In the chapter “July: Buy Some Happiness” from The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, sets out to find out how money affects a person’s happiness. She first introduces the reader as to why she is interested in finding out how money affects happiness and what money actually is. Throughout the chapter, the author gives the reader some background to what she had been doing throughout her year and why money was her focus on the month of July. Through her argument she presents her audience with the reasons as to why she believes that money can be used to buy happiness. With her attempts at making the reader reflect upon their own happiness, providing the purpose behind her research, and using relatable experiences she makes her argument very strong and comes to the…
Summary of Adam Grant Adam Grant’s article, “Does Trying to Be Happy Make Us Unhappy,” discusses finding happiness. Grant’s thesis indicates that, trying to be happy will not make us happy. He evaluates an individual case by applying different happiness related theories. At the beginning, Adam Grant points out that searching out for happiness is not a correct way of persuading happiness.…
What is “happiness” and how is it obtained? The word “happiness” is defined as ‘a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy’. The decisions people make on a day-to-day basis are to reach the ultimate goal of being happy. While everyone strives to obtain happiness, not everyone succeeds. In today’s society, happiness seems to be directly correlated with factors such as wealth or status.…
In, “The New Science of Happiness,” Claudia Wells discusses 3 great ways to become more happy. By getting more pleasure out of life, becoming more engaged in what you’re doing, and finding ways to make your life more meaningful, Wells explains these actions can greatly influence your happiness levels. Savoring each and every sensory drop from any given moment will increase your gratitude towards life's seemingly mundane interactions. Which brings us to the large topic of gratitude which Wells, in conjunction with studies by psychologist Robert Emmons, explains that “Gratitude exercises can do more than life one’s mood… they improve physical health, raise energy levels, and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieve pain and fatigue.”…
In the article, Can Money Buy You Happiness?, written by Amie M. Gordon, she explains whether or not money can really buy you happiness. She starts out the article by bringing us into her mind as she goes to buy some new shoes at the mall. As she is pulling into the parking lot she notices that the parking lot is overcrowded, and she wonders to herself if people had read an article going over the benefits of spending money on experiences rather than material goods. She believes that the spending of money on material goods will make you feel happy in the moment, but as time passes that happiness quickly goes away. However, the spending of money on experiences rather than material goods brings you happiness that doesn't just go away days after…
John Stuart Mill is a Consequentialist, and furthermore, a Utilitarian. Consequentialism is a category of ethical theories on moral action, meaning that the morality of actions are judged according to the consequences of them, and utilitarianism is a normative moral theory that falls into this category. For Mill, whether an act is morally right or not, depends on the pleasure and pain that lies in the consequences of that action. Mill writes Utilitarianism to explain the principles of utilitarianism and to “distinguish from what it is not” (364). He also addresses common misconceptions and criticisms of the ethical theory, but I will focus on the objection that utilitarianism is a doctrine fit for a swine.…
As stated by Yuuki Asuna, “Life isn’t just doing things for yourself. It’s possible to live in such a way that other people’s happiness, makes you happy too.” Doing something for oneself is selfish and pointless. Happiness has been pursued by the people who come to America, wanting the American dream, to be happy and get what they want. Not being happy even have a negative connotation to it.…
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” That’s what the people prior to us tell us, the next generation, but they tell us as they are sitting in their paid off Ford F150 with their fancy new iPhone watch and college tuition loans paid off. Because they are done, they have no daily stresses because they have “made it” in the real world. The rest of us, not the 99% not swimming in pools of diamonds, but the rest of us middle classers, 50% of Americans (Thuy Vo 2012), bring home less than 1,000 dollars a week, don’t (Matthews 2012). But that guy who owns an airport and seven jets sure looks a lot happier than the single mom with three kids who works 70 hours a week.…
Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: the Seven Principles That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. Virgin 2011. Shawn Achor the author of “The Happiness Advantage” an American Educator and author.…
Every individual has a different definition of how to achieve happiness in life, but many individuals associate that happiness with affluence. Affluence may give an individual the stability and materialistic values that are wanted in life, but it does not guarantee true happiness. Looking at the famous character Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, Scrooge had all of the wealth, power, and all of the material possessions that his money could buy yet in his heart he was still missing true happiness that came from the family and friends around him. Even though money can buy possessions that can give a person “happiness” the true desires for something deeper lie embedded in more than material values.…
Happiness Leads to Less Stress It’s safe to assume that more stress leads to less happiness, but is it safe to assume that happiness leads to less stress? Questions like these are those that social psychologists ask everyday. Social psychology originates from the broader study of psychology that focuses on human behavior in social settings (McLeod, 2007). There are a variety of research methods that social psychologist can employ such as, correlational, observational, and experimental.…
Jordan Mckenzie” by Stu Horsfield goes into both factual and optional depth of true happiness and what kinds of factors play into it. This article, in many ways, combines and goes further into what the first two article that we have read, which were “The Sources of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama and Cutler and “We have No Right to Happiness” by C.S. Lewis. But with this article, as I have mentioned before, goes deep into the source of it all: where it lies in our minds and our everyday daily actions. The main focus of this article is based on this quote: “I’m looking at people who fit within what we might call ‘normal,’ but who, in day to day life will feel happy and feel sad” (Stu Horsfield 178). This is important because the first article says that you deserves happiness while the second article explains that you will never have it and that you will never deserve it.…
Happy, a simple adjective to write but a feeling that everyone is wishing to get every day. But what does really mean to be happy? Is it being famous and wealthy? Is it being loved? Is it spending time with family and friends?…
MEASURING HAPPINESS First of all, people are happy or sad according to their surroundings, work, friends, problems or successes, but those situations can only influence in small periods of time, and this does not mean that if one event brings us sadness our whole life would be at that way. So I think it is a choice to have happiness or sadness life because as Aristotle said, “Happiness depends upon ourselves”. However it is also affirmative to others said that tried to be happy did not bring to you that feeling at force. So what do you think about the happiness? It is necessary for you have that emotion?…
As many believe money can buy happiness it has never been clear to what happiness actually is. Can it be bought? Can it be measured? In the article “A Critique of Positive Psychology” economist do believe that happiness can be bought, but people need to look at what they are buying that supposedly brings them happiness. As Schoch explains that “As the snakeoil salesman with a Harvard MBA would say, it’s one vast marketing opportunity” (Schoch 452).…