L2.1 - Science and Practice of Wellbeing

What have we learnt from shepard tables, Muller-Lyer illusion and Ebbinghaus illusion

• we should take to processes a decision before making it

• our strongest intuitions are often misleading

• tables have four legs

• our strongest intuitions are always correct

What is hedonic adaption

• Hedonic adaptation is the term used to describe the tendency of individuals to constantly seek out new experiences to maintain happiness

• materialistic things are the key to happiness

• we get used to stuff

• Hedonic adaptation suggests that individuals can never truly achieve lasting happiness, as they will always return to a baseline level of satisfaction

What is

impact bias 

• Impact bias is the tendency to remember past events more negatively than they were experienced in the moment

• Impact bias is the phenomenon where individuals overestimate the intensity and duration of emotional reactions to future events, both positive and negative

• Impact bias refers to the belief that significant life events will have a minimal impact on one's overall well-being

• Impact bias is the tendency to overestimate the duration of negative emotions and underestimate the duration of positive emotions

How much money will make you happy?

• you don't need money to be happy

• depends on your reference point

• the more the better

• 100,000 dollars

T/F? We lose a lot of happiness when we compare ourselves upwards to unrealistic reference points

• True

• False

What is upward social comparison

• occurs when comparing oneself to peers

• occurs when comparing oneself with

  inferior others who have negative characteristics

• occurs when comparing oneself with superior others who have positive characteristics

Participants self-esteem and relative self-evaluations were higher when target person’s profile contained upward comparison information than when target person’s profile contained downward comparison information

• True

• False

What are two big culprits for hedonic adaption

• Satisfaction and contentment
• rising aspiration and social comparison

• Excitement and joy
• Isolation and loneliness

Most major events lose impact after how long?

• less than 6 months

• less than three months

• less than one year

• never

What is affective forecasting

• Affective forecasting is the ability to accurately predict future economic trends based on emotional cues

• Affective forecasting refers to the process of regulating one's own emotions in response to external stimuli

• Affective forecasting is the tendency to overestimate the emotional impact of future events

• we tend to exaggerate effects of positive or negative events on our happiness