Shane Brykailo

Debra Jizi
U-Write 1104
2/21/2017

Double Entry Journal

Citation: Seligman, Martin E. P. Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology
to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment. New York, NY: Atria Paperback, 2013. Print.

Source: Quote (Page# or Paragraph #) Responses

We dont micromanage. We should warn
you at the outset, however, that if you reveal
our identity, any funding we give you will
stop. Pg. 2
This made me think of all the anonymous
providers in the world. Having exuberant
wealth allowed this man to develop new
theories and research. The author mentioned
the usual hoops to jump through for
government funding and grants, but its nice
to know that private investors can still spread
their influence.

Wed like you to gather together.And we
intend to give you twenty million dollars to
do it. Pg. 4
At first, I thought the social experiment was
being done on the researcher. The PT group
would monitor the well-being of the
researcher as continuously higher grants are
awarded.

I never got this sort of call before the CEO
replied pg. 5
I wonder how often the CEO had been
solicited for offers? When the organization
was operating anonymously, it was probably
much easier to focus on specific projects,
than the public. When the company became
official, how did that affect their progress?

All of these giants made the grand mistake
of monism, in which all human motives
come down to just one. Pg. 5
This reminds me off some of the mistakes in
history that have come from monism
mindsets. The Holocaust, Waco, the terrorist
ideology of ISIS all comes from monistic
points of view.

Happiness historically is not closely tied to
such hedonics- feeling cheeful or merry is a
far cry from what Thomas Jefferson
declared that we have the right to pursue
Pg.7
I wonder what made the connotation of
happiness change over the years. The
Constitution guaranteed such freedoms as
the right to vote, and freedom of speech that
were unheard of at the time. As people got
used to these rights, maybe they turned to
materialistic to define happiness.
The theory in Authentic Happiness is that
happiness could be analyzed into three
different elements that we choose for their
own sakes: positive emotion, engagement,
and meaning. Pg. 7
Even though they lack cheerfulness, this
low-mood half may have more engagement
and meaning in life than merry people. Pg.
11
Well-being theory denies that the topic of
positive psychology is a real thing: rather the validated the researchers theory. Everyones
topic is a construct pg. 12
When they win,
its great. They call it winning pretty. But
when they lose as long as they played
well- its almost as great. Pg.13
The addition of the achieving life also
emphasizes that the task of positive
psychology is to describe, rather than
prescribe, what people do to get well-being.
Pg. 17
A baby ox is carried on the back of a worker,
u[ the mountain, where it spends the next
forty years plowing the field alone. Pg. 18
It is well established that couples with
children have on average lower happiness
and life satisfaction than childless couples.
Pg. 20
Most times that I can blatenly describe my
emotions as unhappy, is when Im bored.
Involving engagement and meaning into the
Happiness theory adds elements that give a
more realistic statistic to happiness. I thought
back and realized how important engagement
and having a purpose is to mental health.
This quote backs up my theory, and
reinforces the author claim about Authentic
Happiness. Rich people, although with all of
the financial capital at their hands, may
struggle to find engagement and meaning in
their life.
Addressing well-being as a construct
will have a unique set of circumstances that
promotes well-being. I imagine by working on
each individual aspect, like engagement, I
can improve my well-being.
This paragraph reminded me of the love I had
for playing Monopoly with my friends.
Eventually, the matches were becoming very
intense for a bored game, with each of us
developing a strategy. But as soon as
someone wins, as long as it was a good
game, it was great.
I think the author made an important
distinction between applying the principles of
positive psychology, rather than just
quantifying them. When a person buys a self-
help book the information is useless it
becomes applied. By describing steps to
improve your well-being, the individual can
decide whether or not to proceed.
This was a haunting paragraph for me.
Imagining a life in isolation, never having
friends, or enjoyment. The ox spends its
entire life working, but because it has known
no other life, is it contempt?
This paragraph cracked me up. The blatant
comment show how confusing happiness and
well-being can be. Even though parents are
statistically un-happier than childless couples,
I wonder what the age perspective of the
sample is.
Public policy aimed only at subjective well-
being is vulnerable to the Brave New World
caricature in which the government
promotes happiness simply by drugging the
population. Pg. 21
For my junior year research project, I chose
to read Brave New World. Although not
expecting the wild dystopian future, I can see
elements from the book that appear today.
Government control, instant gratification, and
the focus on materialism all can be seen
represented in popular culture.