IllegalArgument
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
- Messages
- 1,895
I think this is the right forum for this topic. I was wondering what experiences and knowledge people have had with a relative new branch of psychology, positive psychology.
The main thrust of this branch is the study of what makes people happy. Of course, it's a lot more detailed that than that. The book and author I'm most familiar with is Dr. Seligman's book Authentic Happiness, the thing I think that keeps this being another "Don't Work; Be Happy" pop psych book, it the large nunber of scholastic studies mentioned in the book. Also, it ties in nicely with "Flow" research which is something I have been following.
A few interesting point Dr. Seligman has made.
* People have a fixed emotional range in respect to happiness and sadness. It's geneticaly determined you can exceed it for short periods of time, say a few months. Eventually you will return to that range. Example: Studies of lottery winners report the same level of happiness after a few years, as before they won the lottery.
* Hedonism doesn't work, people who constant try to find greater and greater levels of instant gratification are less happy the average.
* Venting doesn't work, studies on doctor find that the groups rated highest on the anger scale reported, displayed 5x the heart disease rate of the less angry groups.
* Increasing the number of "Flow" moments in your life is one of the best ways to increase your general happiness levels.
Please, feel free to rip/spindle/mutalate his ideals. I'm not a psychologist, but I wanted to expose people to this because I think it has the potental answer of number of life questions. Or it could all be a bunch of hogwash.
Question? Comments?
Links:
Martin Seligman
http://www.authentichappiness.com/
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (chicks zen me high) *waiting for the puns on this one*
http://www.brainchannels.com/thinker/mihaly.html
The main thrust of this branch is the study of what makes people happy. Of course, it's a lot more detailed that than that. The book and author I'm most familiar with is Dr. Seligman's book Authentic Happiness, the thing I think that keeps this being another "Don't Work; Be Happy" pop psych book, it the large nunber of scholastic studies mentioned in the book. Also, it ties in nicely with "Flow" research which is something I have been following.
A few interesting point Dr. Seligman has made.
* People have a fixed emotional range in respect to happiness and sadness. It's geneticaly determined you can exceed it for short periods of time, say a few months. Eventually you will return to that range. Example: Studies of lottery winners report the same level of happiness after a few years, as before they won the lottery.
* Hedonism doesn't work, people who constant try to find greater and greater levels of instant gratification are less happy the average.
* Venting doesn't work, studies on doctor find that the groups rated highest on the anger scale reported, displayed 5x the heart disease rate of the less angry groups.
* Increasing the number of "Flow" moments in your life is one of the best ways to increase your general happiness levels.
Please, feel free to rip/spindle/mutalate his ideals. I'm not a psychologist, but I wanted to expose people to this because I think it has the potental answer of number of life questions. Or it could all be a bunch of hogwash.
Question? Comments?
Links:
Martin Seligman
http://www.authentichappiness.com/
Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (chicks zen me high) *waiting for the puns on this one*
http://www.brainchannels.com/thinker/mihaly.html
