“And you, what do you think of optimism?”

Propelled ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 132-148
Author(s):  
Andreas Elpidorou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
The Face ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Positive Health Outcomes ◽  
Crucial Ingredient

The chapter illustrates the benefits (and in some cases, the dangers) of anticipation in the pursuit of the good life. It discusses how anticipation figures in decision-making, savoring, and optimism. It shows how anticipation can often boost our levels of subjective well-being and explains why anticipation is linked to numerous positive health outcomes. Anticipation also helps us to overcome life obstacles and remain resilient in the face of difficult challenges. Thus, anticipation is a crucial ingredient of the good life. In addition to its ability to prolong and amplify positive experiences, anticipation is a motivating mechanism that provides us with the emotional energy we need to pursue what we believe is significant and important.

“The secret to happiness may be unhappiness”

Propelled ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Andreas Elpidorou
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Philosophical Literature ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Emotional Adaptation ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Conception Of The Good

The chapter explores the nature of the good life, articulates the role that happiness, pleasure, and positive emotions play in such a life, and considers the effects of emotional adaptation and emotional diversity on our well-being. By drawing upon both philosophical literature and research in social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, it argues for a broad conception of the good life, one that does not identify the good life simply with the presence of positive experiences and the absence of negative ones. The chapter shows not only that negative experiences aren’t detrimental to our well-being, but that they are often necessary to achieve it.

scholarly journals The Joyful Life: An Existential-Humanistic Approach to Positive Psychology in the Time of a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Dean Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
Autobiographical Narrative

In the midst of a global pandemic, psychology has a duty to identify dispositional or character traits that can be cultivated in citizens in order to create resiliency in the face of profound losses, suffering and distress. Dispositional joy holds some promise as such a trait that could be especially important for well-being during the current pandemic and its consequences. The concept of the Joyful Life may operate as bridge between positive psychology and humanistic, existential, and spiritual views of the good life, by integrating hedonic, prudential, eudaimonic and chaironic visions of the good life. Previous phenomenological research on state joy suggests that momentary states of joy may have features that overlap with happiness but go beyond mere hedonic interests, and point to the experience of a life oriented toward virtue and a sense of the transcendent or the sacred. However, qualitative research on the Joyful Life, or dispositional joy, is sorely lacking. This study utilized a dialogical phenomenological analysis to conduct a group-based analysis of 17 volunteer students, who produced 51 autobiographical narrative descriptions of the joyful life. The dialogical analyses were assisted by integration of the Imagery in Movement Method, which incorporated expressive drawing and psychodrama as an aid to explicate implicit themes in the experiences of the participants. The analyses yielded ten invariant themes found across the autobiographical narrative descriptions: Being broken, being grounded, being centered, breaking open, being uplifted, being supertemporal, being open to the mystery, being grateful, opening up and out, and being together. The descriptions of a Joyful Life were consistent with a meaning orientation to happiness, due to their emphasis on the cultivation of virtue in the service of a higher calling, the realization of which was felt to be a gift or blessing. The discussion examines implications for future research, including the current relevance of a joyful disposition during a global pandemic. Due to the joyful disposition’s tendency to transform suffering and tragedy into meaning, and its theme of an orientation to prosocial motivations, the Joyful Life may occupy a central place in the study of resiliency and personal growth in response to personal and collective trauma such as COVID-19.

scholarly journals The good life in rural and urban Senegal: A qualitative and quantitative study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0252134
Author(s):  
Priscilla Duboz ◽  
Enguerran Macia ◽  
Amadou H. Diallo ◽  
Emmanuel Cohen ◽  
Audrey Bergouignan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
North East ◽  
Rural And Urban

Very few studies have analyzed the influence of the environment, rural or urban, on the notion of good life and subjective well-being in sub-Saharan Africa and none, to our knowledge, has combined qualitative and quantitative methodologies for this purpose. The objectives of this interdisciplinary study were: a) to understand the emic representations of the good life in rural and urban Senegal and; b) to compare the levels and determinants of satisfaction with life between these two populations. This study was carried out in Dakar and in a very isolated rural area in the North East of Senegal: the sylvo-pastoral zone of Ferlo. A total of six focus groups were conducted for the qualitative phase, while the quantitative phase was conducted on representative samples of the populations living in Dakar (N = 1000) and Téssékéré (N = 500). Our results indicate that, against all expectations, life satisfaction is better in the Senegalese Ferlo than in the capital, Dakar. This difference may be the joint result of less meaningful social comparisons and a relationship with nature as a source of stress restoration in rural areas. However, the lifeworld of the rural Fulani of the Ferlo is being undermined by global climatic disturbances, which imposes rapid adaptations of pastoralism; otherwise this activity, that is not only subsistence but also identity-based, may disappear.

Does subjective well-being predict health-enhancing behaviour? The example of fruit and vegetable consumption

2014 ◽  
Vol 116 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-610 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Ding ◽  
Barbara Mullan ◽  
Kristina Xavier
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Vegetable Consumption ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable Consumption ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Fruit And Vegetable ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Behavioural Control ◽  
Positive Health Outcomes

Purpose – Adhering to the guidelines regarding the consumption of fruit and vegetables is associated with positive health outcomes. Subjective well-being has been demonstrated to have a causal influence on positive health outcomes. The aim of this paper is to examine whether subjective well-being could add to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) in predicting fruit and vegetable consumption. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 72 undergraduates completed online measures of the TPB variables, subjective well-being components (happiness and life satisfaction) and fruit and vegetable consumption at a single time point. Findings – Subjective well-being made a significant contribution to the variance explained for both intention to consume fruit and vegetables and actual fruit and vegetable consumption (1.7% and 4.3%, respectively). Perceived behavioural control and happiness were found to be significant unique predictors of fruit and vegetable consumption. Originality/value – The TPB appears a useful model for predicting fruit and vegetable consumption, which is enhanced by the addition of subjective well-being variables. The current study provides direction to future interventions, suggesting that targeting perceived behavioural control and the subjective well-being component of happiness may be useful for improving fruit and vegetable consumption in young adults.

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