Intro to Positive Psych Midterm Chapter 1

Question 1

The Rising Importance of the Social World (The focus)

Answer 1

• Focus on empiricism, rationalism, and mechanism created an image of human nature that appeared simple, understandable, and clear.

Question 2

The Rising Importance of the Social World (Reformers) Basic need…

Answer 2

• Reformers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill believed that basic needs of people to seek pleasure and avoid pain could be used to create a more stable society.

Question 3

The Rising Importance of the Social World (Utilitarianism)

Answer 3

If you want to know whether a certain behavior is right or ethical or fosters the good life, then you must show that it leads to the enhancement of happiness for the greatest number of people.

Question 4

Aim of Utilitarianism

Answer 4

According to this philosophy happiness for all people is the ultimate aim of all human actions and should be used as the standard by which actions should be evaluated as right or wrong.

Question 5

Hedonic Calculus

Answer 5

Jeremy Bentham asserted that was possible to quantify happiness by examining the ratio of positive to negative experiences in one’s life.

Question 6

John Stuart Mill (Stance)

Answer 6

Agreed with many ideas of utilitarianism but disagreed with Bentham’s belief that all pleasures should be given equal value - a notion that is central to hedonic calculus.

Question 7

John Stuart Mill (Belief)

Answer 7

He contended that crucial differences exist among pleasures in terms of their quality. Intellectual pleasures are far more important to human happiness than biologic pleasures, which humans share with other animals.

Question 8

John Stuart Mill (Famous Saying)

Answer 8

It is better to be a human dissatisfied that a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied

Question 9

Hedonism

Answer 9

The oldest approach to well-being and happiness

Question 10

Hedonism (Focus)

Answer 10

Focuses on pleasure as the basic component to the good life.

Question 11

Hedonism (Definition)

Answer 11

In its basic form is the belief that the pursuit of well-being is fundamentally the pursuit of individual sensual pleasures and the avoidance or harm, pain, and suffering.

Question 12

Hedonism (Does it work?)

Answer 12

Has been seen as self-defeating and unworkable by most societies throughout history.

Question 13

Hedonism (Why Doesn’t It Work?)

Answer 13

Sensual pleasures are transient and require and constant struggle to be sustained. When focused on too exclusively the hedonistic drive produces no lasting benefits to personality or personal growth

Question 14

Hedonism (Behavior vs Reality)

Answer 14

The idea that we behave in order to increase physiological pleasure and avoid physiological pain is violated frequently enough that it cannot serve as the ultimate basis for any seriously inquiry into the good life or well-being

Question 15

Positive Psychology

Answer 15

Seeks to investigate what people do correctly in life. People adapt and adjust to life in creative ways that allow them to feel good about life.

Question 16

Psychological Bias

Answer 16

Psychological research has displayed bias that people are pawns to their biology. Argues that people are driven by their past, their biology, their cultural conditioning, or unconscious motives.

Question 17

Basic Premise of Positive Psychology

Answer 17

Human beings are often, perhaps more often, drawn by the future than they are driven by the past.

Question 18

Corey Keyes & Shane Lopez (Classification System)

Answer 18

• People who score high on well-being and low on mental illness are flourishing. -People who score high on well-being and high on mental illness are struggling. - People who score low on well-being and low on mental illness are languishing
• People who score low on well-being and high on mental illness are floundering

Question 19

Corey Keyes & Shane Lopez (Complete Mental Health)

Answer 19

-Argued that systems of classifying mental health and well-being are incomplete because they focus on only a portion of what it means to be mentally healthy.
-Instead they suggest Complete Mental Health which a combination of high emotional well being, high psychological well-being, and high social well-being, along with low mental illness.

Question 20

High Emotional-Wellbeing

Answer 20

Present when people are happy and satisfied with their lives

Question 21

High Psychological Well-being

Answer 21

Found when people feel competent, autonomous, and self accepting- have a purpose in life- exhibit personal growth and enjoy positive relationships with others

Question 22

High Social Well-being

Answer 22

People have positive attitudes towards others, believe that social change is possible, try to make a contribution to society, believe the social world is understandable, and feel part of a larger social community.

Question 23

Measuring Social Well-being

Answer 23

Further measured with the following five dimensions: social acceptance, social actualization, social contribution, social coherence, and social integration. Complete model could include 12 basic classifications of well-being.

Question 24

Aristotelian Ideal

Answer 24

Did not favor the intuition of eternal forms in search for higher truth and well-being.
-Valued poise, harmony, and the avoidance of emotional extremes.
-Believed that emptions were to be tamed by rigorous self-discipline to accept the dictates of reason.

Question 25

Aristotle’s Goal

Answer 25

Find the golden mean that existed between the extremes of life.

Question 26

Eudaimonia

Answer 26

• State of balance, harmony, and equilibrium.
• Condition of flourishing and completeness that constitutes true and enduring joy and well-being.
• Not a set of pleasures or creature comforts.

Question 27

Central Idea of Eudaimonia

Answer 27

Person who is truly happy has what is worth desiring and worth having in life.
Though certain goals or objectives in life may produce positive emotions, these do not necessarily lead to eudaimonia.
Ideal toward which one strives

Question 28

Aristotle (Virtues)

Answer 28

• He considered certain virtues to be dispositions of character that lead a person to eudaimonia.

Question 29

Nicomachean Ethics

Answer 29

-We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit

Question 30

Aristotle’s 12 Virtues
(Golden Mean Between Extremes)

Answer 30

• Courage, liberality, pride, friendliness, wittiness, justice, temperance, magnificence, good temper, truthfulness, shame, and honor.

Question 31

Virtue Theory of Happiness

Answer 31

-cultivation and development of certain virtues leads a person toward the greatest well-being and good life.

Question 32

Aristotle (Behavior Belief)

Answer 32

• He did not list specific behaviors that must be avoided.
• Whether any single behavior is a virtue or a vice depends on the specific situation in which it occurs.

Question 33

Aristotelian Circle

Answer 33

-Well-being, virtue, and practical wisdom are all interrelated such that each continuously influences the other

Question 34

Humanistic Psychology

Answer 34

-Studies what is healthy, adaptive, and creative and address the full range of human potential.

Question 35

Humanistic Psychology vs. Positive Psychology

Answer 35

• Positive Psychology places greater emphasis on traditional empirical research
  -Humanistic Psychology is based on theories of optimal personality development such as self-actualization.
• Positive Psychology places greater emphasis on the well-being and satisfaction of the average person.

Question 36

Humanistic Psychology vs Positive Psychology (Cont)

Answer 36

• Positive psychology focuses more on the benefits of happiness and positive emotions such as gratitude
• Humanistic psychologists tend to me more comfortable with types of research studies not based on statistical analyses such as case studies.
  -What differences remain tend to be about philosophical assumptions rather than competing approaches to science.

Question 37

The Dimensions of Positive Psychology

Answer 37

Three Levels of positive psychology
Subjective
Individual
Society