Choose a topic from Tuesday's readings that you were particularly interested in. Your job is to do some more indepth research on that topic. That may mean looking up some of the original research cited in the chapter and finding and reading the original research article. It also could mean searching the internet for other content and information out there on this topic (ranging from videos, news releases, summaries of research findings, others' blog posts, etc).
One you have completed your search and explorations I would like you to clearly state what your topic is, discuss how it relates to the readings, and thoroughly discuss what you learned about this topic from your additional resources.
It is possible to do this assignment with one source (an original research article). I encourage you to use this approach for at least half of these types of assignments. The other method, is to find suitable internet content that helps you learn more about your topic. If you choose this method, I'd like you to provide 3 sources of information (in the form of internet links). Do not be tempted to just discuss each of the links separately. You must synthesize the information, and discuss the topic as a whole.
At the bottom of your post, please include several key terms that reflect your topic, as well as your sources (either the citation for the 1 research article, and link if it is available on line, or 3 links to the internet content you discussed).
Please be prepared to discuss your topic, as a portion of each in-class day will be devoted to hearing from all of you about what you learned.
“Presently, anger, hostility, and aggressiveness collectively represent one of the most widely studied psychical risk factors for CHD [coronary heart disease] and premature mortality” however, there has not been sufficient evidence to support these claims. Although Smith, Glazer, Ruiz, and Gallo (2004) try to control the multitude of extraneous variables they were largely unable, suggesting the need for further empirical testing on the subject. Despite the lack of sufficient statistical evidence many people claim that hostility (“negative attitude toward others, consisting of enmity, denigration, and ill will”), cynicism (“the belief that others are motivated primarily by selfish concerns”), and mistrust (“the expectation that people are frequent sources of mistreatment”) are causes of CHD. Smith, et al. (2004) claim that there are empirical problems with not only the skepticism produced by some studies, but also the methods that some studies use to validate the claims that psychophysiological have an affect on CHD; the first being the use of the interpersonal approach.
With the use of the interpersonal approach there are three major problems addressed by Smith et al. the first being measurement of emotions, the second being their association with health, and the third being underlying mechanisms. The interpersonal Circumplex (IPC) is the description of specific social stimuli, and responses; as well as features of the social environment and individual social behavior differences. In other words it looks at how environment, and bonds shape the emotions that your elicit. Smith et al. (2004) take this a step further to look at interpersonal behaviors of the parent child relationship; to see if hostile, cynic, or mistrusting personalities are produced from interaction with parents. They did not just look into the IPC, they also looked into the Transactional Cycle these method states that the behavior you emit, elicits the behaviors other show you. In other words, happy people make people happy, sad people make others sad. “An individual’s personality involves a social style that tends to pull, elicit, invite, or evoke retracted classes of responses from the other”. Three developmental processes are capitalized on in the interpersonal theory; identification, which states that “adults model behavior they observed in their parents during childhood”; internalization which states that schemas and scripts produced by self and others directly represent the emotions emitted; introjection, people treat others how they have been treated by important figures within their lives. As previously stated, Smith et al. call for more research to be done in this field before an undoubtable conclusion has been reached. They claim that all variables within this field have not been controlled, nor have all studies been validated.
Smith, T.W., Glazer, K., Ruiz, J.M. and Gallo, L.C. (2004) ‘Hostility, anger, aggressiveness, and coronary heart disease: an interpersonal perspective on personality, emotion, and health’, Journal of Personality 72: 1217–1270.
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/lcgallo/hostility2004.pdf
Terms: IPC, CHD, Hostility, Anger, Cynicism, Mistrust, Interpersonal Approach
The topic that I chose to pursue is increased concentration from increased experience with meditation. The research article that I looked at was cited in the book. If committing to meditation really can make concentration more and more effortless, than that would be a great motivator for me to devote more time for this practice. The study had three groups: experienced meditators (EM), novice meditators (NM), and incentive novice meditators (INM). The EM had logged in somewhere between 10,000-54,000 hours of meditation while the NM and INM had no previous experience, apart from a crash-course the study gave them in the week leading up to the experiment. The purpose of the INM group was to see what role motivation could have in the effects of meditation, so the researchers motivated them with $50 to whoever could place in the top third of this group for most activating attention-related areas of the brain. The meditation type they used was “one-pointed concentration”, which is focusing on one thing like the breath to dampen other thoughts and bring about a relaxed state. What they did was monitor brain activity with the use of an fMRI while the participants would meditate for about 2 ½ minutes, rest for 1 ½ minutes, and repeat the cycle. From my own experience with meditating, I found the small amount of time to meditate interesting, because I would probably just start feeling like I was getting into the meditation when I would have to stop and rest. Anyway, the participants were also told to meditate and focus on a small dot on a screen (another thing I would have struggled with, meditating with my eyes open).
As one would expect, the EM had more activation in attention-related areas of the brain, the NM had activation in concentration hindering areas of the brain, and the INM had activation in the middle of these two. As for the noise distraction part of the experiment, there was a negative correlation with the amount of hours of meditation and activation of the regions relating to inhibition and attention. When the researchers broke up the EM into two groups, those with an average of 19,000 hours of meditation and those with an average of 44,000 hours of meditation, the areas of the brain were the most activated with the EM with 19,000 hours of meditation and the least activated with the NM and the EM with 44,000 hours of meditation. To give you a visual, this forms an inverted u-shaped curve. From biopsychology, we now know that when a skill or task becomes mastered, it takes less mental exertion and less blood flow to those related areas in the brain to complete that task. In other words, expertise results in higher efficiency in the brain, and this concept applies to expertise in meditation. So, meditation does lead to improved concentration over time, which makes sense with the stories of people who can meditate in a crowded room or with lots of extra stimuli around while many people beginning to meditate need complete silence.
Terms: concentration, motivation, attention, one-pointed concentration, fMRI, inhibition, efficiency
Here's the link to my research article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/25436140.pdf?acceptTC=true&acceptTC=true&jpdConfirm=true
For today’s blog, I took a look at one of the articles cited in Dorjee Chapter 1. When talking about hedonistic happiness, the author said that research shows that in some cases, overeating that results in obesity is linked to an imbalance of pleasure-related neurotransmitters in the brain. I was curious about this because I’ve never read any research about overeating and obesity. Unfortunately, this article was not as remotely interesting as previous articles that I read. A lot of the information involved was very technical and based in biochemistry. The article also did not conduct an experiment, but instead was a review of information found previously about eating behavior and the brain.
In essence, the article discusses systems in the central nervous system that govern the hedonistic and addictive components of eating. Two systems highlighted were the cannabinoid system (yes, the same system that makes marijuana so fun) and the opioid system (the system that processes opiates). The article theorizes that these two systems interact with each other and they might be involved in the addictive qualities of food intake. There is a bio-behavioral parallel between overeating and other recognized addictive behaviors like alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, and heroin abuse. Highly palatable food enhances mood in humans, and when consumed in excess and overtime, causes the same brain neuro-adaptations caused by drug abuse. Essentially, overeating hijacks the brain’s pleasure centers in the same what the drugs can.
According to the brain, specific foods can have a drug-like reward value. This value is only enhanced and reinforced by sight, texture, smell, and taste of these foods. Depending on the reward value of food stimuli, the cortical and limbic areas of the brain are activated, triggering a release of dopamine. It’s been found that similarly to drug addicts, obese people have a shortage of available dopamine receptors. It is thought that the lack of dopamine reception in the brains of these people drive them to “get their fix”, whether it be by taking drugs or by binge eating. Interestingly, they found that the obese patients with the lowest amount of available dopamine receptors also had the highest body mass indexes. Cannabinoid and opioid receptors are found in the area of the brain that modulates food intake and reward. It has been speculated that cannabinoids enhance neuronal activity through the activation of opioid circuits.
This article ends by discussing the possible use of cannabinoid and opioid antagonists in obesity therapy. By blocking the uptake of these chemicals, the addictive properties of overeating might be assuaged, which would help in the fighting of obesity. I think this is an incredibly interesting discovery. Though most of the research used to test these theories was done with rats, I wonder if in time we would be able to produce a drug that could help with food addition. I’m also curious if any of the so-called ‘revolutionary’ weight-loss drugs available right now function in the same way as these drugs might. We’ve already produced drugs to help with nicotine addiction, so I think it’s entirely plausible that we could create drugs to help with eating addiction or alcohol addiction as well.
Also, I wonder, if hedonistic pleasure could be controlled via mediation, would mediation be an effective coping mechanism for various addictions, like alcohol, drug, or food abuse?
Overall, while I found this article much more boring than previous articles I’ve read, the possibilities that could come about from this line of research are really exciting and intriguing.
Terms: hedonistic happiness, cannabinoid, opioid, addictive behaviors, reward, pleasure, dopamine, receptors, obesity therapy
Link to article: http://ac.els-cdn.com.proxy.lib.uni.edu/S0165017305001529/1-s2.0-S0165017305001529-main.pdf?_tid=42653f70-99e8-11e3-b97c-00000aab0f02&acdnat=1392871037_2c55e02f29ef967d42c18c6eb0ba0ebb
For my exploration blog, I looked into one of the articles the author cited in this week’s reading. The author only briefly mentioned it in the chapter and did not sound very confident in the findings of the study. She said meditation might slow the rate of aging on the brain but didn’t directly reference in words the study she cited so I decided to read the article myself. It was about a study conducted in 2005 that measured the cortical thickness in a group of meditators and non-meditators to see if there was a significant difference in white matter among the participants. Twenty meditating participants and fifteen non-meditating control group individuals were used in the study. The meditators were all Buddhist Insight meditation practitioners, which is a form of meditation that does not use mantra or chanting. They were recruited from local meditation communities and four of them were meditation and yoga instructors. I think it was important to note that these participants were not monks; they were typical Western meditation practitioners who incorporate meditation into their daily routine. On average, they meditated once a day for 40 min. per day. Fifteen control participants with no meditation or yoga experience were also recruited. The average age of all participants was around 37 years old. MRIs were used to determine the cortical thickness of each participant.
Overall, there was not a significant difference in the average cortical thickness in the brains of participants in the two groups, but there was a difference in the distribution of white matter. A large region of right anterior and right middle and superior frontal sulci were significantly thicker in meditators than in controls. The left superior temporal gyrus and a small region in the fundus of the central sulcus also showed signs of a significantly thicker cortex in meditation participants than in controls. Analysis of the right frontal subregion showed a significant age by group interaction, with typical age-related decreases observed in the control group but not in the meditation group. Most of the regions identified in this study were in the right hemisphere which is active in sustaining attention, a central practice of Insight meditation. These cortical regions are also related to somatosensory, auditory, and emotional processing. Cortical thinning is observed in aging brains. There was not a significant difference in the older and younger participants in either group when it came to thickness of the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. However, in one region of the frontal cortex the average cortical thickness of the 40-50 year-old meditation participants was similar to the average thickness of the 20-30 year-old meditators and controls, which suggests that regular practice of meditation may slow the rate of neural degeneration at this specific area.
Overall I think this study was very thorough and controlled for many possible confounds. I especially appreciated that the meditation practitioners used in the experiment were not monks who devote hours of their day to meditation. They were adults in a Western culture who did other things with their lives and who had not been practicing meditation for their entire lives. One thing I did not like about the study is that it did not mention that thinning of the cortical region is associated with aging until the end of the report. I think that would have been more helpful to mention that in the introduction or somewhere earlier in the report. All in all, I think this study was conducted very well and the author of our book cited the information correctly, unlike some other students in the class found with the authors of the first book we read.
Terms: Buddhist insight meditation, cortical thickness, white matter, neural degeneration, somatosensory, auditory, and emotional processing
Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve, D. N., Treadway, M. T., et al. (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport, 16(17), 1893-1997.
Anxiety is an increasing problem in today’s world, especially in the fast-paced America. As discussed in class, mediation helps in multiple ways but I wanted to further see empirical studies of the improvements made in the mind by meditation. There are many forms of meditation but breath-awareness meditation in particular has been shown to reduce unhealthy reactions of brain structures associated with anxiety (pg. 15). Mind training can improve well-being by modifying the brain.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) includes the mindfulness practice of meditation. MBSR is an established program shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression. It is thought to modify cognitive –affective processes by altering emotional responding. This research examined MBSR-related changes in the brain areas reactive to emotion and negative self-beliefs in patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Two types of MBSR—breath-focused attention and distraction-focused attention—were used within the study. Results showed reduced anxiety and depression symptoms and well as increased self-esteem. Unlike the distraction-focused attention task, the breath-focused attention task showed an increase in brain activity of attentional deployment, and a decrease in negative emotion and amygdala activity. In MBSR training, emotion regulation improves in patients with SAD. As a result, MBSR training reduces avoidance behaviors, clinical symptoms, and automatic emotional reactivity to negative self-beliefs in patients with SAD.
Key terms: anxiety; meditation; breath-awareness; mindfulness-based stress reduction; stress; depression; cognitive-affective processes; social anxiety disorder; self-esteem; amygdala; emotion regulation
Goldin, P.R. and Gross, J.J. (2010) ‘Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder’, Emotion 10: 83-91.
For this week’s blog I found a research article that explores how happiness affects choice. The researchers hypothesized that defining happiness more as exciting increases the tendency to choose an exciting option over a calming one. Vice versa those who define happiness as more calming tend to choose a more calming option than an exciting one. In addition, age appears to also affect choice. Older individuals tend to find happiness in calming activities and younger individuals in exciting ones. Finally temporal focus affects the type of happiness (exciting or calming). Older individuals who live more in the moment and are not as concerned by the future enjoy more calming activities while young individuals who focus on the future tend to seek more exciting activities.
To test these hypothesizes, the researchers conducted the first experiment on young adults 18-24 years old. The experimental group received breathing exercises to direct their attention to the present. These breathing exercises were based on meditations inspired by Buddha to increase one’s present focus. The control group received nothing. The two groups were then surveyed where they defined happiness as exciting or calm and how much they felt they were in the present moment. Those in the control group defined happiness as exciting and those in the experimental tended to define it as more calm. Those in the experimental group felt more focused and in the present than the control group. Finally at the end of the experiment the researchers gave a “gift” to the subjects before they left. The subjects had the option to a tea bag that sweet dreams, relaxing, or peppermint fresh. Those in the experimental group were more likely to choose the calming option (sweet dreams) and the control group the exciting (peppermint).
In the second experiment researchers used older participants ages 50-71. These participants were given a task to unscramble words that were either neutral (the control group) or words relating to the future (experimental group). While unscrambling the words, the participants listened to either exciting music or calming. At the end of the experiment, the individual were asked to rate songs, ones that were fast or exciting or calming. Those who unscrambled words involving the future and listening to more exciting songs tended to prefer the faster and more exciting songs as well as define happiness as more exciting than calm. Those with neutral words and slower music tended to define happiness as more calming.
From these results, it can be concluded that age , temporal focus, and how happiness is defined all contributes in determining one’s choices. It appears that having temporal focus in the future instead of the present tends to defocus individuals and could contribute to more stress. Meditation, as shown in the experiment may help individuals focus on the present and could potentially reduce one’s stress and calm oneself.
Terms: calm, meditation, Buddha, temporal focus, happiness, control group, experimental group, survey
I chose to do my topic on hedonistic and eudaimonic happiness. I was interested in these two different types of happiness because I had never really considered that there be categories of happiness. I have always felt like it is just an emotion but the text talks about how these are the two different kinds of happiness and one seems to be much healthier and long-term than the other.
Much of the research surrounding happiness has been done via a newer field of psychology called positive psychology. Hedonistic happiness is a term that is used for short-term or fleeting happiness. It is the happiness that satiates you for the time being but as soon as the stimuli ceases you lose that happiness. Some examples of this would be your team winning a game, having a good meal, going on a vacation, etc. On the other hand we have eudaimonic happiness which is the long-term happiness we receive. Aristotle was one of the first to bring about the idea of eudaimonic happiness. Aristotle felt that in order to achieve true happiness, you needed to lead a life of contemplation and virtue.
Interestingly, there was a study done that looked at depression, paranoia, and psychopathology in college students in the United States. Researchers found that the statistics for these disorders have risen and they attributed it to the increased importance our society has made on material items and status. This continued shift takes the focus of happiness away from relationships and the meaning of life. Researchers made the connection between this increase and understanding that hedonistic happiness is now more prevalent because people care more about having short-term things than working on long-term happiness.
Hedonistic happiness involves the idea that we as humans make choices in life that enable us to avoid pain and seek pleasurable things. People that do this usually tell researchers that they are happy. However, when we look at their long-term happiness it doesn't look so good.
Terminology: hedonistic happiness, eudaimonic happiness, long-term, short-term, positive psychology, stimuli, satiate, contemplation, virtue, Aristotle, depression, paranoia, psychopathology
Hedonic and Eudaimonic Happiness
http://harmonist.us/2011/03/hedonic-and-eudaimonic-happiness/
Addiction & Recovery: Hedonic Happiness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQbtjoPzkRg
Eudaimonic Well-Being
http://www.academia.edu/3179324/Eudaimonic_Well-Being_as_a_Core_Concept_of_Positive_Functioning
In the reading this week, the book made a statement about optimism being associated with positive well-being and then cited an article by Carvera et. al. I thought this sounded interesting, so I just read the article for this week's assignment. It was a pretty interesting article, in that it has exhaustive list of references. They talked about how optimism was good for your subjective well being and your general physical health. They cited many studies finding optimists to have fewer depressive symptoms and less overall stress. The research that I found most interesting was a longitudinal study assessing changes in the lives of 95,000 women over an 8 year period. At the beginning of the study, all women were free of cancer and cardiovascular disease. One of the findings of this study was that optimists were less likely than pessimists to develop or die from coronary heart disease (CHD), and had a lower overall mortality rate across the 8 years. The advantage for optimists was 9% for incident cases and 30% for CHD mortality.
On top of a multitude of cited well-being and physical health advantages, they also found that optimists are associated with greater socioeconomic status. After citing all of the benefits of optimism, they address the question of whether or not one can change from a pessimist to an optimist. As it turns out, optimism is very stable over time, and appears to be more like a trait in that respect, but there is a way. The author presented a couple of studies regarding cognitive behavioral therapy where intervention showed a decrease in the number of depressive episodes when compared with a control condition, and that changes in pessimistic thinking mediated those changes. They did say that it was possible to change your way of thinking, but they noted that you should not simply replace doubts with unquestioning optimism, as they would certainly have some adverse effects.
I thought this was an interesting article and was surprised a little bit to see so many references within it. It seemed like kind of a vague line citing the association between optimism and well-being in the book and I was interested to find that it was so substantial. This finding fits well with a lot of what these buddhist-oriented books have been saying. Because of this, I think I will be more motivated to do my meditations on a daily basis, although the article didn't cite a link between optimism and meditation.
Carvera, C.S., Scheier, M.F., and Segerstrom, S.C. (2010) 'Optimism', Clinical Psychology Review 30: 879-889
Terms: Optimism, physical health, subjective well-being, pessimism, cognitive behavioral therapy
I chose to look further into the idea of hedonism and eudemonia as indicators of well-being/happiness. The reading, in my opinion, demonized the idea of hedonistic happiness claiming that it would not last and therefore we should only focus on the longer lasting eudemonic happiness. While I understand that hedonistic happiness is not long term, I believe that it is still happiness and that is important. I found a paper that explored the differences between the two. The research made the distinction that hedonism and eudemonia are motives for activities rather than just a type of happiness. The motive is to get happiness in the long term through these two routes.
Researchers hypothesized that those who participate in either of the motives will have higher well-being than those who participate in neither. However, they also added that they believed that those who participate in both will have higher well-being than all other participants. To measure motives they asked questions similar to the following: “To what degree do you typically approach your activities with each of the following intentions, whether or not you actually achieve your aim?” and they then rated things like “seeking fun” and “seeking to use the best in yourself” from 1 to 7. For measures of well-being, the researchers looked at positive/negative affect, life satisfaction, vitality, and meaning/purpose. Variations on this study were done four times.
The researchers found that there were many overlapping and distinct ways that hedonistic and eudemonic motives relate to well-being. Hedonic motives correlated with positive affect but this effect was strongest on a short term scale. Eudemonic motives were correlated with positive affect not in the short term follow up but in the long term. Hedonic motives were strongly correlated with carefreeness supported the idea that they may help people worry less. Meaning (of life) related much more strongly with eudemonic motives. The overall measure ‘life satisfaction’ was related to both eudemonic and hedonic motives although in one of the studies it was more strongly related to hedonic motives.
This research supports my idea that both types of motives and happiness are important to overall happiness and life satisfaction. While the book only focuses on one, I don’t believe it’s necessary to devalue the other.
Terms: Hedonism, eudemonia, meaning/purpose, life satisfaction, happiness, positive/negative affect
http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a97a8701-0988-45a0-83a4-043e0c02a8d0%40sessionmgr4005&vid=2&hid=4201
I had quite the hard time finding articles for this week’s blog but I finally decided to do more research on Mind over Matter. There is a lot of evidence supporting mind over matter. It is well known and often used. One example that I am very familiar with is the placebo effect. I know it well and have been discussed in nearly every one of my class but I’ve never thought of it as mind over matter but that is exactly what it is. Your mind says you something is changing with you because that is what are told to expect but when in reality, it might just be a sugar pill. But a sugar bill is just a small part of the idea. Buddhist Monks have been known to be able to control their blood flow and alter their core blood temperature.
In the first article I read, the ability to manipulate your body’s inner functions come from spirituality. I don’t mean that God it doing for you when you ask Him to, but being a spiritual person is something that flows though the mind. Meditation and pray are things you believe in and work your mind to engage in what I you feel. When something unexplainable happen, we analysis it until it makes sense and by doing so, we begin to question our experiences. We question our own ability.
One man, after being a political refugee, turned to meditation to find peace and by doing so he is able to control the conductivity of his skin. He is able to pick up items of any material with flat hands or his forehead. This was hard for me to believe but as I watched the youtube video try to explain the phenomenon. A scientist recorded brain activity of the man as she picked up the items and found that when it happens, the man’s body temperature went up along with the conductivity of his skin. The man claims he is able to do this though meditation. I don’t know if I completely the man’s ability but it coincides with mind over matter and the monks being able to manipulate their inner body functions.
Another example of mind over matter is hypnotherapy. When hypnotherapy prior to invasive therapy was received focusing on less blood loss, patients actually had less blood loss during the surgery than those who did not receive hypnotherapy. Not only can mediation help anxiety and but it helps more serious conditions. Meditation helps with most medical conditions like autoimmune diseases, heart disease, neurological conditions, cancers, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and hypertension. Focusing on the mind and its effects over the body has positive effects anywhere from simple placebo effect to manipulating how your body functions. Even if it is farfetched, studies show that meditation is beneficial for a peace of mind.
Terms: Mind over Matter, placebo effects, Buddhist monks, spirituality, meditation, hypnotherapy
http://www.toyourhealth.com/mpacms/tyh/article.php?id=1609
http://www.psychicsuniverse.com/articles/mind-body/mind/meditation/mind-over-matter-spiritual-benefits-powerful-mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuJFuIeI18k
Since the first chapter of Dorjee’s book mainly focused on happiness and well-being, I wanted to search for an article which explored happiness and well-being. I came across an article that included 12 measures which assessed psychological well-being. According to Ryff (1989), the highest of all goods achievable by human action is happiness. I thought that Ryff’s study was intriguing because the study sought to operationalize the following dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. Three hundred and twenty-one men and women were divided among the following categories, young, middle-aged, and older adult, in order to examine gender differences and age differences in well-being. The participants rated themselves on the measures mention above along with six other measures from Ryff’s previous research on psychological well-being. The previous measures included affect balance, life satisfaction, self-esteem, morale, locus of control and depression.
The six new measures of psychological functioning were characterized as the following. People that scored high in self-acceptance possessed a very positive attitude towards the self. They acknowledged and accepted multiple aspects of the self, including good and bad qualities and felt positive about their past life. People that scored high in positive relations with others had warm, satisfying, trusting relationship with others. They are concerned about the welfare of others. They are capable of strong empathy, affection and intimacy. They understand the give and take of human relationships. People that scored high in autonomy are considered to be self-determining and independent. They are capable of resisting social. They are able to regulate their behavior from within and they can evaluate themself by their personal standards. People that scored high in environmental mastery had a sense of mastery and competence in managing the environment. They are able to control complex array of external activities. They are able to make effective use of surrounding opportunities. They are able to choose or create contexts suitable to personal needs and values. People that scored high in purpose in life have goals in life and a sense of directedness. They feel that there is meaning to present and past life. They hold beliefs that give life purpose and they have aims and objectives for living.
The six previous measures of psychological functioning were administered to the respondents in order to provide comparative information regarding the newly constructed measures. They included these measures because of their significance in Ryff’s previous studies on psychological well-being and adjustment in middle and later life. Affect Balance Scale measured 10-item with 5 items that measured positive affect and 5 that measured negative affect. Life satisfaction was defined as including five components: zest (versus apathy), resolution and fortitude, congruence between desired and achieved goals, positive self-concept, and mood tone. Self-esteem was defined as self-acceptance, a basic feeling of self-worth. People that scored high in morale have a basic sense of satisfaction with themselves. They feel that there is a place in the environment for them and they have acceptance of what cannot be changed. Locus of control was assessed using Levenson’s three locus control subscales. These subscales were designed to measure perceived mastery over one’s life and belief in change as separate from expectancy for control by powerful others. Depression was assessed using Zung’s (1965) Depression Scale consisted of a 20-item self-rating scale designed to assess depression as a psychiatric disorder.
Does well-being change across the life cycle? Do men and women differ in their self-rated psychological health? According to Ryff (1989), the general age trends revealed high scores among the middle-age respondents, who sometimes scored significantly higher than older adults (purpose in life) and other times high than young adults (autonomy). Both middle-aged and older adults rated themselves higher on environmental mastery compared to young adults. For personal growth, young adults joined course profiles for the indexes of self-acceptance and positive relations with others indicated no age differences. Women scored higher in the measures of positive relations with others and personal growth compared to men. Young adults rated themselves lower than the other two age groups on affect balance and change control. Young adults also scored significantly lower than middle-aged respondents on morale. In contrast, older adults scored significantly higher than the two younger groups on the measure of depression. Men had significantly higher scores on internal control, morale and satisfaction and lower scores on depression. Many of these findings were surprising, even though this is an old study; I believe that this study represents one of the first studies that has operationally define happiness and well-being. It was really intriguing to learn the gender differences and age differences in well-being.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 57(6), 1069-1081.
Terms: happiness, well-being, self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth, affect balance, life satisfaction, self-esteem, morale, locus of control and depression
In this week’s blog, I decide to look into the difference between the two kinds of happiness, and more specifically into the more materialistic happiness. This form of happiness comes from acquiring new things, and sometimes just the act of purchasing, rather that’s the hypothesis of the article I read. Materialistic people have gotten bad rap recently in the western civilization because it has recognized it as an unhealthy form of happiness because your enjoyment comes out of material goods. I personally don’t think it’s healthy, but you might not be able to change how you enjoy things. The article I read was titles “When Wanting is Better than Having” and if focuses on how and when materialistic people get their enjoyment. Does the enjoyment come from the actual purchase; does it come from completing the goal of acquiring new things?
The general opinion of the experimenters was that high materialistic consumers would experience higher positive emotions when both purchasing and anticipating purchasing items that are important to them. Generally it was predicted that materialistic people would have both stronger positive and negative emotions associated with purchasing goods.
Materialism was measured by having participants take the Material Values Scale (Richins 2004). From the participants, the most selected items that had strong emotions associated with them were vehicles, electronics, and clothing. The results show that materialistic people experienced stronger positive and negative emotions associated with the purchasing process. One other interesting thing that was looked at was the cost of the item in relation to the strength of the emotion experienced. The higher a person associated with materialistic ideals, the more enjoyment that got out of purchasing expensive things. The strongest positive emotions were experienced right before the purchase was made (the decision to spend the money) and the actual act of purchasing itself. Surprisingly the positive emotion didn’t actually come from acquiring new things, which really makes you think about the name of being materialistic. These people who are labeled as materialistic don’t actually gain much from acquiring new things; rather it’s the act of purchasing that brings them pleasure.
I found it a little strange that those with low materialistic behavior showed excitement and joy rise once the product had been purchased. This could mean that those who don’t show materialistic behaviors gain positive emotions from obtaining new objects. Many of the graphs are interesting because the level of positive emotion held by materialistic people is almost the same or slightly higher than people with lower materialism, even though it is during an expressed exciting activity.
Terms: happiness, materialism, positive emotion, materialistic behavior
For this exploration blog topic I choose to research the differences between western culture and Buddhist culture and their views on happiness. Understanding that this whole chapter was centered around this subject matter, it was hard to pick something specific out to research. With this being said, I avoided using an article the book had used in order to find other view points and interesting points between the two. The title of the an article I read was, The Scientific Pursuit of Happiness: What Does the Dalai Lama Have to Teach Psychologist About Joy and Contentment?” The article begins by pointing out the fact that many people within our society/culture are decently well off. However when they are asked to define happiness they described it to “be free from depression.” However, the article then gives information regarding Buddhist practice and the teachings of the Dalai Lama and after being introduced to his lectures how this has began to change our view and open our minds to other possibilities and new out looks on past negative aspects of life. In the past decade scientists have studied the brain and ways in which they believe it can be changed. In relation it has been found that the brain holds the ability to change the mind and that the mind can also change the brain. Following the acceptance of this mind/brain interaction came a new movement in psychology known as the “positive psychology movement”.
One thing that caught my attention midway though this article was that the Dalia Lama truly believes that both Buddhism and science have set the same goal. And even though science may be more advanced it is centered around external certainty. Though external things are important we are learning that our inner reality is just as important, and this is where science and western cultures can learn mindfulness, happiness, the acceptance of suffering, and begin to change our negative views. Another thing I found encouraging is how the Dalia Lama made it a point that Buddhist practices can be used by everyone no matter the religion or even those who disregard religion all together. In the end of the article after the author had shared her story and what she had encountered from not only hearing him speak, but just embracing the way he is, the article ended on a strong note explain the contrast between the two. It said that western scientists believe the mind is a function of our brains. Buddhists believe that the mind is an expression of our awareness. An awareness received from being reincarnated multiples times to search for happiness and accomplish our “karmic” destiny.
Terms: Happiness, Reincarnation, Positive Psychology Movement, Dalia Lama, Karmic Destiny, Mindfulness, Suffering, External Reality, Internal Reality, Mind/Brain Interaction
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-scientific-pursuit-of-happiness-100375676/?no-ist
For this exploration post I wanted to learn more about the mentioned Dzogchen meditation that was mentioned in the first chapter of Dorjee. They mentioned that the book would discuss the fundamentals and main parts of this kind of meditation. I figured it would be helpful to have a step ahead of the subject.
I found a site that does a good job of explaining the processes of this meditation to those they may have a difficulty understanding it from a more complicated site. The first thing they describe is alaya for habits, which gives rise to seeing and hearing, as well as to imagining and verbally thinking. How I understand this is that alaya is considered a distraction so they suggested finding an area that is peaceful and quiet and to turn off any lights. This will help the focus of one’s mind when meditating and to not get distracted by outside sounds.
The next part they go over is how to be when actually trying to meditate they describe it with three parts. The first is immovable body. A person should have their body straight, hands either in the meditation pose in our laps or lightly resting on the knees. The second is immovable senses. This is to have eyes neither closed nor wide open, but gazing naturally in front. I found this interesting because from our class meditation we always have our eyes closed. The third part is immovable mind. Which is to not actively think, with no thoughts of the past or future, and with no analysis. In other words, even if a thought arises, you should not follow it out.
This site goes on into more detail on how Dzogchen was started and other parts about it, but it got a little more on the confusing side for me as I read on. I figured for the purpose of this class this is a good basic understanding of how Dzogchen meditate, so I can better understand the in class text when they refer to this type again.
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/advanced/dzogchen/meditation/fundamentals_dzogchen_meditation/fund_dzogchen_meditation_02.html
Dorjee Intro and Chapter 1 discusses subjective well-being, according to Wallace and Shapiro, integrating Western psychology and Buddhist psychology. Buddhist psychology and western psychology have long been held apart, but recently, there has begun to be an overlap.
For example, Buddhist psychology encourages a more holistic pleasure than hedonistic. For example, Buddhist psychology recommends being happy with what you have, not wanting to have something to be happy. It’s about finding and developing an inner level of peace regardless of outside circumstances. However, it would be a misconception to say that Buddhism discourages enjoying simple, finite pleasures. It simply says to not draw your pleasure entirely from them, but allow them to augment your already stabilized pleasure, particularly as relationships and hobbies can provide a lot of pleasure.
Western psychology has recently begun supporting this claim as well. For example, it found that lottery winners’ happiness levels returned to baseline shortly after the win, though there was a temporary spike in happiness levels. Additionally, research shows that happiness is generally found more in accepting and enjoying what one has, not having what you want.
Wallace and Shapiro outlined four ways to balance a mind: conatively, attentionally, cognitively and affectively. Conative balance is setting goals and developing intention oriented to one’s own happiness, also discussed in our textbook. Viewed as the cornerstone of well-being as you need this to progress on to the other steps. The intention of conative balance is different than simply desire in that one can want to be a better father, but without taking the steps to become a good father one will not be achieving conative balance. Additionally, it is critical the intention developed is wholesome and leads to happiness and wellbeing and away from suffering. Western psychology has found that therapy and interventions linked to a client’s conative-motivational level are exceptionally beneficial.
Attentional balance needs to be developed next, according to Wallace and Shapiro, so you can pay attention to the cognitive and affective factors. This is particularly hard to do with all the things in our life clamoring for attention. According to Buddhist psychology, humans are generally prone to attention deficits. One of the simplest ways to address the issue is to focus on mindful breathing.
Cognitive balance deals with engaging the world without imposing your own beliefs, desires, etc. on it. It involves being present in the moment, which is very difficult to do in our society, as I’ve said numerous times earlier. Affective balance is an absence of inappropriate emotions, emotional apathy or excessive emotional instability. I suspect this is particularly difficult with men who are discouraged from showing much emotion beyond anger, excitement amusement, even outright joy is sometimes frowned upon.
This article is pretty similar, almost identical, to what was discussed in the book chapter, so it’s not surprising it was cited. It certainly provides a good framework for thinking about meditation and, honestly, goes a long way in and of itself to providing the conative balance, at least as it applies to meditation.
http://psycnet.apa.org.proxy.lib.uni.edu/journals/amp/61/7/690.html
terms: conative, attentional, meditation, affective, cognitive, well-being