Third Class A Happy Past and Present

Reactions to reaction papers Sharing: Go ahead! –Signature Strengths for Kids on website Problems for pessimists –Perhaps need it the most? 50% 20% mix Theory/Self help mix

Exercise and Emotion Physical exercise and positive emotion Opponent-process theory Counterintuitive prediction So….what could you do as pods to have some fun? You could suffer first! You could write a reaction to doing this rather than a five page paper.

Tonight Mix of applied and clinical/counseling Some review of data Thoughts about HMs and Present.

The Slipperiness of the Past Recall is not terribly accurate Bad may be stronger than good Manic-depressives Power of belief to affect our experience of reality (Demonstration) Can you decide what to believe? –Small truths/Great truths

Seligman on the past Interpretations of the past guide our feelings Genetics accounts for a lot “unduly embittered about the past, unduly passive about the future”

How to work with the Past Decrease negatives: Islands of regret Like eating rat poison and expecting it to affect the rat Forgiveness letters –Write and don’t send The Circle approach –Finding the good about people in your past

33 Happy Moments The Importance of Living, by Lin Yu Tang Chin’s 33 Happy Moments My entrance into Positive Psychology Collected data for several years

Happy Moments Research Two questions: What do people think of? What are the effects of remembering 33 HMs? Three samples –Ripon College students –Ripon College alumni –Evergreen Retirement home

Content Interesting methodological problem We came up with 58 categories Relationships: defined as another person being present –Women 20% more than men Achievements –Men 60% more than women The difference? Sports –Is that changing?

What is the effect of remembering? My experience: Increased MY positive mood Methodology: Random assignment Do scales Before or After HMs Two measures: SWL PANAS Seems to increase positive mood in the elderly No effect on satisfaction with life Seems to have slight effect on positive mood in undergraduates

Who is happy? Another view… Nice when data from different areas starts to work together Diary research: Happier people report about 3 PEs to every one NE Marriage research: Successful relationships have between 5 and 10 to one Parent-child: Between 5 and 10 to one is correlated with good relationships

So… Continuing Seligman’s emphasis on what you can do.. What can you do to create more Happy Moments during your day? Notice them Create them Work with relationships?

Daily life Take any exercise we have tried and make it daily Ex. Write a paragraph about when during the day you were at your best Ex. Write down the Happy Moments you had during the day Ex. Write down the ways you created positive moments with friends & others

Pleasure, Engagement, Meaning The tripartite theory of Happiness

Pleasure Often take short-cuts –Coffee Often habituate to them –Belgian beer Can over-focus on them as a source of happiness

Engagement Csikzentmihalyi: Flow Losing oneself in what one is doing Happens more at work than on vacation Happens especially in the arts How could you increase this in your life? Choice of major? Hobbies? Student life would seem MADE for engagement

Meaningfulness Using one’s strengths in service of something larger than yourself Lasts longer than pleasure –Habitat for Humanity Goes against our “me first” mentality College examples: Volunteer work, service learning, aiming major toward meaning

Pearls…

Assignment for Next Week Savoring: take a pleasure and make a space in your life to enjoy it Engagement: Think about where engagement fits in your life. How could you increase it? (paragraph) Meaning: Think about the meaning in your life. How could you increase it? (paragraph)

Components of Variance Model What determines how you are feeling at the moment? A+B+C+D+E+F…. Most recent events more impactful Often, we see what we expect to see –Child abuse –Divorce Effect of genetics generally misunderstood

The Ubiquity of Humor Put humans together, and they find a way to laugh Is it a tension-reduction mechanism?