Happiness!

Stephen SobolewskiJames Brownstein

Daniel Kane

People who are happy…

• See the world as safer• Make decisions more easily• Rate job applicants more favorably• Are more cooperative• Live healthier and more energized,

satisfied lives• Are more willing to help others

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

• Feel-good, Do-good phenomenon: People’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.

• “Random Acts of Kindness”• Ex: Finding money causes people to

give money because they are already happy.

• Happiness does good • http

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc6WW1GGjbk

Subjective Well-being

• Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.• Your current evaluation of your own happiness • Refers to emotions, moods and feelings. Affect is

considered positive when the emotions, moods and feelings experienced are pleasant ( joy, affection etc.) Affect is deemed negative, though, when the emotions, moods and feelings experienced are unpleasant (e.g. guilt, anger, shame etc.)

Moods Across The Day

• Psychologists David Watson and Daniel Kahneman discovered that positive emotion rises over the early to middle part of most days.

• Stressful events trigger bad moods, but by the next day, we don’t feel sad anymore

• People tend to rebound from bad days to a better-than-usual good mood

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JcMQmuvzPmI

Wealth And Well-Being• Most people believe they would be happier with more money• Within most affluent countries, people with lots of money are

somewhat happier than people who struggle to afford life’s basic needs

• People in rich countries are also somewhat happier than those in poor countries

• However, wealth is like health, Its absence can breed misery, yet having it is no guarantee of happiness.

• Both rich and poor people have their share of problems• Money does NOT buy happiness• “American say that money doesn’t bring happiness. But it

helps you to live with misery in comfort”• Money brings only a surge of happiness• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk&feature=related

Happiness and Prior Experience

• Adaptation-level Phenomenon- Where we judge various stimuli that relates to stimuli that we have previously experienced

• Ex: If our current condition (income, academic average, or social prestige) increases we feel an initial surge of pleasure. Than we adapt to this new level of achievement, consider it as normal, and require something better to make us feel happy again.

Happiness and Other’s Attainments

• Happiness is relative not only to our past experience but also to our comparisons with others.

• Relative Deprivation- The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

• Ex: When a famous athlete gets a good new contract, it makes him happy, but it diminishes other star players’ satisfaction who have worse contracts.

The Top 10 Things That Make PeopleHappy (in Random Order)

1. Meaningful Work2. Good Health3. Religion4. Positive Thinking5. Personal Freedom 6. Watching TV7. Family And Relationships8. Giving to Others9. Gratitude10. Forgiveness

Top 10 Things That Make People Happy

1. Family and Relationships2. Meaningful Work3. Positive Thinking4. Gratitude5. Forgiveness6. Giving to Others7. Religion8. Personal Freedom9. Good Health10. Watching TV