PERS 2002 Exam 2
Key Concepts
The Declaration of Independence views that happiness is a high life
good to pursue and a right
The psychological notion of happiness includes pleasure view and
life satisfaction view (are self-reported), while the notion of
happiness as flourishing is how an outside observer reports that
your life is functioning well or not
Pleasure view of happiness is the view that happiness is having
more positive experiences (pleasure) rather than negative ones (pain)
Quality of pleasures objection asks: are all pleasures equal? Do
they produce the same happy feelings? Are they all authentic, like
under alcohol vs with family?
Authenticity of pleasures objection is related to the Experience
machine objection – do you have authentic pleasure from simulated
happiness from drugs, alcohol, movies, a simulation? are you
truly/more yourself on these substances?
The Experience Machine Objection from Nozick, in 1974, details a
Matrix-like machine that you can plug into to experience pre-
programmed simulations of your choosing that are pleasurable – meant
to show there is more to life than raw pleasure, and that not all
pleasures are authentic, like those without achievement or community
Satisfaction view of happiness relies on self-reporting whether you
have a favorable attitude towards your life as a whole
The Low expectations problem of defining happiness is that
people may say they are happy but this may be based on very low
expectations, like a slave – is this person truly happy?
The No pleasure problem of defining happiness is that a state of
being satisfied may be associated with a general lack of pleasure in
one’s life, like a tortured artist claiming themselves to be happy
The Instability/no attitude problem of defining happiness
questions: Do we always have an attitude about our lives as a whole,
and is this attitude sufficiently stable?
The function of happiness according to Barbara Fredrickson, is to
“broaden-and-build:” theory of happiness broadening our horizons so
that we build more social resilience and goals to pursue higher
activities in life
, Rites of Spring music experiment showing that self-focus on being
happy while listening to music produces less happiness than simply
letting yourself experience the piece
The Hedonic treadmill hypothesis relates that a person who wins
the lottery and a person who is a paraplegic after an accident both
have the same levels of happiness a year after these instances – we
adjust to our circumstances
Synthetic happiness comes from being resigned to one’s
circumstances, while Natural Happiness comes from achieving our
goals and earning some goods
The Monet experiment involved asking subjects to rank Monet
paintings, then giving them the choice between 3 and 4, and then
them reporting that 3 is better than previously ranked and 4 is worse,
even for amnesiac patients – demonstrating we are satisfied with
choices even when they are not our first choice – we can self-adjust
Gilbert’s description of the psychological immune system is that
it works best with fewer options, since we resign ourselves to get what
we get and thus produce synthetic happiness
The joy of being stuck in the photo experiment invovled college
students given the choice between a reversible and permanent choice
of which personal photo to give away, and those with the irreversible
choice being much more satisfied than not
Beyond a certain point of USD $10,000, money doesn’t have much of
an impact on happiness
Certain personality types are predisposed to pleasure and
happiness, such as extroverts who gain more social connections, but
personality altogether doesn’t determine happiness
Social relationships are the main determinant of happiness – having
many and good quality relationships
Eudaimonism is the view that access to certain objectively good
things like autonomy, material possessions, money, education, etc. will
make one happy
Nichomachean Ethics is the work in which Aristotle presents his
views on eudaimonia and virtues as the path to happiness
Practical virtues, according to Aristotle, include courage,
temperance, liberality, honor, good temper, quick wit, etc., and
intellectual virtues include withdrawal from society for study and the
instruction of youth
Passionate love is a state of intense longing for union with another
as a complex functional whole of appraisals, subjective feelings,
Key Concepts
The Declaration of Independence views that happiness is a high life
good to pursue and a right
The psychological notion of happiness includes pleasure view and
life satisfaction view (are self-reported), while the notion of
happiness as flourishing is how an outside observer reports that
your life is functioning well or not
Pleasure view of happiness is the view that happiness is having
more positive experiences (pleasure) rather than negative ones (pain)
Quality of pleasures objection asks: are all pleasures equal? Do
they produce the same happy feelings? Are they all authentic, like
under alcohol vs with family?
Authenticity of pleasures objection is related to the Experience
machine objection – do you have authentic pleasure from simulated
happiness from drugs, alcohol, movies, a simulation? are you
truly/more yourself on these substances?
The Experience Machine Objection from Nozick, in 1974, details a
Matrix-like machine that you can plug into to experience pre-
programmed simulations of your choosing that are pleasurable – meant
to show there is more to life than raw pleasure, and that not all
pleasures are authentic, like those without achievement or community
Satisfaction view of happiness relies on self-reporting whether you
have a favorable attitude towards your life as a whole
The Low expectations problem of defining happiness is that
people may say they are happy but this may be based on very low
expectations, like a slave – is this person truly happy?
The No pleasure problem of defining happiness is that a state of
being satisfied may be associated with a general lack of pleasure in
one’s life, like a tortured artist claiming themselves to be happy
The Instability/no attitude problem of defining happiness
questions: Do we always have an attitude about our lives as a whole,
and is this attitude sufficiently stable?
The function of happiness according to Barbara Fredrickson, is to
“broaden-and-build:” theory of happiness broadening our horizons so
that we build more social resilience and goals to pursue higher
activities in life
, Rites of Spring music experiment showing that self-focus on being
happy while listening to music produces less happiness than simply
letting yourself experience the piece
The Hedonic treadmill hypothesis relates that a person who wins
the lottery and a person who is a paraplegic after an accident both
have the same levels of happiness a year after these instances – we
adjust to our circumstances
Synthetic happiness comes from being resigned to one’s
circumstances, while Natural Happiness comes from achieving our
goals and earning some goods
The Monet experiment involved asking subjects to rank Monet
paintings, then giving them the choice between 3 and 4, and then
them reporting that 3 is better than previously ranked and 4 is worse,
even for amnesiac patients – demonstrating we are satisfied with
choices even when they are not our first choice – we can self-adjust
Gilbert’s description of the psychological immune system is that
it works best with fewer options, since we resign ourselves to get what
we get and thus produce synthetic happiness
The joy of being stuck in the photo experiment invovled college
students given the choice between a reversible and permanent choice
of which personal photo to give away, and those with the irreversible
choice being much more satisfied than not
Beyond a certain point of USD $10,000, money doesn’t have much of
an impact on happiness
Certain personality types are predisposed to pleasure and
happiness, such as extroverts who gain more social connections, but
personality altogether doesn’t determine happiness
Social relationships are the main determinant of happiness – having
many and good quality relationships
Eudaimonism is the view that access to certain objectively good
things like autonomy, material possessions, money, education, etc. will
make one happy
Nichomachean Ethics is the work in which Aristotle presents his
views on eudaimonia and virtues as the path to happiness
Practical virtues, according to Aristotle, include courage,
temperance, liberality, honor, good temper, quick wit, etc., and
intellectual virtues include withdrawal from society for study and the
instruction of youth
Passionate love is a state of intense longing for union with another
as a complex functional whole of appraisals, subjective feelings,
