EDUC10057 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cognitive Flexibility
10 Jun 2018
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EDUC10057 – WELLBEING, MOTIVATION, & PERFORMANCE
LECTURE 6 . 1 – HAPPINESS (GUEST LECTURER)
1) Don’t try to be happy: if happiness is a goal & you try hard to achieve it, you’ll be disappointed if
you’re not making enough progress less happy more disappointment even less happy
2) Don’t expect others to be happy: we live in a culture that highly values happiness – see sadness as a
problem to be solved, eradicated, medicated
• However, countries that value positive emotions more do tend to have higher life satisfaction
• Therefore, valuing positive emotions only becomes an issue when it turns into social pressure to
avoid negative feelings
• Social expectancies cause us to evaluate ourselves, so if we don’t see ourselves as being
sufficiently happy it can result in intensity negative emotions, frequency negative
emotions, satisfaction with life, & higher rates of depression
• Pressure for happiness made people ruminate more about their failure in experiment
• Sad people (higher negative effect) feel more lonely
3) Seek out more unhappiness:
• Our happiest moments are often associated with negative emotions
• Benefits of pain: promotes social bonding & cooperation, builds resilience, improves mood /
regulates emotions (e.g. exercising), increases presence, creates meaning / value
• Stop seeing happiness as the goal. Focus instead on social connection, doing good & finding meaning
• See value in our negative experiences & build our capacity to respond to them more adaptively
• Stop protecting, allow exposure to discomfort & risk
LECTURE 6 . 2 – EMOTIONS
Emotions: are transient (unlike moods), initiated by meaning
associations (either a conscious or unconscious appraisal
process), & involve multi-component systems (cognitive
processing, facial expressions, physiological changes)
• Negative emotions: generate specific thought-action tendencies, giving us an evolutionary advantage
to survive in threatening situations, & often activating the flight, fight, freeze response
• E.g. fear escape. Anger attack. Disgust expel
• Positive emotions: generate non-specific thought-action tendencies, which allow us to strengthen our
personal resources, thereby increasing our resilience to future threats
• E.g. joy play: push the limits & be creative. Interest explore: take in new info/experiences.
Pride share news of the achievement with others & envision even greater future achievements
• Top 10: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, inspiration, amusement, awe, love
• Broaden-and-Build Theory: +ve emotions
broaden (new relationships, activities, thoughts)
build (enduring personal resources: social
support, resilience, skills, knowledge)
enhanced survival (health, fulfilment) +ve
emotion
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