TR 1070 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Daniel J. Siegel, Consilience, Cranial Nerves
Engagement is not just being into something but being REALLY into something
Flow, being in the moment, time stands still
•
Engagement=flow
Attention is really concentrated, but it also leads somewhere (builds) skills
are built
○
•
Engagement=building (key element of positive psychology)
•
Meaning - perMa
Seligman defines meaning as "belonging to and serving something that you
believe is bigger than the self"
•
To belong, serve, or believe in something that is bigger than yourself
•
"people living a meaningful life are very likely to be happier."
•
High levels of meaning = fewer negative emotions
Less "negative affect"
○
•
High levels of meaning = less "negative depression and anxiety", few problems
with "workaholism…suicidal ideation, and substance abuse" and have less need
for therapy
•
Having vs. seeking meaning
Having meaning is healthy
○
But seeking meaning is a mixed bag
Sometimes distressful
§
But sometimes has healthy outcomes
Searching builds on itself, developing skills and insights for
individuals that lead to greater horizons of meaning,
satisfaction, positive experiences and relationships, and hope
□
§
○
•
Victor Frankl
His "logotherapy" is built on the therapeutic benefits of a continuing
search for meaning
○
Meaning is the "primary motivational force" in humans
○
•
Accomplishments - permA
Often it is not the wealth, success, or fame that drives people but an autotelic
"winning only for winning's sake." (seligman)
•
Indeed some, the "accumulators", build their lives around winning, sacrificing
other things that generally make people happy
•
Positive Psychology: Major Research and Findings
Control of attention (savoring and mindfulness) correlated with happiness
Savoring (mindfulness) paying attention improves experience
Being in the present
§
○
Wine ???
○
•
Gratitude
Thankfulness/Gratitude correlated with happiness
○
•
Forgiveness (Mcullough, Pargament, & Thoresen, 2000)•
Thoughtful self-reflection (King, 2001)
Being aware of what is going on inside you
○
How you feel etc.
○
•
The Sacred Emotions
Faith and Hope correlated to happiness
○
Charity correlated to happiness
○
•
Charity/generosity: one of the best things a person can do to increase one's
quality of life is to help others increase their level of happiness and life
satisfaction. This applies to people at all levels of income and psychosocial
adjustment
•
Compare with 19th century disinterested benevolence
People's happiness makes you happy
○
•
Memory and happiness-recall a positive experience
The greatest increase in happiness comes from simply reliving happy
memories
○
•
Intensity vs Frequency of Positive experiences
Not the intensity of pleasurable experiences but the frequency that
matters most
○
"frequency is actually more important than intensity"
○
Consistently feeling moderate subjective well being has a more beneficial
effect than an occasional experience of bliss
○
•
Leisure correlated with happiness
Subjective well being is associated with time affluence across all income
levels
○
Having more time is more important than having more money
○
•
Play: recent interest in adult play and the value of adult playfulness
Stuart Brown (founder of National Institute of Play)
Argued that adults need to play in order to develop emotionally,
socially
§
○
•
Buying experiences makes you happier than buying material goods
Recent research findings have highlighted that people's well being
improves as they place relatively less importance on materialistic goals
and values
○
Whereas orienting toward materialistic goals relatively more is associated
with decreases in well being over time
○
Spending on experiences makes people happier than buying stuff
○
•
Positive communities = happier individuals •
Cognition and experience--how we think impacts how we feel •
Experiences can change what you experience
Control and focus of attention changes experience•
Experiences can change who you are •
CSV (Character Strengths and Values - WHO YOU ARE)
Character strengths, which were further classified under 6 classes of core
virtues:
•
Widom/knowledge
Creativity, curiousity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspectivea.
1.
Courage
Bravery, persistence, integrity, vitalitya.
2.
Humanity
Love, kindness, social intelligencea.
3.
Justice
Citizenship, fair self-regulationa.
4.
Transcendence
Appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor,
spirituality
a.
5.
Optional Writing Assignment
https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
Character Strength Evaluation:
https://www.viacharacter.org/www
Neurobiology PowerPoint
The sciences of Happiness: A Consilience
The sciences of happiness have made "parallel findings" about human well-
being
•
Daniel Siegel suggests that such findings and interests represent a consilience, a
significant convergence of theories and research results
•
A Healthy Mind
Whereas psychologists have had significant success identifying the elements
(the "empirical features") comprising Positive Subjective Experience PSE and
Positive Individual Traits PIT
•
"Positive Neuroscience" has made advances in the investigation of the
"neuroanatomy of pleasure" and the "neural mechanisms of human flourishing"
•
From the different perspectives of their disciplines, psychologists and
neuroscientists have identified a number of similar correlates with and sources
of both positive emotions (hedonics) and well-being (eudaimonics)
•
Definition of Mind
He defines mind as a "relational and embodied process that regulates the flow
of energy and information"
•
Systems Theory
Taking a systems approach to understanding the mind, he explains that mind
has a number of components, forming an open, dynamic, nonlinear, and
complex system
•
The embodied part of mind is a complex system in itself, including the three-
tiered brain, the spinal column, cranial nerves, clusters of neurons around the
heart and the gut
•
But the mind is also an open system, processing and regulating the energy and
information received by the brain as sensory data from outside (the relational
component)
•
Definition of healthy mind
Danial Siegel provides a solid foundation for a neurobiological approach to well-
being with his careful definition of mind and description of a "healthy mind"
•
Whereas positive psychology has been able to determine many of "empirical
features" of well-being, such as gratitude, compassion, open-mindedness, and
curiosity
•
Siegel claims that neuroscience has identified a "key-mechanism" responsible the
system's well-being "integration-the linkage of differentiated elements of a
system…illuminates a direct
•
pathway toward health"
A "Triangle of well being"
Siegel describes a "triangle of well-being" representing the interworkings of the
relational and embodied parts of mind
•
The key to well-being is integration
The coherent "linking" together of the three sides of the triangle
Brain, relationships, and mind
§
○
•
Integration requites differentiation--each component of the systems knowing its
place and doing its job--performing its "unique function"
•
In a "healthy" system, the differentiated parts relate together, integrated and
functioning harmoniously
•
Harmony
Imagine a group of singers, undifferentiated, singing the same note.
Rigidity and chaos and not integrated
○
•
Imagine the singers singing the parts of the same music together, integrated
Harmony and health
○
•
4/17 Lecture
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
2:01 PM
Engagement is not just being into something but being REALLY into something
Flow, being in the moment, time stands still•
Engagement=flow
Attention is really concentrated, but it also leads somewhere (builds) skills
are built
○
•
Engagement=building (key element of positive psychology)•
Meaning - perMa
Seligman defines meaning as "belonging to and serving something that you
believe is bigger than the self"
•
To belong, serve, or believe in something that is bigger than yourself •
"people living a meaningful life are very likely to be happier."•
High levels of meaning = fewer negative emotions
Less "negative affect"
○
•
High levels of meaning = less "negative depression and anxiety", few problems
with "workaholism…suicidal ideation, and substance abuse" and have less need
for therapy
•
Having vs. seeking meaning
Having meaning is healthy
○
But seeking meaning is a mixed bag
Sometimes distressful
§
But sometimes has healthy outcomes
Searching builds on itself, developing skills and insights for
individuals that lead to greater horizons of meaning,
satisfaction, positive experiences and relationships, and hope
□
§
○
•
Victor Frankl
His "logotherapy" is built on the therapeutic benefits of a continuing
search for meaning
○
Meaning is the "primary motivational force" in humans
○
•
Accomplishments - permA
Often it is not the wealth, success, or fame that drives people but an autotelic
"winning only for winning's sake." (seligman)
•
Indeed some, the "accumulators", build their lives around winning, sacrificing
other things that generally make people happy
•
Positive Psychology: Major Research and Findings
Control of attention (savoring and mindfulness) correlated with happiness
Savoring (mindfulness) paying attention improves experience
Being in the present
§
○
Wine ???
○
•
Gratitude
Thankfulness/Gratitude correlated with happiness
○
•
Forgiveness (Mcullough, Pargament, & Thoresen, 2000)
•
Thoughtful self-reflection (King, 2001)
Being aware of what is going on inside you
○
How you feel etc.
○
•
The Sacred Emotions
Faith and Hope correlated to happiness
○
Charity correlated to happiness
○
•
Charity/generosity: one of the best things a person can do to increase one's
quality of life is to help others increase their level of happiness and life
satisfaction. This applies to people at all levels of income and psychosocial
adjustment
•
Compare with 19th century disinterested benevolence
People's happiness makes you happy
○
•
Memory and happiness-recall a positive experience
The greatest increase in happiness comes from simply reliving happy
memories
○
•
Intensity vs Frequency of Positive experiences
Not the intensity of pleasurable experiences but the frequency that
matters most
○
"frequency is actually more important than intensity"
○
Consistently feeling moderate subjective well being has a more beneficial
effect than an occasional experience of bliss
○
•
Leisure correlated with happiness
Subjective well being is associated with time affluence across all income
levels
○
Having more time is more important than having more money
○
•
Play: recent interest in adult play and the value of adult playfulness
Stuart Brown (founder of National Institute of Play)
Argued that adults need to play in order to develop emotionally,
socially
§
○
•
Buying experiences makes you happier than buying material goods
Recent research findings have highlighted that people's well being
improves as they place relatively less importance on materialistic goals
and values
○
Whereas orienting toward materialistic goals relatively more is associated
with decreases in well being over time
○
Spending on experiences makes people happier than buying stuff
○
•
Positive communities = happier individuals •
Cognition and experience--how we think impacts how we feel •
Experiences can change what you experience
Control and focus of attention changes experience•
Experiences can change who you are •
CSV (Character Strengths and Values - WHO YOU ARE)
Character strengths, which were further classified under 6 classes of core
virtues:
•
Widom/knowledge
Creativity, curiousity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspectivea.
1.
Courage
Bravery, persistence, integrity, vitalitya.
2.
Humanity
Love, kindness, social intelligencea.
3.
Justice
Citizenship, fair self-regulationa.
4.
Transcendence
Appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor,
spirituality
a.
5.
Optional Writing Assignment
https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
Character Strength Evaluation:
https://www.viacharacter.org/www
Neurobiology PowerPoint
The sciences of Happiness: A Consilience
The sciences of happiness have made "parallel findings" about human well-
being
•
Daniel Siegel suggests that such findings and interests represent a consilience, a
significant convergence of theories and research results
•
A Healthy Mind
Whereas psychologists have had significant success identifying the elements
(the "empirical features") comprising Positive Subjective Experience PSE and
Positive Individual Traits PIT
•
"Positive Neuroscience" has made advances in the investigation of the
"neuroanatomy of pleasure" and the "neural mechanisms of human flourishing"
•
From the different perspectives of their disciplines, psychologists and
neuroscientists have identified a number of similar correlates with and sources
of both positive emotions (hedonics) and well-being (eudaimonics)
•
Definition of Mind
He defines mind as a "relational and embodied process that regulates the flow
of energy and information"
•
Systems Theory
Taking a systems approach to understanding the mind, he explains that mind
has a number of components, forming an open, dynamic, nonlinear, and
complex system
•
The embodied part of mind is a complex system in itself, including the three-
tiered brain, the spinal column, cranial nerves, clusters of neurons around the
heart and the gut
•
But the mind is also an open system, processing and regulating the energy and
information received by the brain as sensory data from outside (the relational
component)
•
Definition of healthy mind
Danial Siegel provides a solid foundation for a neurobiological approach to well-
being with his careful definition of mind and description of a "healthy mind"
•
Whereas positive psychology has been able to determine many of "empirical
features" of well-being, such as gratitude, compassion, open-mindedness, and
curiosity
•
Siegel claims that neuroscience has identified a "key-mechanism" responsible the
system's well-being "integration-the linkage of differentiated elements of a
system…illuminates a direct
•
pathway toward health"
A "Triangle of well being"
Siegel describes a "triangle of well-being" representing the interworkings of the
relational and embodied parts of mind
•
The key to well-being is integration
The coherent "linking" together of the three sides of the triangle
Brain, relationships, and mind
§
○
•
Integration requites differentiation--each component of the systems knowing its
place and doing its job--performing its "unique function"
•
In a "healthy" system, the differentiated parts relate together, integrated and
functioning harmoniously
•
Harmony
Imagine a group of singers, undifferentiated, singing the same note.
Rigidity and chaos and not integrated
○
•
Imagine the singers singing the parts of the same music together, integrated
Harmony and health
○
•
4/17 Lecture
Tuesday, April 17, 2018 2:01 PM