Lecture 4: Emotions over time Flashcards
What is the experiencing vs. remembered self?
- I.e., online vs. recalled memories
- An experiencing self who lives in the present vs. a remembering self who keeps score and records the story of our lives. The remembering self is a story teller, our memory tells us stories.
- E.g., colonoscopy and pain intensity (patient A vs. Patient B’s experience). The colonoscopy for patient B was objectively more painful because the procedure was longer, however A remembered it worse because it was more intense and the peak of the pain was at the end.
What is episodic vs. semantic memory?
episodic memory is specific instances vs. semantic memory which is knowledge, in this case, knowledge about the self
What is duration neglect?
our remembering self is not very sensitive to how long emotional experiences last
What is the James Dean Effect?
create scenarios about a life and get them to rate how good that life was. Had a great life but died young, Had a great first half of life but then lived a lot longer and it just got meh. People chose the short life, they pay attention to the peaks of experience and we pay attention to the ending, thus people didn’t want the longer experience because it lacked intensity and the end was mediocre
What predicts future choices? experiencing self or remembering self?
Wirtz et al., suggest that it may be remembered experience
What were the main goals of Wirtz et al.’s research?
- Study a more ‘real world’ context over longer
time period (cf. previous lab studies) - Assess predictions, on-line experience, and
remembered experience; compare them - See which predict future intentions
Wirtz et al.: What were the main things that were measured and how was this done?
Conceptually…
• PA, NA, and overall enjoyment
– Predicted (2 weeks & 2-4 days before trip)
– Experience (7 times daily)
– Remembered (2-4 days & 4 weeks after trip)
• Future choice item (5 weeks after trip)
Wirtz et al.: What are the main results?
- Predictions and recall ‘better’ than experience (seems to be about overall intensity of experience). But consider NA too…
- Remembered most related to future choices (more associated than actual experience)
What was the main conclusions of the wirtz et al. paper?
- Actual experience less intense than predicted and remembered (note positive and negative)
- Many neutral moments neglected
- Remembered emotions predict choices
What are some of the implications of wirtz et al.’s study?
- Objective experience not necessarily more useful
- What kind of trip to choose?
- How to structure experiences (e.g., colonoscopy-like things)
What were the limitations of Wirtz et al.’s paper?
- Small, unrepresentative sample; matters how?
- Non-behavioural ‘choice’ (gap between thinking about future behaviour-behavioural intention vs. actually engaging in a behaviour)
What are the take away messages from this study?
- We can distinguish between predicted,
experienced, and remembered emotions - Although related, the differences may be
important - Remembered emotions may predict choices
- Which should we try to maximize?
What is the satisfaction with life scale?
- In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
- The conditions of my life are excellent.
- I am satisfied with my life.
- So far I have gotten the important things I
want in life. - If I could live my life over, I would change
almost nothing. - Also there are other measures, like the ladder measure (top of ladder being best possible life and bottom being worst possible)
What is Eudaimonia?
- SWB often described as the ‘hedonic approach’ (about positivity)
- Many view this as insufficient
- Consensus that psychological health is broader
- BUT, much less consensus on what eudaimonia is
What is Aristotle’s Eudamoniea?
- Living up to true potential
- Based on virtue & efforts
- Includes society’s values (prosocial acts, moral behaviour)
- Objective good life (E.g., Assessed by others at end, objectively decided)
- Skepticism about subjective experience
- Sometimes only loosely related to modern approaches, especially RE subjective experience
- Contemporary difference is that we are able to/confident in measuring subjective experience, living up to potential can be evaluated via self report
What are the components of Ryff’s psychological well being?
- Self acceptance
- Purpose in life
- Environmental mastery
- Positive relationships with others
- Autonomy
- Personal growth
What are Huta’s Motives?
- Hedonia = Seeking Relaxation, pleasure, enjoyment
- Eudaimonia = Seeking to develop a skill, learn, or gain insight into something (Do what you believe in, Pursue excellence or a personal ideal, Use the best in yourself)
- They may not be mutually exclusive
What is the flourishing scale?
- I lead a purposeful and meaningful life.
- I actively contribute to the happiness and
well-being of others. - I am competent and capable in the activities
that are important to me. - I am a good person and live a good life.
- People respect me.
Happiness vs. Eudaimonia thought experiments
- Thought experiments:
- Happiness Machine (nozick) Asks people if they could would they hook their minds up to a computer that produces pleasurable experiences for the rest of their life. Don’t have to even know we are hooked up to a machine. Trying to show that humans value more than just pleasure, they value authenticity.
- Authenticity machine (zelenski) Authentic pain, hit you with a hammer. This shows that we still value pleasure
What do the thought experiments demonstrate?
- People value things beyond feeling good
- Yet, people also value happiness
- Satisfied pig or dissatisfied pig? (better to a dissatisfied human than a satisfied pig. I.e., knowledge is better than satisfaction)
- Why not both?
- Research suggests less tension than philosophers
How is the ‘hedonist stereotype’ different than a
hedonic approach to well-being?
- Pleasure is not inconsistent with eudaimonia
- Hedonia is not necessarily short-term
- The hedonistic stereotype is not the same as the hedonistic approach to well being. The hedonic stereotype is short term (how am I going to feel good in this moment) whereas the hedonic approach is more long term (optimizing pleasure for the long term, e.g., doing homework now so you can spend time with friends on the weekend)
Are eudamonia and hedonism mutually exclusive?
- Correlations high among constructs
- Though possible to distinguish
