Assignments for 2nd weekend:

• Email Concepts/Core Virtures/Ideas by Sunday Jan 20, 2008
• Read all of Introduction to Positive Psychology by Compton and post to your blog.
• Activities 1 & 2: Complete the activities and post to your blog.
• Responses:  Do a total of 6 responses/comments to other students blogs.                                              (see website handout and syllabus for due dates and instructions)

Assignments for 3rd weekend:

Activities:

 

An overview:

"There are three distinct kinds of happiness: First, the Pleasant Life, consists of achieving as many pleasures as possible and having the skills to amplify the pleasures. This is, of course, the only true kind of happiness from the Hollywood view. Second, the Good Life, which consists in knowing what your signature strengths are, and then recrafting your work, love, friendship, leisure and parenting to use those strengths to have more flow in life. Third, the Meaningful Life, which consists of using your signature strengths in the service of something that you believe is larger than you are.

The Pleasant Life (pleasures), the Good Life (engagement), and the Meaningful Life (investment in something larger than self): The first two are subjective, but the third is at least partly objective and lodges in belonging to and serving what is larger and more worthwhile than the just the self's pleasures, desires, and gratification. In this way, "Authentic Happiness" synthesizes all three traditions: The Pleasant Life is about happiness in Hedonism's sense. The Good Life is about happiness in Desire's sense, and the Meaningful Life is about happiness in An Objective List's sense. To top it off, Authentic Happiness further allows for the "Full Life," a life that satisfies all three criteria of happiness." - modified from Martin E. P. Seligman's Authentic Happiness website.

Activity 1: Elevator Ride ("Goin' Up!" and "Down Please!")

Effective self-regulation is an important key to successful functioning in many life domains (academic, family, leisure, personal growth/ development, health and fitness, romantic, social, spiritual, work), and failed self-regulation may promote forms of maladaptive "escape from self," including violence, substance abuse and addiction, masochism, eating disorders, etc (Baumeister, 1991, 2007).

Strong research supports that self-regulation functions as a limited resource, much like a strength or energy, especially as it becomes depleted after use. This leaves the depleted self subsequently vulnerable to impulsive and undercontrolled behaviors. The self's resources, which are also used for decision-making and active responding, can be replenished by rest, slowing your thinking, and positive emotions.

Assignment: Create a two page response paper on 4 activities (2 for lifting your mood, 1 for limiting your rumination - incessant, ongoing self-talk - , and 1 to reduce your physiological arousal) you chose and practiced for:

1) Goin' Up: Strategies for lifting your mood/ increasing positive emotions (i.e., exercise, socializing, humor, visiting a museum, playing music, going to a show).

2) Down Please: Strategies for slowing your cognitive processes and physiological arousal as much as possible (i.e., thought-stopping, meditation, counting the breath, hand/foot warming, imagery).

Give specific examples of how and when you used each kind of strategy. What was the outcome? What was most effective? What obstacles or difficulties might you have had? How will you approach this in the future?

Try to address strategies you would use to address negative emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological circumstances (remember the lecture from the first night on how humans tend to use more time and energy trying to escape the bad, than increase the good), but also to positively alter neutral states. The key is to have a variety of strategies that you can use throughout the day and in a variety of circumstances (a dark, quiet room, or in the middle of Times Square!).

Activity 2: Gemeinschaftsgefuhl: "Do Unto Others"

"Invest" at least two hours in the assistance of others. This can be through listening to another, teaching someone a skill, writing a story for your loved one/ones, volunteering in a community project, etc. Be creative and remember that you don't need to limit this to a large group or cause. It can be the "minute particulars," in day-to day life that truly make a difference for others. Write a response about what your experience was like in being "philanthropic," and what the response was from the recipient. Contrast this with your cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses after a "pleasurable" (sensory) experience.

Activity 3: "Three Blessings"

Every night for a week, right before you go to bed, write down three things that went really well that day. These things can be ordinary and small in importance. Write down what happened and why each happened.

Optional: After you have listed the three good things and why they happened, pick one that you would like to dream about. Seligman suggests that "positive dreams increase life satisfaction and consolidate the memories of good events, so it is worth the effort to try to influence your dreams." To increase the chance of having a positive dream, he suggests you: 1) Give the positive event a name; 2) Visualize it; and 3) As you go to sleep say the name over and over, visualize it, and intend to dream about it. In the morning: 1) Write down your positive dream, and 2) Note your mood when awakened in the morning." - Martin Seligman, 2005

Activity 4: "A Beautiful Day"

Following Seligman's definition of The Full Life (pleasures, strengths, meaning), design "A Beautiful Day." It can be designed following a 24-hour clock day, or just objectives you establish, that is within the realm of possibility for you to live currently.

1. Create a timeline or objectives. Explain why you chose each element, and how it relates to "The Full Life."

2. Live the day, without telling others you are doing this activity.

3. Respond to these questions:

Part 1: Were you successful in living that day? Why or why not? Were all of the qualities of your beautiful day truly beautiful? Why or why not? What would you now change about your perception of a beautiful day?

Part 2: Is there any action you might take to move toward achieving a "beautiful day" on a more regular basis? How does your conception of a "beautiful day" fit in with your life's goals?

Activity 5: "The Gratitude Letter and Visit"

1. Think of a person in your life who has been kind to you but whom you've never properly thanked. Write a detailed ''gratitude letter'' to that person, explaining in concrete terms why you're grateful. Include specifics about what they did for you, and exactly how it affected your life. Tell what you are doing now and how what they did socially influenced you.

2. Visit with that person and read the testimony aloud.

3. Write down what the experience was like for you to think of the person, write the letter, and how the visit turned out for you and the person you visited.

Activity 6: Forgiveness and Forget About Forgetting

"I am kind to those who are kind. I am also kind to those who are unkind, thus increasing kindness." - Tao Te Ching

"If we could read the secret histories of our enemies, we should find in each man's life, sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"I expect to pass through this life but once.  If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do for my fellow being, let me do it now ... as I shall not pass this way again." - William Penn

Scientific research on interventions to promote forgiveness is sparse. There are two main models:

A. Pyramid Model of Forgiveness (Worthington): A version of an empathy model of intervention. This theory speculates there may be a neurobiological foundation for forgiveness. The five steps spell out REACH.

1.) Recall the Hurt. When we are hurt, we often try to protect ourselves by denying our hurt. We think, often correctly, that if we don't think about it, it won't bother us. But if unforgiveness keeps intruding into your happiness or gnawing ulcers in your gut, consider forgiving. Recall the hurt as objectively as possible. Don't rail against the person who hurt you, waste time wishing for an apology that will never be offered, or dwell on your victimization. Instead, admit that a wrong was done to you and set your sights on its repair.

2.) Empathize. Empathy involves seeing things from another person's point of view, feeling that person's feelings, and identifying with the pressures that made the person hurt you. To empathize with your offender's experience, write a brief letter to yourself as if you were the other person. How would he or she explain the harmful acts?

3.) Altruistic gift of forgiveness. Empathy can prepare you for forgiving, but to give that gift of forgiveness, consider yourself. Have you ever harmed or offended a friend, a parent, or a partner who later forgave you? Think about your guilt. Then consider the way you felt when you were forgiven. Most people say, "I felt free. The chains were broken." Forgiveness can unshackle people from their interpersonal guilt. By recalling your own guilt and the gratitude over being forgiven, you can develop the desire to give that gift of freedom to the person who hurt you.

4.) Commit to forgive. When you forgive, you can eventually doubt that you have forgiven. When people remember a previous injury or offense, they often interpret it as evidence that they must not have forgiven. If you make your forgiveness tangible, you are less likely to doubt it later. Tell a friend, partner, or counselor that you have forgiven the person who hurt you. Write a "certificate of forgiveness," stating that you have, as of today, forgiven.

5.) Hold onto forgiveness. When you have doubts about whether you have forgiven, remind yourself of the Pyramid, refer to your certificate of forgiveness, and tell yourself that a painful memory does not disqualify the hard work of forgiveness that you have done. Instead of trying to stop thoughts of unforgiveness, think positively about the forgiveness you have experienced. If you continue to doubt your forgiveness, work back through the Pyramid.

Material excerpted from -

Worthington, E. (1998). "The pyramid model of forgiveness: Some interdisciplinary speculations about unforgiveness and the promotion of forgiveness." In Dimensions of forgiveness: Psychological research & theological forgiveness, ed. Everett L. Worthington, Jr., 107-138. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.

B. McCullough (2000): Definition of forgiveness: A pro-social change in the motivations to avoid or to seek revenge against a transgressor.

Four phases of forgiveness:

1. The Uncovering Phase: One examines defenses, confronts anger, admits shame, and gains cognitive insight from the injury.

2. The Decision Phase: One realizes that current strategies are insufficient, understands forgiveness as an option, and commits to forgiveness.

3. The Work Phase: One reframes the situation, acts from empathy, is aware of compassion, and accepts any pain associated with the process.

4. The Deepening Phase: One finds meaning in the event and process, realizes the need for forgiveness from others, achieves completeness and support, finds a new purpose in life, and is aware of a decrease in negative affect.

Assignment:

Use the information listed above to engage in the "act of forgiveness." Think of a person who you perceive has hurt you (remember our discussion of the victim-perpetrator research) and apply the steps to forgiveness. If the wound is traumatic, you might want the support of a friend or counselor if you choose to follow this process. Then write down what your process was like in using this material, and any other relevant material (challenges, benefits, response of the other, if appropriate, etc.).