HD 3490 Prelim 3

Cacioppo and Cacioppo

- we are fundamentally social species and social living is necessary for relationships, communication, setting aside self interest for long term benefits

social isolation

objective isolation (unmarried, less than monthly contact with children, family, friends), lack of social clubs or religious groups

loneliness

feeling of social isolation, predictor of morbidity and mortality

sensitivity to social threats

loneliness increases this and motivates renewal of social functioning but also aversion, self preservation, hypervigilance that reinforces biases

loneliness effects

poor executive functioning, sleep, increased vascular resistance and blood pressure, increased pituitary action, altered gene expression, decreased immunity, decreased impulse control

morbidity for loneliness

depressive symptoms, poor rated health, functional limitations

social support

not = loneliness

UCLA-R loneliness scale

1-4, meaningful, turn to, knows u well

loneliness increased in pandemic

loneliness, social isolation, and living alone all increase earlier death

health effects of social isolation and loneliness

Physical health - cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, weakened immunity, more susceptible to COVID

Mental and behavioral health - depression and anxiety, suicidality, sleep

Cognitive health - cognitive impairment, dementia, alzheimers

Economic health - lower productivity, high medical spending, more absenteeism

reducing loneliness

improve social skills, enhancing social support, increasing opportunities for social contact, addressing maladaptive social cognition (most successful)

national poll on social media use

those who used social media more likely to report feeling isolated

loneliness as biological drive

acute social isolation causes neural craving response

gratitude

response to moral behavior and motivator of moral behavior

benefactor-beneficiaries

Beneficiaries respond with gratitude when the benefactors behave in a way that promotes the beneficiaries wellbeing

Benefactors do more to promote others wellbeing when they themselves have been made to feel grateful

Expressing gratitude to one's benefactors stimulates benefactors to act prosocially in the future

most likely to feel gratitude when

- Intend to benefit them

- Succeed in benefiting them

- Are capable of sympathizing with the beneficiary's grateful feelings

gratitude as moral affect

stems from and stimulates moral behavior motivated out of concern for antoher person

prosocial behavior

gratitude promotes in both benefactor and beneficiary

moral barometer function

response to perception that one has been benefeciary of moral actions

moral motive function

motivates grateful person to behave prosocially to the benefactor and others

moral reinforcer function

when expressed, encourages benefactors to behave morally in future

McCullough, Emmons, Kilpatrick

gratitude as moral act that assists prosocial behavior, roots lie in empathy, correlated with positive personality traits

Emmons and McCullough (2010)

hassles condition - hassles are irritants

events condition - events that affected you

gratitude condition - things you are thankful for

ppl felt best abt life with gratitude, physical symptoms reduced, exercise increased, hassles and events were equal for week and overall quality but hassles did least exercise

gratitude improves

sleep, sexy, prosocial behavior, relationships

Seligman et al

gratitude visit - write letter of gratitude and deliver

Kumar and Epley

expressers misunderstand the consequences of showing appreciation, the actual mood is much higher and awkwardness decreased than what they think it would be

dispositional gratitude

predicts empathy, forgiveness, lower narcissism, envy; more social by their friends

suffering

miswanting, hedonic treadmill

forgiveness

suite of prosocial (more likely to b friendly and not harm transgressor) motivational changes that occur after transgression has been incurred

typical responses to transgression

avoidance, revenge, forgiveness means these are not stimulated but instead productive

forgiveness is not

pardon, condonation, excusing, reconcilliation, forgetting, denial

more forgiving ppl

more agreeable, stable, potentially religious (or just perceive themselves as more forgiving)

more/less likely to forgive

empathy, generous attributions and appraisals, rumination

proximal antecedents of forgiveness

careworthiness, expectancy values, safety

distal antecedents of forgiveness

neuroticism, agreeableness, narcissism, religiousness

interpersonal correlates of forgiveness

may b influenced by characteristics of the interpersonal, partners relationship satisfaction w forgiveness, reestablishes closeness

mental and physical consequences of forgiveness

good psych health (less likely to use bad adaptive strategies) and physical (lower anxiety, substance abuse, hostility, depression)

children prefer outdoors

expression of human needs, when deprived lead to poorer social behaviorral and motor skills

nature as buffer of life

maternal and child report

nearby nature is buffer and make events less severe

nature and stress are direct effects on child psych

why is nature buffer

social support (outdoors are social) or attention restoration (help brain resources, escape, cope better)

greenery makes people happier

nearby greenspace means better health, lower BMI, better social

myopia

inverse relationship btwn time outdoors and incidence or progression of myopia

health not equally distributed

people of low socio economic status are at greater risk for various health issues

greenspace reduces influence of poverty on health

buffer effect as income and ethnic disparities in risk

nature moderates risk-health relations

reduces impact of stressful life events

achievement gap

links btwn risk factors and academic achievements

nature inequitable access

disadvantaged communities more likely to live in places w limited access to nature

nature intervention

bring ppl to nature and bring nature to ppl

Gillovich

review the literature on purchases and happiness

experiential purchases

greater and longer lasting satisfaction, assess hedonic value thru regret

attachment to possessions

doesn't define who they are

narrative of life and purcahses

purchases didn't feature heavily when people were talking about the story of their lives but experiential more

self reinforcing nature of experiences and self

we like ourselves and therefore we liek our experiences

correlation between life satisfaction and income

very low, .10, 75k is threshold for no stress abt money, once you have your basic needs met, extra income doesn't help u much

poor nations income impact

more severe, income means you'll have clean water and basic healthcare

does money really make us happier

maybe a little but way less than we think

feeling good abt a nice house doesn't improve wellbeing

experiential purchases more happy than material, buy experiences

you're most likely to get biggest bang for ur buck

experience is good story that brings u tgt w others, unique, tied to ur sense of self

make it a treat

when shown money, didn't appreciate the little things, scarcity makes things better

reset your cheerometer

knowing you don't have access to smth all the time may help you appreciate it more when you do

buy time

greater material affluence, may fail to yield more happiness in part bc of diminished time, increase time affluence by helping others, focus on wellbeing not other tasks

u-index

amnt of time people spend in an unpleasant mood

outsource dread

outsource bad work and focus on enjoyable activities

consume later, pay now

delaying consumption can enhance pleasure through anticipation by promoting better choices, creating uncertainty, less overspending when experiencing pain upfront

invest in others

prosocial spending leads to higher level of happiness, toddlers happiest from costly giving