Interdisciplinary Psychology:

     William Compton’s book was very informative and thorough.  The chapters were well thought out and organized.  Beginning with the definition of positive psychology and the history of its development, Compton offers an insight to how positive psychology materialized and how it continues to grow.  In part two of the book, chapters 3-6, Compton discusses positive emotional states.  Two of the chapters that stood out for me were Chapter 5 – Love and Well-Being and Chapter 6 -  Wellness, Health Psychology, and Positive Coping.  Chapter 5 interested me because just as the book states, “…the search for love and supportive relationships is a significant factor in the lives of many people.” mine included.  Before reading this book, I had read information on the studies of married couples being happier and healthier than single people, but two things I found particularly interesting about this chapter were:  1) Arlene Skolnick’s research on marital stability.  She states, “…each marriage is really two marriages: the husband’s and the wife’s.”  For some reason that statement really struck me because I have always thought of a marriage as two people coming together as one.  The idea of a marriage being two marriages makes perfect sense.  Skolnick discusses how each person in a marriage has a different interpretation of satisfaction in a marriage and that a “…a successful marriage is built on a variety of behaviors…What is less important is how people behave, just as long as those behaviors enhance affection, support, and the necessary processes.” (emphasis added because I found that comment interesting).  I would like to have read more about her theory of the “two marriages.”  2)  the Gottman’s suggestions to enrich a marriage.  Looking back on my marriage (I am currently divorced) I realize that a lot of were we went wrong was due to the fact we did not nurture our relationship.  We didn’t work on building our relationship on a daily basis.  It was much easier to walk away than try to fix our problems.  Having read their seven principles to make a marriage work, the fourth principle, Let Your Partner Influence You, is difficult for me.  I am stubborn in some ways and I can see (looking back on previous relationships) how I damaged relationships because of my stubbornness – something to work on.

  Activity 1:

            Two activities that I do to lift my mood are: exercise and spend time with my children.  With exercise, I would say I experience being in flow as described by William Compton in An Introduction to Positive Psychology.  This happens only when I run outside.  If I am lifting weights or running on the treadmill in a gym I am focused but I do not have a loss of self-consciousness.  When I run outside, my blood starts to pump before I even begin to run.  My heart starts to race as I get closer to my starting point.  When I run, my mind doesn’t wander; I am focused on every step I take and every breath I breathe.  My body relaxes and unwinds.  My breathing gets into rhythm with my legs.  Together they set a pace that stays with me until I finish.  When I am done I am exhilarated with no presence of time and I feel great. 

Positive Psychology                                                                                          Patricia Sims

Seminar Pass                                                                                                    02/02/08

    Often times when I am grouchy or sad or stressed out and have some time on my hands, I find that the absolute, number one, best strategy for lifting my mood is this:
    Step One: I go down to the gym in my apartment complex. Luckily most of the other tenants are old and like to smoke, so I have the room to myself. I play some awesome, super-amped-up tunes on my ipod, hop on the treadmill and run as fast as I can for as long as I can. Then I figure, since I’m already down here I might as well work out anyways.  This gets the endorphins going and gets rid of any anxiety.
    Once I’m done with that, Step two is to take a really long, hot shower. If there is any better mood lifter than a hot shower, I don’t know what it is, and I also don’t care. After the shower, I do my clay facial mask and a bunch of other girly stuff involving things that smell good. This has the added benefit of making me pleasant to be around, increasing my social activity, and thus my long-term happiness. If I don’t have enough time to do all this, watching a couple of funny videos on the internet works, too.

    My two hours in “assisting others” didn’t turn out the way I had expected. After going back and forth about what would be “noble” enough, a friend called me, she was pretty upset and didn’t know what to do. “Finally,” I thought. “This is my chance to be helpful and altruistic and whatever that ridiculously long word says!”  I did what any good friend would do I bought a six-pack of good beer and went over to her house.
    She is still fuming when I get to her house and hand her a beer. The problem, it turns out, is her boyfriend.  She feels that he’s been disrespectful but she doesn’t know how to fix the situation. After making the usual “oh no!” and “what a jerk!” and the “ he did what!” contributions for a while. I say that “Maybe he doesn’t realize what he did upset you. You should talk to him about it and let him know how you feel...” and so on and so forth, blah blah blah. You know how this goes.