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| Attribution--- Good, Bad,
and Ugly |
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"There are many parts of the world that are
more suspicious of personal happiness, defined
in the paper as experiencing pleasure,
positive emotion, or success..."
------
These values translate to different weights
placed on personal happiness. In one paper,
Oishi and his colleagues examined the
definition of happiness in dictionaries from
30 nations, and found that internal inner
feelings of pleasure defined happiness in
Western cultures, more so than East Asian
cultures. Instead, East Asians cultures define
happiness more in line with social harmony,
and it is associated with good luck and
fortune. Indeed, when researchersmeasure
feelings of positive affect or pleasure, they
go hand in hand with enhanced feelings of
happiness by North America individuals but not
by East Asian individuals. Instead, social
factors - such as adapting to social norms or
fulfilling relational obligations – were
associated with enhanced feelings of happiness
in East Asia.
Put differently, personal happiness can become
aversive, particularly when it comes at cost
to the social harmony or moral obligations
held in high esteem by collectivistic
cultures.
Should Americans rethink their love affair
with personal happiness in light of this
research? We know that happiness boasts a long
list of advantages, from broadening one’s
thinking skills to improving physical and
mental health. But prioritizing personal
happiness leads to a number of problems, like
focusing too much on the self. Perhaps we need
a more balanced approach to happiness in
American culture. Personal happiness is
beneficial in some contexts, a limitation
inothers—good in moderation, but harmful in
excess. In some moments, we may need and
benefit from feeling good, but in other
moments, we might be better served anchoring
on balanced, meaningful life focused on
others. Happiness, in this light, is not the
proverbial goal to chase, but a (happy)
outcome of a life well lived.
End quote
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/not-everyone-wants-to-be-happy/?
Not everyone wants to be happy brought this
book to mind, even though it’s not the exact
topic of the book.
The title is THE UPSIDE YOUR DARK SIDE.
In The Upside of Your Dark Side, two
pioneering researchers in the field of
psychology show that while mindfulness,
kindness, and positivity can take us far, they
cannot take us all the way. Sometimes, they
can even hold us back. Emotions such as anger,
anxiety, guilt, and sadness might feel
uncomfortable, but it turns out that they are
also incredibly useful. For instance:
• Anger fuels creativity
• Guilt sparks improvement
• Self-doubt enhances performance
http://www.amazon.com/The-Upside-Your-Dark-Side/dp/1594631735
Of course my two cents would be to add:
For some people...
Some people use anger, others deal with guilt,
and some have self doubt
It's kind of like attribution all style
Me. Not me
Always Not Always
Everything. Not everything
3! = 6
Only one style = hardy
And it's probably extraverted to get the not
me, which is why we have an internal negating
cycle for depression...which has a LOT of
value, I've found, Moore called it
"melancholy" I believe...
Anger motivates me (enneagram 8) and may
coupled with low order (novelty) lead to
creativity, but most people just get
angry...in my experience;)
I don't have guilt...I do have something
similar but my red ass power system didnt make
it in catechism class:)
And again I just don't experience self-doubt,
although upon reflection (rarely) I feel like
an idiot;)
So these "blanket approaches" work for about
5% and surely can help the rest of us
sometimes...
I'm starting to realize that if ur learning
style is trending away from reflective
observation that there is a tendency of people
to accept "stated facts" without skepticism
(doubting others and facts)...
This is another form of acceptance (like a
facet in mbti parlance under T-F dichotomy and
surely in acceptance motivation, along with
TKI acceptance.
This form of subjectivity can "enhance" the
negative effects of our inborn motives and
having "genetically-guided" or "scaffolded"
metasystematic perspective taking capability
can help relieve "some" of this subjectivity
by objective "intervention" either self, other
or system (scaffolded principles, e.g. I can't
accept most things at "face" value...making
reference to "face validity where things are
as they appear)...in a VUCA world full of
smoke and mirrors...a lot of which is my own
s*** smoldering, hehe
Helpful Hint: Everyone wants
to be happy. It's a fundamental human right.
It's associated with all sorts of benefits.
We, as a society, spend millions trying to
figure out what the key to personal happiness
is. There are now even apps to help us turn
our frowns upside down. So everyone wants to
be happy—right?
Action Step: Put differently,
personal happiness can become aversive,
particularly when it comes at cost to the
social harmony or moral obligations held in
high esteem by collectivistic cultures.
Should Americans rethink their love affair
with personal happiness in light of this
research? We know that happiness boasts a long
list of advantages, from broadening one’s
thinking skills to improving physical and
mental health. But prioritizing personal
happiness leads to a number of problems, like
focusing too much on the self. Perhaps we need
a more balanced approach to happiness in
American culture. Personal happiness is
beneficial in some contexts, a limitation in
others—good in moderation, but harmful in
excess. In some moments, we may need and
benefit from feeling good, but in other
moments, we might be better served anchoring
on balanced, meaningful life focused on
others. Happiness, in this light, is not the
proverbial goal to chase, but a (happy)
outcome of a life well lived. |
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