12 Sep 2007
Posted in Positive Psychology
Optimism has been broadly defined as the expectation that things will go well in the future. It can be broken down in terms of how an individual explains the causes of good and bad events. Optimists explain bad events as having external, unstable and specific causes (This exam was really hard) and good events as having internal, stable and global causes (I’m really good at this subject).
Pessimists are the opposite – they explain bad events as having internal, stable and global causes (I’m no good at exams) and good events as having external, temporary and specific causes (The exam was easy this time). Optimism has been shown to have a positive effect on health, sporting success, work success, avoiding depression and other mood disorders. You can test your optimism and pessimism yourself at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/.
We can also distinguish between Little Optimism and Big Optimism. Little Optimism is about the small things in life, like whether I will be able to find a parking spot. Big Optimism is about broader, more general things, like whether the world will solve the greenhouse gas problem. Little Optimism may directly influence your behaviour and lifestyle choices, whereas Big optimism may influence your general mood, and perhaps your immune system.
It is possible to have different levels of the two types of optimism, and different expectations about different types of goals. You may be optimistic about the future, and so don’t see the need to recycle, but pessimistic about whether you will get a parking spot or get the promotion at work.
Are optimistic people happier? If you are working towards your goals in the expectation that you will achieve them then I would argue that you are. If you consider all effort to be hopeless then you won’t aspire to reach goals and you won’t even try try to achieve them. I was at uni in the early 1980s when we all thought there would be a nuclear war at any moment, and I’m sure that expectation did nothing to help us do well at uni.
We can learn to be more optimistic. Martin Seligman advocates disputing your pesimistic beliefs and expectations, and if you do this enough it replaces the habits you learned when you were younger. He also recommends teaching optimism to your children by letting them master tasks on their own and showing them that their actions have consequences – not just negative consequences, but positive ones as well.
Seligman gives a lovely example of the gales of laughter his daughter produces when they play the game of banging on the table – she bangs once on the table, everyone else at the table bangs on the table. She then bangs three times on the table, and then so does everyone else. She is learning that she can have an effect on the people she loves, and that that she matters to them.
Surely optimism, and general happiness, is made of stuff like this.
Sources:
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism. Sydney: Random House, 1992.
Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness. Sydney: Random House, 2002.
31 Aug 2007
Posted in Book Reviews, Happiness, Positive Psychology
This title is a play on the word of the subtitle of a book on happiness called The Happiness Hypothesis, Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by social psychologist Jonathon Haidt. I can’t recommend this book highly enough to anyone who is seriously interested in what happiness is and where it comes from. I’ve been reading it, and it seems to me that the best way to understand and process it is to write about it – after all, we learn by thinking about things afterwards; by reflection.
So here, for your enjoyment and edification, is my potted summary of Chapter 1. You really must read it for yourself to understand it properly, and then think about what it says. I’m just writing this to help me understand it, and it in no way represents an accurate summary of the book. Any errors are mine.
The human mind is split. We are divided in ourselves. Even though we intend to do something, like go to the gym, and we tell people we are going to go, we don’t. We are controlled by something other than our conscious will. One way to look at this is to imagine an elephant being controlled by a rider. The rider is smarter but the elephant is big and doesn’t always do what it is told by the rider.
This division can be seen in four different ways:
1. Mind and Body – our bodies behave independently of our minds. Our skin sweats, our stomachs rumble, our sexual organs seem to have “minds of their own”. No matter how determined we are that these things won’t happen to embarrass us, they do.
2. Left and Right Brain – the two hemispheres of our brains are responsible for different functions and can act independently of each other. This has been shown in studies of people with damages parts of the brain, and where the connection between the two hemispheres has been cut for medical reasons. The left hand may suppress, or work against, what the right hand is doing. People make up stories to explain what has happened, or what they have done, that do not reflect the facts. This is called “confabulating” and can be seen everywhere, not just in the brain-damaged.
3. New Brain and Old Brain – the “old brain” is the more primitive parts of the brain that we share with the “lower” animals, such as the hypothalamus, the hippocampus and the amygdala, which control basic drives, memory, and emotional learning and responding, respectively. The “new brain” is the neocortex – the grey matter that mammals, particularly primates, have that performs more complex thinking and decision-making. So the neocortex is perhaps what makes us rational and releases us from the mercy of our basic drives and emotions.
Part of the neocortex, however, the orbitofrontal cortex, is responsible for emotional reaction when we are making judgements or decisions. If it is removed then people are LESS able to make decisions, which shows that emotions do not get in the way of decision-making, but rather emotions make decision-making possible by letting us know how we feel about the options. We make the many everyday decisions without conscious thought, and this is not possible without our emotions. So emotion and reason are not as divided as we think.
4. Controlled and Automatic Mind – the older, more primitive parts of the brain have been functioning for millions of years in an automatic way to keep the animal, the primate, and then the human alive and reproducing. The newer, rational, thinking parts have not had as much time to evolve and perfect the way they function. Which part do you think, then, will take over when things get tough? When a lightning-fast decision is needed? When we are under stress? Which parts are working when we don’t do what we know, rationally, we should do?
The elephant. “Gut feelings, intuitions, and snap judgements happen constantly and automatically” (p.21-22). When we’re asked to explain our reasons our rational mind doesn’t always know so it will make something up – confabulation again. Just because the rational mind decides to do something doesn’t mean that, when the time comes, it will be in charge of making the decision to do it. We’ll turn off the alarm and go back to sleep because more sleep sounds better to the elephant than getting out of bed to go to the gym.
So we have “two minds”. Really, though, they are both us, so it helps us to know how they work and why they behave the way they do.
Source
Jonathon Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
By the way, the ancient wisdom came from quotes from Plato, Ovid and others about competing parts of the mind, which I haven’t quoted.
11 Aug 2007
Posted in Happiness, Positive Psychology
I’ve been ill lately, and it was like my life had fallen apart. I couldn’t get things done, I felt bad about myself, I wasn’t getting anywhere in life. It wasn’t a serious illness, just one of those nasty infections in the head and the chest. Coughing, sleeplessness, blocked-up head…. I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. It seems like it has been going on for months, but I think the worst is over now, and I’m feeling like I can get on top of things again.
Have I been happy? I’d have to say no, I’ve been fairly unhappy. Health – 5-6 out of 10; Happiness – 3-4 out of 10. I’ve been rereading Harry Potter instead of writing blogs and being productive, and as much as I’ve enjoyed Harry Potter it’s not making me as happy as I am when I’m achieving goals and doing constructive stuff. No blog, no business-building, not much of anything really. And things that I really dislike doing are not being done, like housework; and looking at the carpet that needs vacuuming and the kitchen floor that needs scrubbing makes me less happy than I am when I look at it after it has been cleaned (no matter who does the actual cleaning!).
And I’ve been relying a bit on that old fallback stress-reducer – retail therapy! It’s a while since I’ve fallen for this, making myself feel better by acquiring stuff on eBay or in the local shopping mall, and I’m sure it’s related to being ill, since I didn’t have these cravings earlier in the year. I’ve been craving chocolate as well, another sure sign of unhappiness. The story of how I had previously managed to reduce my chocolate cravings are another story…
Now that I’m feeling better, I’ve been getting some work done, which makes me feel better about myself, and I’ve been getting out and about and seeing other people. No longer locked in my house seeing nobody but my husband, I am a social creature again, and I’m sure that this is making me happier as well.
So I’m convinced, as if I needed to be, that bad health means less happiness. Not only do I feel physically terrible but I can’t do the things that make me happy – working on something I enjoy; seeing other people; being useful and all that; and even the chocolate and the shopping doesn’t really help except in a short-term, superficial way. Today I did something I enjoy that I haven’t done for months – I repotted some neglected plants – and I feel so pleased with myself that I’ve come inside to write a blog about happiness, something I haven’t done for weeks. So as my health has improved my happiness has increased as I’ve been able to do things that make me happy.
Does it work the other way around? Can happiness make you healthier? Apparently, yes; if you are happy you will live up to 9 years longer, according to my current favourite TV program The Happiness Formula on BBC World. I’ll be looking into that one more thoroughly in a future blog.
17 Jun 2007
Posted in Book Reviews, Happiness
BBC World’s The Happiness Formula
[I'm writing this as I watch the program on cable TV].
Measuring activity in the brain by oxygen levels when shown a happy or sad picture shows that happiness can be detected directly in the brain ….. or is it pleasure? Is pleasure and happiness the same thing? And does it last? Or is happiness something deeper and more lasting than mere pleasure?
Can you just ask people to rate their own happiness and get a valid result? Professor Ed Diener, psychologist and researcher into happiness, thinks we can. He finds that the happiest people in the world are the Swiss, and those in Belarus are the least happy. Happy countries are richer and democratic, but their happiness is not so much greater than poor, non-democratic ones.
[Why democratic, I wonder? Do we prefer to have some perception of control over our lives that democracy theoretically gives us? This is a question for another time, I think].
Measuring happiness in this way predicts outcomes in peoples’ lives. Are they more likely to commit suicide if they are less happy? Surprisingly, yes! Can someone who scores less on the happiness scale keep his hand in iced water for as long as someone who scored higher? The answer turns out to be no! So are happy people more persistent, more resilient, more likely to succeed in life? Perhaps extrapolating from iced water experiments are pushing the whole thing too far, but it is easy to see how it could work.
Another study, of nuns interviewed a few years ago, found that those who sounded happier in interviews lived longer than the less happy ones, up to 9 years longer. This is not something to be sneezed at! And another one, of performance during memory exercises, showed that people who are pampered a bit more are able to remember objects better.
Professor Layard, an economist, has come to the conclusion that money doesn’t make us happy. Striving to make more money doesn’t make us happier, and perhaps it makes us less happy when we are constantly comparing ourselves to others. Bhutanese polititians measure Gross Domestic Happiness rather than Gross Domestic Product, and make decisions according to whether people will be happier rather than richer. Plastic bags have been banned (not a bad idea). Bhutan is not as rich as it might have been, but the people are happier.
What do we need for lasting happiness? Not endless consumption, but volunteering is what gives our lives meaning, and meaning is necessary for real, lasting, happiness. Happy people volunteer, and volunteers are happier. They also are more likely to get married, stay married, become leaders and help others at work, and have better health, says Ed Diener.
A survey asking whether governments should aim to make us richer or happier, the overwhelming majority went for happiness.
[What would you choose? Will you wait for the government to do something, or will you do it yourself?]
Stay tuned for the next episode in this excellent series on BBC World.
23 May 2007
Posted in Happiness
I haven’t been well lately, and that’s why the blog hasn’t been forthcoming. It’s harder to write about happiness when you are not happy! And it is amazing how unhappy being ill makes you feel. It’s just a headcold, but it has been going on for so long that it is affecting the way I feel about myself.
Interesting, isn’t it? I feel ill and unable to concentrate, and I start thinking about how I am unable to do things, and I feel worse about myself, and I start feeling worse for real, and I go and sit in front of the TV and watch Buffy instead of writing a blog or any other of the worthwhile things I could be doing. It’s all connected – my thoughts, feelings, actions, and physical wellbeing and situation all affect each other.
This is a basic tenet of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. If I can change one of these things then all the others will be affected, hopefully for the better. If I can get up out of my armchair and turn Buffy off and go for a walk I will feel better about myself, and when I get back I can do something more constructive. If I’m doing something constructive with my time I feel better about myself, or at least a bit less useless than I did before. If I feel a bit more useful then I will be a bit more useful, which will make me do more useful things, and I’ll feel better and better. Try it, it really works.
Your feelings influence your thinking, and what you are thinking influences your feelings. If you keep telling yourself how useless you are you will feel bad and you will be useless. So take the cold-and-flu tablets and do something when you feel ill, especially if the illness is going on for a long time. That’s what I’m doing!
29 Apr 2007
Posted in Family, Happiness, Positive Psychology
A discussion about happiness, wellbeing, mental health, or whatever you want to call it, must soon get around to values. What are your values? What is most important to you? What can you not do without in your relationships, your job, your social activities? What values do you want your kids to have? Your husband or wife? Your friends?
Any search on the internet on values will come up with a list of values to choose from. The list itself doesn’t really matter, what matters is whether you can find 3 or 4 or 5 values that mean something to you. Here is a list taken from Grant and Greene’s (2001) Coach yourself: make real changes in your life:
Accomplishment
Acknowledgement
Adaptability
Artistry
Authenticity
Beauty & aesthetics
Being admired
Being alone
Being different
Being valued
Being with others
Belonging
Change and variation
Collaboration
Communication
Community
Competition
Comradeship
Control over time
Creativity
Excitement
Expanding knowledge
Fun and enjoyment
Freedom to choose
Friendship
Helping others/society
Honesty
Humour
Independence
Influencing others
Integrity
Intellectual stimulation
Interaction with public
Intimacy
Joy
Love
Making decisions
Medium pace
Meeting challenges
Money
Order
Participation
Peace
Personal empowerment
Physical health
Power and authority
Profit
Recognition
Respect
Security
Self-determination
Self-expression
Self-fulfilment
Sensuality
Stability
Status
Success
Support
Time
Tranquillity
Zest
Pick five, and then consider each one separately. How are these values displayed in your life right now? In your work? In your home life? In your hobbies or other activities? With your family?
Think, too, about where these values came from. From your upbringing? Were they important to your parents as well? Or are they the opposite of what your parents valued? Do they fall into line with the culture at work? Do you work there because you agree with the values there, or did you have to bend your values to fit in there? Perhaps the values you are living by came from somewhere else? Which values would you prefer to live by?
Perhaps, too, the values you’ve chosen are your own, and yet you find that they are getting lost in everyday life. There isn’t the time, or the money, to help others, or to be as creative as you would like. Or perhaps you have all the power and money that you could want or expect, and it still isn’t enough…
Questions like these can start you on the road to being happier than you are now.
28 Apr 2007
Posted in Book Reviews, Happiness, Writing
I’ve been reading Stephanie Dowrick’s Creative Journal Writing (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2007) and it has reminded me how liberating and fulfilling writing a journal can be. Writing a blog is like writing a journal in that you write whatever is on your mind, and yet it is different because you are always conscious that someone may read your blog (hopefully) and so you are keeping your audience in mind, whereas with a journal it is for you and you alone. It doesn’t have to make sense to someone else, it can be defamatory or dishonest or whatever you like – it is just for you.
Writing a journal can clarify problems in your own mind, or take you to a level of creativity you didn’t know you were capable of. I’ve written a journal on and off since I was a teenager, and mostly it was of the problem-clarifying kind. Getting it down on paper means you have to think clearly and boil all those circular worries down into sentences. It gets it outside of yourself and enables you to look at it more objectively, with less emotion that can stop you seeing it properly. It can also give you ideas for solutions that don’t come when the problem is just going around and around in your head.
I haven’t written one for a few years now, and then I heard Stephanie on the radio the other night talking about journals and her new book and I was inspired to start again. I love to write – no-one who doesn’t would voluntarily start a blog – and the idea that I could introduce more creativity into my writing and my life was instantly appealing.
Just the thought of going out and buying a journal to write in, with nice paper and a proper cover, and deciding which pen, or colour, to use, was immensely satisfying, and actually going out and buying one was even more so. I’ve written in it twice so far, and I’m thinking that there is so much more I can do. I bought a sketchbook type so the pages are thick enough that I can write on both sides of the page without interference from the other side, which always bothers my about normal notebooks; and not having lines on the page means I can draw or write diagonally or in circles if I want to.
Stephanie’s book gives examples and exercises for unleashing the creativity we all have in there somewhere, and I’m looking forward to getting in there and trying them out.
Can writing a journal make me happy? I think so! I’ll let you know how I go.
27 Apr 2007
Posted in Happiness, Positive Psychology
Welcome! My name is Carole and I am interested in human happiness, no less. What is it, how do we achieve it, and how will we know when we have? It’s a huge subject when you think a bit about it, and eventually we will cover all sorts of different aspects of what it takes, and what it is, to be happy.
Is it a good bottle of wine at the end of a stressful day? Is football involved? Or a strategic computer game? Is it the love of a good man or woman? Or of a faithful dog? The company of good friends? The hugs of your kids? A good book and a box of chocolates? Or just the chocolate? Kindness to others? The satisfaction of a job well done? A new personal best on the track or in the pool? All of this? Something else? Or is it indefinable? Does it only apply to fleeting moments, or is it a state of mind? Is it attainable?
There’ll be the theories and insights of academics and professionals. The ideas of writers and thinkers, and interested amateurs. I’ll give you my own personal reflections. I’ll talk about books that I’ve read and what I learned at uni. I’ll show you websites I’ve found. And I hope you’ll let me know what you think; whether you agree or disagree with what I’ve said, or want to suggest alternatives.
You may not find the secret to life happiness here, but then, you just might!
