Week 6: Positive Psychology

Question 1

This embraces a realistic and balanced view of human nature (include strengths and virtues without denying evil)

Answer 1

positive psychology

Question 2

What is negative psychology associated with?

Answer 2

Self-serving, negative motives lurk beneath the surface (eg. Freud)

Question 3

Why the focus on negative psychology?

Answer 3

Evolutionary reasons - negative behaviours represent threats and so deserve more attention.

Question 4

Who coined the term positive psychology?

Answer 4

Martin Seligman

Question 5

What is ‘The disease model’ of psychology?

Answer 5

Treating mental disorders as illness moves away from building on psychological strength and prevention.

Question 6

We know more about mental illness than…

Answer 6

mental health

Question 7

Negative emotions make us sick, wheras positive emotions are beneficial in fighting illness and as an immune suppressant. This type of psychology is referred to as…

Answer 7

health psychology

Question 8

Describe the nun study by Danner and colleagues

Answer 8

• 180 nuns, average age 22 and then followed until death.
• Had the emotions in their transcripts coded.
• Those with expressed positive emotions correlated with longevity
  eg. every 1% increase in positive emotion resulted in a 1.4% decrease in mortality rate.

Question 9

What is Post-traumatic Growth (PSG)?

Answer 9

A greater appreciation of loved ones and life after experiencing traumatic events.

Question 10

Happiness can be described as…

Answer 10

subjective well-being

Question 11

Active involvement in activities has been correlated with happiness. This is referred to an an…

Answer 11

engaged life

Question 12

Going beyond our own self-interests and preoccupations in life (eg. those who involve themselves in charity work) is referred to as leading a…

Answer 12

meaningful life

Question 13

What is the ‘Paradox of affluence’?

Answer 13

Increased affluence in western society corresponds with increasing subjective distress.

Question 14

What does ‘The Misery Index’ tell us?

Answer 14

You are 10 times more likely to be depressed if you are twice as rich as the average person.
In affluent families, divorce, child abuse and suicide occurs at an increased rate.

Question 15

People consistently overestimate the impact that positive and negative events would have on their lives. This is called…

Answer 15

Affective forecasting.

Question 16

Restricting your attention to an event on questin and ignoring the other life factors that exist is called…

Answer 16

Focalism

Question 17

We often forget how the own power and hardiness of our psychological immune systems. This is called…

Answer 17

Immune neglect

Question 18

The same patterns of subjective well-being (SWB) are evident in people, regardless of their..

Answer 18

emotional experiences

Question 19

What are the 2 types of positive affect in a person’t life?

Answer 19

1. Pleasant affect- a positive emotional state and low negative emotional arousal levels (self-centered in focus)
2. Positive involvement - a high positive arousal state (other-oriented in focus)

Question 20

People at different ages have different indicators for happiness. This is called the…

Answer 20

Eudynamic Perspective

Question 21

What does Carstensen’s Socioemotonal Selective Theory indicate?

Answer 21

There are no general age-related declines in well-being. In fact, it tends to increase with age.

Question 22

Why does well-being tend to increase with age?

Answer 22

• The elderly shift their focus from the future to the present
• Thy invest in people or things that matter most
• They avoid emotionally negative situations
• They are more resiliant
• They have an increased awareness of their time left living

Question 23

what is ‘Life above zero’?

Answer 23

Zero is the line that divides unhappiness from happiness.
Traditional psychology has focused on life below zero.
Positive psychology focuses on life above zero.

Question 24

What is the ‘Focusing Illusion’?

Answer 24

We make a summary judgement about an event without appreciating all the factors involved.
eg. predicted happiness of living in California
predicted happiness of students living in different types of dorms

Question 25

People appear to inherit a ‘set point’, which is…

Answer 25

stablises our response to events (SWB will usually return to the same set point) despite circumstances like divorce etc

Question 26

A dramatic decline is high arousal emotions appears with…

Answer 26

age

Question 27

What differences are reported between the happiness of men and women world wide?

Answer 27

none

Question 28

In regards to emotional experience, women are more likely to experience internalising disorders, which are…

Answer 28

Intense negative emotional states such depression and anxiety.

Question 29

Men have higher rates of acting out their emotions, which are called…

Answer 29

externalising behaviours

eg. drug abuse, antisocial personality disorders and uncontrolled anger and aggression.

Question 30

The possibility that people who marry are simply happier befor they get married, rather than because of being married, is called the…

Answer 30

selection effect

Question 31

If you are quite happy, how much happier can you get?
If you are miserable, it doesn’t take much to cheer you up.
When this simplified comncept is applied to marriage, it is called…

Answer 31

hedonistic leveling

Question 32

One of the strongest predictors of SWB is…

Answer 32

marriage

Question 33

What sort of happiness:

Feels good = good

Answer 33

hedonic happiness

Question 34

What sort of happiness?

Does good = good

Answer 34

eudynamic happiness