L7 Cognitive Approaches Flashcards
Cognitive theories
- Top-down (focus)
- theories of thinking - Bottom-up
- specific situations
Top-down theories
Thinking about the world and SWB
Epictetus
- Men are disturbed not by things. but by the views they take of them
Bottom-up Theories
Events and circumstances influencing SWB
Positivity Bias of Happy People
Sense of control, most others are good, the world is beautiful, sense of relative invulnerability, positive view of the world, optimistic about the future
Optimists
Carver and Scheier
- enjoy better health, cope better with stress, less bp reactivity to stress, recover faster from bypass surgery, have less postpartum depression, have fewer symptoms during end semester
Vaillant
- Harvard grads 1946
- optimists healthier in 1980
So much in attitudes/outlook
- glass half-full or half-empty?
AIM
Theory of thinking and happiness
- Attention
- Interpretation
- Memory
Attention
Classification into a group is enough
- ex. with in group vs. out group
Attention is selective- there are both good and bad things out there on which one can focus
- ex. gorilla experiment
Bryant- savoring
- happier people tend to have momentos handy (pictures on walls)
Lyobomirsky & Nolen-Hoeksema
- ruminating- thinking about the bad memories- makes us less happy
Interpretation
Interpretation is different
- two people may see exact same event positively vs. negatively
ex. Dartmouth and Princeton football game
Good and bad things, unambiguous
Neutral things- Weiss scale
Small thins people say may be interpreted according to mood
- ex. small comment may be the tipping point
Coping Strategies
Resilience
Research by Costa and McCrae
- Happy people
- rational action, seeking help, self-adaptation, humor, faith - Unhappy people
- hostile reactions, escapist fantasies, wishful thinking, indecisiveness, self-blame
Memory
Research
- colonoscopies, vacations, dating partner
- how you remember an event is predictor of whether you’ll repeat it
- how you remember your mood with your partner determines if you will stay together
Memory is selective: Bryant- savoring - momentos handy, pictures on walls Lyobomirsky & Nolen-Hoeksema - ruminating and NA ex. two drunk grad students at a party - move on! - unhappy people keep repeating the negative event, even though it serves no purpose
Comparative Standards
When we react to events, we compare them to standards
- our goals and ideals
- social comparison- others
- our past- are we doing better or worse?
ex. income changes (10K to 40K, elated; 100K to 40K panicked) - needs (relatively innate standards)
Goals
Goals should be high but also realistic
- determined how we’ll react to a situation
ex. Jon shoots for passing, gets a B- elated
June shoots for an A+, gets a B- disappointed and dissatisfied
Lofty goals can make us aim high but also be disappointed - dilemma
The goal is to do your best, be really good at what you’re doing, to try hard
- in this case, success is in your control
Social comparison
Can influence our satisfaction - income- others in one's workplace But many causes of SWM (love) are not comparative Neurotics compare a lot Social support crucial
Relative income
Rich people are happier than poor people but the wealth of the country in general is also highly influential
- people that live in rich countries are happier
Adaptation
Good and bad things happen, but the we adapt
- bad events- good to adapt
- good events- can react to new good events
Unemployment is the exception
- we never fully adapt
Declining marginal utility- a form of adaptation
- things decline in value as one gets more of them, each added unit is worth less for SWB
Failure to adapt to where you live
Experience anger and depression vs. enjoyment
Positive mental outlook
The habit of seeing the glass half full
Seeing opportunities, not threats
Generally trusting and liking oneself and others
Negative mental outlook
- Awfulizing- people exaggerate how negative an event/person is
- distress intolerance- people underestimate their ability to recover from a painful event
- learned helplessness- people simply give up because they feel they have no power to change negative circumstances
- perfectionism- people strive to be faultless rather than just successful, pay more attention to the small details that went wrong than the big picture of everything that went right
- negative self-fulfilling expectancies- one draws negative responses from others by communicating that one expects a negative reaction
- rejection goggles- cause people to see rejection everywhere, even in normal encounters, even the most minor rejection can be seen as a major slight
3 elements of self-compassion
Neff
- self-kindness
- understanding, not punishment - sense of common humanity
- everybody goes through this - mindfulness
- neither ignoring nor exaggerating feelings of failure
Automatic negative thoughts
can be traps
thoughts -> feelings -> situations
Restructuring
- catch yourself, be mindful, generate more realistic trap
Thought traps
- all of nothing
- excuses
- should’ve…
- not as good
- give up
