Shin 1 Yunsu Shin Alli Smith PSYC 104 08 March 2021 Can Psychology Make Us Happier Many people today are struggling with mental illness According to a recent study 9 6 million people in the United States suffer from severe mental illness and the number of people dying from suicide is twice as many as the number of people who have died from AIDS disease Mental illness has a huge impact on individuals and society costing more than 300million dollars In the modern era where most people live in a state where their basic needs are satisfied it is natural to become interested in happiness but as much as they are interested in happiness people also experience a lot of frustration on the path to seeing happiness In order to treat those who experienced frustration and to make them happy again a movement of positive psychology has emerged and positive psychology has become an important field to solve these modern problems In this article two authors Stephen M and Laurel C are talking about same issue Positive psychology But they are taking different statues Stephan M 2014 states that positive psychology can increase individual happiness But in contrast Laurel C 2009 says that positive psychology not really effective in making people happy Psychology is the study of people The reason for grasping a person s mind and behavior is to help people live a more qualitative life through this Positive psychology also contributes to positively changing people s minds so it can be said to be a meaningful field in psychology research Stephan M 2014 defined that Happiness means a positive subjective assessment and positive feelings for it In other words promoting individual happiness in any way can be Shin 2 defined as fixing the way they look at them and helping them experience more positive and fewer negative emotions rather than changing and denying objective situations In this article the issue is that positive psychology which is one of the ways to increase happiness can actually make people happy However while both positions can be based on agreeing with those are limitations to use positive psychology interventions to create expectations the difference between the two positions appears in terms of severity of limitations Stephen M 2014 argues that positive psychology has a great influence on bringing people s happiness Stephan M 2014 argues that personal happiness can be formed by imitating other happy people or certain positive circumstances and positive psychology can provide specific ways to become happy through teaching individuals Stephen M 2014 also says that individuals who have learned various methods apply them to their personal lives and that they can also be happy The writer presents PPIS as a way to treat individual depression in positive psychology PPI stands for positive psychology interventions and this includes a variety of ways to improve personal well being Stephan M 2014 This concept includes methods such as savoring gratitude kindness promoting positive relationship creating meaning etc and each method helps a lot in maintaining or changing the individual s mood in positive way For example by learning that expressing gratitude to others and showing kindness to others have a positive effect on an individual s emotions individuals apply them in real life to see positive effects However in this article Stephan M 2014 mentions the problems of self administered PPIS and also mentions the direction for positive psychology go forward It is said that the will to maintain an individual s motivation to become happy is the most important and large variable in positive psychology Plus this writer agrees that deeper discussion is needed in order for people with various motivations and variable wills to see positive effects through positive psychology Stephan M 2014 It has to be focus on individuals rather than widespread dissemination to the general public Stephan M 2014 Shin 3 On the other hand Laurel C 2009 has doubts that the personal happiness that Stephen M argues in this article can be controlled from the outside Laurel C 2009 argues that personal happiness is a hereditary factor and we cannot control it unless the genetic factor can be changed Laurel C 2009 also states that it is the individual who can control his or her happiness In 1978 according to a study published by Brickman Coates and Janoff Bulman individuals in tragedy individuals in unfortunate situation or individuals in great fortune revert to their previous level of happiness over time Laurel C 2009 Also as can be seen from this it emphasizes that eternal happiness does not exist Laurel C 2009 doubts the clarity of the various evidences supporting Stephen M s claim and argues that the various experimental evidences Stephen M has presented are insufficient to support claim Laurel C 2009 emphasizes the importance that negative emotions give to individuals In the meantime avoiding danger is more important for individuals for survival evolutionary purposes and efforts people should be made is to eliminate the causes of negative emotions rather than expressing the individual s positive emotions through positive psychology Laurel C 2009 In this paper I m skeptical of the impact of positive psychology on individual well being Also I will analyze the pros and cons on whether positive psychology can make an individual happy and introduce the future direction that positive psychology should take Based on these articles I will clarify my position and support my thoughts with specific examples and evidences There are 3 reasons why I support the idea that happiness is within our control First individual happiness has a genetic area that cannot be controlled by external environment According to the article David Lykkn and Tellegen s 1996 experiment on the genetics of happiness in twins shows that the genetic rate is about 50 which means half of the Shin 4 happiness an individual feels is caused by a human gene Since the inheritance of an individual cannot be changed by acquired efforts it can be said that positive psychology has limitations in contributing to individual happiness Second as the writer says that eternal happiness does not exist For example people who had be fallen great fortune such as win the lottery or great tragedy they will soon return to their preexisting levels of happiness So that is individuals can return to their original state of mind without the help of positive psychology Finally not acknowledging the
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