History of Psychology:• Original Goals of Psychology:• Curing mental illness• Making the lives of people more productive and fulfilling• Identifying and nurturing talent• WWII:• Lack of MDs to treat veterans • Psychology focuses on treating disease• Creation of VA and NIMH• Changes• Martin Seligman• APA President, 1996• Positive Psychology: focus on 1-10+ side• Treating depression does NOT make people happierPositive Psychology:• Hedonic Treadmill- constantly changing goal posts, never capturing "happiness"• Negative emotions are important• They ensure survival• Anger, fear, and anxiety warn of dangers• Activate sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight)• Why are positive emotions so important?• Nun Study• 180 Catholic Nuns wrote autobiographies (mean age=22)• Followed for mortality for 6 decades• Biographies were coded for:• Positive emotion words• sentences using positive emotion words• different positive emotion words• 3 Nuns:• Happy, medium happy, least happy• 1st nun alive at 98• 2nd nun died at 59• At age 85, 90% of the happiest were still alive, only 34% of the least happiest• Happiest nuns lived about 10 years longerWhat Makes Us Happy?• 10%- like circumstances, 40%- how you handle circumstances, 50%- genetic
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