More handpicked essays just for you.
Relationship between culture and psychopathology
Climate change and its effect on human activity
Compare two cultures approaches to mental health
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Abstract A teen question questionnaire was handed out to shoppers in the Colonial Bel Air Mall, to measure the levels of happiness between gender and race. It was determined that there were no significant differences of happiness between the two. Although women happiness ratings were slightly higher than men and blacks were higher than whites it was not significant enough to make a difference.
Books, books, and more books have analyzed human misery. During its first century, psychology focused far more on negative emotions, such as depression and anxiety, than positive emotions, such as happiness and satisfaction. Even today, our texts say more about suffering than about joy. That is now changing. During the 1980sm the number
…show more content…
By knowing a person's sex, race and income (assuming the person has enough to afford life's necessities) hardly gives a clue. Better clues may come from knowing a person's traits, whether the person enjoys a supportive network of close relationships, whether the person's culture offers positive interpretations for most daily events, whether the person is engaged by work and leisure, and whether the person has a faith that entails social support, purpose, and hope. Happiness can only be determine by the person ability to adapt to any of life obstacles.
Reference Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most People Are Happy. Developmental Psychology, 24, 181-185.
Diener, E. & Sandvik, E., & Larsen , R.J., (1985). Age and sex effects for emotional Intensity. Developmental Psychology, 21, 542-548.
Lykken, D.T., Bouchard, T.J., McGue, M.T., (1992).Emergenesis: Genetic traits that may -not run in families. American Psychologist, 7, 186-189.
Lykken, D.T., & Tellegen, A., (1996). Happiness Is A Stochastic Phenomenon. Psychological Science, 47, 1565-1577.
Myers, D.G. & Diener, E. (1995). Who Is Happy? Psychological Science, 6, 10-17
Schkade, D.A., & Kahneman, D. (1998) Does Living In California Make People Happy? Psychological Science, 9,
Begley introduces sources such as Ed Diener, a University of Illinois psychology professor, who has studied happiness for twenty-five years, to further the point of her claim. In the article, she accounts an interaction Diener had with Scotland's Parliament and business leaders on the value of using traditional measures to compare what policies makes the country happiest. The Scottish were all in favor of increasing policies that increased wellbeing, but not because they make people happier. "They said too much happiness might not be a good thing, they like being dour, and didn't appreciate being told they should be happier" (555). Diener later concludes that levels of happiness coincide with longer, healthier, relationships. He contrasts this conclusion with an article he cowrote with, stating “once a moderate level of happiness is achieved, further increases can sometimes be detrimental to income, career success, education, and political participation” (556). Diener believes that negative emotions make you “more analytical, more critical, and more innovative” to help direct your thinking. Diener gives much evidence and experience towards Begley’s claim of happiness not being the best for you. Another source Begley uses to back up her claim that
Stephen M. Schuller and Acacia C. Parks research shows that circumstantial factors do not adequately explain different level of happiness. Positive reactions will contribute to everyone’s happiness just as well as negative reactions do. I agree with Schuller and Parks when it comes down to where your happiness comes from. I believe your happiness comes from how you react to every situation in your life and how you let it affect your happiness. Therefore, I do not agree with Newman and Larsen due to him believing your happiness is out of your control. Newman and Larsen state that most of what influences your long-term happiness is not in your control. Most circumstances that happen in your
As Walt Disney once said, “Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.” Walt Disney is one of the best known founders for a motion - picture production company. This infamous and plausible man is among the many who support the claim that happiness can be achieved in an assortment of ways by contenting both adults and children. Maanvi Singh’s , “You Can Buy Happiness, If It’s An Experience,” Caitlin Kenney’s “Study: ‘High Incomes Don’t Bring You Happiness’” and ABC News’ “Can We Cultivate Our Own Happiness?” assert how one can achieve happiness. Genuine happiness can only be attained if one truly accepts what their lives present them with. Even though several beliefs claim that money is the key to stimulating
Thinkers and philosophers have been pondering misery since the dawn of civilization. At the dawn of humanity, humans existed to survive and reproduce; every day was a struggle. However, with the advent of civilization, humanity has moved further and further away from its original evolutionary drives, and it can be argued by secular thinkers that humans exist now to find happiness. Therefore, misery can be seen as the biggest obstacle to human happiness, yet misery itself is a mystery to many. Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents put forth the authors’ opinions on the origins of mortal misery, and suggest methods to solve the problem of misery. Although the two have differing views, both see
Everyone wants to be “happy.” Everyone endeavors to fulfill their desires for their own pleasure. What makes this ironic is, the fact that most don‘t know what the actual definition of happiness is. “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” presents an argument, which states that not everyone will be happy. Darrin McMahon, the article’s author, explores the ways our “relentless pursuit of personal pleasure”(McMahon P.11;S.3) can lead to empty aspirations and impractical expectations, making us sad, and not happy. Rather than working to find the happiness of others, we should all focus on finding what makes ourselves happy. It is easier to find happiness in the little things
A powerful influence over happiness is how people perceive situations and how they choose to engage with others. Life may change within an instant and have a spiraling spin of high and low points, but the positive state of mind and the value of social relationships determine the
One reason described to be a cause of happiness is income. Don Peck and Ross Douthat indicate how, “National income appears to be one of the best single predictors of overall well-being, explaining perhaps 40 percent of the difference in contentment among nations” (352). With this statement, comes the explanation of how income can influence happiness in adults who strive to earn a living. Research illustrates how, “For individual countries, with few exceptions, self-reported happiness has increased as incomes have risen” (Douthat 352). While these two statements provide sufficient evidence for the reason of income bringing happiness, income itself is not relevant.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology and social psychology. In “How Happy Are You and Why?”, Lyubomirsky argues that happiness mainly comes from genetics and intentional activity, and is only slightly affected by circumstances (184). Lubomirsky also introduces her “Subjective Happiness Scale,” which asks a person to self-report their own happiness in four simple, closely-related questions (183). She says that genetics creates the happiness set point, while intentional activity can be changed in order to affect happiness level (Lyubomirsky 186-195). In contrast, Gilbert’s idea that happiness stems from interpretations of events matches the circumstances component of happiness that Lyubomirsky describes. Lyubomirsky also provides strong evidence for saying that happiness has a genetic component, when she presents the data from studies of twins. These studies revealed that “identical twins were extremely similar to each other in their happiness levels” (Lyubomirsky 187-190). This challenges Gilbert’s view that happiness comes solely from our interpretations of the situations we are in, because the evidence from twin studies shows that a significant part of a person’s happiness level is genetic. This means that there is a component of happiness that cannot be changed, which contrasts with Gilbert’s view that simply seeing the more positive side brings about happiness. Both views are from the psychological
Utilizing a pie chart, she illustrates the crux of her research; 10% of our happiness is increased or decreased by our circumstances. 50% of our happiness is increased or decreased by genetic predisposition, 40% is within our ability to control. We have “opportunities to increase or decrease our happiness levels through what we do and how we think” (22). She provides 12 specific happiness enhancing activities. She implores us to commit time, resources and energy to this “intentional activity”. Promoting these changes in our lives to accommodate being happier, which will benefit everyone in the end.
"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" by Jon Gertner was published in September of 2003. It is an essay that discusses the difference between how happy we believe we will be with a particular outcome or decision, and how happy we actually are with the outcome. The essay is based on experiments done by two professors: Daniel Gilbert and George Loewenstein. The experiments show that humans are never as happy as we think we will be with an outcome because affective forecasting and miswanting cause false excitement and disappointment in our search for true happiness.
Happiness plays an important and necessary role in the lives of people around the world. In America, happiness has been engrained in our national consciousness since Thomas Jefferson penned these famous words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (Jefferson). Since then, Americans have been engaged in that act: pursuing happiness. The problem however, as Ray Bradbury demonstrates in his novel Fahrenheit 451, is that those things which make us happy initially may eventually lead to our downfall. By examining Guy Montag, the protagonist in Fahrenheit 451, and the world he lives in we can gain valuable insights to direct us in our own pursuit of happiness. From Montag and other characters we will learn how physical, emotional, and spiritual happiness can drastically affect our lives. We must ask ourselves what our lives, words, and actions are worth. We should hope that our words are not meaningless, “as wind in dried grass” (Eliot).
Prager, D. (1997). Happiness is a serious problem: A human nature repair manual. NY: HarperCollins Publishers
According to Freud’s conclusion, based on decades of experimentation and theoretical work in the field of psychotherapy, humans cannot be happy because a satisfaction of needs creates only a momentary phase of happiness which expires after some time. Therefore, the focus of life should not be on obtaining happiness, and people should focus on avoiding suffering instead (Bullock, n.d.). However, several paradigms of well-being exist, and individual cognitive patterns and paradigms define the emotional responses to social influences. From an objective viewpoint, well-being is a state of consciousness that arises from a combination of internal and external factors, and money is an unstable external influence in defining subjective well-being. Money as a determinant of subjective well-being is influenced by several cultural influences.
Suffering can be defined as an experience of discomfort suffered by a person during his life. The New York Times published an article entitled what suffering does, by David Brooks (2014). In this article, Brooks explains how suffering plays an important role in our pursuit of happiness. He explains firstly that happiness is found through experiences and then, suffering can also be a motivation in our pursuit of happiness. In other words, suffering is a fearful but necessary gift to acquire happiness. This paper is related to motivation and emotion, two keys words to the pursuit of happiness (King, 2010).
Throughout history, philosophers and scientists of various kinds have been trying to define happiness, identify its causes and the obstacles to reaching it. According to Jon Gertner, psychologist Gilbert and economist Loewenstein have succeeded in pointing out several reasons why people are unhappy (pp: 444-6). It is important to note that according to Gilbert, it is not that people cannot g...