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Happiness

Happiness has been an elusive, and often short lived goal for humans over our history. It may be that it comes when not pursued, and evades us when we chase it. But the work of Martin Seligman and the school of Positive Psychology has explained much about this important condition.

The 'last' chocolate tastes best

People often view the “last” moments of an event positively simply because they signal the end of an experience, say University of Michigan researchers. Even if the experience is painful or negative, but concludes on a pleasant note, people will consider the event a more positive experience, says Ed O’Brien, a graduate student in the U-M Department of Psychology. ”Endings are powerful,” he said.

O’Brien and colleague Phoebe Ellsworth, the Frank Murphy Distinguished Professor of Law and Psychology, conducted a chocolate tasting experiment with 52 college students to test the theory.

Volunteers could sample five different Hershey’s Kisses chocolates (milk, dark, crème, caramel and almond), but did not know in advance how many pieces they would eat or the type. Participants rated how much they enjoyed the chocolate and described each flavor so that the researchers could record the order in which the randomly pulled treats were eaten.

Volunteers were randomly assigned to the “next” or the “last” condition. In the “next” condition, the experimenter said, “Here is your next chocolate,” before offering each chocolate, including the fifth.

For the “last” condition, the experimenter said, “Here is your last chocolate,” before offering the fifth chocolate. These participants rated the fifth chocolate more enjoyable than volunteers in the “next” condition.

As predicted, participants who knew they were eating the final chocolate of a taste test enjoyed it more. In fact, when asked to pick their favorite chocolate, the majority of “last” participants chose the fifth—even though the flavor of the fifth was randomly chosen. They also rated the overall experience as more enjoyable than volunteers who thought they were just eating one more chocolate in a series.

O’Brien says these findings may have far-reaching implications. For example, the last book in a series or last speaker in a symposium may receive unwarranted praise simply because they are at the end of a series. The last job applicant may look more qualified.

More information: The findings appear in the current issue of Psychological Science

Source: University of Michigan

Managers encouraging employees to be more proactive and flexible do make gains in performance and productivity. But this is at the expense of employee job satisfaction, according to the latest research in the journal Human Relations. Increased expectations from their employers may lead employees to perceive a less secure and more demanding work environment.

“If it bleeds, it leads,” goes the cynical saying with television and newspaper editors. In other words, most news is bad news and the worst news gets the big story on the front page. So one might expect major newspapers to contain, on average, more negative and unhappy types of words — like “war,” “ funeral,” “cancer,” “murder” — than positive, happy ones — like “love,” “peace” and “hero.” But it turns out to be the opposite.

Men have a stronger response to seeing other men show emotion than when women show emotion, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

The gross domestic product of the United States — that oft-cited measure of economic health — has been ticking upward for the last two years.

But what would you see if you could see a graph of gross domestic happiness? A team of scientists from the University of Vermont have made such a graph — and the trend is down.
Reporting in the Dec. 7, 2011 issue of the journal PLoS ONE, the team writes, “After a gradual upward trend that ran from January to April, 2009, the overall time series has shown a gradual downward trend, accelerating somewhat over the first half of 2011.”

Experienced meditators seem to be able switch off areas of the brain associated with daydreaming as well as psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, according to a new brain imaging study by Yale researchers.
Meditation’s ability to help people stay focused on the moment has been associated with increased happiness levels, said Judson A. Brewer, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Understanding how meditation works will aid investigation into a host of diseases, he said. “Meditation has been shown to help in variety of health problems, such as helping people quit smoking, cope with cancer, and even prevent psoriasis,” Brewer said.

Based on the survey responses of 238 arried individuals age 65 years or older, Jackson discovered that frequency of sexual activity was a significant predictor of both general and marital happiness. The association even remained after accounting for factors such as age, gender, health status, and satisfaction with financial situation.

The negative effects of depression in young people on the health of their hearts may be stronger than previously recognized. Depression or a history of suicide attempts in people younger than 40, especially young women, markedly increases their risk for dying from heart disease, results from a nationwide study have revealed.

Given the choice, would you take a good-paying job with reasonable demands on your time or a high-paying job with longer work hours, permitting only six hours of sleep? Many people opt for the cash, even when they know their decision will compromise their happiness, according to a new study reports George Lowery for the …

Practicing positive activities may serve as an effective, low-cost treatment for people suffering from depression, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Duke University Medical Center. In “Delivering Happiness: Translating Positive Psychology Intervention Research for Treating Major and Minor Depressive Disorders,” a paper that appears in the August 2011 issue of the …

News You Can Use

Happiness

Last moments more positive for us

More productive, involved workers not happy

As world happiness recedes, our language stays positive

Men are affected more by other men’s emotions

Happiness in decline, according to Twitter study

More meditation benefits: research

Sexy seniors happier, study finds

Depression in the young raises risk of heart disease death

What price happiness?

Depression? The solution is positive.

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Living Longer

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