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Essay on positive psychology
Concepts of positive psychology
Concepts of positive psychology
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Having Control Over Your Own Happiness
Introduction
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
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Newman and Randy J. Larsen’s article “How Much of Our Happiness is Within Our Control?” claims that we have much less control over our happiness than positive psychologists uphold. This shows that you let things that happen in your life control if you are happy or not. These psychologists argue that you cannot make yourself happier. This is saying you can never attain everlasting bliss and that you get used to all the negatives factors in your life. I do not believe this statement is true because I think you can always put a positive spin on every negative factor in your life and that your positive factors in your life can last as long as you want them to. Therefore, I disagree with Newman and Larsen because I believe you are the only one that has complete control over your own happiness. They state that the influential environmental variables in our lives are just as uncontrollable than our genes. However, the reactions to the uncontrollable environmental variables is what controls your mood and happiness. Although there beliefs are different they still have some common ground. The authors of both articles agree that the people who are happier tend to always have particular behavioral characteristics such as gratitude, kindness, positive relationships, …show more content…
I do not think anyone else in this world can choose whether or not someone else is happy or not. I agree with Schuller and Parks because they state that there are ways you can increase your happiness. I believe that if you are unhappy, it is up to you to fix it and change. Instead of letting negative environmental factors affect your life negatively, let them change your life positively. Always think everything happens for a reason and believe that the negative factors in your life are blessings in disguise. If you can go through life believing these things then you will live a longer and happier life. I think that if you go through life with the positive psychological interventions you will inevitably be happier. For example, if you help some out of the kindness in your heart and they end up being extremely happy you will be happier than not being helpful but knowing the person you could’ve helped has a negative environmental factor affect their life negatively. However, you are the only one that has control over your
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
However, happiness also takes into account a wide range of other aspects of our lives, including our thoughts and actions, and even genetics. Therefore, happiness should be defined as the amalgamation of how we think and act, and how we interpret our experiences as positive or negative. What this means is that in order to become happier, we must simply force ourselves to become more optimistic. This is easier said than done, however. In order to have a noticeable increase in happiness, people must be willing to make lifestyle changes in addition to changing their mindset. However, the difference between optimism and delusion is a fine line, so people must be cautious to not exaggerate the positive parts of an experience or become overly optimistic. If we practice seeking out the positive views of our circumstances, with time we will find ourselves happier than
In Martin Seligman and other’s article “A Balanced Psychology and a Full Life,” he states that the definition of happiness, “Is a condition over and above the absence of unhappiness” (Seligman et al 1379).
Happiness is the positive emotion and contentment one feels naturally. Many Psychology studies have been concluded to display what pure happiness is. In the article, “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” by Darrin M. McMahon, he indicates that happiness cannot be forced. In the article, McMahon mentions a philosopher, John Stuart Mill, who acknowledges as well, that happiness can not be forced. He says that if one focuses on something other than their own happiness, happiness will come to them naturally. By what Mill says, people should be encouraged that happiness will come to them and can not force happiness to them. Another example is Jeffrey Kluger’s article, “The Happiness of Pursuit”, he talks about how people focus on never being happy. He says,
Happiness is a feeling that everyone tries to accomplish, yet some people sometimes only capture portions of it. In Brian Doyle essay, “Irreconcilable Dissonance,” he explains that divorce is becoming common among many couples today. Most couples are putting less effort into making a relationship/marriage work. There are many couples who get married, and most of them know that if the marriage does not work that divorce is always an option. With divorce in their back of their mind they lack the true meaning of having a happy marriage. In Eduardo Porter essay, “What Is Happiness,” Porter states that happiness is determined by people’s qualities in their life. People who experience a positive viewpoint on life and about others are overall to
Brave New World, acknowledges government control which results in the failure of a society. It is a world created where everything is under control, being observed, and synthetic. The society was manufactured in a test tube therefore, it was factory made. The people were born and developed in the test tubes, so their human nature became adapted so an individual cannot identify or approach it. Every little detail of a person's life is prearranged. These people's lives revolve around their community, their existence, and security; never their individual happiness. They are basically living for their society as a whole. This society was designed to be successful but it failed to give people their individuality. The individuals sacrificed their identity to make sure that everybody was able to survive, advance, and live a life of happiness. When there are limitations on behavior patterns in a society it can restrict one's ability to be truly happy in every aspect.
They say if you love something, let it go. Yeah, I had a hard time believing those few words, for almost five years now.I met the first guy I fell in love with and whom I believed I was destined to spend my whole life with. I remember reading a quote or something like that by Plato, saying, “According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.” And I had sworn that I was sure he was my other half, that it was meant to be. Sucks though, when reality hits
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.
Their is many things that many people describe that make up happiness or is happiness itself, For example being a parent is the happiest experience in some individuals life but is that really the case? In an essay by Daniel Gilbert titled “Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?” Gilbert says that psychologist have found that people feel unhappy while they are interacting with their children as compared to when they do other tasks such as eating or watching TV. In other words parenting sometimes makes people feel as if taking care of children was just another task such a cleaning. It was also found that children have a small negative impact on their parent’s life. Another study found that many people especially parents tend to smile more once their
Although changing some factors, such as attitude and money, is believed to have a major effect on an individual’s happiness, other factors like social class have a larger impact.
Few people can force themselves to be happy. But we can arrange their lives to include more of what they want and like. The easiest path is to take control of our time and attention. Our mood depends on the moment we pay attention to, which dictates your emotional state. All of this can be called experienced well-being.
In Happiness is an Inside Job by Robert Puff, he states how happiness is mainly based on how we think and what we think about. Puff believes that if one sits and dwells on a situation that they will more likely to be sad or prone to depression. Through the examples Robert proves through his article, it shows how happiness is very closely related to cognitive psychology and conflict management. For example, Cognitive Therapy states that how one thinks, how one acts, and how one feels all interacts with each other. Also in Happiness is an Inside Job, Puff states how he gets a myriad of calls from different clients saying how they want to end their lives, and to help the he says to take a thirty minute to a hour walk to calm down and reflect on the situation.
Positive psychology has been inspiration for other psychologist in further research on the important of happiness in people lives. Myers (2000) examined happiness in relation to gender, age, income, jobs, and religious faith. According to the Myers, “around 10-15 percent of American think of themselves as truly happy (Myers, pg 56).” This indicates most of the people are not actually happy when they act l...
Achieving long-term personal happiness is possible with hard work and perseverance by using several methods. Understanding and following various steps to have fulfillment can change your life. By consistently following an assortment of important steps, you will develop a life pattern that is generally happy. Many people throughout history have attempted to find ways to become happier, and share the information with others. While there are occasionally things that should make a person unhappy, it is important to not allow unhappiness to become a lifelong pattern that destroys you mentally and physically. In addition, happy people tend to have more friends and success because they are fun to associate with.
If the causes of happiness had to be summed up in one word, that would be “social.” Sure, we can make ourselves happy, but being around other people has more of an affect on you when being around other people. It’s almost like playing on a team in a baseball game. If you play as a whole team, then the pressure isn’t all on you, it’s for the whole team to get the win. It’s been proven that being around other people is more likely to make you happier than being alone. You can’t talk or socialize with anyone being alone. However, it can be a different story being around the wrong people that don’t make us happy. Being around the wrong people can actually hold us back from showing our true emotions on how we feel. If someone that you don't appreciate being around smiles at you, you may smile back, but it is probably a fake smile because it’s not how you truly