Increasing+Happiness

=__​Increasing Happiness __ =

=__The Science of Increasing Happiness:__ = Positive Psychology: Positive psychology is the study of "the strength and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive." [|1] outlines three areas of research: positive emotions, positive individual traits and positive institutions. The Positive Psychology Center [|1] was designed to inform people about this new science. The site goes on to outline what constitutes each area and their main focuses. They then list seven goals they have in building this new science. Martin Seligman explains the reasoning behind positive psychology. "For most of its history, psychology had concerned itself with all that ails the human mind: anxiety, depression, neurosis, obsessions, paranoia, delusions. The goal of practitioners was to bring patients from a negative, ailing state to a neutral normal, or, as University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin Seligman puts it, “from a minus five to a zero.” It was Seligman who had summoned the others to Akumal that New Year’s Day in 1998—his first day as president of the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.)—to share a vision of a new goal for psychology. “I realized that my profession was half-baked. It wasn’t enough for us to nullify disabling conditions and get to zero. We needed to ask, what are the enabling conditions that make human beings flourish? How do we get from zero to plus five?” 3 In 1980, University of Illinois psychologist Edward Diener, developed the Satisfaction with Life Scale in order to measure happiness. He was also a founding father of happiness research. Below is his scale that is still used by researchers around the world. 2



Positive Psychotherapy: Time magazine reported on this new science in January 2005. The article 2  outlines what makes us happy, how to measure happiness and proposed ways to improve happiness. The ways to improve happiness ties directly with positive psychotherapy. This is simply positive psychology used as a therapy technique. The program deals with increasing the happiness in mentally ill patients. It is different from old methods because it focuses on increasing "positive emotion, engagement, and meaning rather than directly targeting depressive symptoms." 3  Martin Seligman, Tayyab Rashid and Acacia C. Parks conducted two studies in which depressed clients went through either a group or individualized PPT program. The results were overwhelming. The majority of those in the PPT programs showed little to no depressive symptoms by the end of the program and for at least six months following the treatment. These results provided researchers with hope that this program is the future for mental health disability treatment and therapy. The following are several of the activities they used within their experiment. Feel free to try out these exercises in order to improve your own happiness.

a. **//Using your strengths* //****: ** Take the VIA-IS strengths questionnaire(located under questionnaires) to assess your top 5 strengths, and think of ways to use those strengths more in your daily life. b. **//Three Good Things/Blessings //***: Each evening, write down three good things that happened and why you think they happened. c. **//Obituary/Biography //**: Imagine that you have just passed away after living a fruitful and satisfying life. What would you want your obituary to say? Write a 1-2 page essay summarizing what you would like to be remembered for the most. d. **//Gratitude Visit //*****: ** Think of someone to whom you are very grateful, but who you have never properly thanked. Compose a letter to them describing your gratitude, and read the letter to that person by phone or in person. e. **//Active/Constructive Responding //**: An active-constructive response is one where you react in a visibly positive and enthusiastic way to good news from someone else. At least once a day, respond actively and constructively to someone you know. f. **//Savoring //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">: ** Once a day, take the time to enjoy something that you usually hurry through (examples: eating a meal, taking a shower, walking to class). When it's over, write down what you did, how you did it differently, and how it felt compared to when you rush through it.


 * -those that are most effective in increasing happiness according to research

1. www.ppc.sas.edu/ 2. Wallis, Claudia. "The New Science of Happiness." Time Magazine 17 Jan. 2005. Print. 3. Martin, Seligman E. P., Tayyab Rashid, and Acacia C. Parks. "Positive Psycholtherapy." American Psychologist Nov. 2006: 774- 88. Print.

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">__What Makes Teenagers Happy:__ = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In April 2007, the Associated Press interviewed over 1,000 youth ranging in age from 13-24 on happiness. They survey consisted of 100 questions involving what makes youth happy and unhappy. The leading results were that spending time with family, friends, and other loved ones was the main source of happiness for youth. Other large aspects were religion, pets, music and sports. Fame and fortune were towards the bottom of the list with only 29 percent of participants who would like to be famous one day. The leading object of unhappiness was financial issues followed by work, school, and stress. The most interesting result was that 61 percent of youth said that music makes them very happy. Teenagers also said that the main source of stress in their daily life is school followed by work and family. Forty-nine percent said they would be just as happy as now if they were to have more money. Fifty-four percent said that music makes them happier in life. Sixty-four percent say that technology makes people happier. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: super;">1 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> OTX, a leading consumer research and consulting firm, and the Intelligence Group also conducted a survey involving happiness. Their results were similar to the other survey, though slightly different. Of the 750 teenagers interviewed, 81 percent said they were at least somewhat happy and over a third said they were very happy. Among the top areas of their life that teenagers were happy with was their relationships with friends, their talents and abilities, and their performance in school. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; vertical-align: super;">2 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

1. Associated Press/MTV Youth Happiness Survey 2. @http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104& STORY=/www/story/03-25-2008/0004780056&EDATE=