Happiness

About: Happiness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22093 publications have been published within this topic receiving 728411 citations. The topic is also known as: joy & happy.

Psychological Selection and Optimal Experience Across Cultures: Social Empowerment through Personal Growth

Abstract: Introduction Part I Theory and methods Chapter 1: Hedonism and eudaimonism in positive psychology 1.1 Positive psychology: past and present 1.2 The pursuit of happiness: two philosophical traditions 1.2.1 Hedonia and eudaimonia in psychology 1.2.1.1 The hedonic view 1.2.1.2 The eudaimonic view 1.3 Happiness: the on-going debate 1.3.1 Integrating perspectives 1.3.2 Happiness and diversity References Chapter 2: Biology, culture and human behavior 2.1 Genetic and epigenetic transmission: a new perspective 2.2 The emergence of culture 2.2.1 Cultural evolution 2.2.2 Cultural differentiation and inter-cultural relations 2.2.3 Social norms and their analysis: The cultural network 2.3 The role of individuals References Chapter 3: Psychological selection and optimal experience 3.1 Human beings and complexity 3.2 Mind, consciousness and human agency 3.3 Attention and the stream of subjective experience 3.4 Optimal experience and order in consciousness 3.5 Optimal experience, complexity, and psychological selection 3.6 The neurophysiological underpinnings of optimal experience 3.7 Optimal experience and positive human functioning: A contribution to eudaimonia References Chapter 4: Instruments and methods in flow research 4.1 The assessment of optimal experience 4.2 Interviews and direct observation 4.3 Single-administration questionnaires 4.3.1 Flow Questionnaire and the measurement of psychological selection 4.3.2 The Flow Short Scale 4.3.3 The Flow State Scale and the Dispositional Flow Scale 4.3.4 The WOrk-reLated Flow Inventory 4.3.5 Optimal Experience Survey 4.3.5 Choosing between questionnaires 4.4 Experimental studies 4.5 Experience Sampling Method 4.5.1 ESM data coding and analysis 4.5.2 The advantages and disadvantages of online measurement 4.6 The Experience Fluctuation Model 4.7 Challenges and skills in the flow construct 4.8 Latest directions in flow methodology Appendix References Chapter 5: The phenomenology of optimal experience in daily life 5.1 The family of optimal experiences 5.2 The motivational dimension of optimal experience 5.3 Factors favoring optimal experience 5.3.1 Individual characteristics 5.3.2 Cultural and contextual features 5.4 Optimal experience and related constructs: similarities and differences 5.4.1 Peak experience 5.4.2 Enduring and situational involvement 5.4.3 Hedonic and eudaimonic constructs References Chapter 6: Optimal experience and meditation: Western and Asian approaches to well-being 6.1 Flow and meditation: a controversial issue 6.2 Consciousness studies in the Indian tradition 6.2.1 Levels of consciousness and mind functioning 6.3 Flow and meditation: differences and analogies 6.3.1 The epistemological perspective 6.3.2 The neurophysiological perspective 6.3.3 The phenomenological perspective 6.4 Meditation, flow and human development References Part II Applications Chapter 7: Optimal experience across cultures 7.1 Psychology and cultures 7.1.1 Cultural dimensions of psychological processes 7.2 Flow and psychological selection across cultures 7.2.1 Optimal activities across cultures 7.2.2 Optimal experience across activities and cultures 7.2.2.1 Flow in productive activities 7.2.2.2 Flow in leisure 7.2.2.3 Flow in interactions 7.2.2.4 Flow and psychological selection 7.3 Adolescence across cultures: finding flow, building the future 7.4 Culture and optimal experience: some general remarks References Chapter 8 Work: A paradox in flow research 81 Work and leisure: Two separate domains? 8.2 The quality of experience associated with work: a persistent paradox 8.2.1 Optimal experience between work and leisure across professions 8.3 Individual characteristics, job resources and cultures 8.4 Flow at work and individuals' and organizations' well-being 8.5 Work as core of psychological selection 8.5.1 Career building: The case of musicians 8.5.2 Teachers and cultural transmission: The centrality of relationships References Chapter 9: Free time: an opportunity for growth, recreation, or stagnation 9.1 Conceptualizing free time 9.2 The quality of experience of leisure activities 9.2.1 Sports and hobbies as opportunities for serious leisure 9.2.2 The television paradox and media use 9.3 Individual characteristics, cultural features and optimal experience in leisure 9.4 Free time and well-being: what you do and how long you do it 9.5 Leisure and psychological selection 9.5.1 The experience of rock climbing and mountaineering 9.5.2 Track-and-field: amateurs and professionals References Chapter 10: Relationships: safe harbor for flow explorers 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Family relationships and well-being 10.2.1 Parenting: biology, culture, and subjective experience 10.2.2 Adolescents and family: constraints and opportunities 10.2.3 Sibling relations: a case study on twins 10.3 Friendship construction through shared experiences 10.4 Relationships across cultures: daily experience and lifelong perspectives 10.4.1 Relationships as the core of Gypsy culture 10.4.2. Solitude across cultures and among Navajos 10.5 Concluding remarks References Chapter 11: Education, learning and cultural transmission 11.1 Education across cultures 11.2 The quality of experience of learning activities 11.2.1 Unraveling cultural differences 11.3 Flow and learning: the influence of individual and contextual factors 11.3.1 Individual characteristics 11.3.2 Cultural and contextual features 11.4 The impact of optimal experience on students' well-being and development 11.5 Learning activities and psychological selection: a comparison between Italy and Nepal 11.6 Concluding remarks References Chapter 12: Optimal experience and religious practice 12.1 Religiousness and spirituality: looking for definitions 12.1.1 Religion and well-being: empirical evidence 12.2 Religious practice and optimal experience across cultures 12.2.1 Religious practice and flow: an infrequent association 12.2.2 Religion in Asian cultures: Indonesia, India, and Thailand 12.2.3 Religious ceremonies and Navajo identity 12.2.4 Migration from Africa and religious practice 12.3 Religion and faith as the core of psychological selection 12.4 Believers and followers, disciples and explorers References Chapter 13: Acculturation and optimal experience 13.1 Acculturation 13.2 Optimal experience and migration 13.2.1 Living in India and living abroad 13.2.2 The daily life of East European women in Italy 13.3 Navajos: the bicultural people 13.4 Concluding remarks References Chapter 14: Flow and health: a bio-psycho-social perspective 14.1 Introduction 14.2 The three dimensions of health 14.3 A positive perspective on health and disease 14.4 Retrieving optimal experience in extraordinary circumstances 14.4.1 Living with chronic disease 14.4.2 Positive growth after trauma 14.4.3 Body image and eating disorders 14.4.4 Mental health 14.4.5 Contextual influences and cultural differences References Chapter 15: Psychosocial maladjustment and mimetic flow 15.1 Introduction 15.2 Cultural change and its impact on children 15.2.1 Child work: resources or exploitation? 15.2.2 From villages to cities, from home to the streets 15.2.3 Street children in Western countries 15.2.4 Successful intervention: a major challenge 15.2.5 Investigation children's experience and expectation 15.2.5.1 Italy: adolescents on the street 15.2.5.2 Italy: girls living in institution 15.2.5.3 Kenya: the children of Kivuli 15.2.5.4 Brazil: Camihos de vida 15.2.6 Matching opportunities with expectations: a crucial issue 15.3 Can flow be maladaptive? 15.3.1 Drug intake and mimetic optimal experiences 15.3.2 Detoxification programs: the role of challenges and meanings 15.4 Building positive identities References Epilogue

Happiness and Time Preference: The Effect of Positive Affect in a Random-Assignment Experiment

Abstract: We conduct a random-assignment experiment to investigate whether positive affect impacts time preference, where time preference denotes a preference for present over future utility. Our result indicates that, compared to neutral affect, mild positive affect significantly reduces subjects’ time preference. Affects were induced using short film clips. Our result has implications for the effect of happiness on time preference and the role of emotions in economic decision making in general. Finally, we reconfirm the ubiquity of time preference and start to explore its determinants.

The value of children in African countries: insights from studies on infertility.

Abstract: A number of studies have explored motives for parenthood in the Western industrialized world. These studies have documented that children are mostly desired for reasons relating to happiness and personal well-being. To date, limited data pertaining to parenthood motives in African countries exist. Insight into the value of children can, however, be derived from studies on infertility, as the negative repercussions of involuntary childlessness reflect the value of children to parents and the community. According to these studies children secure conjugal ties, offer social security, assist with labour, confer social status, secure rights of property and inheritance, provide continuity through re-incarnation and maintaining the family lineage, and satisfy emotional needs. Parenthood therefore appears to have more and, arguably, deeper roots in African communities when compared to industrialized countries.

Stress and distress.

Abstract: I must ask the reader's indulgence for this article's concern with applications of the stress concept, which are distinct from, although related to clinical medicine. It has not been my object to deal with the way physicians have been aided by stress research in the practice of medicine--that information is already widely available. Rather, I have attempted to sketch briefly the history of the stress theory and to demonstrate how this information can help anyone, physician or layman, lead a more complete and satisfying life. The applications of the stress theory have been dealt with at length elsewhere. I believe that we can find within scientifically verified observations the basis of a code of behavior suited to our century. The great laws of nature that regulate the defenses of living beings against stress of any kind are essentially the same at all levels of life, from individual cells to entire complex human organisms and societies. It helps a great deal to understand the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of catatoxic and syntoxic attitudes by studying the biologic basis of self-preservation as reflected in syntoxic and catatoxic chemical mechanisms. When applied to everyday problems, this understanding should lead to choices most likely to provide us the pleasant eustress (from the Greek eu meaning good, as in euphoria) involved in achieving fulfillment and victory, thereby avoiding the self-destructive distress of frustration and failure. So the translation of the laws governing resistance of cells and organs to a code of behavior comes down to three basic precepts: 1. Find your own natural stress level. People differ with regard to the amount and kind of work they consider worth doing to meet the exigencies of daily life and to assure their future security and happiness. In this respect, all of us are influenced by hereditary predispositions and the expectations of our society. Only through planned self-analysis can we establish what we really want; too many people suffer all their lives because they are too conservative to risk a radical change by breaking with hiabits or traditions. 2. Altruistic egoism. The selfish (i.e., self-interested) hoarding of the goodwill, respect, esteem, support, and love of our neighbors is the most efficient way to give vent to our pent-up energy and to create a more enjoyable, beautiful, or useful environment.3. Earn thy neighbor's love. This motto--which is merely a rewording of the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself"--is compatible with man's natural structure, and although it is based on altruistic egoism, it could hardly be attacked as unethical. Who would blame the man who wants to assure his own homeostasis and happiness only by accumulating the treasure of other poeple's benevolence and love? Yet this makes him virtually unassailable, for nobody wants to attack and destroy those upon whom he depends.