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1) How satisfied are you with your life
as a whole these days? ____ 1=extremely unsatisfied, 7=extremely satisfied
2) List 2 things you’d like to change about yourself
I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having, from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. --from Samuel Johnson’s Diary
I) The Divided Self (great truth #1)
Medea’s lament: I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.
St Paul’s lament: The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things ye would.
Two kinds of thinking
Automatic (elephant)
Intuition
Fast, easy… indefatigable
“hot” – connected to motivations, reward centers
99% of all cognition
Two kinds of thinking
Automatic (elephant) Controlled (rider)
Intuition Reasoning, language, logic
Fast, easy… indefatigable Slow, effortful… tires out
“hot” – connected to motivations, reward centers
“cool” – not connected to motivational centers
99% of all cognition 1% of all cognition
Take home lesson: Self-change is elephant training.
1) Change the elephant, gradually --Develop new habits, take 12 weeks to stick --Use small but immediate rewards --Try cognitive therapy, or meditation
2) Change the elephant’s surroundings --Animals are “stimulus bound”; people too
3) Get relations right BETWEEN elephant and rider --know your elephant, and its strengths and weaknesses
YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5
7654321
II) Life itself is but what you deem it (Great Truth #2)
“How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”
1=extremely unsatisfied, 7=extremely satisfied
YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5
7654321
What we imagine will happen: Permanent effects
Baseline
Win Lottery
Paralyzedfor life
YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5
7654321
What actually happens: We adapt very quickly(Brickman, Coates, & Janoff-Bulman, 1978)
Win Lottery
Paralyzed for lifeAdaptation!
Who is happy? (Demographics)
1) Age? No differences in overall SWB2) Sex? No difference in overall SWB3) Race? Small or no differences
4) Wealth? --In very poor countries, and for poor people: YES --But, once above subsistence level, correlation becomes small --In the U.S., correlation is .12 --Tripling national wealth since WWII had NO effect on happiness --We’re on a “hedonic treadmill”: the more we get, the more we want
Life itself is but what you deem it (Marcus Aurelius)
--There’s nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
--We are what we think. All that we arearises with our thoughts
--Life is a banquet, and some poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death
Why? Because Everyone has a biological set point
--Avg happiness level is fairly stable from year to year--Avg happiness level is highly heritable: 50-75% of variance
due to genes: almost none due to shared family environmnt
Won the cortical lottery
Lost the cortical lottery
What did they win? Happy people…
--Have more friends--Have happier marriages and fewer divorces--Live longer--Recover from adversity faster, and grow from it--Become more successful: --clients like them, buy from them --bosses like them, promote them --throw themselves into projects more fully; live in the
“realm of possibility” --Exception: lawyers. Pessimism is adaptive.
But: Live above your set-point!
There IS a biological set point, but experienced happiness forms a distribution around that point, a “set range”.
H = S + C + V
S(et-point)
C(onditions)
V(oluntary activities)
But: Live above your set-point!
There IS a biological set point, but experienced happiness forms a distribution around that point, a “set range”.
H = S + C + V
Raise S(et-point): Prozac
Raise C(onditions): --Increase control in daily life
--Increase relatedness
Raise V(oluntary activities): ….
Voluntary Activity #1: Diagnose Yourself
--are you on the negative half of the happiness distribution? (Find out at www.authentichappiness.org)
--What are your strengths? How can you use them to get around your weaknesses? (take the “Signature Strengths Test” at www.authentichappiness.org)
Voluntary Activity #2: Improve Mental Hygiene
--If you ARE low, or you ruminate, then buy “Feeling Good”, by David Burns. Or see a cognitive-behavioral therapist
--Every evening, write down three things that went well that day, and their causes. (Especially the role you played, the strengths you used, the friends and supporters you have.)
--These practices are as effective as Prozac at raising happiness levels
Voluntary Activity #3: Diet less, Exercise more
--Dieting makes people irritable, and rarely works--Pleasure is an important part of the good life--A slight increase in exercise improves mood throughout
the day
Voluntary Activity #4: Improve relatedness
--The unexpected theme of most chapters in the Happiness Hypothesis: Relationships are the key to happiness!
--Work on existing relationships!--Write a gratitude letter--And cultivate new relationships, especially in groups
Conclusion:
Happiness Hypoth #1: Happiness comes from outside (from getting what you want: wealth, health, love)
Conclusion:
Happiness Hypoth #1: Happiness comes from outside (from getting what you want: wealth, health, love)
Happiness Hypoth #2: Happiness comes from within (Buddha, Epictetus, most pop psych)