TR 1070 Lecture 21: 4-12 Perspective on Leisure and Play
5 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The New Sciences of Happiness--Positive Psychology
Historical Background
19th century into the 20th (optimistic)
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Idea of progress
From the enlightenment
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Reason = Freedom
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Moving away from consumerism
Consumerism is apart of the Forgotten American Dream
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Rely on Optimism to make our lives better
American dream is considered an optimistic time
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Science, reason and technology is THREATENING (endangering us) and no longer
freeing us
Giving us Hitler's ???
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History
20th century--more pessimistic
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Wars, Hitler, Stalin
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Technology--Power--missuse of power--tyranny
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Rise of corporate power
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Darwin, freud, marx
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Freedom, control (reason), progress = illusions
Using illusions to free us
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Progress does not bring us freedom
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The best we can hope for is work and for more work and increasing "need"
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Galbraithian Economics (perpetual scarcity)
Necessity is not getting smaller, it will always be the most important part
of our lives, because we will never have enough
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Psychology--concentrates on what's wrong
A therapeutic culture
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Positive Psychology
A New Optimism
He does not know why
Comes towards end of 20th century after pessimism
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Roots of Positive Psychology:
Humanistic Psychology--Carl Rogers
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Leisure Studies--Seppo Iso Ahola, Neulinger
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Leisure Studies INTRINSIC MOTIVATION, 1970s, Leisure--Play--Happiness
Found strong correlations between intrinsic motivation and
happiness/wellbeing
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Roots of Positive Psychology
The work on intrinsic motivation anticipated the development of Self-
Determination Theory (SDT), also a key feeder of the positive psychology
stream. Leading theorists and researchers Richard Ryan and Edward Deci
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Before: How motivation can be controlled from without (the previous emphasis
among psychologists)
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After: To "human motivation is functionally designed and experienced from
within
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Life is dealing with problems, and you have a choice on how you deal with your
problems
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SDT
3 innate psychological needs •
Autonomy•
Relatedness•
Competence•
With them=happy •
Without them=unhappy •
Key: "perceived freedom" correlates to "happiness" •
Measurable subjective states•
Freedom returns •
Positive Psychology
Martin Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Two big names
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The New Sciences of Happiness: Positive Psychology
1998•
Intrinsic Motivation: The one PERMA constant
Seligman insists that intrinsic motivation (expressed in an activity "done for its
own sake") rather than positive emotion is the one criterion that each of his five
PERMA "elements" must meet
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Not just happy-happy •
Each thing in PERMA must have intrinsic motivation
Worthwhile in and for itself
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No reward
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Perma
Positive emotion (joy, elation, gemutlichkeit) •
Emotions
Spontaneous, subcortical "drives"
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They "emerge"
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We (our executive brains) have to deal with them (react or respond)
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By definition they have an "affect" --they are positve or negative
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Emotions (mammalian) and Impulses (earlier)
Mid-brain origins
Anger, disgust, fear, joy/happiness, sadness, and surprise
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Brain stem origins:
Flight/fight
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Freeze/faint
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Thumb over palm--midbrain •
Wrist--spinal cord•
Palm--fight flight•
Finger nails--prefrontal cortex•
This is reason and control--the brain •
Positive Emotions-Perma
The 6 "basic" emotions (know 3 including joy for exam)
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy/happiness
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Sadness
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Surprise
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Cannot fake a smile•
Engagement-pErma
Seligman suggest that "flow" is the best way to understand engagement •
Flow
Term coined by csikszentmihalyi
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"being in the zone"•
At one with an intesnse activity that concentrates attention and effort •
Time seems to stop•
Feelings and mood are suspended•
Flow concentrates attention•
However, memory performs a vital role
Re-live
Enjoy the experience after it is over
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"the subjective state for engagement is only retrospective"--seligman•
Flow builds compencies
Skills that improve subsequent experiences
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Positive Relationships--peRma
Universal--lucy •
We are family •
4/12 Lecture
Saturday, April 14, 2018
9:17 PM
