Why Does happiness Matter? Flashcards
What benefits of happiness did Lyubomirsky, King and Diener (2005) find?
If we cultivate happiness we’re more likely to :
- live longer lives
- to have healthier bodies
- to be more innovative and creative
- to have stronger relationships
- have healthier cultures and communities
What did the happier nuns-study tell us? What other examples of this phenomenon do you know?
That nuns who seemd happier when they entered the monestary, lived about 7-10 years longer than the less happier nuns.
The other study was with English adults aged 52-79 and were asked to report positive emotions a few times a day. This also showed that longevity was linked to positive emotions.
As 2010 study from Almeda County California showed that life satisfaction is also related to longevity.
What health benefits do you know? (7)
If I’m reporting greater happiness in my life today, :
- I have fewer chronic pain conditions,
- I have lower likelihood of diabetes,
- I have fewer strokes,
- I’m less likely to get into fatal accidents
- I have a better chance of survival with cancer
- My cardiovascular profile is indicated in blood pressure and other indicators is looking
more robust - My immune system is functioning better.
What social health benefits of happiness do you know?
With happiness, with
a greater sense of well being, I have
a richer repertoire of positive emotions.
If I’m feeling happy as a kid
- I’m doing better with my peers,
- I have more friends,
- I’m judged to be more warm and intelligent, and less selfish,
- I’m more likely to receive assistance and trustworthy behavior from other people,
The right balance of positive emotions brings a lot of relationship benefits:
- A reduced likelihood of divorce,
- A greater feeling of love,
- A sense of fulfillment
in marriage.
What did Alice Isen and Barb Fredrickson find?
When I’m put into a state of positive emotion, I feel gratitude or I feel amused or I feel just happy and
content, I actually become more creative and rigorous.
What did Alice Isen do in her studies?
Evoke a positive emotion, by showing a funny clip, handing out some candy before asking people to enageg in a creative task. Finding: The positive emotions were related to finding more novel solutions.
What does a 2005 meta-analysis, aggregating the results of other studies on health and happiness, suggest?
They speculate that experiencing positive emotion is helpful in diseases with a long timeline but could actually be harmful in late-stage disease.
The authors cite studies showing that positive emotion lowers the risk of death in people with diabetes and AIDS, but actually increases the risk in people with metastatic breast cancer, early-stage melanoma, and end-stage kidney disease.
That increased risk might be due to the fact that happier people underreport their symptoms and don’t get the right treatment, or take worse care of themselves because they are overly optimistic.
Why should we look not just at life satisfaction levels but alos at life satisfaction variability?
Researchers found that low life satisfaction with lots of fluctuations—i.e., an unstable level of happiness—was linked to even earlier death than low life satisfaction alone.
How are the determinants of happiness distributed?
Happiness is assumed to be 50% genetics, 10% life circumstances and 40% intentional activity.
Research shows that happy people:
are really good at relationships;
are more grateful,
are more helpful and philanthropic,
tend to be more optimistic about the future;
are more likely to live in the present.
Correlational doesn’t tell us:
anything about causal relationships.
Why should we study happiness?
Knowing which praactices promote happiness also helps countervailing some alarming trends that social scientists have documented over the past 30 years.
What alarming trends can you think of that science of happiness countervails?
People have become mor elonley, the rise of narcissism, decrease of people being empathetic and connected, rise in inequality.
What are the costs of inequality?
Inequality costs a certain culture in terms of:
- its happiness,
- its physical health,
- how well kids are doing,
- the conditions of their immune system,
- whether they’re getting along on school playgrounds.
