Psychology 2035A/B Chapter 1: PSYCH 2035 CHAPTER 1 NOTES

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: John Campbell

Document Summary

Despite our progress in transportation, energy, communication, medicine etc we have more social problems and personal difficulties than before. Paradox of progress: quality of lives and sense of personal fulfillment have declined rather than increased. Hedonic treadmill: the tendency for a person"s economic expectations and desires to rise at the same rate as his or her income, resulting in no net gain of satisfaction or happiness (ex: winning lottery) Set point theory: inborn personality factors cause an inevitable return to genetically determined happiness set points, for example: after significant life events, our happiness will migrate back to levels before the event occured. We have lots of devices that save time but we always complain about not having enough time and are tied to devices that are supposed to be instruments of liberation (whybrow) We have a lot more life choices today than in recent decades some are more significant than others.