Science of Happiness Q&A
Inhoudsopgave
Week 1.......................................................................................................... 1
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 1
Answers:......................................................................................................................... 2
Week 2.......................................................................................................... 4
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 4
Answers:......................................................................................................................... 5
Week 3.......................................................................................................... 6
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 6
Week 4.......................................................................................................... 7
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 7
Answer’s......................................................................................................................... 8
Week 5........................................................................................................ 10
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 10
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 11
Week 6........................................................................................................ 12
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 12
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 12
Week 7........................................................................................................ 14
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 14
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 15
Week 8........................................................................................................ 17
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 17
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 17
Week 1
Questions:
1. What is a negativity bias?
2. What is the evolutionary explanation of the negativity bias?
3. What do we mean by the jingle-jangle assumptions?
4. What is the tripartite model?
, 5. What is eudaimonia/ eudaimonic happiness?
6. What is meant by the Duchenne smile?
7. Are self-report measures on happiness reliable and do they work?
8. What is the “happiness formula”?
9. What is the the single best global predictor of life satisfaction?
10. What is prosocial behavior? And is it natural?
11. What is the overjustification effect, regarding prosocial behavior?
12. Authors of article “expanding the social science of happiness” advocate for
team science. What do they mean by that and why do they advocate for it?
13. What is subjective well-being?
14. How is SWB best measured? And explain what global vs. experiental measures
are.
15. Explain, in one sentence, what face validity, content validity, convergent
validity, discriminant validity and construct validity are.
16. What does the judgment model of SWB propose?
17. What is the mood-as-information effect?
18. Authors state that SWB has two components, what are they?
19. What is hedonic happiness?
20. Positive psychology names three kinds of life. What are they?
21. What does the set point theory state?
22. What is the hedonic treadmill?
23. What is the affective forecasting error?
24. Are hedonic (HWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB) correlated?
25. What is ‘flow’ (related to HWB and EWB)?
26. What does the PERMA model stand for (by seligman)?
27. Affective well-being depends on 4 factors, what are they?
28. There are cultural differences in affective well-being. Western and eastern
cultures value different emotions, what is the difference?
29. What is the difference between state- and trait well-being?
Answers:
1. Negative events have a bigger (longer lasting and more intense) impact than positive
events. Negative information receives more attention and is processed more
thoroughly than positive information.
2. Preventing bad things is more important than maximizing good things. A person who
ignores danger might not live long.
3. Jingle: same term refers to different underlying things: happiness refers to life
satisfaction, positive affect, well-being. Jangle: different terms are used to describe the
very same underlying conceptions: happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, well-
being ≈ ‘happiness’.
4. 3 facets that make up hedonic/subjective well-being: life satisfaction, negative affect
and positive affect.
, 5. Eudaimonia: a sense of meaning and purpose in life, or good psychological
functioning. Eudaimonic: actualization of one’s potential by fulfilling one’s daimon
(true self) = flourishing.
6. Smiling with crinkling around the eyes as a true indicator of positive affect. Duchenne
smile is caused by activation of the orbicularis oculi muscle (raising the cheeks) that is
not under voluntary control (unlike the muscle that bends the mouth upwards into a
smile Fake smiles feature the upturned mouth but there's something missing in the
eyes.
7. Yes. Albeit somewhat lower mean scores than measures with multiple items; multiple
items reduce random error from ambiguity in single items. Even a single item on
satisfaction with life (Cantril’s ladder) produces reliable scores comparable with
multiple item scales
8. S + C + V. S is the genetic set point, C is the individual’s circumstances, V is the
voluntary factors that are under the individual’s control.
9. Social capital: trust and cooperation in communities, having someone you can count
on in times of need (strong satisfying relationships).
10. Voluntary actions intended to benefit others.
Although traditional economic models assume people act selfishly, evidence
shows humans are naturally altruistic from early childhood.
11. When prosocial actions are externally rewarded (e.g., with money), this
can reduce future helping behavior.
12. Involving not just academics but also policymakers who can apply findings in the real
world. This is a step in the right direction to promoting positive states, not just fixing
negative states. Policy experimentation can test what truly improves well-being at
population level.
13. How people feel and think about their lives. People’s own evaluations of how good
their lives are: life satisfaction, negative and positive affect.
14. Because it’s about subjective experience, SWB is best measured by asking people
themselves, through self-reports.
Global (retrospective) measures: Ask people to reflect on their life overall or over a
long period, e.g.: “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a
whole?” These rely on memory and evaluation, not just emotion.
Experiential measures: Try to capture experiences as they happen, to avoid memory
bias.
15. Face validity: Does it look like it measures well-being? (Usually yes.)
Content validity: Does it cover all important aspects of well-being without including
irrelevant things?
Convergent validity: Does it correlate with other measures of well-being? (Yes.)
Discriminant validity: Does it avoid correlating with unrelated traits? (Generally yes.)
Construct validity: Does it behave as theory predicts (e.g., higher income or good
relationships = higher SWB)?
16. This model argues that when people answer SWB questions, they don’t recall a stored
answer but construct a judgment at that moment.
Inhoudsopgave
Week 1.......................................................................................................... 1
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 1
Answers:......................................................................................................................... 2
Week 2.......................................................................................................... 4
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 4
Answers:......................................................................................................................... 5
Week 3.......................................................................................................... 6
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 6
Week 4.......................................................................................................... 7
Questions:....................................................................................................................... 7
Answer’s......................................................................................................................... 8
Week 5........................................................................................................ 10
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 10
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 11
Week 6........................................................................................................ 12
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 12
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 12
Week 7........................................................................................................ 14
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 14
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 15
Week 8........................................................................................................ 17
Questions:..................................................................................................................... 17
Answers:....................................................................................................................... 17
Week 1
Questions:
1. What is a negativity bias?
2. What is the evolutionary explanation of the negativity bias?
3. What do we mean by the jingle-jangle assumptions?
4. What is the tripartite model?
, 5. What is eudaimonia/ eudaimonic happiness?
6. What is meant by the Duchenne smile?
7. Are self-report measures on happiness reliable and do they work?
8. What is the “happiness formula”?
9. What is the the single best global predictor of life satisfaction?
10. What is prosocial behavior? And is it natural?
11. What is the overjustification effect, regarding prosocial behavior?
12. Authors of article “expanding the social science of happiness” advocate for
team science. What do they mean by that and why do they advocate for it?
13. What is subjective well-being?
14. How is SWB best measured? And explain what global vs. experiental measures
are.
15. Explain, in one sentence, what face validity, content validity, convergent
validity, discriminant validity and construct validity are.
16. What does the judgment model of SWB propose?
17. What is the mood-as-information effect?
18. Authors state that SWB has two components, what are they?
19. What is hedonic happiness?
20. Positive psychology names three kinds of life. What are they?
21. What does the set point theory state?
22. What is the hedonic treadmill?
23. What is the affective forecasting error?
24. Are hedonic (HWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB) correlated?
25. What is ‘flow’ (related to HWB and EWB)?
26. What does the PERMA model stand for (by seligman)?
27. Affective well-being depends on 4 factors, what are they?
28. There are cultural differences in affective well-being. Western and eastern
cultures value different emotions, what is the difference?
29. What is the difference between state- and trait well-being?
Answers:
1. Negative events have a bigger (longer lasting and more intense) impact than positive
events. Negative information receives more attention and is processed more
thoroughly than positive information.
2. Preventing bad things is more important than maximizing good things. A person who
ignores danger might not live long.
3. Jingle: same term refers to different underlying things: happiness refers to life
satisfaction, positive affect, well-being. Jangle: different terms are used to describe the
very same underlying conceptions: happiness, life satisfaction, meaning in life, well-
being ≈ ‘happiness’.
4. 3 facets that make up hedonic/subjective well-being: life satisfaction, negative affect
and positive affect.
, 5. Eudaimonia: a sense of meaning and purpose in life, or good psychological
functioning. Eudaimonic: actualization of one’s potential by fulfilling one’s daimon
(true self) = flourishing.
6. Smiling with crinkling around the eyes as a true indicator of positive affect. Duchenne
smile is caused by activation of the orbicularis oculi muscle (raising the cheeks) that is
not under voluntary control (unlike the muscle that bends the mouth upwards into a
smile Fake smiles feature the upturned mouth but there's something missing in the
eyes.
7. Yes. Albeit somewhat lower mean scores than measures with multiple items; multiple
items reduce random error from ambiguity in single items. Even a single item on
satisfaction with life (Cantril’s ladder) produces reliable scores comparable with
multiple item scales
8. S + C + V. S is the genetic set point, C is the individual’s circumstances, V is the
voluntary factors that are under the individual’s control.
9. Social capital: trust and cooperation in communities, having someone you can count
on in times of need (strong satisfying relationships).
10. Voluntary actions intended to benefit others.
Although traditional economic models assume people act selfishly, evidence
shows humans are naturally altruistic from early childhood.
11. When prosocial actions are externally rewarded (e.g., with money), this
can reduce future helping behavior.
12. Involving not just academics but also policymakers who can apply findings in the real
world. This is a step in the right direction to promoting positive states, not just fixing
negative states. Policy experimentation can test what truly improves well-being at
population level.
13. How people feel and think about their lives. People’s own evaluations of how good
their lives are: life satisfaction, negative and positive affect.
14. Because it’s about subjective experience, SWB is best measured by asking people
themselves, through self-reports.
Global (retrospective) measures: Ask people to reflect on their life overall or over a
long period, e.g.: “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a
whole?” These rely on memory and evaluation, not just emotion.
Experiential measures: Try to capture experiences as they happen, to avoid memory
bias.
15. Face validity: Does it look like it measures well-being? (Usually yes.)
Content validity: Does it cover all important aspects of well-being without including
irrelevant things?
Convergent validity: Does it correlate with other measures of well-being? (Yes.)
Discriminant validity: Does it avoid correlating with unrelated traits? (Generally yes.)
Construct validity: Does it behave as theory predicts (e.g., higher income or good
relationships = higher SWB)?
16. This model argues that when people answer SWB questions, they don’t recall a stored
answer but construct a judgment at that moment.
