PSYC34 Lecture 4

2. Choice and Wellbeing:

- If one of the reasons we adapt to life outcomes so quickly is because we come to understand these outcomes better, then perhaps we can prolong the outcome by choosing to remain uncertain

- Maximizing vs. Satisficing:

- Those who have a Maximizing outlook, tend to have more regret, sadness etc.

- Cross-cultural differences?

- How much replication support do they have within different cultures

- US: n= 307

- Western Europe: n= 263

- China: n= 218

- They had a question: if you look at the societies where freedom and agency are valued, you will find perhaps that paradoxically in those countries valuing choice will have a detrimental negative effect.

- Places where choice is valued (US, Western Europe) Satisficers showed more psychological well-being than Maximizers in the US and Europe (but not in China).

- In China, being a Maximizer does not seem to carry any negative relationship

- Maximizers showed more regret than Satisficers in all three societies, but regret predicted wellbeing only in the US and Europe (not in China)

Lecture 4:

Feeling good: The foundations of pleasure

- Pleasure is a property of the brain and not of a stimulus

- The mind assumes that something is pleasurable and pleasure is a product of that stimulus

- Ventral Pallidum Damage:

- If we damage this area, an animal's pleasure response will turn into an aversion response

- This the only region so far that we need to stimulate pleasure

- What is Pleasure and Reward?

- Liking (consummatory pleasure): the enjoyment from consuming/experience a reward (IMPORTANT CONCEPT)

- The sense of gratifying, satisfying

- Wanting (anticipatory pleasure; incentive salience): the desire or motivation to obtain a reward

- Is based in a different brain system than liking

- Addiction is an example that is separate from liking

- Learning: Mental associations about the relationships between future rewards and past experiences

- This builds a bridge between liking and wanting

- Key Neurotransmitter Systems in Pleasure and Reward: Dopamine and Opioids/Endocannabinoids

- The monkey was trained to expect a reward when a certain cue was put forward

- Dopamine produces anticipatory pleasure and not pleasure itself

- The more strong the cue predicts the reward, the more pleasure is generated

- Does Uncertainty Increase Dopamine Release?

- looking at sustained dopamine release (dopamine released over an extended period of time), a 50% reward prediction will have the most dopamine release, "maybe" is motivating.

- "Liking": Neurotransmitters:

- Liking is based on:

- Enkephalin: a form of opioids

- Anandamide: body's natural cannabinoids

- the more anandamide the bigger the life response in rats

- gambling is the only addiction that is recognized by the DSM, uncertainty might be the link to it

- The Effects of Opioids and Endocannaboids in Dopammine Signaling

- Pleasure and pain: Rivals or cousins?

- Ice water bath, chillies, horror

- Masochism or benign masochism in the context of romance

- Is it possible to want and enjoy pain?

- Benign Masochism:

- In two different samples of age groups a question was asked: how much do you like things that at the surface are painful or disgusting but produce pleasure to you?

- people seem to like these experiences

- there seems to be a type correlation between one type of these categories and the others

- the trait of sensation seeking is why people might like these things that are novel (might be a contributor not the reason)

- One of the key sources of meaning for people is tied to struggle, stress and negative experiences

- Sensitivity to reward might be linked to the liking to aversive things

- cortisol study, response to amphetamine:

- the more cortisol you has circulating, the stronger your response would be to amphetamine

- Desire and its discontents:

- How should we relate to wanting?

- Tanha (craving and desire)

- Dukkha (unsatisfactoriness)

- this is connected to the movement of life and how it is unsatisfactory, there is something inadequate/missing. this fuels desire

- Is desire associated with lower momentary happiness?:

- Right now do you desire anything?

- No: how happy are you

- Yes: how is the desire in agreement/disagreement with your goals

- People who didn't desire anything were happier in the moment

- The negative effect of desire was greater when it was in conflict with their goals

- What is the right relationship to have with desire?

- Attaining happiness might be connected to satisfying desires

- What if we have the wrong relationship to desire?