{"id":4540,"date":"2018-10-27T14:22:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/?p=4540"},"modified":"2019-05-25T23:19:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T03:19:12","slug":"happiness-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/positive-psychology\/happiness-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Today\u2019s Goals<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mini review: Happiness<\/li>\n<li>Catch up on happy people<\/li>\n<li>Review history of \u2018hedonic treadmill\u2019<\/li>\n<li>Understand current state of adaptation research<\/li>\n<li>Consider intentional happiness change<\/li>\n<li>Become familiar with exercises<\/li>\n<li>Understand factors important to effectiveness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Mini review: Happiness<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Give an example of hedonic motives; Eudaimonic motives<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hedonic: doing something to seek pleasure<\/p>\n<p>Eudaimonic: try to be the best version of yourself\/develop a skill<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How are \u2018hedonism\u2019 and the hedonic approach to assessing SWB different? Doing things that probably are not good for long-term well-being<\/li>\n<li>Beyond direct self-reports, how were the \u2018very happy people\u2019 identified by Diener &amp; Seligman? Participants asked to recall how many positive vs. negative memories they have had Self-report: do you feel a lot of positive memories?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Adaptation or \u2018Hedonic Treadmill\u2019<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Brickman, Coates, &amp; Janoff-Bulman (1978)<\/li>\n<li>Lotto winners, controls, accident victims o Not large sample (22, 58, 29), but huge impact o Rated past, present, &amp; future happiness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Asked to retrospect o Rated pleasure from everyday activities<\/p>\n<p>Adaptations: getting used to things<\/p>\n<p>Notion that applies to physical sensations &#8211; applied to happiness in general?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Study might contradict intuitions (?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Initially, the victims were less happy &#8211; but pleasures enjoyed were about the same Adaptation will occur<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yet, results often overstated o Spinal cord injury is not easy!<\/li>\n<li>Issues around remembered and predicted happiness<\/li>\n<li>People seem to adapt to even major events<\/li>\n<li>Newer research with much better data Can be more definitive<\/li>\n<li>(see Lucas reading RE stability &amp; change) Another good source:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., &amp; Scollon, C. N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: revising the adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61, 305-311.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Modern View of Adaptation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018Set points\u2019 are not neutral (even under poor circumstances) Set point: average level of happiness<\/li>\n<li>Substantial individual differences in set points (recall strong personality &amp; SWB links)<\/li>\n<li>Probably multiple set points o PA, NA, satisfaction with life, stability &amp; trajectory differences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Difference components can move in different directions &#8211; consider more than one thing<\/p>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Happiness can change o Conditions of countries &amp; SWB; major events; efforts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Multiple levels of happiness<\/p>\n<p>Happiness can change &#8211; not completely insensitive to condition<\/p>\n<ol start=\"5\">\n<li>Individual differences in adaptation o g., trajectories after marriage o BUT these hard to predict Individual patterns<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Intentional Happiness Change<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Lyubomirsky &amp; Layous (2013)<\/li>\n<li>Happiness is nice<\/li>\n<li>Happiness predict other good things<\/li>\n<li>There are relatively easy exercises that improve happiness<\/li>\n<li>(These often modeled on characteristics of happy people)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Some Exercises<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Gander, et al.; Table 1: Well-being project handout<\/li>\n<li>Three good things (&amp; why; over time)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once a day\/week participant write down 3 good things that happened and why they believe they happened<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Three funny things (&amp; why\u2026)<\/li>\n<li>Signature strengths in a new way<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Individual differences that are valued, notion that we are stronger in some ways over others<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Counting (&amp; doing) kindness<\/li>\n<li>Gift of time (with close others)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Essentially asked to spend time with other people &#8211; arrange to spend the time New reason\/excuse to visit &#8211; addition<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One door closes, another door opens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reflection &#8211; think\/write about something bad that happened that lead to a new (and better) opportunity<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Person-Activity Fit: some activities work better for certain types of people<\/p>\n<p>Proposed &#8216;key&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Across Activities<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dosage: not clear what the appropriate dosage is<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Between Activities<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Present\/Future\/Past: doing something that focuses on either one<\/li>\n<li>Others\/Self: focused on<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Person Features<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Efficacy Beliefs: if you believe something can be helpful, it tends to be<\/li>\n<li>Baseline Affective State: where are you starting?<\/li>\n<li>Social Support: feature of the person, do they have a lot of social support?<\/li>\n<li>Demographics: ways in which individuals are different<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Mediators<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How this works: process\/reason these positive interventions are leading to well-being<\/li>\n<li>Positive Emotions<\/li>\n<li>Positive Thoughts<\/li>\n<li>Positive Behaviours<\/li>\n<li>Need Satisfaction: self determination theory, makes the assumption that people have 3 fundamental basic needs (psychological needs) and that meeting these needs leads to happiness and well-being &#8211; intrinsically motivated to find them\n<ol>\n<li>Autonomy: self-directed<\/li>\n<li>Need for relatedness: want to have strong relationships with others &#8211; part of strong groups<\/li>\n<li>Competence: good at things, can do things well<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Happiness Exercises<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Generally, they tend to work<\/li>\n<li>But this glosses over variation that needs further research Work differently for every person<\/li>\n<li>Effort &amp; persistence needed for lasting change o , adaptation; scope of exercises Variety is important too<\/li>\n<li>Yet unbridled happiness pursuit not without potential problems<\/li>\n<li>What have we learned RE well-being projects?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Considered &#8211; draw on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s Goals Mini review: Happiness Catch up on happy people Review history of \u2018hedonic treadmill\u2019 Understand current state of adaptation research Consider intentional happiness change Become familiar with exercises&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/positive-psychology\/happiness-change\/\">Continue Reading<span> Happiness Change<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[116],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4836,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4540\/revisions\/4836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}