Lecture 6: Interventions and Goals Flashcards
Is striving for happiness a good idea?
- Many desirable associations with SWB, but might active efforts undermine it?
- The Mauss et al. challenge:
-Questionnaire measure (concern for improvement) - Regulation study (trying in the moment)
- Trying to be happy in the moment seemed to lead to less happiness
- BUT, Similar, alternative questionnaires (or even parts)
Other mood regulation studies (savouring) (Playing positive music and telling people to get in the moment and they became happy. Did the same thing with neutral music and told them to be happy which didn’t work.)
What are some cross-cultural differences in striving for happiness?
- you can be overly worried or concerned about your happiness
- Americans in particular are more likely to be unhappy especially when they worry about it, however people in Russia and east asia are more likely to be happy when they worry about it (maybe they pursue happiness in a different way)
- Cultures prioritize positive emotions differently (cultural fit- if you match the cultural level of positivity prioritization you are happy how ever if you mismatch it you are extra unhappy)
- Prioritizing positivity or striving for happiness is not necessarily a bad things, they are extremes that can be bad
What are positive psychology interventions?
- Activities designed to create lasting improvement:
- Positive focus vs. removing negatives (e.g., a positive intervention would not be reducing alcohol intake rather they focus on adding positivity, drawing on strengths)
- More than momentary mood boost
- Supported by empirical research (supporting their value rather than personal experience or self help advice)
- Range from brief, self guided to therapy
- Often based on characteristics of happy people
What are some positive psychology exercises?
- Three good things (& why; over time)
- Gratitude (letter, journal)
- Three funny things (& why)
- Signature stregths in a new way
- Counting the kindnesses you did
- Gift of time (with close others)
- One door closes, another door opens
- Best possible self (optimism or meaning)
- Loving kindness meditation
- Savouring posiitve experiences
- Active constructive responding
- Cultivating sacred moments
- Connecting with nearby nature
- Goal setting and planning (when ppl successfully pursue their goals they will be happy)
- Fordyce list of 14
Do PPI’s Work?
- Meta analyses find effects on SWB, PWB (Also clinical populations, phsyical and mental)
BUT: - Effect size is small & shrinks with corrections
- Publication bias, ‘too small’ studies
- Mixed bag of PPI’s (minor advice vs. therapy)
- Few long term follow-ups
- Problem of appropriate control groups (there isn’t one obvious thing that is controlled and matches every aspect
- Insufficient attention to ‘population’ (recruitment)
- Generalizability (who ends up getting put in a study), not enough attention to how people are recruited
When/How do PPI’s work?
- Lyubomirsky & Layous (2013): Positive Activity Model (which aims to explain how and why performing positive activities makes people happier)
- an interaction between person/activity fit (proposed key to variation), performance on positive activity, positive emotions, thoughts, behaviours and need satisfaction (proposed mediators), and increased well being
What is the person activity fit?
Person activity fit: When you have a good fit between the personal characteristics/circumstances and the features of the activity that’s when you increase well being
-the proposed key to variation
Describe the two components that make up the person activity fit
Activity features:
- Across: dosage (what is the right dosage/frequency?), social support, variety (variety is a good thing), trigger (e.g.., listing three good things that happen once a day it may trigger a more grateful mindset)
- Between activity features: Present (mindfulness) vs. Future (e.g., creating goals) vs. Past. Other vs. self oriented and social vs. reflective (an act for/with other people vs. thinking/reflecting on something)
Person features:
- Motivation and effort
- Efficacy beliefs
- Baseline affective state (before intervention are they already pretty happy? It seems that already happy people get more out of it)
- Personality (traits. Extraversion positively correlated with well being and high neuroticism negatively correlated)
- Social support (supportive people who encourage you to believe in what you’re doing)
- Demographics (cultural differences [e.g., gratitude in America vs. Korea because in korea when they express gratitude they feel an obligation to repay someone for it)
What are the mediators in the positive activity model?
- Positive emotions, positive thoughts, positive behaviours, need satisfaction
- Recall BB model (mediation and social resources)
- Recall SDT needs (all people have 3 basic needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Positive activities help meet these basic needs)
Summing up: happiness exercises
- Generally, they tend to work
- But this glosses over variation that needs further research
- Effort and persistence needed for lasting change (Cf. adaptation; scope of exercises)
- Yet unbridled happiness pursuit not without potential problems
What are some similar approaches?
- Positive psychotherapy (reducing something negative)
- Hope therapy (developing clear pathways for future)
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (its not very positive, we need to accept the crappy things and move on, Mindfulness)
- Training self-compassion, self-control, empathy
- Positive youth development (e.g., sport. Broad. The focus is on developing positive and good things (e.g., play sports, leadership classes) as opposed to focusing on the negative (e.g., say no to drugs, stop bullying, no sex)
- Resilience training (Training people for challenges, teaching coping skills)
What influences the effectiveness of goals & getting stuff done?
- Personality, but hard to change (Personality is less relevant to individual goals rather aggregated goals over time)
- Conscientiousness, grit , self esteem, self control, growth mindset (beliefs people have about the world, their abilities)
- Yet more particular goal vs. trait
- Strategies generally effective for all kinds of people, regardless of personality traits
What are the two goal-setting theories?
- Self-determination theory
- goal setting theory
What is the self-determination theory?
- Basic needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness
- But these are broad ideas (meeting these needs are good for motivation and well being). Don’t do anything that goes against basic needs.
- Importance of intrinsic (‘want to’) motivation vs. extrinsic (‘have to’) motivation
what is goal setting theory?
- More applicable to somewhat extrinsic pursuits
- Goals: direct attention, energizing behaviour, induce persistence, prompt strategic pursuit
- Good goals are
Concrete and specific (vs. do 100 push-ups vs. do your best) - Difficult (performance vs. accomplish, You get more done even if you don’t meet a goal you still put in a strong effort in )
