Psych 149 - Midterm 2

The science of well being UCR

Specific action tendencies Negative

• Fear - escape or freeze

• anger - attack

• disgust - expel

• guilt - make amends

• shame - disappear

• sadness - withdraw

specific action tendencies positive

• Contentment - inaction

• joy - free activation / play

• affection - approach

• relief - cessation of vigilance

Positive emotions affecting thought-action repertoires

Joy - push limits and be creative

interest - take in new ideas and learn

contentment - savor and integrate

love - all of the above

Nun study - Danner, snowdon, and friesen

People with more high positive emotions quartile, the more likely they were to stay alive longer

Broaden hypothesis

Positive emotions broaden people’s attention and thinking

Broaden study 1

Positive emotions broaden our attention; when the video invoked an emotion, those with more positive one were more broaden

Broaden study 2

Positive emotions broaden our action urges; people who wrote things down when more positive were able to be more broad then others

broaden study 3

positive emotions increase self-other overlap; showed that those with more positive emotions tend to be associated with another person or friend

broaden study 4

Positive emotions increase cross-race face recognition; emotoin affected face identification and showed those who were positive had less bias

Own race bias

poor recognition of faces of a different ethnicity

Undo hypothesis

If negative emotions narrow and positive emotions broaden, then positive emotions should be efficient antidotes for the lingering aftereffects of negative emotions

Study 5 - undo hypothesis evidence

Speech anxiety study with different emotions and the dependent measure was duration of cardiovascular reactivity; those with negative emotoins had longer cardiovascular reactivty

Resilience hypothesis

Positive emotions are an active ingredient within trait resilience

Study 6 - resilience theory

Studied trait resilience and psychological resources before and after 9/11; more psychological resilience → fewer depressive symptoms which was through more positive emotions

The build hypothesis

If positive emotions broaden, then positive emotions should build consequential personal psychological resources and trigger upwards spirals toward improved emotional well-being

Study 7 - build theory backup

Workplace motivation study, 6 weeks meditation versus waitlist control, pre and post test measures of resources and life satisfaction; meditation seemed to have a much better and positive effect

ratio needed to build resources for positive emotions

3 positive emotion, 1 negative emotion 3:1

semantic network

positive emotions dissolve or melt the links between negative memories, negative thoughts, and negative images in the semantic network

What good does positive emotions do?

• Broaden thought and attention

• build enduring personal resources

• undo lingering negative emotions

• fuel psychological resilience

• trigger upward spirals toward well-being

Flow

optimal experiences of creativity and joy in which the person is so totally absorbed in his or her current activities that nothing else seems to matter

Flow is what kind of activity

Autotelic - rewarding in and of itself

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow chart - high challenge and low skill level

Anxiety

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow chart - low challenge and low skill

Apathy

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow chart - low challenge and high skill

boredom

Csikszentmihalyi’s flow chart - high challenge and high skill

flow

commonalities between the levels

• anxiety and apathy = worry

• apathy and boredom = relaxation

• boredom and flow = controlled

• anxiety and flow = arousal

measuring flow

DRM - day reconstruction method, ratings

semi-structured interview

ESM - experience sampling method (beeper)

Laboratory manipulation

Flow in conversation

• Focus on the other person

• dont rush let the other finish talking

• ask questions when talking

how to increase flow

• control attention

• adopt new values

• learn which activities are flow-inducing

• transform routine

• experience flow in conversation

• enjoy smart leisure

• choose smart work

increase savoring

• relish ordinary experiences

• savor time with friends or family

• transport yourself

• replay happy days

• celebrate good news

• be open to beauty and excellence

• be mindful

• take pleasure in the sense

• savor with a camera

how many core virtues and strengths are there

6 and 24 respectively

What are the 6 core virtues

• wisdom/knowledge

• courage

• love and humanity

• justice

• temperance

• transcendence and spiritually

criteria for strength

• trait like

• contributes to the fulfillment that are good life

• strength is valued in its own right and cant be squandered

• cultural provisions of maxims, parables, poems, songs

• onlookers are elevated by their observation of strength

strengths

• moral traits

• relatively buildable

• requires choices

• cannot be squandered

talents

• nonmoral traits

• not as buildable

• relatively automatic

• can be squandered

strength of jugdement

Involves critical thinking, thinking through all sides, and not jumping to conclusions

Strength of honesty

involves authenticity, being true to oneself, sincerity without pretense, and integrity

strength of fairness

involves adhering to principles of justice, not allowing feelings to bias decisions about others

strength of humility

Involves modesty letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves

strength in appreciation of beauty

involves experiencing awe and wonder for beauty, as well as admiration for skill and moral greatness

Optimism

holding positive expectations for future outcome

dispositional optimism

the global expectation that good things will be plentiful in the future and bad things scarce

Big vs little optimism

size of your expectations

explanatory style

how people explain the cause of good and bad events

optimistic attributional style

the tendency to attribute success to internal, stable, and global causes and attribute failure to external, unstable, and specific causes

Seligman’s definition of optimist

Permeance/stability - how will this affect me

persuasiveness/globality - how wide is the impact

focus - what is the source

Optimism study 1 - recalling three good things

• write down 3 good things that happened at work this week

• control just wrote 3 tasks they completed

• the higher the effort and writing about good things, the more changes in happiness there were

how to achieve your best possible self

• improve self-control

• reduce conflict in your life

• help integrate life experiences in a meaningful way

• fuel a feeling of control

• improve performance

• foster positive thinking

optimism study 2 - visualizing one’s best possible self

• students wrote about the future they want for 15 minutes over 4 weeks

• some with and without social support

• control group wrote details about daily life

• with social support there was the most change in positive emotions with those with no social support next and the control the least

optimism study 3 - expressing optimism and gratitude

• students wrote about the future they want for 15 minutes over 4 weeks

• participants were either recruited into high motivation or low motivation

• changes in happiness were the most with gratitude motivated and less with optimism motivated, unmotivated had the most decrease

optimism study 4 - expressing optimism and gratitude across cultures

• participants wrote for 10 minutes a week for 6 weeks

• they either wrote about the future, gratitude in letters, or the past 7 days

• focused on asian americans and anglo americans

• gratitude had the most immediate well being changes

• anglo americans had a bigger change in positive well-being than asian americans

positive events as the mediator

• Practicing optimism/gratitude -> (positive events) → subjective happiness

connectedness as a mediator

• Practicing optimism/gratitude -> (connectedness) -> subjective happiness

autonomu as mediator

• Practicing optimism/gratitude -> (autonomy) -> subjective happiness

What are the benefits of being optimistic

• Optimistic women less likely to become depressed after childbirth

• Optimists live longer

• Optimists cope better after surgery and do physically better

• Optimistic freshmen adjust better to college life

Why these benefits/how does optimism help

• Because optimists cope better with stress

• Because optimisits take action to solve problems and are more planful

• Because optimists are less likely to deny problems and more likely to grow as a result of them

• When is optimism bad or counterproductive

• When one is too optimistic or is optimistic in unproductive ways

• In situations that cannot be improved

• When is pessimism good

• When one is a defensive pessimist - defensive pessimists prepare hard for failure by engaging in remedial action, say, before a test

• Where does optimism come from

• From both nature and nurture: inherited, learned from experience with success and failure, and/or learned from parents

• Connection scale (CS)

• Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree

• Reverse scale

Love

a relationship characterized by reciprocated exclusiveness, absorption, predispositions to help one another, and interdependence

• Equity theory

• Close relationships persist to the degree that both people involved believe that what they are getting out of the relationship is proportional to what they are putting into it. People are always calculating the costs and benefits involved in interacting with others

• Passionate love

• A state of intense longing for union with another 

  • Always thinking about my partner

  • Nothing important in life as partner

• Social rejection study

• The pain of social rejection was associated with activity in the same part of the brain as physical pain

• Companionate love

• The affection we feel for those whom our lives are deeply entwined

  • Partner is the most likeable person you know

  • Wanna be like them

• Sternberg’s three components of love

• Intimacy

• Passion

• decision/commitment

sternberg’s triangle

• Intimacy = liking

• Passion = infatuation

• Commitment = empty love

• Romantic love = intimacy + passion

• Fatuous love = passion + commitment

• Companionate love = Intimacy + Commitment

• Consumate love = Intimacy + passion + commitment

• Phil shaver

• Love has been designed by evolution to facilitate attachment between two sexual partners

• Love is an attachment process that has emotional dynamics and biological functions similar to infant-caregiver attachment

• John bowlby

• Observed how infants become emotionally attached to their caregivers and emotionally distressed when separated from them which causes them to protest, despair, and detachment

• The major biological function of this bonding system is to protect infants from threats to their survival

three adult attachment styles

secure, anxious/ambivalent, avoidant

secure attachment

• I find it relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me. I don’t often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close (most common)

anxious/ambivalent

•  I find that others are reluctant to get as close as I would like to be. I often worry that my partner doesnt really love me or wont stay with me. I want to merge completely with another person and this desire scares people away (least common)

avoidant attachment

• I am somewhat uncomfortable being close. I find it difficult to tryst people completely, difficult to allow myself to depend on them. I am nervous when anyone gets close, and often, love partners want me to be more intimate than I feel comfortable. (second most common)

how to enhance love and nurture relationships

• Make time

• Be positive

• Capitalize on good fortune

• Affirm your partner

• Touch more and text less

• Share an inner life

• Enhance relationships TODAY

• Dont make a single negative remark to them today

• Do an act of kindness for them that is out of the ordinary

• List something you need to improve about yourself in your relationship

• Greet them today with enthusiasm and a smile

• Think of one positive characteristic they have and thank them for it

• Give in on one area of disagreement today

• Five secrets to social connection

• sharing a mindset

• listening to learn mindset

• radical curiousity

• open-heart mindset

• multiplicity mindset

• Sharing mindset

• Try to be honest and share the parts of your life you want to, both the good and the bad

• Listening to learn mindset

• Listen to make yourself understand why your partner is a certain way and why they act

• Radical curiosity

• You are curious about your partner and want to learn about who they truly are. You act open to everything even though you know a lot

• Open-heart mindset

• Bringing warmth, care, and kindness into a relationship. Even if they are mad, they will show how much they care

• Multiplicity mindset

• They know that their partner is more than just their partner. Everyone has different sides and are a good mix of bad and good