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What are the causes of unhappiness?
- Mistaken views of the world, mistaken ethics, mistaken habits of life
- Lack of enough money
- Boredom
- Envy
- Comparison Thinking
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Can money buy happiness?
- It can for people with less than$10,000/year
- Above $10,000 there is no correlation
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Boredom
What is it?
What is the opposite of Boredom?
- Definition: Discrepancy between present circumstances and some other more appealing circusmtances which force themselves irresistibly upon the imagination
- Opposite: Excitement
- Too little=produce morbid cravings
- Too little=produce ehaustion
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Envy
Why does Russell think envy is so unfortunate?
- Large part in evoking unhappiness among average women
- Women=all other women are competitors
- Men=only other men within the same profession are competitors
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Thinking in terms of comparisons
When anything pleasant occurs it should be enjoyed to the fullest, without stopping to think that it is not so pleasant as something else that many possibly be happening to someone else
Cure: Mental Discipline - the habit of not thinking profitless thoughts
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Causes of Happiness
- Seligman's 3
- Modest estimate of one's own powers - understanding and being aware of your "place" in life
- Companionship
- Absorption in a hobby
- Friendly interest in persons and things
- Belief in a cause
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Seligman's 3
- Pleasure: things that feel good
- Involvement: being immersed in things like family, work, and hobbies [companionship]
- Meaning: using personal strengths to serve a larger end; belief in a cause
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Modest estimate of one's own powers - understanding/being aware of your "place" in life
- Is a source of happiness
- Unnecessary modest/underestimating yourself has a great deal to do with envy
- Overestimating yourself is often surprised by failure
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Companionship
- Source of happiness
- Part of involvement [Seligman's 3]; being immersed in things like family, work and hobbies
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Absorption in a hobby
- Not a source of fundamental happiness, but still good to do
- Means of escape from reality
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Friendly interest in persons and things
- Form of affectionateness - likes to observe people and finds pleasure in their individual traits
- Must be genuine - must not spring from an idea of self-sacrifice inspired by sense of duty
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Belief in a cause
- Source of happinessMeaning; using personal strengths to serve a larger end
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Temperament and Happiness - What personality traits tend to be correlated with happiness?
- Extraversion (sociability): positively associated with happiness
- Neuroticism (emotionality): negatively associated with happiness
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Does happiness decline with Age?
Do young people think it does?
Does this affect their current behavior?
No, happiness does not decline with age
Yes, young people do think it does
This affects their current behavior to a point. Young male binge drinkers are particularly prone to thinking that happiness declines with age.
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Rage Attacks - Associated with brain damage
Lewis et al. Series of studies - results and conclusions
- Delinquent vs. Non-Delinquents
- Delinquents had significantly more hospital visits, accidents and injuries62.3% incarcerated had severe face or head injuries and 44.6% not incarcerated
- 98.6% violent have 1 neurological abnormality
- 66.7% less violent
- 75% violents had head injuries as children, serious and extensive medical problems, and beaten by parents -33% less violent
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Brain areas/mechanisms thought to be involved with anger
- Hypthalamus: Controls hormones, autonomic processes, and various emotional responses
- Amygdala: Associated with fear and anger. When amygdalas are electrically stimulated:
- - Previously violent patients become violent
- - Previously nonviolent patients did not become violent
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Not all brain damaged people are subject to rage attacks - why?
Such thing as a rage circuit?
Distinguish between people who suffer brain damage/disease and who suffer from "life"
- 10/2,000 cases had "rage attacks" from head trauma
- Limbic system is not the only origin of anger, rage, and aggression
No such thing as a "rage circuit"
A juvenile delinquent may be neurologically impaired or violence may be the only world he/she knows
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What 4 domains of temperament have a strong genetic component?
- Emotionality --> intensity of reaction
- Sociability --> strong desire to be with others
- Level of Activity -> Total energy output
- Impulsivity --> Tendency to respond to events immediately without inhibiting one's feelings
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How do genes determine temperament - single gene, multiple genes, etc.?
- No "single-gene" for a given temperamental aspect
- Any inherited predispositions are more diffuse and generalized than those of lower animals
Genes provide us with a reaction range and environmental events determine where the range and individual will fall
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Epinephrine
Role this hormone has in fear, anger, and other emotions.
- Epinephrine is the energy behind our emotional states (anger, fear, excitement, anxiety, jealousy and joy)
- Act on all organs of the sympathetic nervous system
- Helps brain to learn
- At its lowest=familiar tasks (ex: playing guitar, cooking)
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Role of appraisal (appraisal of specific events and general ways of thinking) in anger and mixed emotions
- Anger (in others) that is motivated by personal gain deserved retaliation and punishmentAnger expressed for unselfish motives or due to pain does no
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Do we feel anger in isolation?
What other emotions do people typically feel along with anger?
No, people typically feel anxious and depressed also when angry
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People who feel emotions intensely more than others think in similar ways
What are these 3 typical ways of thinking?
Why is this important for this part of the chapter regarding appraisal and emotions?
- 3 Typical ways of thinking
- -Personalize Events
- -Pay selective
attention - -Overgeneralize
- Psychological factors involved in anger range from immediate perceptions of an event to more general/typical ways of thinking about life
- Our emotions cannot be separated from our mental lives
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What are the the two hormones central to the stress response?
- Adrenaline/Epinephrine
- Clucocorticoids
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What causes ulcers?
Stress causes suppression of the immune system, which leads to the cause of the spread of bacteria in the stomach to cause the ulcer
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Based on the research with macaques, what else is stress correlated with?
Atherosclerosis --> plaque build up in the arteries
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What does stress do to our telomeres?
What type of activity has been shown to stimulate the healing effects of telomerease?
Stress makes the telomeres shorter
"a meeting of minds" or "social sharing" help heal telomerease effects
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HPA [Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal] Axis
Understand this biological process step-by-step,
how it's regulated, and
what the process is for effects of chronic stress on brain issue and the HPA system
- Step-by-Step
- CRH released into blood by hypothalamus
- ACTH released by anterior pituitary gland
- Cortisol (glucocorticoid) release by adrenal glands in response to ACTH
- Regulation
- Amygdala stimulates HPA
- Hippocampus inhibits HPA
- Chronic Stress
- - Hippocampal neurons shrink and die

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Is the way we handle anger connected to the ability to reduce stress?
What were the results/conclusions of the "anger-in" versus "anger-out" study?
- "Anger-In" style thought to be associated with suppressed hostility
- Anger-in style are not necessarily related
- Argument is NOT supported
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Is there a relationship between anger (expressed or suppressed) and high blood pressure?
Anger and hypertension?
Understand these dynamic relationships.
- Depends on age, race, sex, social class, and the reason you feel angryExpressed anger can be bad if we make the stressful situation worse by revealing our feelings
- Suppressed anger can be bad if we allow stressful situation to continue by not revealing our feelings
- Research on anger and hypertension is contradicting
- By constantly suppressing their anger, hypertensives keep their blood pressure elevated
- By releasing the anger should let the blood pressure fall
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Is temperament related to cardiovascular problems? Why?
Animals who showed strong negative reactions develop high rates of coronary artery disease
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Acute stress and cardiovascular disease
- Acute stress can cause
- - Constriction of coronary arteries
- - Arrhythmia in heartbeat
- - Stimulation of platelet function (clot formation)
- - Increased viscosity of the blood
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How exactly does stress increase a person's susceptibility to infectious diseases?
- Decreased production of immunoglobulin [IgA] (mediated by glucocorticoids)
- - IgA is first defense against infectious microorganisms that enter nose or mouth
- - IgA associatd with mood
- -When unhappy or depressed, IgA levels lower than normal
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Dynamic relationship between Type A personality, anger, and heart disease
Social isolation with hostility
Is the reason why we're angry important?
Type A is a risk factor but most never get coronary heart disease and some Type B's do
- Hostility increases atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease by as much as 5 times over normal
- Neurotic hostility (grumpy) --> may contribute to illness for pumping up blood pressure and keeps people at a distance
- Anger
- It feels like we are not in control, Type A prone to coronary heart disease
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Which type of hostility is most toxic? Why?
- Antagonistic hostility (more aggressive) is more toxic compared to neurotic hostility (grumpy)
- It pumps up blood pressure and keeps it there
- Keeps people at a distance
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Deciding when to express anger depends on what 2 factors?
Whether expressing the anger will make the stressful situation worse, or suppressing the situation will allow it to continue
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Myth 1: Aggression is the instant catharsis for anger
What did Hokanson find/conclude about catharsis habits?
Is aggression usually cathartic?
Aggression and couples fighting
Verbal aggression versus reporting one's anger
Aggressive catharsis is a learned reaction to anger, not an instinctive one
- Hokanson found that aggression was cathartic in men. Whatever works will feel good because it brings a removal of the threat and a sense of relaxation [what works has a lot to do with the requirements of one's role]
Aggression can be cathartic only against your peers and subordinates, but not if the target is an authority figure or an innocent bystander
- Couples who yell at each other feel more angry after
- If couples do not deal with what is causing the anger, it will remain and worsen
- Use "I" instead of "you"
- "I just don't like it when you do that" (yes)
- "You are so annoying"(no)
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Myth #2: Talking out anger gets rid of it - or at least makes you less angry
Why is it a myth?
- Talking out an emotion rehearses itAnger is socially createdTalking can freeze hostile disposition
- Must find our own comprimose between talking too much, expressing every little thing that irritates and not talking at all
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Myth #3: Tantrums and other childhood rages are healthy expressions of anger that forestall neurosis
At what age do tantrums usually begin to appear?
How can parenting affect them?
A child's anger is thought to have a social purpose - how so?
Form versus content of children's anger
First appear around the 2nd year, lasting for a year
The kind of anger parents attend to in their children is the kind of anger they will have to live with
- Human survival depends on attachment to others
- Distress differentiates into sadness, anxiety or anger by 2 years old
- Expressing anger is not the same as acting aggressively
- Increasing aggressiveness
- Teaching cathartic habit
- Attending to form of anger, while ignoring legitimate cause
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Under what conditions will expressing anger produce beneficial effects?
- Anger must be directed at the target of your anger
- Anger must restore sense of control
- Feel good because you accomplished a social goal
- Perceive some equity between severity of other person's alleged offense and retaliation
- Must change behavior of target or give new insightYou and target must speak the same anger language
- No angry retaliation from target
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