Hedonic the Hedgehog 5/28

The title of this blog is a terrible pun, and I apologize.

So, today, we've discussed the concept of hedonic happiness, one of the two major approaches to happiness and wellbeing. 

Hedonic happiness deals with subjective wellbeing, This is split up into three parts:

1. Satisfaction with life: does your situation match up with your ideal?
2. High positive affect: are you experiencing positive emotions in very many momentary events?
3. Low negative affect: are you experiencing negative emotions in very few momentary events?

As we study subjective wellbeing, we must examine it using different theories. The discrepancy theory covers social comparison, meaning people's wellbeing or lack thereof results from how they compare themselves to others. The adaption theory claims that we have a set point or baseline for our happiness, and after an event that raises or lowers our affect, we return to our baseline happiness level.

There's another way to look at subjective wellbeing too: using bottom-up or top-down models. The bottom-up model suggests that your circumstances lead to your wellbeing, while the top-down model suggests that your wellbeing leads to your circumstances.

Example time!

In class, we discussed research results like "people who have children have lower subjective wellbeing" and "people who get married have better social wellbeing but they do not get happier after the honeymoon period." I'm going to return to my glorious pun and create an example based on that.

Ready? Okay, here's my example: Sonic the Hedgehog runs fast. Sonic also has high subjective wellbeing.

First, let's look at that in terms of theories.

Discrepancy theory: perhaps, since Sonic is faster than all of his friends, he compares himself to his friends and realizes how much faster he is. His superiority makes him happy. However, it is possible that once Sonic's friends become just as fast, he will be less happy.

Adaption theory: while Sonic is happy now, it's possible that he will revert back to his baseline level of happiness soon. After that, he may need to run even faster to achieve that same level of wellbeing.

Is Sonic causing this happiness with his running, or does his running cause his happiness?

Bottom-up theory: Sonic's running has gotten faster, and this causes his high subjective wellbeing.

Top-down theory: Sonic's high subjective wellbeing causes him to run faster.

But remember, this post is titled "Hedonic the Hedgehog," not "Eudmonic the Hedgehog." So we're not looking at every aspect of Sonic's life. We aren't looking at what gives Sonic's life meaning. We'll cover that tomorrow!

Now I'm going to do something that may contribute to my subjective wellbeing: I'm going to Skyp with my boyfriend and go to sleep.

What's this all about? 5/27

What is positive psychology?

Is it a weird abstract pictorial map on a whiteboard?

Kind of.

Positive psychology is, in simple terms, a perspective of psychology that focuses more on our strengths and how we thrive, rather than our weaknesses and how we're messed up. (Refer to the image of a weak little man and a very strong little man. I drew that, and it's excellent.)

Martin Seligman has influenced the realm of positive psychology greatly, but he was influenced by a number of other people in the past. A prominent one is Maslow and his hierarchy of needs, ranking needs from basic physiological needs all the way up to self-actualization. Basically, we all need to eat and sleep, and we know that, but at a higher level we also need to become the best versions of ourselves we could possibly be. 

There is more to positive psychology than just a strengths-versus-weaknesses dichotomy. There are three major components of positive: the subjective, the individual, and the group. In the context of positive psychology, subjective refers to the development and change of the matter throughout time, individual deals with concepts such as courage, bravery, and love, and group consists of aspects such as work ethic, citizenship, and teamwork. These three components intersect with one another to create positive psychology.

A follow-up question: what makes positive psychology different from other approaches to psychology?

There's the psychodynamic approach, the behavioral approach, the cognitive-behavioral approach, and plenty more. Other approaches to psychology reflect on medical treatments for mental illness, biological causes of mental deficiencies, or explanations regarding why we think the way we do. What makes positive psychology so unique is its emphasis on success rather than failure, highlighting and encouraging the good rather than hiding and attempting to cure the bad. This may make positive psychology a controversial subject, but it still continues to grow.