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- Title
- A PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PROPOSED PARADOXICAL EFFECTS OF VALUING HAPPINESS.
- Creator
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Coles, Nicholas, Sims, Valerie, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Several researchers in happiness studies have called for an increased sociopolitical interest in indicators of societal happiness. However, recent evidence for the proposed paradoxical effects of valuing happiness suggest that an increase in society's perceived value of happiness may exert a detrimental, inverse influence on well-being. This notion is based on previous research demonstrating that manipulating participants to value happiness causes them to experience less positive emotions,...
Show moreSeveral researchers in happiness studies have called for an increased sociopolitical interest in indicators of societal happiness. However, recent evidence for the proposed paradoxical effects of valuing happiness suggest that an increase in society's perceived value of happiness may exert a detrimental, inverse influence on well-being. This notion is based on previous research demonstrating that manipulating participants to value happiness causes them to experience less positive emotions, compared to controls, when viewing positive film clips. Following the humanistic notion that the maximization of societal happiness is an advantageous sociopolitical endeavor, the proposed paradoxical effects of valuing happiness present a psychological barrier that researchers must strive to understand and, ideally, overcome. Previous experimental research on the paradoxical effects of valuing happiness has focused on participants' emotionality as an operational definition of happiness. However, drawing from the Subjective Well-Being construct, emotionality is only one of several components of happiness. Building from this Subjective-Well Being framework, this study expands upon previous research by investigating whether a valuing happiness manipulation influences participants' emotionality while they contemplate their own happiness. To examine this, nineteen participants were divided into two groups, one which received a valuing happiness manipulation (n=9) and the others served as a control group (n=10), and instructed to contemplate their personal happiness for 45 seconds. To measure participants' emotions during this task, facial electromyography data were collected from the corrugator supercilii and the zygomaticus major facial muscles, a measure that previous research suggests is sensitive to the emotional value of thought. Results indicated that participants manipulated to value happiness did not experience significant differences in facial electromyography activation compared to controls. However, although non-significant, the correlation between facial electromyography activation and participants' rating of happiness differed substantially for participants manipulated to value happiness (average r=.41 for corrugator, average r=-.09 for zygomaticus) and controls (average r=.-.29 for corrugator, average r=.14 for zygomaticus). The counterintuitive correlations for participants led to value happiness, despite not experiencing significant difference in the emotional value of the happiness contemplation task, provide preliminary evidence that these participants utilize the information retrieved from the contemplative stage in a qualitatively different way than controls when judging their own happiness. More specifically, the correlations for participants led to value happiness trend in the opposite direction of controls, demonstrating that increases in positive emotion during happiness contemplation actually are associated with lower scores on a self-report of happiness. This study suggests that the paradoxical effects of valuing happiness does not influence the retrieval of information when contemplating ones' happiness, but may influence (in an apparently detrimental fashion) how this information is utilized when judging one's happiness. Although the between-condition differences in correlations failed to reach statistical significance (more specifically, p=.09 for corrugator), this study provides preliminary evidence for the existence of a new dynamic of the proposed paradoxical effects of valuing happiness that is novel to the happiness studies discourse. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFH0004766, ucf:45360
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004766
- Title
- POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY COURSEWORK AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING.
- Creator
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Walker, Heather E, Saunders, William Steven, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Positive Psychology aims to shift the conversation of mental health from solely repairing mental dysfunction to focusing on individuals' positive qualities or strengths (Seligman, 2000). This study aims at exploring connections between a Positive Psychology college level coursework and students' self-reported wellbeing using an electronically administered survey containing multiple scales used to measure various aspects of wellbeing. Scales used were The Ryff Scale of Psychological Wellbeing,...
Show morePositive Psychology aims to shift the conversation of mental health from solely repairing mental dysfunction to focusing on individuals' positive qualities or strengths (Seligman, 2000). This study aims at exploring connections between a Positive Psychology college level coursework and students' self-reported wellbeing using an electronically administered survey containing multiple scales used to measure various aspects of wellbeing. Scales used were The Ryff Scale of Psychological Wellbeing, The Purpose in Life Test (PIL), the Alienation Scale, and questions related to the course content itself. Students who have higher wellbeing tend to have increased life benefits such as health, life-satisfaction, and flourishing aspects such as academic success (Coffey, 2014). Participants were also measured on their likelihood to use the curriculum in their day-to-day operations. Results show trends in increased measure scores in a small sample size. No significant correlations were found.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFH2000270, ucf:45783
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000270
- Title
- THE ASSOCIATION OF BODY IMAGE AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AS IT RELATES TO HAPPINESS.
- Creator
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Chen, Michelle, Azimi, Cyrus, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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As one of the most important emotional goals pertaining to humankind, achieving happiness has been the central focus of scientists, philosophers, and the general population alike since the beginning of recorded history. This study strove to examine the association of body image satisfaction and relationship quality as it relates to happiness. Four hundred college-age participants completed the Subjective Happiness Scale, the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (Appearance...
Show moreAs one of the most important emotional goals pertaining to humankind, achieving happiness has been the central focus of scientists, philosophers, and the general population alike since the beginning of recorded history. This study strove to examine the association of body image satisfaction and relationship quality as it relates to happiness. Four hundred college-age participants completed the Subjective Happiness Scale, the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (Appearance Scales), and the Network of Relationships Inventory (Relationships Quality Version) for close friendships of the same-sex and opposite-sex. Statistical analysis indicated that while body image satisfaction was significantly correlated with happiness, quality of interpersonal relationships was not. The results of this study emphasize the importance of one's satisfaction with one's body in the cultivation and maintenance of subjective well-being and the need to examine other potential predictors of happiness.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFH0004880, ucf:45430
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004880
- Title
- The Gasoline Tree.
- Creator
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Manning, Brianne, Thaxton, Terry, Stap, Donald, Milanes, Cecilia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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In exploration of Millennial anxieties and the power of dreaming, The Gasoline Tree imagines a soundtrack for the revelations, defeats, and curiosities of leaving childhood behind. This is a collection of 40 poems that examines eating disorders, gender roles, physical abuse, sex, infidelity, loneliness, and the fear of losing one's parents. This collection also contemplates the brutalities and muted delights of what drives us all: love, in all of its forms. (")The Gasoline Tree,(") (")Wolf of...
Show moreIn exploration of Millennial anxieties and the power of dreaming, The Gasoline Tree imagines a soundtrack for the revelations, defeats, and curiosities of leaving childhood behind. This is a collection of 40 poems that examines eating disorders, gender roles, physical abuse, sex, infidelity, loneliness, and the fear of losing one's parents. This collection also contemplates the brutalities and muted delights of what drives us all: love, in all of its forms. (")The Gasoline Tree,(") (")Wolf of Chocorua,(") and many other poems construct New England landscapes that pay homage to the pastoral uniqueness of Maxine Kumin and Galway Kinnell, while poems in the latter half of the collection, such as (")Home Alone(") and (")Little Big Econ,(") rouse depictions of southern environments and intensify the narrator's budding sense of displacement. There are many voices within, but there are three particular voices that can be heard above the rest: the child struggles with the complexities of divorce and identity; the young woman struggles with the complexities of remorse and relationships; the woman struggles with reminiscence and loss. Yet, each voice works toward expressions of awareness and acceptance of the enduring captivation with impermanence and consequence in a disposition influenced by W.S. Merwin, Anne Sexton, Kay Ryan, and Louise Gl(&)#252;ck. Whether driving by a homeless man, staring at the ceiling fan, or lying awake late into the night, this collection examines the transient nature of everyday occurrences and the buried meanings that might govern them all.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006139, ucf:51181
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006139
