Happiness and Positive Psychology

1. Happiness and Positive Psychology Dr. Phil Watkins

2. I. An Introduction to Positive Psychology A) The Importance of a Positive Psychology

3. Sadly, while plumbing the depths of what is worst in life, psychology has lost its connection to the positive side of life – the knowledge about what makes human life most worth living, most fulfilling, most enjoyable and most productive.-Martin E. P. Seligman

5. Occurrences of Positive and Negative Emotions in the Bible

6. Positive & Negative Psychology Publications Over Time

7. I. An Introduction to Positive Psychology A) The Importance of a Positive Psychology B) What is Positive Psychology?

8. What is Positive Psychology? …the positive side of life – the knowledge about what makes human life most worth living, most fulfilling, most enjoyable and most productive.

9. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness 1) Defining Happiness

10. Myer’s definition of happiness: “…a pervasive sense that life is good.” (p. 23)

11. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness 1) Defining Happiness 2) Measuring Happiness

12. Happy Faces Measure

13. The Distribution of Happiness

16. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness 1) Defining Happiness 2) Measuring Happiness 3) Positive Emotions and Happiness

17. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness?

18. “...how to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do" -William James (1902/1958, p. 76)

19. Positive Emotions: • Broaden: • Your scope of attention • Your scope of cognition • Your scope of action • Build: • Your physical resources • Your intellectual resources • Your social resources

20. Problem Solving & Positive Affect

21. What good is happiness? The utility of happiness (Veenhoven, 1984)

22. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why a) Material Wealth

23. Positive Emotion & Longevity (The Nun Study)

24. Happiness and National GNP

26. Why can’t you buy your happiness?

27. Pete Incavelia (former outfielder for the Texas Rangers):"People think we make $3 million or $4 million a year. They don't realize that most of us only make $500,000”

28. “An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula” -C. S. Lewis, (Screwtape Letters, 1961/1982, p. 42)

29. How much would you need per year to fulfill your dreams?

30. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why a) Material Wealth b) Age

32. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why a) Material Wealth b) Age c) Gender

34. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why a) Material Wealth b) Age c) Gender d) Ethnicity

35. II. The Psychology of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why a) Material Wealth b) Age c) Gender d) Ethnicity e) Intelligence

38. Can a mortal ask questions which God findsunanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All non-sense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask—half our great theological and metaphysical problems—are like that.-C. S. Lewis (1961), A Grief Observed, p. 81-82

39. II. The Psychology of Happiness A) The What of Happiness B) The Why of Happiness 1) Why study happiness? 2) What things don’t cause happiness…and why 3) Things that are related to happiness…and why

40. To be what is called happy, one should have something to live on, something to live for, and something to die for. The lack of one of these results in drama. The lack of two of these results in tragedy.-Cyprian Norwid

41. 3) Things that are Related to Happiness and Why a) Happy Genes (and other biological factors)

42. "So we never live, but we hope to live -- and as we are always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable we should never be so." -Pascal

43. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the Future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.-CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters, p. 70

44. The happiness which is lacking makes one think even the happiness one has unbearable.-Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest (1886)

45. A great obstacle to happiness is to anticipate too great a happiness.-Fontenelle, Du Bonheur (1687)

46. The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.-Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind (1954)

47. One of the surest ways to avoid being happy is to insist on being happy at all costs. The religion of cheerfulness, as Father Brown reminds us, is a cruel religion, and maybe the best way not to go mad is not to mind much if you go mad.-Simon Tugwell, (1980).

48. The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.-William Saroyan

50. 3) Things that are Related to Happiness and Why a) Happy Genes (and other biological factors) b) The Happy Personality