Understanding happiness a critical review of positive psychology

UNDERSTANDING HAPPINESS We all want to be happy, and there are plenty of people telling us how it can be achieved The positive psychology movement, indeed, has established happiness as a scientific concept within everyone’s grasp But is happiness really something we can actively aim for, or is it simply a by-product of how we live our lives more widely? Dr Mick Power, Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Programmes at the National University of Singapore, provides a critical assessment of what happiness really means, and the evidence for how it can be increased Arguing that negative emotions are as important to overall well-being as the sunnier sides of our disposition, the book examines many of the claims of the positive psychology movement, including the relationship between happiness and physical health, and argues that resilience, adaptability in the face of adversity, psychological flexibility, and a sense of generativity and creativity are far more achievable as life goals This is a book that will fascinate anyone interested in positive psychology, or anyone who has ever questioned the plethora of publications suggesting that blissful happiness is 10 easy steps away Mick Power is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Programmes at the National University of Singapore He has previously worked in universities and hospitals in London, Tromsø, Milan, Beijing, Edinburgh and Lisbon For many years he has worked with the World Health Organization to develop a measure of quality of life, the WHOQOL, that is now in widespread use throughout the world UNDERSTANDING HAPPINESS A critical review of positive psychology Mick Power First published 2016 by Routledge Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Mick Power The right of Mick Power to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Power, Michael J., author Understanding happiness : a critical review of positive psychology / Mick Power pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index Positive psychology Happiness—Psychological aspects I Title BF204.6.P69 2016 150.19′88—dc23 2015023177 ISBN: 978-1-138-92923-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-92924-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-68133-7 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK To Irina Happiness is no laughing matter (Richard Whateley) Happiness Look! The shimmering pool of happiness hovers always on the road’s horizon Like God and the Good and this book it’s only there to help us move forward together, so not suppose, dear reader, that you can stay in any such place anytime soon or ever, because happiness is a place forever not here or there in a time that has never been nor will come But look! it’s still there So, onward, as Brummies say better the expectant, hopeful, affectionate pose treat the cycle of life like a cyclist who only moves by balancing and only by balancing, keeps moving (Mick Quille) CONTENTS Prefaceviii Happiness: an overview Love and mania: disorders of happiness 27 The power of negative emotions 51 The happiness industry 72 A timeshare in paradise: of gods and the afterlife 94 Positive psychology, health and illness 118 Transforming the self 140 References167 187 Author index 193 Subject index PREFACE Let me start with a confession I normally find books written about happiness and how to be happy extremely irritating A rehash of some bland and obvious dos and don’ts, though I like the quote from the Hungarian-born actress Zsa Zsa Gabor ‘I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich, and I’d rather be rich and unhappy than poor and unhappy’ Notwithstanding Zsa Zsa, if I were to pick up this book in a bookshop and was suffering from amnesia so that I had forgotten writing it, there would be a risk of dropping it faster than a hot potato in case it was yet another illusion-filled Wizard of Pos guide to the Yellow Brick Road So let me reassure sceptics like myself that this book is not another superficial rehash, but, instead, is designed to look behind the curtain and to look for the truth in philosophy, psychology, and the science of well-being and suffering at what we really should be aiming for in our lives Now friends are starting to get worried about me In my previous book, Adieu to God, I gave up on god and the afterlife, and now in this book I am giving up on happiness ‘Surely you must be completely depressed and nihilistic without any of life’s props?’ they ask On the contrary, I reply Life has never felt better Now I have a feeling of liberation because I have thrown off the shackles of all those strange beliefs that even as a child were no more convincing than any other fairytales Letting go of the delusions leads to a feeling of freedom As a word, ‘happiness’ has to be one of the most misused and misleading sequence of letters in the English language It is simply the name for a brief emotion state that lasts for a few seconds or minutes and then disappears It is one of a panoply of other such emotions, all of which play important functions, but none of which become ends in themselves – ‘the pursuit of happiness’ should sound as strange as ‘the pursuit of guilt’ or ‘the pursuit of anger’, if they were to be posited as basic goals in life Preface  ix So this book is premised on a very simple proposal – that ‘happiness’ has come to be used mistakenly as an end to be aimed for rather than being merely an ephemeral emotion It is time to drop the illusions and delusions that are a consequence of such an impossible pursuit Instead, we need to pursue our valued roles and goals, our relationships, and our hobbies in and of themselves Meaningful work, connection through relationships and the occasional holiday in Italy go a long way to making life tolerable, and then dealing as best you can with the adversities that inevitably come at you If your pursuits offer fleeting feelings of happiness, and of course many other emotions along the way, so be it However, this proposal will not sit well with those who make their money from the happiness industry – those who attempt to market it, to bottle it, and to prescribe it The American-led positive psychology movement will not be at all happy, especially when along the way I challenge some of their cherished proposals, such as criticising their claims about the supposed importance of optimism However, it is important to note that the positive psychology movement is not just a one-coloured coat that simply promotes the pursuit of happiness, which it can be mistakenly portrayed as from the outside, but it is a coat of many colours and there are many points of commonality, especially in its consideration of the ‘virtuous life’ When it comes to thanking my own family, friends and colleagues, perhaps I should start with my son Liam, a philosopher by training and a musician by trade, who, I hope, is soon to step into considerable musical success, and who frequently reminded me of how much us moderns are merely recycling Ancient Greek ideas To colleagues, students and friends over many years for those many stimulating discussions – Charlie Sharp, Tim Dalgleish, Andy MacLeod, Eleanor Sutton (especially for Chapter 2), Augustina Skoropadskaya, Lorna Champion, Dave Peck, Ann Green, Kath Melia, Mick Quille – to name but a few, I give thanks I have also had the good fortune to be part of the World Health Organization WHOQOL Group for the study of quality of life and well-being since the early 1990s, for which I thank a succession of WHOQOL coordinators, including Norman Sartorius, John Orley, Rex Billington and our current WHO minder, Somnath Chatterji Through the WHOQOL Group, I have visited parts of the world that I did not even know existed, and I have met and worked with an extraordinarily hospitable and talented group of people – Kathryn Quinn, Monika Bullinger, Lajos Kullman, Martin Eisemann, Eva Dragomirecka, Svetlana Akolzina, Olga Kishko, Miyako Tazaki, Yuantao Hao, Jiqian Fang, Don Bushnell, Marcelo Fleck, Neusa Sica da Rocha, Willem Kuyken, Ramona Lucas, Eduardo Chachamovich and Marianne Amir (who has sadly passed away) I must especially thank Martin Eisemann and his colleague Knut Waterloo for the many adventurous trips to Tromsø in Norway, where last winter I finally gazed in wonder at the Northern Lights I must also thank my brother Ken for his insights into the 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Calhoun, L J 68, 159 Campbell-Sills, L 63 Capellanus, A 27, 28, 30 Carrico, A W 107 Carroll, B J 36 Carson, J 123 Carstensen, L 15 Carver, C S 61, 126 Casey, R J 62 Caspi, A 62 Cassidy, F 36 Cavanagh, J 34, 36 Chaiken, S 84, 147, 149 Chambless, D L 59 Champion, L A 10 188  Author index Chang, E C 136 Chang, J 90 Chang, W C 136–137 Chen, Y Y 109 Chentsova-Dutton, Y E 65 Cheung, R Y 64 Chomsky, N 11 Christie, H 145, 149 Cipriani, A 82 Clark, A E 13 Clifton, D O 163 Clore, G L 40–41 Cohen, A B 107 Cohen, F 126 Colman, C H 143 Colman, W 29 Compton, M T 82 Copernicus, N 25 Corbetta, M 147 Costa, P T 138 Coyne, J C 129–130 Craighero, L 77 Csikszentmihalyi, M 16 Dalgleish, T 4, 5, 6, 23, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39–40, 54, 55, 57, 59, 64, 68, 76, 77, 84, 87, 101, 131, 145, 150, 152, 160 Darwin, C 25, 57, 111–113 Dattore, P J 128 David, R 95 Davies, M 30, 60 Davis, P J 45–46 Dawkins, K 46 Dawkins, R 102, 157–158 Deary, I 128 Deaton, A 13, 16 De Botton, A 105 Deci, E M Del Valle, C H C 134 Denes-Raj, V 150 Dennett, D 100 Denollet, J 132 Derakshan, N 43, 45, 46, 131 Descartes, R Dickerhoof, R 119 Diener, E 5, 8, 13, 15, 16, 19 DiGiuseppe, R 56, 63 Dixon, N 49 Dolan, P Drevenstadt, G L 108 Dupuy, H J 19 Earleywine, M 47 Eckersley, R 64 Ehrenreich, B 4, 118–119, 127 Ehring, T 63 Ekman, P 54, 55, 76, 151 Elliott, M 106 Emmons, R A 121–122, 123 Epicurus 9, 10 Epstein, S 150 Erdelyi, M H 44 Erikson, E 12 Eysenck, M 11, 14, 45, 46 Fallon, A E 57 Fava, G A 121, 124 Feldman, R S 61 Fenix, J B 105–106 Fincham, F D 127 Finstad, L 78 Finucane, A 125 Finucane, M L 148, 150 Fischer, P 75 Fischhoff, B 155 Fiske, S T 150 Flaubert, G 26 Flavell, J H 60 Fox, E 46 Fox, J R E 60 Frances, A 80, 84 Franklin, B 140 Franklin, S Franzini, L R 39 Frasure-Smith, N 132 Fredrickson, B L 7, 8, 40, 41, 43, 119–120, 124–125 Freud, A 62 Freud, S 29, 43, 44, 62, 66–67, 85, 102 Friedman, H S 165 Friedman, L C 129 Friedman, M 63–64, 130 Frith, U 60 Furnham, A 46 Fyvie, C 59 Ganzach, Y 150 Gardner, D 148 Gardner, H 60 Geddes, J R 82 Genesove, D 154 George, L K 13 Gibbons, R D 83 Author index  189 Gibson, B 126 Gilbert, P 69 Goldstein, A J 59 Goleman, D 60, 61 Goodwin, F 70 Gotlib, I H 63 Gould, S J 111 Green, A 29 Green, M 106 Greyson, B 103 Gross, J J 61, 62 Grossberg, J M 39 Gruber, J 37, 43 Gudjonsson, G H 45 Haidt, J 66 Halliday, J 90 Hansen, C H 45 Hardin, E E 136 Harrison, A 60 Harter, J K 163 Haslam, A 88 Hatfield, E 30, 31–32, 33, 77 Hayes, S C 138 Hazan, C 38–39 Hazlett, A 157 Healy, D 84 Helliwell, J F 14 Helmholtz, H von 84–85, 102 Higham, C 114 Hill, P C 107 Hills, P Hobson, P 60 Hochschild, A 76 Hoigard, C 78 Hummer, R A 106 Humphrey, N 101–102 Hutton, J 112 Idler, E L 106 Isaacowitz, D M 125, 129 Isen, A 40, 41, 42 Izard, C E 60, 120 James, W 108, 158–159 Jamison, K R 70 Janoff-Bulman, R 160 Jauhar, S 36 Johnson, S 37 Johnson, S C 107 Johnson-Laird, P N 53, 57, 100, 147, 151 Jones, S 38 Joorman, J 63 Jordan, M 130 Joseph, S 8, 160 Kagan, J 141 Kahneman, D 1, 2, 4, 6, 13, 16, 39, 41, 87, 132, 135, 147, 148, 151 Kammann, R 14 Karney, B R 126–127 Kashdan, T B 18, 52, 133, 137 Kasl, S V 106 Kasperson, R E 155 Kasser, T 64 Kato, T 138 Keane, M T 11 Keltner, D 154 Kenez, P 110 Kirk, A 77 Kitayama, S 65 Knapp, R J 65 Koenig, H G 106, 109 Kozma, A Kurokawa, M 65 Kurtz, M E 129 Laidlaw, K 15 Lambie, J 150 Larsen, R J 8, 61 Lawton, L E 158 Layard, R 5, 8, 13 LeDoux, J 85 Lee, J A 30, 31 Leong, F T L 136 Lepper, H 48 Lerner, J S 154 Leslie, A 111 Levav, I 106 Levi-Strauss, C 111, 114 Levin, I 51 Lewis-Williams, D 115 Loewenthal, K 106, 107, 108, 109, 159 Long, A A 9, 12 Long, J 115 Looby, A 47 Lopez, S J 18, 141, 162 Losada, M F 124–125 Lucas, R E 14 Luo, J 129 Lutz, C 36, 125, 136 190  Author index Lyell, C 112 Lyubomirsky, S 16, 43, 48, 52, 119, 122–123, 124, 163 MacDonald, R Machiavelli 102 MacLeod, A K 40, 162 MacLeod, C 46 Macritchie, K 37 Main, M 38 Malatynska, E 65 Mallandain, I 30 Marcel, A 150 Markus, H R 65 Marmot, M 131 Martin, L L 10 Martin, L S 165 Maslach, C 87 Maslow, A H 10, 12, 20 Mateos, P M 134 Matthews, G 130 Mauss, I B 64 Mayer, C 154 McCrae, R R 138 McCullough, M E 108, 121–122 McGreal, R McGregor, I 108–109 McIntosh, D N 108 McIntosh, W D 10 McKenna, M C 131 McMahon, D McNulty, J K 126–127 Melnechuk, T 120 Meyer, J D 60 Michalczuk, R 48 Mill, J S 52 Milner, P 11–12, 47 Mischel, W 127 Mitte, K 132 Mols, F 129 Moore, T A Morris, H 113 Mund, M 132 Myers, L B 44, 46, 132 Nakaya, N 128 Neisser, U 137 Nemeroff, C B 82 Newman, L S 134 Newton, I 25 Nixon, D 80 Norem, J 133–134 Nozick, R 11, 12 Ntoumanis, N 135 Oatley, K 32–33, 53, 57, 59, 151 O’Connor, L E 65 O’Gorman, J 131 Okun, M A 13 Olds, J 11–12, 47 O’Neill, M 79 Orley, J 22 Oxman, T E 108 Palgi, Y 157 Pargament, K I 107 Park, I J 64 Pateman, C 78 Pavlov, I 10 Peale, N V 2–3 Petersen, T 83 Philipp, A 77 Philippot, P 61, 62 Phillips, K F V 61–63 Phipps, S 130, 131 Piaget, J 110–111 Pickett, K 2, 3–4, 9, 13, 16–17, 50, 64, 81, 164 Pietrantoni, L 161 Pinker, S 1, 92 Plath, S 70–71 Plato 28 Podoshen, J 156 Power, M J 4, 5, 6–7, 10, 13, 20, 23, 24, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39–40, 43, 46, 48, 54, 55, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61–63, 64, 66, 68, 69, 76, 77, 82, 84–5, 87, 88, 89, 95, 100–2, 103, 105, 111, 113, 116, 131, 145, 150, 152, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162 Prati, G 161 Prien, R F 82 Prosen, H 29 Pury, C L S 141 Putnam, R D 14, 104, 164 Rachman, S J 88 Rapson, R L 30, 31–32, 33 Reeve, J 41 Reicher, S D 74, 88 Author index  191 Reynolds, J 64 Richards, J M 63 Ricks, D F 6, Rilke, R M 30 Ringdal, G I 108 Rizzolatti, G 77 Roberts, R D 60 Rose, J P 136 Rosenman, R M 63–64, 130 Ross, J M 29, 106 Rottenberg, J 137 Rowe, D 150 Rozin, P 7, 57, 69 Ruini, C 121, 124 Russell, G W 74 Russell, V M 127 Ryan, R M Ryff, C D 121 Salovey, P 44, 60 Sanbonmatsu, D M 126 Sanders, T 78, 79–80 Sandvik, E Scheff, T 28 Scheier, M F 61, 126 Scherer, K 61 Schupbach, H 77 Schwartz, G E 45, 46 Schwarz, N 148 Schwartz, R M 125 Searle, J 101 Sedley, D N 9, 12 Seligman, M E P 2, 4, 15–18, 119, 120–121, 122, 124, 125, 130, 132 Sen, A 20 Shafir, E 154 Shakespeare, W 28, 29, 51 Shaver, P R 32, 38–39 Shelton, C S 123 Shepperd, J A 134–135 Shipley, B A 128 Shulman, G L 147 Shushan, G 103–104 Simonton, D K 69 Sin, N L 122–123 Sincoff, J B 43, 45 Singer, B H 121 Singer, J L 43 Sivam, R W 136–137 Skinner, B F 10, 11 Sloman, S A 148 Slovic, P 148 Smith, T B 107 Snowdon, D 120 Snyder, C R 18 So, S H 138 Socrates 12, 28 Solomon, J 38 Spencer, S M 136 Spiegel, D 129 Spielberger, C D 45 Spilka, B 107 Spilker, B 19, 21 Sprecher, S 30 Steinberg, N 135 Sternberg, R 31 Stevenson, R L 29 Stewart, G 141 Stiglitz, J 164 Stobaeus 12 Stone, M 83 Stones, M J Storbeck, J 40–41 Storr, A 41, 145 Sun-Tzu 53, 72 Sutton, E 34–35, 49 Sweeny, K 134–135 Tafrate, R C 56, 63 Tajfel, H 73 Tallis, F 30, 32, 38 Tangney, J P 69 Tarsia, M 60, 69 Tedeshi, R G 68, 159 Tennov, D 32 Tiihonen, J 83 Toews, J 106 Trope, Y 84, 147, 149 Turner, J 73 Turvey, C 44 Tversky, A 151 Twain, M 94 Twenge, J 4, 44, 46–47 Tycocinski, O E 135 Tyldesley, J 98 Vaillant, G 62 Van Dijk, P A 77 Van Hiel, A 75 192  Author index Van Lommel, P 104 Vasconcelles, E B 109 Vatsyama, M 29 Veenhoven, R 6, 7, 8–9, 47 Vitterso, J 8, 13 Wall, P 52 Wann, D L 135 Watson, M 127–128 Weber, M 76 Webster, J D 123 Weinberger, D A 44–45 Weinstein, N D 134 Wells, A 67 Wells, H G 51 Wessman, A E 6, Westerhof, G J 123 Whitcomb, J 113 Wilkinson, R 2, 3–4, 9, 13, 16–17, 50, 64, 81, 164 Wilkinson, T 92, 97, 98 Withey, S B 14 Wong, D 81 Woodward, M 131 Wright, B A 162 Wykes, T 48 Zeelenberg, M 154 Zeno 12 Zimbardo, P 85–88 SUBJECT INDEX abuse 116 accidie 59 affect heuristic 148–149, 152, 156 afterlife 94, 95–104, 117, 161 aggression 55–56, 74 alcohol 1, 47–48 amusement 55, 125 Ancient Egyptians 94, 95–98, 114 anger 55–56, 65–66, 154–155; constructive 66 Angkor 114 animism 111 anniversaries 68 antidepressants 81–83 anxiety 4, 56, 66–67; signal anxiety 66–67 apostasy 157–159 appraisal 5, 7, 53, 54, 56, 73, 152 arete (see virtue) atheism 105, 109–110, 116–117 attachment 30, 38–39 attentional deployment task 46 attitudes 84 autistic-spectrum disorders 60, 61 autobiographical memory task 46 automatic processes 101, 149–151 awe 59 ba 97 behaviourism 10–11 belief inflexibility 138 bereavement 138 Bhutan 5, 72 bias 39–43, 134, 138, 146, 150 bipolar disorders 37–38, 82 Buddhism 102 bulimia 60 cancer 118–119, 127–130 capital 5, 104 caregiving 105–106 child development 110–111 church attendance 106, 109 Churchill, Winston 145 cognitive science 100 conditioning 10–11 conjunction fallacy 151 consciousness 100–103 constructivism 137 contempt 58 controlled processes 149–151 conversion 158–159 coping 107–109, 129–130, 138, 161 coronary heart disease (CHD) 63–64, 130–132 counterfactual thinking 135 creativity 69–71, 162 culture 23–24, 32, 64–65, 135–137, 138; bound syndromes 59; collectivist 8–9, 136; individualistic 8–9 194  Subject index deception 102 de Clerambault’s Syndrome 39 decision making 42 Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm 40–41 defences 62 depression 37–38, 41, 59–60, 63, 64–65, 70, 82, 106 diathesis-stress models 108 dictators 90–91 directed forgetting task 46 disgust 57, 58, 68–69, 155–156; self-disgust 59–60 dissociation 62 Donner Party 141–143 drives 6–7 drugs 47–48 dualism 100, 102 dual process models 147–151 Duchenne smile 76 economics 5, 145–146, 153, 155–156, 164 elation embarrassment 58 emergent property 101, 102 emotion: basic emotions 53–54, 151–152; complex emotions 57–59, 65; coupling 59–60; dimensional approach 152; moral emotions 66, 69; negative emotions 4, 18, 124 emotion regulation 60–65 emotional contagion 77 emotional dissonance 77 emotional intelligence 60 emotional labour 76–78 emotional priming task 60 essentialism 75 eudaimonia 121 evolution 101–102, 111–113 executive functions 101 gambling 48, 126, 150 generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 67 goals 10, 19, 33, 101 golden section (ratio) 124–125 gratitude 121–123 grief 68 Gross National Happiness (GNH) 5, 72 guilt 68, 69 habituation 10 happiness 54–55, 152–153, 161, 166; broaden-and-build theory 40, 124–125; correlates of 7–8, 13–14, 16–18; definition 1, 5–8; disorders of 35–36; eudaimonic approaches 5–6, 12–13 ; formula 16–17, 119; hedonic approaches 5–6; hedonic treadmill 13–15; measures of 8–9; set-point 14–15 health behaviours 106–107, 137 heaven 99 hedonism hell 98 hindsight bias 135 Hindu caste system 69 homicide 34, 83 humanistic psychology 10 hypomania 36 hypothalamus 11–12 Ifaluk 35–36, 125, 136 illusion of control 132–133 imagery 134 immortality illusion 102 immune system 126 indicators 3–4, 5, 14, 20 ingroup-outgroup 73–74, 93, 105 inhibition 61, 63 interactionism 127, 140–141 internal representations (see meaning) joy 7, 9, 120 facilitation 120 fear 56, 59, 153 financial crisis 48–49, 50 flexibility 24–25, 43, 62, 137–138, 144, 157, 165–166 flourishing 124–125 football 74–75 frustration-aggression hypothesis 55–56 functionalism 52–54, 71, 124 ka 97 Kama Sutra 29 koro 59 La Guerra Del Futbol 74 life satisfaction 6, 19 lifestyle 24, 164 limbo 99 Subject index  195 longevity 106, 120 Losada line 124–125 loss aversion 154 love: companionate love 30, 33; infatuation 34–35; lovesickness 28–29, 30; passionate love 30, 31–33, 38; romantic love 27, 30, 38; triangular theory 31 mania 29, 34, 36–38 marriage 126–127 meaning: schematic models 37 meditation 116 memory 40, 150 meta-emotional representations 60–61 meta-emotional skills 60–61, 146 mood induction 155 multi-level models 4, 85 near-death experiences (NDEs) 103–104 negative affect 136 neural circuits 77 neurotheology 107 NICE guidelines 82 nostalgia 58 obsessional compulsive disorder (OCD) 57 optimism 49, 125–126, 129, 132–133, 134, 141; unrealistic 134, 136 out-of-body experiences (OBEs) 103 outrage 66, 155 pain 11, 52–53; congenital analgesia 52–53 parallel distributed processing (pdp) 84 personality: Big Five theory 138; neuroticism 128–129; Type A 63–64, 130–132; Type C 64, 127–128; Type D 64, 129 personality disorders: narcissistic 4, 100; psychopathy 87 pessimism 125–126, 133–135, 141, 143; defensive 133–135, 136–137; retroactive 135 pharmaceutical industry 81–84 physiology 45, 120 Plath, Sylvia 70–71 pleasure 7, 9–12 positive affect 119–120, 121, 136 positive psychology 2–3, 4, 25–26, 27, 52, 71, 80, 91–92, 118–119, 123–124, 126–127, 132–133, 136, 140, 165–166 positive reminiscence 123 post-traumatic growth 68, 159–161 post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) 56, 59 prayer 116–117 pride 125 priming 60 Prozac 81–83 psychodynamic theories 29, 85 purgatory 99 quality of life 6, 10, 19–24 realism 132–133, 137 reductionism 100 regret 154, 163 religion 75 (see also Chapter 5) repression 43–47, 128, 130 repressors 45–46, 49–50, 131–132 sadness 53, 54, 67–68, 153–154 schadenfreude 7, 55 self-concept 49 self-criticism 134, 136 sex crimes 33–34 sex industry 78–80 shame 68, 69, 156 shopping situationism 87 sociability 25 social identity theory 73–75, 77 social support 163–164 socio-emotional selectivity theory 15 soul 100 SPAARS; bipolar disorders and 38–39; summary of 147–148 Stanford prison experiment 85–88 stereotypes 41–42 stigmatisation 155 stoicism 12–13 Stroop task 46 submissiveness 65, 69 suicide 83, 162 superstition 108 suppression 64 taste aversions 57 tears 57 196  Subject index television 5, 104 temperament 62 theory of mind (TOM) 110–111 therapy 41, 83, 166; emotion-focused 66; positive 121; well-being 121, 124 tourism trauma 68, 160–161 unconscious 44, 85, 101 universals 11 utilitarianism 11 vigilance 67 violence 92–93 virtue 12 volunteering 104 war 88–90 WHOQOL measures 19–24 well-being 19 wisdom 15 worry 67 Zoroastrianism 98 ... Akolzina, Olga Kishko, Miyako Tazaki, Yuantao Hao, Jiqian Fang, Don Bushnell, Marcelo Fleck, Neusa Sica da Rocha, Willem Kuyken, Ramona Lucas, Eduardo Chachamovich and Marianne Amir (who has sadly... detailed discussion of happiness as defined above by authors such as Veenhoven and Wessman and Ricks Joy may be conceptualised as the emotional state related to an appraisal that a valued goal... this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Power, Michael J., author Understanding happiness : a critical review of positive psychology /