WEEK 12 Flashcards
The mental health crisis
- It is telling us that there is a mismatch between our environment and our
brain’s needs
- Each of multiple risk behaviours, eating habits, sleep, bullying, physical
activity, screen-time and reading independently associated with
mental wellbeing
- Sleep and eating behaviours stronger association than bullying,
physical activity and screen time - Sleep and eating behaviours may be important policy targets for
promoting adolescent wellbeing
Effect of a well being online course
- Compared wellbeing of adult students before and
after they completed one of two massive open
online courses: The Science of Well-Being AND a control course: Introduction to
Psychology
- Students in both courses increased wellbeing
from baseline to follow-up
BUT…students in The Science of Well-Being course
had higher subjective wellbeing than control
course
Wellbeing Budget founded on idea that…
…founded on idea that financial prosperity alone is not a sufficient measure of quality of life
- Wellbeing objectives for Budget 2022:
- Just Transition - supporting transition to a climate-resilient, sustainable and low-emissions economy
- Physical and Mental Wellbeing - supporting improved health outcomes for all New Zealanders
- Future of Work - enabling all New Zealanders and NZ businesses to benefit from new technologies and lift productivity and
wages through innovation - Māori and Pacific Peoples - lifting Māori and Pacific Peoples incomes, skills and opportunities, including through access to
affordable, safe, and stable housing - Child Wellbeing - reducing child poverty and improving child wellbeing, including through access to affordable, safe and stable
housing
- Improvement in mental wellbeing over a 10-year period
associated with….
….reducing risk of developing mental illness by up to 8.2 times in people without mental illness and with improving chance of recovery in people with mental illness
- Good mental wellbeing is predictive of recovery from physical
illnesses
Universal Basic Income for Everyone
The Town of No Poverty
- Enough to survive BUT no luxuries:
- Removed stress of worrying
- Students stayed at school longer
- Reduction in number of LBW babies
- Fewer cases of mood disorders
- Drop of hospitalizations by 8.5% for accidents,
injuries and mental health
According to World Happiness Report, six key ingredients have been
suggested for national happiness:
income, healthy life expectancy,
social support, freedom, trust and generosity
Giving people $ more effective for mental health than brief therapy
for those living in poverty
- Implication: psychotherapy can do little when people are deprived of basic necessities of life
Climate change
- Emerging research is increasingly showing that climate change is
disproportionately impacting on wellbeing of young people
Resilience – what is it?
- Ability to bounce back from traumatic or stressful
experiences - Resilient individuals display an optimistic, energetic,
and enthusiastic approach to life, and open to new
challenges - Interestingly, people are not born resilient
5 building blocks of puāwai|flourishing
- Positive emotions: savouring pleasure, and being hopeful and optimistic
- Engagement: applying your skills, strengths to challenging tasks, and becoming truly immersed in the experience
- This is also called the “flow” state - Relationships: we evolved as social beings
– spending time with others and experiencing a sense of acceptance and belonging is critical to our mental health - Meaning: a strong sense of meaning often be derived from belonging to or by serving
something bigger than ourselves - Achievement: having some level of success in life
Time affluence
- Trade off between money and time
- Give up money to get more time
- People who value time are happier than those who value money
- Less likely to be kind to others if in a rush
- Less good about recycling if feeling time rushed
- Prioritize having some space in your calendar
- Make good use of time you have already
Habits:
cue (trigger of a habit could be time/place/) leads to routine which
then leads to reward that reinforces the cue
Many routes to authentic happiness
- Raise positive emotions about past, present, future
- Gratifications are characterized by absorption, engagement and flow
- The meaningful life has one additional feature: using signature strengths in service of
something larger than you are – forward knowledge, power or goodness – a life pregnant with
meaning
