function. Which part do you think, then, will take over when things get tough? When a lightning-fast decision is needed? When we are under stress? Which parts are working when we don't do what we know, rationally, we should do?
The elephant. "Gut feelings, intuitions, and snap judgements happen constantly and automatically" (p.21-22). When we're asked to explain our reasons our rational mind doesn't always know so it will make something up - confabulation again. Just because the rational mind decides to do something doesn't mean that, when the time comes, it will be in charge of making the decision to do it. We'll turn off the alarm and go back to sleep because more sleep sounds better to the elephant than getting out of bed to go to the gym.
So we have "two minds". Really, though, they are both us, so it helps us to know how they work and why they behave the way they do.
Source
Jonathon Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
By the way, the ancient wisdom came from quotes from Plato, Ovid and others about competing parts of the mind, which I haven't quoted.
So here, for your enjoyment and edification, is my potted summary of Chapter 1. You really must read it for yourself to understand it properly, and then think about what it says. I'm just writing this to help me understand it, and it in no way represents an accurate summary of the book. Any errors are mine.
The human mind is split. We are divided in ourselves. Even though we intend to do something, like go to the gym, and we tell people we are going to go, we don't. We are controlled by something other than our conscious will. One way to look at this is to imagine an elephant being controlled by a rider. The rider is smarter but the elephant is big and doesn't always do what it is told by the rider.
This division can be seen in four different ways:
1. Mind and Body - our bodies behave independently of our minds. Our skin sweats, our stomachs rumble, our sexual organs seem to have "minds of their own". No matter how determined we are that these things won't happen to embarrass us, they do.
2. Left and Right Brain - the two hemispheres of our brains are responsible for different functions and can act independently of each other. This has been shown in studies of people with damages parts of the brain, and where the connection between the two hemispheres has been cut for medical reasons. The left hand may suppress, or work against, what the right hand is doing. People make up stories to explain what has happened, or what they have done, that do not reflect the facts. This is called "confabulating" and can be seen everywhere, not just in the brain-damaged.
3. New Brain and Old Brain - the "old brain" is the more primitive parts of the brain that we share with the "lower" animals, such as the hypothalamus, the hippocampus and the amygdala, which control basic drives, memory, and emotional learning and responding, respectively. The "new brain" is the neocortex - the grey matter that mammals, particularly primates, have that performs more complex thinking and decision-making. So the neocortex is perhaps what makes us rational and releases us from the mercy of our basic drives and emotions.
Part of the neocortex, however, the orbitofrontal cortex, is responsible for emotional reaction when we are making judgements or decisions. If it is removed then people are LESS able to make decisions, which shows that emotions do not get in the way of decision-making, but rather emotions make decision-making possible by letting us know how we feel about the options. We make the many everyday decisions without conscious thought, and this is not possible without our emotions. So emotion and reason are not as divided as we think.
4. Controlled and Automatic Mind - the older, more primitive parts of the brain have been functioning for millions of years in an automatic way to keep the animal, the primate, and then the human alive and reproducing. The newer, rational, thinking parts have not had as much time to evolve and perfect the way they function. Which part do you think, then, will take over when things get tough? When a lightning-fast decision is needed? When we are under stress? Which parts are working when we don't do what we know, rationally, we should do?
The elephant. "Gut feelings, intuitions, and snap judgements happen constantly and automatically" (p.21-22). When we're asked to explain our reasons our rational mind doesn't always know so it will make something up - confabulation again. Just because the rational mind decides to do something doesn't mean that, when the time comes, it will be in charge of making the decision to do it. We'll turn off the alarm and go back to sleep because more sleep sounds better to the elephant than getting out of bed to go to the gym.
So we have "two minds". Really, though, they are both us, so it helps us to know how they work and why they behave the way they do.
Source
Jonathon Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
By the way, the ancient wisdom came from quotes from Plato, Ovid and others about competing parts of the mind, which I haven't quoted.
11 August 2007
At least you have your health....
I've been ill lately, and it was like my life had fallen apart. I couldn't get things done, I felt bad about myself, I wasn't getting anywhere in life. It wasn't a serious illness, just one of those nasty infections in the head and the chest. Coughing, sleeplessness, blocked-up head.... I'm sure you're familiar with the story. It seems like it has been going on for months, but I think the worst is over now, and I'm feeling like I can get on top of things again.
Have I been happy? I'd have to say no, I've been fairly unhappy. Health - 5-6 out of 10; Happiness - 3-4 out of 10. I've been rereading Harry Potter instead of writing blogs and being productive, and as much as I've enjoyed Harry Potter it's not making me as happy as I am when I'm achieving goals and doing constructive stuff. No blog, no business-building, not much of anything really. And things that I really dislike doing are not being done, like housework; and looking at the carpet that needs vacuuming and the kitchen floor that needs scrubbing makes me less happy than I am when I look at it after it has been cleaned (no matter who does the actual cleaning!).
And I've been relying a bit on that old fallback stress-reducer - retail therapy! It's a while since I've fallen for this, making myself feel better by acquiring stuff on eBay or in the local shopping mall, and I'm sure it's related to being ill, since I didn't have these cravings earlier in the year. I've been craving chocolate as well, another sure sign of unhappiness. The story of how I had previously managed to reduce my chocolate cravings are another story...
Now that I'm feeling better, I've been getting some work done, which makes me feel better about myself, and I've been getting out and about and seeing other people. No longer locked in my house seeing nobody but my husband, I am a social creature again, and I'm sure that this is making me happier as well.
So I'm convinced, as if I needed to be, that bad health means less happiness. Not only do I feel physically terrible but I can't do the things that make me happy - working on something I enjoy; seeing other people; being useful and all that; and even the chocolate and the shopping doesn't really help except in a short-term, superficial way. Today I did something I enjoy that I haven't done for months - I repotted some neglected plants - and I feel so pleased with myself that I've come inside to write a blog about happiness, something I haven't done for weeks. So as my health has improved my happiness has increased as I've been able to do things that make me happy.
Does it work the other way around? Can happiness make you healthier? Apparently, yes; if you are happy you will live up to 9 years longer, according to my current favourite TV program The Happiness Formula on BBC World. I'll be looking into that one more thoroughly in a future blog.
Have I been happy? I'd have to say no, I've been fairly unhappy. Health - 5-6 out of 10; Happiness - 3-4 out of 10. I've been rereading Harry Potter instead of writing blogs and being productive, and as much as I've enjoyed Harry Potter it's not making me as happy as I am when I'm achieving goals and doing constructive stuff. No blog, no business-building, not much of anything really. And things that I really dislike doing are not being done, like housework; and looking at the carpet that needs vacuuming and the kitchen floor that needs scrubbing makes me less happy than I am when I look at it after it has been cleaned (no matter who does the actual cleaning!).
And I've been relying a bit on that old fallback stress-reducer - retail therapy! It's a while since I've fallen for this, making myself feel better by acquiring stuff on eBay or in the local shopping mall, and I'm sure it's related to being ill, since I didn't have these cravings earlier in the year. I've been craving chocolate as well, another sure sign of unhappiness. The story of how I had previously managed to reduce my chocolate cravings are another story...
Now that I'm feeling better, I've been getting some work done, which makes me feel better about myself, and I've been getting out and about and seeing other people. No longer locked in my house seeing nobody but my husband, I am a social creature again, and I'm sure that this is making me happier as well.
So I'm convinced, as if I needed to be, that bad health means less happiness. Not only do I feel physically terrible but I can't do the things that make me happy - working on something I enjoy; seeing other people; being useful and all that; and even the chocolate and the shopping doesn't really help except in a short-term, superficial way. Today I did something I enjoy that I haven't done for months - I repotted some neglected plants - and I feel so pleased with myself that I've come inside to write a blog about happiness, something I haven't done for weeks. So as my health has improved my happiness has increased as I've been able to do things that make me happy.
Does it work the other way around? Can happiness make you healthier? Apparently, yes; if you are happy you will live up to 9 years longer, according to my current favourite TV program The Happiness Formula on BBC World. I'll be looking into that one more thoroughly in a future blog.
17 June 2007
The Happiness Formula
BBC World's The Happiness Formula
[I'm writing this as I watch the program on cable TV].
Measuring activity in the brain by oxygen levels when shown a happy or sad picture shows that happiness can be detected directly in the brain ..... or is it pleasure? Is pleasure and happiness the same thing? And does it last? Or is happiness something deeper and more lasting than mere pleasure?
Can you just ask people to rate their own happiness and get a valid result? Professor Ed Diener, psychologist and researcher into happiness, thinks we can. He finds that the happiest people in the world are the Swiss, and those in Belarus are the least happy. Happy countries are richer and democratic, but their happiness is not so much greater than poor, non-democratic ones.
[Why democratic, I wonder? Do we prefer to have some perception of control over our lives that democracy theoretically gives us? This is a question for another time, I think].
Measuring happiness in this way predicts outcomes in peoples' lives. Are they more likely to commit suicide if they are less happy? Surprisingly, yes! Can someone who scores less on the happiness scale keep his hand in iced water for as long as someone who scored higher? The answer turns out to be no! So are happy people more persistent, more resilient, more likely to succeed in life? Perhaps extrapolating from iced water experiments are pushing the whole thing too far, but it is easy to see how it could work.
Another study, of nuns interviewed a few years ago, found that those who sounded happier in interviews lived longer than the less happy ones, up to 9 years longer. This is not something to be sneezed at! And another one, of performance during memory exercises, showed that people who are pampered a bit more are able to remember objects better.
Professor Layard, an economist, has come to the conclusion that money doesn't make us happy. Striving to make more money doesn't make us happier, and perhaps it makes us less happy when we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Bhutanese polititians measure Gross Domestic Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product, and make decisions according to whether people will be happier rather than richer. Plastic bags have been banned (not a bad idea). Bhutan is not as rich as it might have been, but the people are happier.
What do we need for lasting happiness? Not endless consumption, but volunteering is what gives our lives meaning, and meaning is necessary for real, lasting, happiness. Happy people volunteer, and volunteers are happier. They also are more likely to get married, stay married, become leaders and help others at work, and have better health, says Ed Diener.
A survey asking whether governments should aim to make us richer or happier, the overwhelming majority went for happiness.
[What would you choose? Will you wait for the government to do something, or will you do it yourself?]
Stay tuned for the next episode in this excellent series on BBC World.
[I'm writing this as I watch the program on cable TV].
Measuring activity in the brain by oxygen levels when shown a happy or sad picture shows that happiness can be detected directly in the brain ..... or is it pleasure? Is pleasure and happiness the same thing? And does it last? Or is happiness something deeper and more lasting than mere pleasure?
Can you just ask people to rate their own happiness and get a valid result? Professor Ed Diener, psychologist and researcher into happiness, thinks we can. He finds that the happiest people in the world are the Swiss, and those in Belarus are the least happy. Happy countries are richer and democratic, but their happiness is not so much greater than poor, non-democratic ones.
[Why democratic, I wonder? Do we prefer to have some perception of control over our lives that democracy theoretically gives us? This is a question for another time, I think].
Measuring happiness in this way predicts outcomes in peoples' lives. Are they more likely to commit suicide if they are less happy? Surprisingly, yes! Can someone who scores less on the happiness scale keep his hand in iced water for as long as someone who scored higher? The answer turns out to be no! So are happy people more persistent, more resilient, more likely to succeed in life? Perhaps extrapolating from iced water experiments are pushing the whole thing too far, but it is easy to see how it could work.
Another study, of nuns interviewed a few years ago, found that those who sounded happier in interviews lived longer than the less happy ones, up to 9 years longer. This is not something to be sneezed at! And another one, of performance during memory exercises, showed that people who are pampered a bit more are able to remember objects better.
Professor Layard, an economist, has come to the conclusion that money doesn't make us happy. Striving to make more money doesn't make us happier, and perhaps it makes us less happy when we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Bhutanese polititians measure Gross Domestic Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product, and make decisions according to whether people will be happier rather than richer. Plastic bags have been banned (not a bad idea). Bhutan is not as rich as it might have been, but the people are happier.
What do we need for lasting happiness? Not endless consumption, but volunteering is what gives our lives meaning, and meaning is necessary for real, lasting, happiness. Happy people volunteer, and volunteers are happier. They also are more likely to get married, stay married, become leaders and help others at work, and have better health, says Ed Diener.
A survey asking whether governments should aim to make us richer or happier, the overwhelming majority went for happiness.
[What would you choose? Will you wait for the government to do something, or will you do it yourself?]
Stay tuned for the next episode in this excellent series on BBC World.
23 May 2007
Health and Happiness
I haven't been well lately, and that's why the blog hasn't been forthcoming. It's harder to write about happiness when you are not happy! And it is amazing how unhappy being ill makes you feel. It's just a headcold, but it has been going on for so long that it is affecting the way I feel about myself.
Interesting, isn't it? I feel ill and unable to concentrate, and I start thinking about how I am unable to do things, and I feel worse about myself, and I start feeling worse for real, and I go and sit in front of the TV and watch Buffy instead of writing a blog or any other of the worthwhile things I could be doing. It's all connected - my thoughts, feelings, actions, and physical wellbeing and situation all affect each other.
This is a basic tenet of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. If I can change one of these things then all the others will be affected, hopefully for the better. If I can get up out of my armchair and turn Buffy off and go for a walk I will feel better about myself, and when I get back I can do something more constructive. If I'm doing something constructive with my time I feel better about myself, or at least a bit less useless than I did before. If I feel a bit more useful then I will be a bit more useful, which will make me do more useful things, and I'll feel better and better. Try it, it really works.
Your feelings influence your thinking, and what you are thinking influences your feelings. If you keep telling yourself how useless you are you will feel bad and you will be useless. So take the cold-and-flu tablets and do something when you feel ill, especially if the illness is going on for a long time. That's what I'm doing!
Interesting, isn't it? I feel ill and unable to concentrate, and I start thinking about how I am unable to do things, and I feel worse about myself, and I start feeling worse for real, and I go and sit in front of the TV and watch Buffy instead of writing a blog or any other of the worthwhile things I could be doing. It's all connected - my thoughts, feelings, actions, and physical wellbeing and situation all affect each other.
This is a basic tenet of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. If I can change one of these things then all the others will be affected, hopefully for the better. If I can get up out of my armchair and turn Buffy off and go for a walk I will feel better about myself, and when I get back I can do something more constructive. If I'm doing something constructive with my time I feel better about myself, or at least a bit less useless than I did before. If I feel a bit more useful then I will be a bit more useful, which will make me do more useful things, and I'll feel better and better. Try it, it really works.
Your feelings influence your thinking, and what you are thinking influences your feelings. If you keep telling yourself how useless you are you will feel bad and you will be useless. So take the cold-and-flu tablets and do something when you feel ill, especially if the illness is going on for a long time. That's what I'm doing!
29 April 2007
What is important to you?
A discussion about happiness, wellbeing, mental health, or whatever you want to call it, must soon get around to values. What are your values? What is most important to you? What can you not do without in your relationships, your job, your social activities? What values do you want your kids to have? Your husband or wife? Your friends?
Any search on the internet on values will come up with a list of values to choose from. The list itself doesn't really matter, what matters is whether you can find 3 or 4 or 5 values that mean something to you. Here is a list taken from Grant and Greene's (2001) Coach yourself: make real changes in your life:
Think, too, about where these values came from. From your upbringing? Were they important to your parents as well? Or are they the opposite of what your parents valued? Do they fall into line with the culture at work? Do you work there because you agree with the values there, or did you have to bend your values to fit in there? Perhaps the values you are living by came from somewhere else? Which values would you prefer to live by?
Perhaps, too, the values you've chosen are your own, and yet you find that they are getting lost in everyday life. There isn't the time, or the money, to help others, or to be as creative as you would like. Or perhaps you have all the power and money that you could want or expect, and it still isn't enough...
Questions like these can start you on the road to being happier than you are now.
Any search on the internet on values will come up with a list of values to choose from. The list itself doesn't really matter, what matters is whether you can find 3 or 4 or 5 values that mean something to you. Here is a list taken from Grant and Greene's (2001) Coach yourself: make real changes in your life:
AccomplishmentPick five, and then consider each one separately. How are these values displayed in your life right now? In your work? In your home life? In your hobbies or other activities? With your family?
Acknowledgement
Adaptability
Artistry
Authenticity
Beauty & aesthetics
Being admired
Being alone
Being different
Being valued
Being with others
Belonging
Change and variation
Collaboration
Communication
Community
Competition
Comradeship
Control over time
Creativity
Excitement
Expanding knowledge
Fun and enjoyment
Freedom to choose
Friendship
Helping others/society
Honesty
Humour
Independence
Influencing others
Integrity
Intellectual stimulation
Interaction with public
Intimacy
Joy
Love
Making decisions
Medium pace
Meeting challenges
Money
Order
Participation
Peace
Personal empowerment
Physical health
Power and authority
Profit
Recognition
Respect
Security
Self-determination
Self-expression
Self-fulfilment
Sensuality
Stability
Status
Success
Support
Time
Tranquillity
Zest
Think, too, about where these values came from. From your upbringing? Were they important to your parents as well? Or are they the opposite of what your parents valued? Do they fall into line with the culture at work? Do you work there because you agree with the values there, or did you have to bend your values to fit in there? Perhaps the values you are living by came from somewhere else? Which values would you prefer to live by?
Perhaps, too, the values you've chosen are your own, and yet you find that they are getting lost in everyday life. There isn't the time, or the money, to help others, or to be as creative as you would like. Or perhaps you have all the power and money that you could want or expect, and it still isn't enough...
Questions like these can start you on the road to being happier than you are now.
28 April 2007
Can writing a journal make you happy?
I've been reading Stephanie Dowrick's Creative Journal Writing (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2007) and it has reminded me how liberating and fulfilling writing a journal can be. Writing a blog is like writing a journal in that you write whatever is on your mind, and yet it is different because you are always conscious that someone may read your blog (hopefully) and so you are keeping your audience in mind, whereas with a journal it is for you and you alone. It doesn't have to make sense to someone else, it can be defamatory or dishonest or whatever you like - it is just for you.
Writing a journal can clarify problems in your own mind, or take you to a level of creativity you didn't know you were capable of. I've written a journal on and off since I was a teenager, and mostly it was of the problem-clarifying kind. Getting it down on paper means you have to think clearly and boil all those circular worries down into sentences. It gets it outside of yourself and enables you to look at it more objectively, with less emotion that can stop you seeing it properly. It can also give you ideas for solutions that don't come when the problem is just going around and around in your head.
I haven't written one for a few years now, and then I heard Stephanie on the radio the other night talking about journals and her new book and I was inspired to start again. I love to write - no-one who doesn't would voluntarily start a blog - and the idea that I could introduce more creativity into my writing and my life was instantly appealing.
Just the thought of going out and buying a journal to write in, with nice paper and a proper cover, and deciding which pen, or colour, to use, was immensely satisfying, and actually going out and buying one was even more so. I've written in it twice so far, and I'm thinking that there is so much more I can do. I bought a sketchbook type so the pages are thick enough that I can write on both sides of the page without interference from the other side, which always bothers my about normal notebooks; and not having lines on the page means I can draw or write diagonally or in circles if I want to.
Stephanie's book gives examples and exercises for unleashing the creativity we all have in there somewhere, and I'm looking forward to getting in there and trying them out.
Can writing a journal make me happy? I think so! I'll let you know how I go.
Writing a journal can clarify problems in your own mind, or take you to a level of creativity you didn't know you were capable of. I've written a journal on and off since I was a teenager, and mostly it was of the problem-clarifying kind. Getting it down on paper means you have to think clearly and boil all those circular worries down into sentences. It gets it outside of yourself and enables you to look at it more objectively, with less emotion that can stop you seeing it properly. It can also give you ideas for solutions that don't come when the problem is just going around and around in your head.
I haven't written one for a few years now, and then I heard Stephanie on the radio the other night talking about journals and her new book and I was inspired to start again. I love to write - no-one who doesn't would voluntarily start a blog - and the idea that I could introduce more creativity into my writing and my life was instantly appealing.
Just the thought of going out and buying a journal to write in, with nice paper and a proper cover, and deciding which pen, or colour, to use, was immensely satisfying, and actually going out and buying one was even more so. I've written in it twice so far, and I'm thinking that there is so much more I can do. I bought a sketchbook type so the pages are thick enough that I can write on both sides of the page without interference from the other side, which always bothers my about normal notebooks; and not having lines on the page means I can draw or write diagonally or in circles if I want to.
Stephanie's book gives examples and exercises for unleashing the creativity we all have in there somewhere, and I'm looking forward to getting in there and trying them out.
Can writing a journal make me happy? I think so! I'll let you know how I go.
27 April 2007
Introducing...
Welcome! My name is Carole and I am interested in human happiness, no less. What is it, how do we achieve it, and how will we know when we have? It's a huge subject when you think a bit about it, and eventually we will cover all sorts of different aspects of what it takes, and what it is, to be happy.
Is it a good bottle of wine at the end of a stressful day? Is football involved? Or a strategic computer game? Is it the love of a good man or woman? Or of a faithful dog? The company of good friends? The hugs of your kids? A good book and a box of chocolates? Or just the chocolate? Kindness to others? The satisfaction of a job well done? A new personal best on the track or in the pool? All of this? Something else? Or is it indefinable? Does it only apply to fleeting moments, or is it a state of mind? Is it attainable?
There'll be the theories and insights of academics and professionals. The ideas of writers and thinkers, and interested amateurs. I'll give you my own personal reflections. I'll talk about books that I've read and what I learned at uni. I'll show you websites I've found. And I hope you'll let me know what you think; whether you agree or disagree with what I've said, or want to suggest alternatives.
You may not find the secret to life happiness here, but then, you just might!
Is it a good bottle of wine at the end of a stressful day? Is football involved? Or a strategic computer game? Is it the love of a good man or woman? Or of a faithful dog? The company of good friends? The hugs of your kids? A good book and a box of chocolates? Or just the chocolate? Kindness to others? The satisfaction of a job well done? A new personal best on the track or in the pool? All of this? Something else? Or is it indefinable? Does it only apply to fleeting moments, or is it a state of mind? Is it attainable?
There'll be the theories and insights of academics and professionals. The ideas of writers and thinkers, and interested amateurs. I'll give you my own personal reflections. I'll talk about books that I've read and what I learned at uni. I'll show you websites I've found. And I hope you'll let me know what you think; whether you agree or disagree with what I've said, or want to suggest alternatives.
You may not find the secret to life happiness here, but then, you just might!
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