Deck 3: Happiness

Question 1

How can we differentiate a general sense of happiness from happiness as a brief emotional state? Why is it difficult to define this long-term happiness?

Answer 1

$\bullet$ This is not to say that happiness never changes, but we do want to distinguish a general sense of happiness from more transitory emotions and moods. Very happy people have bad days, and miserable people have pleasant moments.
$\bullet$ One way to think of this more long-term happiness is as a mental running average of momentary feelings over one's life.
$\bullet$ Although the term happiness is often used to describe a pleasant emotional state, happiness can also be understood broadly, something that includes various narrower components (like emotions and satisfaction).
$\bullet$ What does it mean to be truly happy? For some, happiness is mainly about feeling good; for others, it is more about living a morally good life.
$\bullet$ Because the term happiness can be viewed in different ways, psychologists often replace happiness with the jargon term 'subjective well-being', which is defined more precisely. Subjective well-being is first subjective. It is how individuals view their own well-being, not how a philosopher, psychologist or any other expert would evaluate it. It is personal and in the mind of its subject. Defining well-being might raise the same thorny issues involved in defining happiness, but with the term subjective well-being, psychologists decided on a specific meaning when they coined it.

Question 2

Briefly describe the six components of Ryff's (1989) approach to psychological well-being.

Answer 2

$\bullet$ Self-acceptance: a positive view of the past and present self that acknowledges good and bad aspects
$\bullet$ Positive relations with other people: trusting, intimate and caring relationships with others
$\bullet$ Autonomy: independence, authenticity, use of personal standards to guide behaviour and resistance of social pressures
$\bullet$ Environmental mastery: competence, seizing opportunities, finding contexts conducive to needs and values.
$\bullet$ Purpose in life: clear goals, sense of meaning, important projects and sense that things are worthwhile
$\bullet$ Personal growth: openness and sense of continuing development and positive changes over one's lifetime

Question 3

Should people strive to be more happy? Support your answer with relevant examples.

Answer 3

$\bullet$ Happiness is associated-and very likely can help cause-success and health.
$\bullet$ Broad reviews suggest that happiness is useful more often then not, but this does not mean happiness is the most important factor; it is rarely the single best predictor. Counter examples-where happy people do more poorly-exist too (see Gruber, Mauss, & Tamir, 2011). This is particularly true when we examine positive states. Some high-intensity positive emotions may tax, rather than mend, physiological systems. Happy moments can make people careless and more prone to stereotyping-positive moods are associated with taking mental shortcuts. When competing or negotiating, unpleasant emotions can facilitate success.
$\bullet$ The very happiest people still experience unpleasant emotions in their daily life, just a bit less frequently than unhappy people (Diener & Seligman, 2002). Long-term well-being and success are not the result of constant, inflexible or delusional positive affect. In sum, there are clearly moments when happiness is not the best way to feel.
$\bullet$ It seems plausible that high happiness could hinder some artistic or critical endeavours or produce unwarranted optimism or complacency. There are some empirical hints that more happiness is not always better. Such findings seem to depend on whether we consider achievement or good relationships.
$\bullet$ Across a collection of large data sets, Oishi, Diener, & Lucas (2007) found that very high happiness was associated with close relationships and volunteering without limit-the happiest people had the richest social and most prosocial lives. The trend was different for measures of achievement, however. Subjective well-being was positively associated with income and achievement in school, yet with an exception for very highest levels of happiness. Over time, the happiest people tended to earn less money than the moderately happy people (but both earned more than unhappy people). Said another way, when it comes to achievement, the optimal level of happiness might be more like 8.5-rather than 10-on a 10-point scale. For good relationships, 10 may well be best.

Question 4

Positive psychologists define subjective well-being as including ______.

A) high life satisfaction and moderate pleasant and unpleasant emotions
B) high life satisfaction, many pleasant emotions and few unpleasant emotions
C) Moderate life satisfaction, many pleasant emotions and moderate unpleasant emotions
D) None of these

Question 5

_____ life satisfaction judgements are often preferred over ______ life satisfaction judgements because of individual differences.

A) Overall; domain-specific
B) Domain-specific; overall
C) Moderate; positive
D) Objective; subjective

Question 6

Positive psychologists often use the terms ______ to describe eudaimonia.

A) negative emotions, self-sacrifice and meaning
B) happiness, feeling good, positive emotions and pleasure
C) sense of purpose, meaning, authenticity and growth
D) None of these

Question 7

What are the five key aspects of well-being proposed by Seligman (2012)?

A) Positive emotion, engagement, healthy relationships, meaning and accomplishment
B) Few negative emotions, income; marriage, age and education
C) Environment, heredity, culture, age and education
D) Positive emotions, few negative emotions, income, age and education

Question 8

Key personality differences among people are often measured using the ______.

A) Big two
B) positive and negative affect schedule
C) satisfaction with life scale
D) Big five
E) other in self scale

Question 9

The Big five personality traits are ______.

A) emotional stability, neuroticism, introversion, extraversion and openness
B) emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, introversion-extraversion and openness
C) optimism, conscientiousness, openness, empathy and shyness
D) introversion-extraversion, optimism, emotional stability, neuroticism and agreeableness
E) None of these

Question 10

______ estimates how much variation in a group is due to differences in genes.

A) Personality
B) Life satisfaction
C) Well-being
D) Heritability
E) All of these

Question 11

Non-genetic influences are usually termed ______.

A) the environment
B) heritability
C) well-being
D) life satisfaction
E) personality

Question 12

In Diener and Seligman's (2002) study, very happy people had ______.

A) more religiosity
B) more physical attractiveness
C) more and better social relationships
D) better grades
E) better quality sleep

Question 13

Happiness tends to be ______ across the life span in developed countries.

A) randomly variable
B) mostly decreasing
C) mostly increasing
D) stable

Question 14

The link between education and happiness is stronger among ______.

A) people who are poorer
B) people who are richer
C) women
D) men
E) people who are younger
F) people who are older

Question 15

Happier people are more likely to ______.

A) not get married
B) marry and get divorced
C) get married at an older age
D) get married at a younger age
E) marry and stay married

Question 16

People who have a religious practice (no matter the denomination) report higher subjective well-being, especially ______.

A) in wealthier countries
B) for older individuals
C) under difficult circumstances
D) for men
E) for women

Question 17

People's tendency to return to a 'baseline' level of happiness is knows as ______.

A) adaptation
B) personality
C) life satisfaction
D) negative emotions
E) emotional stability

Question 18

The 'hedonic treadmill' refers to ______.

A) people preferring pleasure to meaning
B) people going back to their personal set point after a period of adaptation
C) people trying to live the good life
D) increases in happiness over a person's life