Some Extra Notes from Norway

The weekend after our last class, Alexis, Ronnie and I went to Bergen, Norway. Thanks to our new habits learned from Positive Psychology, we learned a bit about Norwegian wellbeing. The amazingly beautiful scenery and delicious seafood certainly seems to keep them content, but one Norwegian I spoke to at our B&B had an interesting perspective. He mentioned that Norwegians must be able to find ways to be intrinsically happy. Through most the year, it is cold and dark, making it difficult to find happiness in the world around you. Those that can't find a way to maintain their intrinsic wellbeing through these extreme circumstances end up leaving. So only those who are intrinsically happy stay to pass on genes or knowledge that helps those after them to maintain their wellbeing. Maybe someday, I'll have time to investigate why this may be, but for now it's an intriguing idea.

Also, we were sure to make a stop at McDonald's. Their decor was much more similar to that in the US, implying a need for cheap(Or not so much in Norway), quickly made food. If the customer's aren't meant to spend much time there, there is no need to spruce up the dining area. Additionally, the waitstaff had very nice uniforms, potentially implying a certain pride in their work.

Definitely a lot of interesting observations for a great trip!

Last day of class

The last day of class was a great experience. Chopping wood, walking, and roasting things over a fire really reminded me why I love nature. Beyond that, it helped illustrate how nature can help improve your mood. I certainly had a great time with my classmates, sad as it was to be done with the class. I think Positive Psychology will have a big impact on how I view psychology as I go further into my studies. Thanks so much Jonatan, for a great class!

Positive Psychology: Meeting the Danes

Today we had the opportunity to meet several Danish students who allowed us to ask questions and compare our cultural values. This was an interesting experience, especially with the castaway games that allowed us to work as a group to determine our values in a stressful situation. The insights gained from this activity were very interesting. We learned more about the general differences between our cultures, including the trust Danes have in one another and learned how Danes sometimes view the US. I found it interesting that we are considered a bit of a joke by other countries. We are one of the most powerful countries, but are unable to take care of the citizens within our borders to the same extent they do in European countries. It's certainly something to think about, as we go forward on our career paths within the US. What values do we hold dear that cause us to enact such legislation? And could these values change?

Positive Psychology: Situated Learning

What is the theory of situated learning?
Situated learning occurs when one learns how to act within a new group. These "communities of practice" share a common goal, a skill set, and mutual engagement with the community. The community persists of people with full participation, or competent masters, and people who are legitimate peripheral participants, or novices. Each of us participate in communities of practice. As students, we all participate in the college student community. We all have a basic skill set for learning new material and handling college life. The masters are juniors and seniors who know how to handle everything, while the novices are new freshmen. There are also those who are excluded from the community, or who chose not to go to college.

Positive Psych: Constitution Day

Denmark celebrates 100 years of equal voting rights! This was an interesting experience, though I couldn't personally understand most of what was going on. Apparently the queen doubles as a comedian. But after translation, I felt we learned at lot about the culture of Denmark and how it connects to women's suffrage. The queen is, in fact, the first queen of Denmark in a very long time because of the relatively recent changes in laws. I found it interesting that our women suffrage movement in the USA occurred around the same time, though we didn't pass the law for another 5 years. I wonder where the movement began.

Positive Psych: Class 5

What is nudging?
Nudging occurs when someone is indirectly influenced to make a decision. Small suggestions can change the way people make decisions without them being conscious of the nudge.

How is well being reflected in products?
Products are designed so that people are nudged into buying. To successfully advertise, you must identify the problem that product will be able to assist. For example, McDonalds in America is associated with getting food quickly. Some busy people can get well-being by saving time so they can move on to whatever it next. So the advertisement works because it proposes a solution to a problem. This can also be influenced by culture. For example, I've noticed in Denmark people seem to value an old building as somewhere cozy and sometimes preferable to a new building. In America, this is often seen as a problem, and if looking for a place to stay, we tend to prefer new places.

Positive Psych: Class 4

What is resilience?
To be resilient is to do well despite challenges. A resilient person does better than what is expected of them within their circumstances. It can be difficult to determine what this means. For example, they could do better in one area than in another.

What are different approaches to supporting resilience?
Resilience can be supported once the underlying problem has been isolated. You can then determine an appropriate solution. To determine whether behavior may be changed, the theory of planned behavior may be used. The intention to go through with behavior is affected by the personal attitude towards the behavior, the social encouragement to perform the action, and the perceived behavior control. All of these factors contribute towards intention, and the higher the intention, the more likely the behavior will be followed through.

Positive Psych: Class 3

What is Eudamonic wellbeing?
Eudamonic wellbeing involves finding happiness through internal meaning. It involves doing what you need to do to take care of your own emotional needs and finding meaning in your life. Eudamonic theory argues that wellbeing lies in the actualization of human potential. There are three approaches to this theory.

1) Psychological wellbeing:

• Self Acceptance
• Personal Growth
• Purpose in Life
• Positive Relations
• Environmental Mastery
• Autonomy

2) Authentic Happiness

• The Pleasant Life
• The Good Life
• The Meaningful Life

3) Self-determination Theory

• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness

What is the difference between Eudamonic and Hedonic wellbeing?

Eudamonic focuses on intrinsic values and ideals, while Hedonic focuses on external factors that promote happiness. Hedonic is also short-lived, while eudamonic is more lasting.

Our group's thoughts on the two types of wellbeing:

Positive Psych: Class 2

What is the concept of hedonic happiness?
Hedonic happiness is the attainment of subjective wellbeing (SWB). SWB is defined by three different variables: Life satisfaction,  high positive affect, and low negative affect. Life satisfaction is measured by how your reality compares to your life ideal. For example, if your dream is to be a millionaire, you won't have a lot of life satisfaction if you have a minimum wage income. The others are the emotion associated with momentary events, such as the joy from getting a new car or the sadness from crashing that car.

What are top-down and bottom-up arguments?
Bottom-up arguments take the variable cause the phenomenon, while top-down are the opposite. For example, a bottom-up argument would say that having a lot of positive experiences makes people happy, while a top-down argument would say that happy people tend to have a lot of positive experiences.

Positive Psych: Class 1

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology studies what makes life satisfactory and how people achieve a good life. It explores human strengths to determine what makes people happy, both as an individual and as a group.

How is Positive Psychology different from other fields of psychology?
Positive Psychology focuses on what is going right in human psyche rather than just what is going wrong. Most fields focus on healing mental illness. In this field, human strengths are emphasized to study how people "flourish" or go beyond basic functioning to a feeling of wellbeing.

My group's visual description of Positive Psychology: