Psychology of Happiness
Inhoud
Lecture 1 – Psychology of Happiness ...................................................................................................... 1
Readings Lecture 1 .............................................................................................................................. 7
Lecture 2 – The Social Component of Happiness .................................................................................. 10
Readings Lecture 2 ............................................................................................................................ 21
Lecture 3 – Sex and Happiness .............................................................................................................. 23
Readings Lecture 3 ............................................................................................................................ 28
Lecture 4 – Happiness and Religion ...................................................................................................... 31
Readings Lecture 4 ............................................................................................................................ 45
Lecture 5 – Mindfulness ........................................................................................................................ 46
Readings Lecture 5 ............................................................................................................................ 54
Lecture 6 – Happiness at Work ............................................................................................................. 55
Readings Lecture 6 ............................................................................................................................ 64
Lecture 1 – Psychology of Happiness
The happiness formula
Where does happiness come from?
What part of happiness is explained by our genes?
What part by the circumstances in which we live?
And what part by the choices we make?
Do happy people become older than unhappy people?
Is there a strong relationship between happiness and health?
Happy people have more energy; they have a lower blood pressure
Can we influence our own happiness?
Happiness we can influence partially, by doing meaningful things
Or: happiness is not the goal, serving god is, which could be serving society, for a better world
Or: the pursuit of happiness is a human right
1
,We tend to overestimate the importance of life’s circumstances.
Predicting emotion: which emotion?
We are not good at predicting our emotions for the future. We think emotional reactions remain way
longer than they do.
How long will an emotion stay with us?
2
,We tend to think that a breakup is awful. In reality it has some effect, but people recover quite
quickly, from both positive and negative effects.
Happiness is like rubber, you can stretch it for a while but it tends to veer back to where it was.
We tend to overestimate the duration of our emotions.
The effect of weather on happiness is short-lived.
Focusing illusion
When we look at other people, we tend to focus on the differences instead of the similarities.
3
, There are lots of things that correlate with happiness, but that doesn’t mean its causal.
The effect of happiness on a stable partner is bigger. Than the effect of a stable partner on
happiness.
People don’t fall in love easily with a depressed person.
Happy people fight more for their relationship, they don’t give up as easily.
4
Inhoud
Lecture 1 – Psychology of Happiness ...................................................................................................... 1
Readings Lecture 1 .............................................................................................................................. 7
Lecture 2 – The Social Component of Happiness .................................................................................. 10
Readings Lecture 2 ............................................................................................................................ 21
Lecture 3 – Sex and Happiness .............................................................................................................. 23
Readings Lecture 3 ............................................................................................................................ 28
Lecture 4 – Happiness and Religion ...................................................................................................... 31
Readings Lecture 4 ............................................................................................................................ 45
Lecture 5 – Mindfulness ........................................................................................................................ 46
Readings Lecture 5 ............................................................................................................................ 54
Lecture 6 – Happiness at Work ............................................................................................................. 55
Readings Lecture 6 ............................................................................................................................ 64
Lecture 1 – Psychology of Happiness
The happiness formula
Where does happiness come from?
What part of happiness is explained by our genes?
What part by the circumstances in which we live?
And what part by the choices we make?
Do happy people become older than unhappy people?
Is there a strong relationship between happiness and health?
Happy people have more energy; they have a lower blood pressure
Can we influence our own happiness?
Happiness we can influence partially, by doing meaningful things
Or: happiness is not the goal, serving god is, which could be serving society, for a better world
Or: the pursuit of happiness is a human right
1
,We tend to overestimate the importance of life’s circumstances.
Predicting emotion: which emotion?
We are not good at predicting our emotions for the future. We think emotional reactions remain way
longer than they do.
How long will an emotion stay with us?
2
,We tend to think that a breakup is awful. In reality it has some effect, but people recover quite
quickly, from both positive and negative effects.
Happiness is like rubber, you can stretch it for a while but it tends to veer back to where it was.
We tend to overestimate the duration of our emotions.
The effect of weather on happiness is short-lived.
Focusing illusion
When we look at other people, we tend to focus on the differences instead of the similarities.
3
, There are lots of things that correlate with happiness, but that doesn’t mean its causal.
The effect of happiness on a stable partner is bigger. Than the effect of a stable partner on
happiness.
People don’t fall in love easily with a depressed person.
Happy people fight more for their relationship, they don’t give up as easily.
4
