Positive Psychology

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Positive Psychology
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Three Minute Review

• PSYCHOPATHY
• less arousal punishment less effective
• frontal impairment?
• treatment does more harm than good
• TREATMENT
• history of treatment
• 2 major approaches
• Biological
• Psychotherapy

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• Psychopharmacology
• Antipsychotic Drugs
• deinstitutionalization
• dopamine
• differences between older and newer generation
  drugs
• Anti-anxiety drugs
• e.g., Valium
• GABA
• Antidepressants
• see web index page for clarification
• tricyclics (reduce reuptake of serotonin NE)
• MAOIs (reduce breakdown of serotonin NE)
• SSRIs (reduce reuptake of serotonin only)
• See Fig. 17.3 of Gray (p. 666)
• monoamine hypothesis and issues with it

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• Sleep deprivation
• Why does it seem to help depressives (short term
  anyway)?
• Light therapy for SAD
• Electroconvulsive Therapy
• why resort to something so extreme?
• how has it improved since Cuckoos Nest era
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
• magnetic fields disrupt neural firing locally
• what effects does it have over somatosensory
  cortex, Brocas area and frontal lobes?
• Psychosurgery
• history and current status
• cingulotomies

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• Psychotherapy
• eclectic - mixed bag
• Psychodynamic
• transference
• Humanistic
• client-centred, reflection, empathy,
  unconditional positive regard
• Cognitive Therapy
• problem-centred, change thought patterns
• Becks depression therapy

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How Happy Are 023 Students?
n 94
Number of Responses
Happiness Rating
7
Youre representative
Data from United States (Myers, 1992)
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What changes in your life do you think would
make you happier?

• Range between extremes
• DEATH (happiness -3)
• overall life is fucking awesome (happiness
  3)

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Very Common Responses

• Relationships
• ? more time with family and friends and partner
• ? proximity to partner
• ? getting partner
• ? finding the ideal guy
• ? better sex life
• Money
• ? more emphasis on basics and stability rather
  than luxury level
• ? some mentioned unlimited money
• Better grades
• ? for some, perfect grades
• Reduced stress
• less stress, less work, less worrying, slower
  pace, more spare time
• ? better study habits, organization

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Fairly Common Responses

• Physical appearance
• esp. weight loss
• Psychological factors
• self-esteem, confidence, less self criticism,
  less concern about others opinions, overcoming
  shyness, more assertive, less anxious
• Career
• ? more certainty about life, direction, career
• ? successful career or education (e.g., med
  school)
• ? summer job
• Health
• ? more sleep
• ? sports, exercise (some specific)
• ? better eating habits

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Somewhat Common Responses

• Living conditions
• ? moving away from home,
• ? moving closer to home
• ? better roommate (only one month left!!!!!)
• Spirituality
• relationship with God time for soul searching,
  focusing on whats essential
• Others behavior/mood
• changed behavior of others in life, fewer
  problems with others in life, family stability,
  family members being happy
• Season, weather
• summer, less rain
• Abilities
• more talents, intelligence

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One of a Kind

• being able to learn for the sake of learning
  instead of to achieve grades
• more free time to help others, make others
  happier volunteering
• if I hadnt had tragic things happen (loss of
  parent, loss of friend) (happiness 2)
• get out of my poker losing slump
• photographic memory
• cell phone to stop worrying while Im driving on
  highway
• better caf food
• NO MORE PHYSICS
• if I understood women

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Negative versus positive topics in psychology
journal articles 1887 to 2001

• 9,760 on anger
• 65,531 on anxiety
• 79,154 on depression
• 20,868 on fear
• 207,110 on treatment

• 1,021 on joy
• 4,129 on life satisfaction
• 3,522 on happiness
• 781 on courage
• 31,019 on prevention

Slide courtesy of David Myers
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People want more

• Popularity of self-help books suggests a large
  number of people want to go from okay to well

Mental Health Spectrum
Poor
OK
Great
Most of Psychology is here
Why not here?
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What is LEAST important?

• Does money make us as happy as we expect it will?

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Money Matters Between Nations

• correlation between average income and average
  life satisfaction for 28 nations .60
• difference is most pronounced among poorer
  nations

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Money Doesnt Matter Much Within Nations
Australian Living Standards Survey,
1991-1992(percent reporting high life
satisfaction)

• correlation between income and happiness within
  US .12
• some difference between those below and above
  poverty line, but little effect beyond that

Slide courtesy of David Myers
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Income Has Risen But Happiness Hasnt
Personal income (in 1995 )
Very happy ()
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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Slide courtesy of David Myers
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If Only I Could Win the Lottery

• Id probably be about as happy as I am now
• Happiness of lottery winners 4.0
• Happiness of others 3.8
• many life disruptions
• 70 quit jobs
• most move
• family quarrels

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What is LEAST important?

• Age
• happiness is stable over life span

Percent Satisfied or Very Satisfied with Life
as a Whole
Percent
100
Age group
80
60
40
20
0
15- 24
25- 34
35- 44
45- 54
55- 64
65
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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What is LEAST important?

• Gender
• despite differences in depression rates, it makes
  little difference

Slide courtesy of David Myers
Percent
100
Males
80
Females
60
40
20
0
Satisfied
Very happy
Pooled data from 169,776 interviews in 16 nations
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What is LEAST important?

• Intelligence
• no correlation between IQ and happiness
• no correlation between education level and
  happiness
• Physical Attractiveness
• no correlation between attractiveness and
  happiness
• Parenthood
• parents worry more and experience more marital
  problems
• parents are neither more or less happy overall
  though it balances out

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Marital Satisfaction and the Family Life Cycle
56
Rollins-Feldman
55
Locke-Wallace
54
53
52
Satisfaction
51
50
Blood-Wolfe
49
British study
48
47
46
Marriedwithoutchildren
Child-bearing
Pre-school children, oldest 5
Schoolchildrenoldest5-12
Teenagers oldest12-16
First child gone to last leavinghome
Emptynest to retirement
Emptynest todeath of first spouse
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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What is VERY important?

• Love and Marriage
• clear correlation
• cause and effect unclear
• relationships --gt happiness?
• happiness --gt relationships?

Married
Never Married
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Marriage is good if it works
Married
Never married
Separated
Divorced
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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Friends Are Very Important
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What is VERY important?

• Work
• correlation between job satisfaction is clearly
  related to happiness
• again causality is unclear
• those with best fit between complexity and
  ability are happiest
• management happier than staff

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What is VERY important?

• Personality
• past happiness predicts future happiness very
  well
• is there a happiness set point?
• key factors
• self-esteem
• extroversion
• optimism
• sense of control over ones life

Day to day well-being of University students
3.0
3.0
Happy
Happy
2.5
2.5
Extroverts
Extroverts
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.5
Introverts
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
Neutral
0
0
Mon
Mon
.
.
Tues
Tues
.
.
Weds.
Weds.
Thurs
Thurs
.
.
Fri.
Fri.
Sat.
Sat.
Sun.
Sun.
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What is SOMEWHAT important?

• Health
• correlation between health and happiness .32
• spurious -- related to neuroticism
• neurotics are less happy
• neurotics are less healthy
• Social activity
• Religion

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Spirituality and Happiness
From Gallup survey of adult Americans.
100
80
Percent very happy
60
40
20
0
Low
High
Spiritual commitment
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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Very important or essential
Be very well off financially
Develop a meaningful philosophy of life
Slide courtesy of David Myers
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What is SOMEWHAT important?

• Leisure
• correlation between satisfaction with leisure
  activities and happiness .4
• some activities have positive effect
• social clubs, volunteer work, music
• some activities have negative effect
• TV-watching

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Finding Flow

• moments of complete engagement in a task
• intense concentration
• clear goals and feedback
• lose sense of time
• lose self consciousness
• optimal when abilities closely match challenges
• surfing the peak of the optimal level of arousal
  curve?
• would you really be happy lying on the beach
  drinking pina coladas all day long for the long
  term?