Is there a formula for a good life?
e Atlantic has a long, interesting article from 2009 covering the Grant Study; a research project at Harvard that has followed 268 men for over 72 years, making it one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. It has followed the subjects through "war, career, marriage and divorce, parenthood and grandparenthood, and old age." What can it teach us about living a good life? What allows people to work, and love, as they grow old? By the time the…
3 minutes
Is uncertainty one of the keys to happiness?
s. Positive moods lasted longer when people weren't clear on why good things happened. This is why you should explain the bad things in life and not explain the good things: The authors hypothesized that uncertainty following a positive event prolongs the pleasure it causes and that people are generally unaware of this effect of uncertainty. In 3 experimental settings, people experienced a positive event (e.g., received an unexpected gift of a dollar coin attached to an index card) under…
1 min read
How long will you feel lousy when bad things happen?
t nearly as long as you're guessing: People are generally unaware of the operation of the system of cognitive mechanisms that ameliorate their experience of negative affect (the psychological immune system), and thus they tend to overestimate the duration of their affective reactions to negative events. This tendency was demonstrated in 6 studies in which participants overestimated the duration of their affective reactions to the dissolution of a romantic relationship, the failure to achieve tenure, an electoral defeat, negative personality…
1 min read
Are arranged marriages happier?
y We Reason points to two interesting studies. One says arranged and choice marriages are equally happy: Forty-five individuals (22 couples and 1 widowed person) living in arranged marriages in India completed questionnaires measuring marital satisfaction and wellness. The data were compared with existing data on individuals in the United States living in marriages of choice. Differences were found in importance of marital characteristics, but no differences in satisfaction were found. Differences were also found in 9 of 19 wellness…
2 minutes
What leads to life satisfaction and feelings of happiness?
bsp; First, let's be clear that those are two different things (I've posted about this distinction before here and here.) Life Satisfaction: Looking back and feeling good about your life holistically. Happy Feelings: Feeling good in the moment. Money and luxuries increase life satisfaction but don't do much for happy feelings. Happy feelings are associated with "the fulfillment of psychological needs: learning, autonomy, using one's skills, respect, and the ability to count on others in an emergency." The Gallup World…
2 minutes
What’s the most important lesson for improving your writing skills?
bsp; Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, reduces it to one short sentence and I agree: Nobody wants to read your shit. Let me repeat that.Nobody–not even your dog or your mother–has the slightest interest in your commercial for Rice Krispies or Delco batteries or Preparation H.Nor does anybody care about your one-act play, your Facebook page or your new sesame chicken joint at Canal and Tchopotoulis. It isn’t that…
2 minutes
Is there an easy way to increase happiness, meaning in life and social support?
searchers are seeing success with a type of meditation focused on expanding one's positive feelings toward others: B. L. Fredrickson’s (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions asserts that people’s daily experiences of positive emotions compound over time to build a variety of consequential personal resources. The authors tested this build hypothesis in a field experiment with working adults (n = 139), half of whom were randomly-assigned to begin a practice of loving-kindness meditation. Results showed that this meditation practice…
2 minutes
Why are some bosses so abusive?
ing abusive reduces stress. Robert Sapolsky, Stanford professor and author of Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers referred to it as "stress management (consisting) of avoiding ulcers by giving them." Richard Conniff's interesting book, The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win Fights and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature quotes Sapolsky on the subject: Numerous psychoendocrine studies show that in a stressful or frustrating circumstance, the magnitude of the subsequent stress-repsonse is decreased if the organism is…
1 min read
