Science of wellbeing

Question 1

What is the G.I. Joe fallacy?

Answer 1

To change behavior you, simply “knowing” what is good for us is not enough. You have to change habits, practicing regularly

Question 2

Thinking we want things that won’t actually make us happy is called ________

Answer 2

miswanting

Question 3

Our minds don’t think in terms of absolutes, they think in terms of _____ points

Answer 3

reference points

Question 4

Give 2 examples of reference points

Answer 4

Watching The Kardashians on TV

Social media

Neighbors

Question 5

What is “hedonic adaptation”?

Answer 5

Our minds get used to stuff that gives us pleasure

Jobs, money, cars, houses

Question 6

True or False: You will always want / think you deserve more money

Answer 6

True

Question 7

Our belief that events are going to have a more intense and longer duration emotional reaction is called ______ ______

Answer 7

impact bias

Basically, we’re not good at predicting our emotional reactions

Question 8

To overcome hedonic adaptation, buy ____ instead of ____

Answer 8

experiences
material items

You won’t get used to experiences because they’re short-term

Vacations, classes, travel

Question 9

List 3 ways to amp up your savoring

Answer 9

Talking to another person about how good it felt

Sharing the experience with other people

Thinking about how lucky you are

Telling yourself how proud you are of yourself

Thinking about the present

Replaying happy memories in your mind

Question 10

How do you do the “negative visualization exercise”?

Answer 10

Imagining how your life might’ve been if you didn’t have X good thing

Writing for 15 min about it

Or “pretend as if this day is your last day of _____”

Question 11

Data suggests that ____ every day does these things:
1. improves your overall life outlook by 1 whole point
2. Motivates you to exercise
3. Makes you feel better if you’re sick
4. Can mend rocky relationships
5. Motivates others to work harder

Answer 11

gratitude

Question 12

When things get hard, one thing you can do is remind yourself of ____ reference points

Answer 12

Old

Think back to a previous job or who you were before this, how you were dreaming for this moment

Question 13

True or False: Pausing an enjoyable experience and coming back to it stops hedonic adaptation.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

If you’re doing something you don’t enjoy, should you:
A. stop and come back to it
B. do it all in one sitting

Answer 14

B

Question 15

True or False: Variety causes hedonic adaptation

Answer 15

False: it stops hedonic adaptation

Question 16

With social comparison, how do you do the “CBT Stop Think”?

Answer 16

When you find yourself ruminating about how great someone else’s life is, literally tell your brain to stop

Question 17

The best way to improve your well-being in your career and life is to choose one that uses your _____ ________. And how many?

Answer 17

Signature strengths (character strengths)

at least 4 of your highest 7 strengths

Question 18

Using your signature strengths every day dramatically improves ____________

Answer 18

depression/sadness

Question 19

What is “flow”?

Answer 19

The state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed and enjoying it

Question 20

What are the key features of “flow”?

Answer 20

1. Complete focus on the activity itself
2. Challenging but manageable
3. Activity is intrinsically rewarding
4. Losing track of time
5. Lack of awareness of physical needs

Among other things

Question 21

To achieve flow, you have to max out your ___ at the right _____ level.

Answer 21

Skills

Challenge

Question 22

Flow can also be used to “relax”. What’s an example of using Flow in a leisure activity?

Answer 22

Doing a puzzle (instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media)

Question 23

Give examples of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation

Answer 23

Extrinsic: grades, money rewards
Intrinsic: love of learning, enjoying the work, enjoying the process, joy, fun, etc.

Question 24

Extrinsic motivation can [positively/negatively] affect intrinsic motivation

Answer 24

negatively. It can briefly increase enjoyment, but when you return to intrinsic motivation, it reduces that pure enjoyment.

MEANING: you don’t enjoy things you used to like when you switch to doing them for external motivation

WHY: as you become motivated by external things, it strips away your original pure motivations and love of X

Question 25

What does extrinsic motivation do to a growth mindset?

Answer 25

Eliminates it because now a fixed mindset is promoted

Question 26

Is this a growth mindset or a fixed mindset?

1. Focus on performance, external things
2. Effort = I am bad at this
3. Induces self-shaming
4. Encourages people to hide mistakes and failures
5. Loss of confidence/self-worth
6. More rumination

Answer 26

Fixed

Question 27

Is this a growth mindset or a fixed mindset?

1. Good performances takes effort
2. Use your mistakes to learn
3. No decrease in intrinsic motivation

Answer 27

growth

Question 28

Does fixed mindset or growth mindset have better performance?

Answer 28

Trick question.

For gaining skill, doing complex tasks, continuing intrinsic motivation and enjoyment –> growth

For keeping skills and doing simple tasks –> fixed

Question 29

True or false: Happier people have less motivation to do acts of kindness and recognize kindness less easily.

Answer 29

False

Question 30

Liz Dunn’s study found that spending money on other people was [more/less] impactful than spending money on yourself.

Answer 30

More

Amount, location, and culture don’t matter.

Question 31

Give some examples of simple social connection with strangers

Answer 31

Smiling at someone
Eye contact
Small talk

Question 32

True or False: The amount of social connection in your life can correlate to how “happy” you feel.

Answer 32

True

Question 33

True or False: Doing activities with other people around decreases the amount of pleasure we feel in the activity.

Answer 33

False

Question 34

What is “time affluence”?

Answer 34

The feeling that you have the time to do what you want to do

Question 35

True or False: People who prioritize time over money are happier

Answer 35

True

Because social connection often fills that time

Question 36

What is the “Default Mode Network”?

Answer 36

The parts of the brain that turn on really fast when you’re not “doing” or focusing on a task

They help us think outside of the here and now (tend to fixate on past and future)

Question 37

Some benefits of meditation in the brain

Answer 37

• more connections to other parts of the brain (not default mode network)
• slows or stops default mode network
• correlated with more positive emotion
• increases gray matter (strengthens the brain tissue)
• helps with test perofrmance
• helps increase social connection and kindness

Question 38

_____ 3x a week can help us as much as taking an SSRI AND boosts brain function/cognition.

Answer 38

Exercising

Question 39

_____ affects mood

Answer 39

Sleep

Question 40

What are some ways you can purposefully create good habits?

Answer 40

Put what you want in sight and what you don’t want out of sight.

E.g. vegetables on the counter, not cookies

Notes and reminders

Other people doing the same things

Question 41

What is WOOP? What are the stages?

Answer 41

Wish (your goal)
Outcome (best possible)
Obstacles (Inner obstacles)
Plan (if, then)

A 5 min visualization of a goal, it’s potential inner obstacles, and plans to reach it.

Question 42

True or False: Humans are designed to be resilient and get used to negative things so they don’t affect us as much as we think they will.

Answer 42

True

Question 43

The Dalai Lama once said, “A disciplined mind leads to happiness. An undisciplined mind leads to suffering.”

There’s no question. Just a reminder!