Lecture 2 Happiness: The Meaning and Measures PDF

LECTURE 2 Happiness: The Meaning and Measures 1. How to define Well-Being 2. How to strive for a good life? Why a Psychology of well-being? ● Deci and Ryan (2001) define well-being as optimal psychological experience and functioning. ● Well-being is related to positive outcomes in many life domain...

LECTURE 2 Happiness: The Meaning and Measures 1. How to define Well-Being 2. How to strive for a good life? Why a Psychology of well-being? ● Deci and Ryan (2001) define well-being as optimal psychological experience and functioning. ● Well-being is related to positive outcomes in many life domains (i.e. having a better marriage/ being healthier/ having better cognitive performance) Traditional measures of well-being Governments collect societal statistics to reflect the overall well-being of people in a society. ● Key features of the traditional measures of well-being ● All of them are “Misery index” showing how many people are suffering → measures negative functioning ● “Objective” life circumstances Problems of Traditional measures of well-being ● Objective measures: individual may interpret and react to the same circumstances in very different ways ● Measure Positive Functioning Directly ● Measure Subjective Evaluation Of Well-being Hedonic → what is happiness? The hedonic view defines well-being in terms of personal happiness. The Happier You Feel,the better your life will be Psychologists use the construct of “subjective well-being” to capture the hedonic view of well-being. Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined as a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life (Diener et al., 2002). SWB is measured by three components: 1. LifeSatisfaction(LS) a. Cognitive judgement concerning how satisfied a person is with his or her life. 2. PositiveAffect(PA) / NegativeAffect(NA) a. emotional components b. PA is the experience of pleasant emotions c. NA is the experience of unpleasant emotions d. Measured by the Positive Affectivity And Negative Affectivity Schedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988) How to enhance subjective well-being? 1. Physical Activity: More usual physical activity also reported higher life satisfaction 2. Mini Positive Emotions Brainstorm: think positive emotions and 3. 10 happiness assignments, experienced stronger increase in positive emotions Eudaimonic → What is happiness? Eudaimonic theories maintain that not all desires would yield well-being when achieved. The principal focus is on "what is worth desiring and worth having in life" ● mostly activity reflecting virtue,excellence,the best within us, and the full development of our potentials. Aristotle: hedonic happiness to be a vulgar ideal by ignorance, making humans slavish followers of desires. ● Daimon is an ideal in the sense of being an excellence, a perfection toward which one strives ● Self-realization: the realization of daimon ● Eudaimonia : ‘‘meaningful living conditioned upon self-truth and self-responsibility’’ ○ The ultimate aim in life is to strive to realize one’s true potential ○ The eudaimonic view defines well-being in terms of seeking a higher meaning of life. ● Key conceptualization ○ Waterman (1993)’s Personal Expressiveness (PE) ■ Personal expressive activities ● Fulfill personal potentials in the form of the development of one's skills and talents, the advancement of one's purposes in living, or both. ○ Activities of importance to you ○ Ryff and Singer (1998)’s Psychological Well-being (PWB) ■ Self-Acceptance: a positive and acceptance attitude toward aspects of self in past and present ■ Positive Relations with Others: having satisfying personal relationships in which empathy and intimacy are expressed. ● Trusting relationships with others ● strong empathy and intimacy ● understands give and take ● Per se→ difficult to be concerned/ is isolated/ not willing to make compromises ■ Personal Growth: the insight into one's own potential for self-development. ■ Purpose in Life: goals and beliefs that affirm a sense of direction and meaning in life. ■ Environmental Mastery: the capability to manage the complex environment according to one’s own needs. ■ Autonomy: self-direction as guided by one's own socially accepted internal standards ○ Ryan and Deci (2000)’s Self-determination theory (SDT) ■ Three basic psychological needs ● Competence: feeling effective in one's ongoing interactions with the social environment and experiencing opportunities to exercise and express one’s capacities. ○ feelings of confidence that we can solve problems, achieve our goals ● Relatedness: feelings of intimacy and connection to other people ○ skilled in the development and maintenance of close relationships ● Autonomy: being the perceived origin or source of one's own behavior. ○ i.e. need for freely choose actions that express our interest and integrated values. Comparing Hedonic and Eudaimonic Views Hedonic views do not provide a “why” on well-being, bit eudaimonic views do ● Hedonic views posited that individuals have their own criteria to achieve happiness. ● Eudaimonic views posited that there are some universally important experiences that could contribute to well-being of all humans. Hedonic proponents regard the bases for happiness as an empirical question to be answered by research. ● e.g. if we find that happy people are optimistic, have good relationships, and are engaged in meaningful work, then these may be the foundation of happiness. ● “Research driven” approach: get the research facts first, then formulate theory later. Eudaimonic proponents formulate theories on the bases for well-being. ● They describe what is universally important to achieve a good life. ● “Theory driven” approach: formulate theory first, check the theory by research later. Are the two mutually exclusive? Measures of hedonic and eudaimonic well-being show substantial correlations. ● Waterman (1993) had people rate their 5 most self-defining activities according to their level of hedonic and eudaimonic enjoyment, he found that the hedonic and eudaimonic ratings had substantial overlap. ○ Why overlap? ○ King and colleagues (2006): ■ Positive Emotions Enhance Meaning ■ Positive Emotions As Markers Of Meaningful Events ○ McMahan and Estes (2011) compared the correlations between hedonic vs eudaimonic and self-reported well-being. ■ Eudaimonic Approaches Well-being potentially more important for positive psychological functioning than hedonic approaches. ■ ● eudaimonia is a sufficient, but not a necessary condition for hedonic happiness. The Hedonic View On Well-being ■ philosophical root: hedonism ■ definition: subjective happiness ■ measures: subjective well-being The Eudaimonic View On Well-being ● philosophical root: Aristotle's self-realization ● definition:higher meanings ● measures: Personal expressiveness, Psychological well-being, Self-determination theory Hedonic And Eudaimonic Happiness Overlaps.