Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Group 1
(Posted for John H) Today in class, we talked about a myriad of things. The most interesting to me being the talk on the happiness set point, and having the ability to raise or lower it. Additionally, the talk on stream of consciousness was intriguing as well. Our external circumstances do in fact play less than half of a role in our happiness, the other two factors being mindset/perspective and our genetic set point. At least that is what I learned in my Psych of Happiness and Well-Being Class in Chattanooga. That being said, theoretically, it would be nice if we could induce a state of happiness or contentment at any moment. I'm not saying this isn't possible, or is possible, I like to stay on the side of it's potentially possible for some people. But yes, sorry, I hope my group finds this!
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Just to add a tangential thought, in correspondence with today's discussion, here's the chapter from my book where I talk about going to the National Archives and seeing the "founding documents."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.dropbox.com/s/gfcado3s2tt42v7/SRL-Musings_on_the_Capital_City.pdf
Factual Questions: What was Sigmund Freud’s book on happiness? Civilization and its Discontents. What was Bertrand Russell’s book on happiness? The Conquest of Happiness
ReplyDeleteTuesday’s discussion, as previously noted, seemed to be all over the place. That’s not necessarily a bad thing given the myriad of subjects the idea of happiness (or unhappiness invokes.
Discussion question: Is it easier to be happy in a small town or a big city? Here’s Dr. Oliver’s post on Tuesday that we never got a chance to discuss.
“Or as a friendly filling station attendant-cum-philosopher once asked: How can you change, if you're yourself? Short answer: by understanding yourself as a locus of change, amidst continuity. It's easier than he thinks. But it may be harder in a small town.”
Although it was many years ago, as soon as I was able to go off to college, I left my small town in Kentucky like the hills were on fire. When I talk to people about happiness and where they live (or want to live)—there’s always a mixed bag of responses—but most seem happy to have “escaped” the small-town life, or dare I say mindset, which isn’t always the case. Thoughts?
Here’s an article I stumbled across on Huffington Post on the Habits of Supremely Happy People. It’s based Martin Seligman's thoughts, who is mentioned in chapter 7 of Bok (pp 151).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/16/happiness-habits-of-exuberant-human-beings_n_3909772.html
factual question: who wrote "Happiness: The Nature and Nurture of Joy and Contentment" where he recanted his earlier claim that "to be happier was as futile as trying to be taller." He now believes that people could reset the "set point" for happiness.
ReplyDeletediscussion question: set points are talked about again in this chapter and i would like to discuss whether some feel that we can move our set points or not.
i personally think that we reset our "set points" almost daily. a good example of this would be to think back to when you were younger and what made you happy. when we are kids it can be something as simple as getting that favorite toy you wanted. as we get older different things make us happy. we grow and learn so much that we have to change our happiness levels or we could start to look immature when we get giddy for ice cream.
so as i was looking or a link for happiness i ran across a movie titled "Happiness" and found it funny that even a movie with the title of Happiness still winds up on the Rotten Tomatoes site as a bad movie.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084175-happiness/
tuesday's discussion as noted by several of us was all over the place and i will have to re-listen to the class recording to make more sense of it.
I'm upset that immaturity is linked closely to wonderment in what most consider mundane. I have no shame in getting excited for ice cream. I still swing on swing-sets at the park. I can't recall exactly what it was like to be amazed by the simple when I was young, but I know that I feel something similar to that when I find that a small bug has accompanied me to class on my hand. I've marveled at a few "bug friends" during class and found these moments of awe met with disgust and dissention from my classmates. :/ What's wrong with feeling like a kid? Aren't we just bigger kids now anyway? And conversely, aren't kids just smaller humans with less experience? Why must we change the fundamentals because of some ideal image of "adulthood?"
DeleteI'll stop ranting now lol
Answer to the Factual Question would be appreciated :)
DeleteFrom what I have gleaned, "maturity" often means conformity to the speaker's views, dressed in pretense of experience and rationality. Quantity of experience seems to overrule quality thereof in this context.
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DeleteQuantity of experience should, in my opinion, play a great role in maturity. Now, relating to age, this clearly means that those who are older have had more opportunities to broaden their experiences and learn from them. However, this does NOT necessitate that age coincides with maturity--it merely points out that someone who has had more time on the planet than myself has a greater POSSIBILITY of being more mature. Therein lies the quality, not quantity. Quantity dictates nothing more than a volume of experience, whereas the quality would mean diversity as well as richness and depth. If someone has 40 years of the same dozen activities, that's not necessarily a vast quantity of diverse experiences, but it is a massive quantity of the same experiences. Thus, this person might have a deeper understanding/richness in quality of those few activities. And in contrast, someone who has 20 years of a few hundred different activities has quantity of diverse experience, but this doesn't necessitate quality in terms of depth or richness (particularly if they're just dabbling in things for brief periods of time). Regardless of these two terms, the concept of maturity as related to them should be judged on an individual basis.
DeleteWhat I was getting at in my previous comment was the misuse of immaturity to mean "something that resembles an experience from childhood." Just because I get excited about a cold, delicious treat, for example, does NOT mean that I am immature. However, if I call someone an "idiot" because they disagree that chocolate is the best flavor of ice cream, this would be correctly immature, being that I didn't LEARN from my experiences of differences in tastes. If this is the first time, regardless of my age, that I've run into disagreement over taste, then it would be wise to call it inexperience rather than immaturity. I hope I made sense with that...>-<
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To tie in with what John has said, here is a quote from the book, Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:
ReplyDelete"[H]appiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is not something that money can buy or power command. It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them. Happiness, in fact, is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person. People who can learn to control inner experience will be able to determine the quality of their lives, which is as close as any of us can come to being happy."
Factual question: The expression "hedonic treadmill" refers to what?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: The concept of adaptation to experiences of pleasure or happiness.
Discussion Question: Do you think we can excuse ourselves for our attitude based on our body's chemical state?
Link:
http://rainsoftottawa.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/happiness9-aristotle.jpg
(Maia Lewis)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kat that a sense of wonder is important to everyone, and is not just for those who are less mature. Nurturing your inner child is essential to furthering your happiness.
Factual question: What expression is used to explain how people respond briefly to ups and downs in life and then go back to a neutral state? Hedonic Treadmill
Discussion question: Do you think there is a link between our genes and our neutral state in between life's ups and downs?
Link:http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/flourish/201210/don-t-let-the-pursuit-happiness-keep-you-down
Right on, Maia! Inner children, Unite! -insert jumping high fives here-
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