Will Misenheimer

Deby Jizi

UWRT 1102-028

21 February 2016

Double Entry Journal

Citation:Gilbert, Dan. “The Surprising Science of Happiness.” TED.com. Sep 2006. Web. 21 February

2016.

Source: Quote (Page# or Paragraph #) Responses

2- “Human beings have this marvelous adaptation that they can actually have experiences in their heads before they try them out in real life.”

This is really interesting! I feel like I do have the capability to simulate certain experiences and situations inside of my head. I believe this is shown in daily conversation. For example, before and even during baseball games, I would “get in my zone” and simulate real game feeling before the situations became present. This would help me to feel more comfortable once the game and certain in-game situations occurred.

2- “Here's two different futures that I invite you to contemplate. You can try to simulate them and tell me which one you think you might prefer. One of them is winning the lottery. This is about 314 million dollars. And the other is becoming paraplegic.”

This would be a very easy decision to make for most people. I would bet my money that almost everyone said that they would prefer to be a 300+ million dollar lottery winner rather than endure the terrible ordeal of becoming a paraplegic.

3- “Because the fact is that a year after losing the use of their legs, and a year after winning the lotto, lottery winners and paraplegics are equally happy with their lives.”

I would certainly believe this. While at first glance one may think that this is a ridiculous statistic, I believe that it could be true because of the amount of time the subject has had to transition into his or her new life. After a year, the paraplegic and lottery winner would both be equally as transitioned and accustomed to their new lives.

4- “Moreese Bickham uttered these words upon being released. He was 78 years old.

This is amazing to me. I love his perspective and healthy mindset. It is really interesting

He'd spent 37 years in a Louisiana State Penitentiary for a crime he didn't commit. [He was ultimately released for good behavior halfway through his sentence.] What did he say about his experience? "I don't have one minute's regret. It was a glorious experience."

that he was able to be falsely prosecuted, deprived of 37 years, and still managed to love it and not regret a single minute. Mr. Bickham certainly has a very positive perspective.

5- “Natural happiness is what we get when we get what we wanted, and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don't get what we wanted.”

I agree with Dan Gilbert that not getting what we want can make us just as happy as getting something we want. I believe that this is because when we get what we want, we no longer have something to look forward to, but when we do not get what we want, it sometimes seems to fuel our feelings of positivity that we still have something to look forward to.

7- “Here's what normal controls do: they synthesize happiness. Right? This is the change in liking score, the change from the first time they ranked to the second time they ranked.”

I certainly believe this statistic. I think that ever since our “mine” stage as young children, we have naturally grown to love the stuff that is ours. I think that this may possibly affect the reason that some of the subjects changed their minds to the ones to prefer the prints that they were given.

8- “Both right before the swap and five days later, people who are stuck with that picture, who have no choice, who can never change their mind, like it a lot! And people who are deliberating -- "Should I return it? Have I gotten the right one? Maybe this isn't the good one? Maybe I left the good one?" -- have killed themselves.”

I agree because I have definitely experienced this before. I have found that once a decision is made for me, it is much easier for me to come to peace with it; however, if I am given a choice, I will constantly be on the fence and questioning myself about which is the best choice.

9- “" Duh! 66 percent of the students, two-thirds, prefer to be in the course where they have the opportunity to change their mind. Hello? 66 percent of the students choose to be in the course in which they will ultimately be deeply dissatisfied with the picture. Because they do not know the conditions under which synthetic happiness grows.”

This is really interesting! This really inspires me to learn more about synthetic happiness and how I can use it to my advantage. If I can take the pain of making a decision and understand that I can be just as happy with the alternative, then I think that I can increase my level of happiness.

10- “'Tis nothing good or bad / But thinking makes it so."

This is really interesting. My high school chemistry teacher told me one time that she has seen students change their answers on multiple choice tests simply because they’ve had over 3 of the previous letters in a row. For example, a student may have had 3 C’s

in a row, therefore, he or she changed his or her answer because he or she believed that it was unlikely that the 4th “C” would be correct. If I am given the chance to think, I will sometimes over-think.

11- “"The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to arise from overrating the difference between one permanent situation and another -- Some of these situations may, no doubt, deserve to be preferred to others, but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice, or to corrupt the future tranquility of our minds, either by shame from the remembrance of our own folly, or by remorse for the horror of our own injustice."

I agree with this statement, In a short and sweet manner, I believe that Adam Smith is saying that when we think that what we are getting will surely make us happy, we may not receive as much happiness as the alternative, which we falsely perceived to not give us any happiness. Be optimistic. We can surely find happiness in most circumstances.