I'm just going to look at Emotion today. Many psychologists believe that emotions exist for evolutionary purposes. We emote so that others know what's going on, expressions give our thoughts away. In the 60's, American Paul Eckman traveled to a secluded area of New Guinea to research emotions across cutlures. He showed the natives pictures of Americans displaying typical human emotions and also did the reverse for college students back in the states. 7 Priamary Emotions stood out: Happiness, Disgust, Fear, Sadness, Suprise, Contempt, and Anger. But sometimes these are too bland to precisely depict our true emotions. Alarm, which is a mixture of fear and suprise, would be considered a secondary emotion.
The rest of that section is terribly boring. Gonna skip some.
Personal space. Public Distance - 12 feet or more. Social distance - 4-12 feet. Personal Distance - 1.5 - 4 feet. Intimate distance 0-1.5 feet. I noticed this at Panera Bread the other day: The round tables are larger, accomodate more people, and imply a more casual setting and i'm definitely seeing a social distance here. The square tables are significanly smaller, personal distance seating. My friend and I sat at the round table, but as we were people watching, lots of older people occupied the smaller seats. Booths are more social, but i think i'd rather go on a date and sit in a booth because they're bigger and more secure, more private. I suppose after seeing said person for a while, I'd be a little more lenient to a 2-seat square table in the middle of the room.
The Mere Exposure effect states that habituation to a stimuli breeds comfort, as contrasting to my heuristic that we're more likely to get bored with something that's repeated. i suppose there's truth to both, depending on the stimuli. Say food, if i had a strawberry smoothie every day after tennis, i'd be sick of em and move onto strawberry milk shakes :) I actually think these things are entirely different. As i reread this section, i'm learning this Mere Exposure effect has a lot to do with what we run into in our everyday lives, the things we don't do intentionally but really how automatic our reactions to frequent stimuli are. This is really confusing to me- but essentially in transists into our own self-perception. When i look in the mirror, i go "damn, that's a good-looking kid." but then i'll see myself in a photograph and totally be embarassed of some flaw. But the flaw is not my ego, it is the fact that i'm not seeing myself as i'm accustomed to. I'm used to seeing my reflection, not an actual image of me so I'm more likely to prefer my reflection to a photo.
Now I'm going to debuff some myths about Happines.
#1 Happiness is determined by what happens to us.) Callin bogus on this one because it's not about WHAT happens to us, it's about the attitude we have towards things. There was a study of 200 college kids, and researchers looked at both ends of the spectrum only to find that both groups led very similar lives in terms of jobs, stresses, and social life. If you're a grumpy person, if you get told you look like a grandma and wonder why you can't get a significant other, it's not because you're life is awful, it's because of your terrible attitude.
#2 - Money buys happiness) To an extent, yeah. Money pays for things which subtracts from stress levels resounding from debt. but what IS said here is that money can't buy happiness, meaning you can't buy enough shoes, video games, or sports cars to be happier than a man who has less and a fantastic attitude. Money's not everything, but working hard and feeling pride in what you do to make that money is a different story. There's nothing wrong with that.
#3 Happiness declines with old age) Happiness actually peaks at about 50-60, only at 80 does it seem to decrease significantly. Younger people may have their youth, but they typically have more stressors to make a living than a 50 year old who's got his or her life on track.
#4 - People on the West Coast are Happier ) I'm a mid-wester, and i'm smellin so much bs from the spray tans, no way anyone can buy validity from this one.
But Marco, WHAT makes us happy? Because, you know, i'm just not sure. -- Oh, i'll tell you
Marriage, lots of deep frindships, college education, strong religion, physical exercise, gratituity (better believe it does), giving, and flow. Time flies when you're having fun? That's the definition of flow, and hopefully we all find it in our work place, this one is probably the most important as far as contributing to our overall happiness. I dont know about you, but i want to love what i do for a living.
There, hows that for the most random blog every. Gratituity and giving attribute to my overall happiness- so you're welcome, i'm thankful that i gave you all this knowledge
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