Samenvatting artikelen Science of Happiness (2024)
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Course
Science of Happiness (201900028)
Institution
Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Samenvatting van artikelen Science of Happiness (2024). Week 1, week 2, week 3, week 5, week 6 en week 7. LET OP: dus niet week 4 en 8
Inbegrepen artikelen:
Week 1:
-Diener, E., Lucas, R.E., & Napa Scollon, C. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-bei...
Main assumptions Hedonic Treadmill -> according to this model, people have a basis level of
happiness. Good and bad things happen that temporarily affect happiness, but people quickly
adapt back to hedonic neutrality.
5 critic assumptions of the writers of this specific article on the hedonic treadmill are:
1. Individuals set points are not hedonically neutral, they are mostly happy (=critic on
original model)
2. People have different set points, due to personality
3. A single person may have multiple happiness set points
4. The set points can change under certain conditions (=most important critic on
original model), people not always fully adapt
5. People differ in adaptation to events (some people will change their set point, others
not), people not adapt in similar ways to similar events
Example: lottery winners are not happier than nonwinners. Or people that lost their ability to
walk or not less happier than people who hasn’t.
The treadmill is an explanation for:
The observation that people with less resources are sometimes happier that people
with more resources
People with severe problems are sometimes quite happy
Explanation assumption 4: The most controversial aspect of the hedonic treadmill model is
the idea that people cannot do much to change their long-term levels of happiness and life
satisfaction. Life circumstances DO matter, and one type of evidence is that well-being
,differs across nations. Because the conditions across nations vary, and the level of happiness
does also, this means that people not always fully adapt to conditions.
Artikel 1..2: Reevaluating the strengths and weaknesses of self-report measures of
subjective well-being
Keywords:
Subjective well-being (SWB) -> peoples subjective evaluation of the quality of their
lives as a whole
Experience sampling -> respondents are signaled multiple times a day and asked to
complete surveys on how they were feeling, what they were doing, etc.
Psychometric properties -> are intrinsic components of a test and reveal information
about a test’s adequacy, relevance and usefulness. Validity, reliability and norming
are fundamental psychometric properties of a test
SWB means that different people can evaluate the same objective life circumstances in
different ways. It also says something about the quality of ‘life as a whole’, which means that
the totality of one’s experiences add up to an overall sense of quality. Different circumstances
may balance each other out.
SWB requires the use of self-report measures. Main question: are these measures still
reliable and valid?
SWB measures can be split into two components:
1. Cognitive components-> assessing overall satisfaction with life
2. Affective components -> the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative
affect
Problems with SWB:
The more recent the experience, the more likely people are to rely on episodic
knowledge
Methods like experience sampling are extremely time – and resource intensive
People may misremember things
People may disproportionately weight certain irrelevant sources
Judgement model of subjective well-being -> starts with the assumption that when asked
about their well-being, respondents do not have a response stored in memory that can simply
be accessed and reported. Instead respondents must construct a response at the time of
judgment.
People sometimes rely on their current mood at the time of judgment to say something
about their life in general
Artikel 1.3: Is the study of Happiness a worthy scientific pursuit?
Keywords:
Positive psychology -> psychology has traditionally been a healing profession that
fousses on curing mental illness. Positive psychology focusses on the more positive
aspects and emotions of human experiences. Such as happiness.
, Set point theory/dynamic equilibrium theory -> states that despite changes in
individuals circumstances, happiness levels remain constant over time. The process of
adaptation is called the hedonic treadmill
Hedonic happiness -> the maximization of pleasure and the minimization of pain.
Occurs when pleasurable experiences outweigh painful experiences.
Eudaimonic happiness -> the actualization of individual potential and fulfilling one’s
daimon or true self. Happiness does not come from the persuit of pleasure but by the
development of individual strengths and virtues.
ESM -> Experience sampling method. This method involves measuring positive and
negative affect at different time points and summating them to an overall assessment
of well-being over time.
Main question: is the study of happiness a worthy scientific pursuit?
This article says it is, because:
1. There is enough evidence to suggest that with the right tools happiness can be
increased
2. The investigation on how to improve happiness include also improvements in
physical, psychological and social health, and overall well-being
Authentic happiness theory, consist of three aspects
The pleasant life -> a life which maximises pleasurable and positive experiences
1. The good life -> a life developing your strengths or virtues
2. The meaningful life -> a life applying those strengths in activities that contribute to
the greater good (parenting, developing friendships or servicing the community)
Questions you can ask yourself:
Is positive psychology a luxury? Is it more important to focus on understanding
human psychological suffering?
The hedonic treadmill suggests that investigating happiness is not worthy, because people
have constant set points. Trying to be happier would be the same as trying to be taller.
Weerlegging van:
1. Happiness is a trait -> this suggests that happiness is a character trait and a reflection
of a person’s tendency to appraise events and situations in a particular way. It is true
that certain personality traits make it easier to experience happiness but changes in
happiness over a longer period of time provide evidence against the theory that
happiness is only a character trait
2. Happiness is relative -> happiness evaluations are based on subjective experience and
judgement. People always compare the recent situation to another. An argument
against that is that de affective component is related to the hedonic experience and
gratification of needs and is therefore independent of standards of comparison
Formula for happiness:
H= S + C + V
H= happiness, S= set point (50%), C= circumstances (10%), V= voluntary factors that are
under the individuals control (40%)
This means that people can influence their happiness, and therefore that the science of
happiness is a meaningful pursue.
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