SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS & WELL BEING

Social Psychology

I. Understanding our own well being can be complicated

Conceptualizing well being Subjective well being: a persons own assessment of their happiness and satisfaction with life
Subjective---because can be unrelated to objective circumstances

Three common orientations to happiness (Peterson et al., 2005)

Meaning: Ones life has a larger purpose (society / other people) Pleasure: Pursuit of pleasure & excitement (sensory/feeling) Engagement:

I. Understanding our own well being can be complicated

Much focus on the now/moment-based experience But, well-being research suggests people also determine their happiness via an evaluation of their life Happy in your life (moment to moment) vs. Happy with your life (retrospective evaluations of past; Kahneman, 2000)
Moment-based well being: well being that stems from real-time moment to moment experiences
Typically much more rooted in good or bad affect & intensity

Memory-based well being:

I. Understanding our own well being can be complicated

We are actually not that great at predicting what makes us happy Impact bias & predictions about emotional consequences of future events (Gilbert et al., 1998) Impact bias: the tendency to overestimate the enduring impact that future events will have on our actual emotional reactions at the time of the event

II. Focus and interpretation

I. Understanding our own well being can be complicated II. Focus & Interpretation A constant focus on negative events by others/media-CLIP Gratitude as a means to improving well being (Emmons & McCullough, 2003) Participants: College students during mid-term exams
Independent variable: Had them complete weekly journals for 10 weeks Think back over the past week about small and large things
Gratitude journal: write down top 5 things that you are grateful for Hassles journal: list up to five hassles, irritating things, or other things that have bothered you Control journal: list up to five events that happened to you

Dependent variables: life satisfaction, optimism about future, physical complaints

Results: Those in gratitude reported feeling better about lives,

greater optimism about future, and less physical complaints
Potential Health benefits (Pennebaker, 1997)
Reduced anxiety, 50% drop in visits to doctor (Write about negative, positive, and goals)

III. Taking active steps

Importance of setting meaningful goals & anticipation Anticipation of future positive experiences & subjective well being (MacLeod & Conway, 2005) Measured future positive goals, anticipation of future positive experiences, and subjective well being Results: Anticipation of positive experience and more anticipated positive experiences was associated with better subjective well being

III. Taking active steps

Positive emotions & better decision-making Broaden and build theory (Fredrickson, 2002) :

III. Taking active steps

Importance of alleviating stress Exercise Aerobic exercise & subjective well being Overcoming depression (Babyak et al., 2000)
Examined symptoms of depression in patients with depression Independent variable: Type of Intervention
Just exercise Just Medicine Medicine & exercise

Followed up with patients 10 months later Dependent variable: % of group that still had symptoms of depression

Results:

100% 90% 80% 70% % of group 60% with 50% Depression 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Intervention

Medicine Medicine & Exercise Exercise

III. Taking active steps

Presentation of choices & subjective well being Presentation, decision-making, & happiness: (Hsee, et al., 2008)
Separate or spread out the positive news & combine the negative news
Many good things to share with someone? Tell them on different days/weeks Many bad things? All at once!

Tell people about good events in advance & but not at all for bad Taking kid to 6 flags (anticipated happiness) vs. dentist (dreading the visit; so just put kid in the car)
Many choices are actually bad for desirable options & good for undesirable options

Choosing among many good options can become debilitating and cause anxiety. Limit your options

III. Taking active steps

Try to help others, but
You cant solve all of their problems & setting small/specific goals is better.

How small acts create more personal happiness than big acts (Rudd,

et al., 2012) A two day study Nationally representative sample of adults Randomly assigned to giving condition. In the next day, see if you can Make someone smile Make someone happy Dependent variables: Feasibility of goal & personal happiness (one day later)

Results: Those in smile condition reported more personal

happiness than those in happy condition