Lyubomirsky's Essay: How Happy Are You And Why
For this assignment, I had to respond to one of the readings discussed in class and focus on why I think my audience would or would not find the essay persuasive. I choose to respond to Lyubomirsky’s article “How Happy Are You and Why”.
I think Lyubomirsky’s, article “How Happy Are You and Why” is persuasive. She includes evidence, had referred to interviews she had done, and included a couple of diagrams among other things to support her argument (and simplify it for the reader to understand/ follow what she was talking about). She also included/ mentioned some studies that had been done which were relevant to the topic/theme of the article. The article was broken into sections that made it easy to tell when one section started and when it …show more content…
(talking about studies that has been done)
The article contains three (common thought) myths (Lyubomirsky explains what the myths are, why she thinks the myths are not true and gives an example). Myth number one is “Happiness Must be found”, myth number two is “happiness lies in changing our circumstance” and myth number three is “you either have it or you don’t” (pg 185-186).
Myth number one, which is that happiness must be found. Lyubomirsky says/ believes that happiness is not out there to find because “happiness, more than anything, is a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world we reside”. (pg 185)
Myth number two is notation (the idea) that if only something about the circumstances of our lives would change then we would be happy.
As far as myth number three, you have it or you do not. Lyubomirsky believes that “the notion that we are born happy or unhappy is ubiquitous.”(186) many people think that unhappiness has to do with genetics and that there is not much that can be done about it. I think that some people just do not want to put the effort into trying to be happy (like going to counseling and seeing if anti-depressants helps) so they tell themselves that there is not much they can do about it to make themselves feel better …show more content…
Which means it is things that is genetically passed down generation to generation and so far there is little to nothing that someone can do to change it.
The article has an illustration of a pie graph that has the title what determines Happiness? The graph is broken into 3 pieces circumstances (10%), intentional activity (40%) and the last one is set point (50%) (pg184). The piece called Intentional activity sounds like things/activities that people/ someone does intentionally, the piece called set point is genaly seen as genetically determined set points.
Lyubomirsky talks about how as there is no real appropriate happiness thermometer exists to measure the degree to which someone is happy or unhappy person , researchers generally have to rely on self-reports, and how in her research with human participants she has used 4 term measure of overall happiness that she calls the subjective happiness scale. The article has an subjective scale sheet/test.
I think Lyubomirsky’s, article “How Happy Are You and Why” is persuasive. She includes evidence, had referred to interviews she had done, and included a couple of diagrams among other things to support her argument (and simplify it for the reader to understand/ follow what she was talking about). She also included/ mentioned some studies that had been done which were relevant to the topic/theme of the article. The article was broken into sections that made it easy to tell when one section started and when it …show more content…
(talking about studies that has been done)
The article contains three (common thought) myths (Lyubomirsky explains what the myths are, why she thinks the myths are not true and gives an example). Myth number one is “Happiness Must be found”, myth number two is “happiness lies in changing our circumstance” and myth number three is “you either have it or you don’t” (pg 185-186).
Myth number one, which is that happiness must be found. Lyubomirsky says/ believes that happiness is not out there to find because “happiness, more than anything, is a state of mind, a way of perceiving and approaching ourselves and the world we reside”. (pg 185)
Myth number two is notation (the idea) that if only something about the circumstances of our lives would change then we would be happy.
As far as myth number three, you have it or you do not. Lyubomirsky believes that “the notion that we are born happy or unhappy is ubiquitous.”(186) many people think that unhappiness has to do with genetics and that there is not much that can be done about it. I think that some people just do not want to put the effort into trying to be happy (like going to counseling and seeing if anti-depressants helps) so they tell themselves that there is not much they can do about it to make themselves feel better …show more content…
Which means it is things that is genetically passed down generation to generation and so far there is little to nothing that someone can do to change it.
The article has an illustration of a pie graph that has the title what determines Happiness? The graph is broken into 3 pieces circumstances (10%), intentional activity (40%) and the last one is set point (50%) (pg184). The piece called Intentional activity sounds like things/activities that people/ someone does intentionally, the piece called set point is genaly seen as genetically determined set points.
Lyubomirsky talks about how as there is no real appropriate happiness thermometer exists to measure the degree to which someone is happy or unhappy person , researchers generally have to rely on self-reports, and how in her research with human participants she has used 4 term measure of overall happiness that she calls the subjective happiness scale. The article has an subjective scale sheet/test.