PSYC 1002 Lecture Notes - Menarche, James Marcia, Mental Scale
26 Nov 2012
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Document Summary
First, research on happiness shows that the determinants of subjective well-being are precisely that: subjective. Objective realities are not as important as subjective feelings. (your health, wealth, and job are not as influential as how you feel about your health, wealth and job. These feelings are likely to be influenced by what your expectations were. ) Second, when it comes to happiness everything is relative. (you evaluate what you have relative to what the people around you have. We compare ourselves to others who are similar to us. ) Third, research on subjective well-being indicates that people often adapt to their circumstances. (this is one reason why increases in income don"t necessarily bring increases in happiness) Hedonic adaptation occurs when the mental scale that people use to judge the pleasantness/unpleasantness of their experiences shifts so that their neutral point (or baseline for comparison) changes. The 2 themes that permeate human development transition and continuity.
