What's the use of being happy? Mood states, useful objects, and repetition priming effects.

Two experiments involving 99 undergraduate participants sought to examine the influence of mood states on encoding speed within lexical decision and pronunciation tasks. Mood states were measured naturalistically in Experiment 1 and manipulated in Experiment 2. Stimuli consisted of nouns representing useful (e.g., food) and nonuseful (e.g., lint) objects. Mood states had no implications for initial encoding speed. However, when the same words were presented a 2nd time (i.e., repeated), happy individuals displayed a tendency to encode useful words faster than nonuseful ones. Thus, mood states influenced repetition priming on the basis of stimulus valence. The authors propose that happiness sensitizes individuals to useful or rewarding objects, which in turn creates a stronger memory trace for such stimuli in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The confounded nature of angry men and happy women.

Findings of 7 studies suggested that decisions about the sex of a face and the emotional expressions of anger or happiness are not independent: Participants were faster and more accurate at detecting angry expressions on male faces and at detecting happy expressions on female faces. These findings were robust across different stimulus sets and judgment tasks and indicated bottom-up perceptual processes rather than just top-down conceptually driven ones. Results from additional studies in which neutrally expressive faces were used suggested that the connections between masculine features and angry expressions and between feminine features and happy expressions might be a property of the sexual dimorphism of the face itself and not merely a result of gender stereotypes biasing the perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

To Do or to Have? That Is the Question.

Do experiences make people happier than material possessions? In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups indicated that experiential purchases-those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience--made them happier than material purchases. In a follow-up laboratory experiment, participants experienced more positive feelings after pondering an experiential purchase than after pondering a material purchase. In another experiment, participants were more likely to anticipate that experiences would make them happier than material possessions after adopting a temporally distant, versus a temporally proximate, perspective. The discussion focuses on evidence that experiences make people happier because they are more open to positive reinterpretations, are a more meaningful part of one's identity, and contribute more to successful social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

阿瑟·米勒戏剧《推销员之死》中美国梦的体现

在＂美利坚＂这个新世界被意大利探险家亚美瑞格·韦斯普奇发现后,千千万万的人为着所谓的＂美国梦＂涌向那里并定居下来。从此,＂美国梦＂便成了该民族永恒的话题。＂美国梦＂让人们相信在美国,不论种族、性别和阶级,只要不懈努力就有可能获得成功,人们必须通过自己的决心、勇气以及勤奋实现理想。因此,上百年来,＂美国梦＂几乎成了所有渴望成功的美国人的精神支柱和动力源泉。美国剧作家阿瑟.米勒的代表作《推销员之死》便深刻地反应了＂美国梦＂在一群普通民众的生活中是怎样被塑造、被极力追寻的。他们之中,有的人成功了,实现了自己的梦想,过上了更好、更富裕、更幸福的生活;还有的却经历着一代又一代的失败与毁灭。     

大学生思想政治教育中幸福能力的培养

幸福能力培养有利于丰富大学生思想政治教育的内容,提高大学生思想政治教育的实效性。在现实思想政治教育实践中,必须加强人文素质教育,提升大学生理解幸福的能力;注重情感效应,提升大学生体验幸福的能力;搭建实践平台,提升大学生创造幸福的能力。     

积极教育在高职高考英语辅导中的运用初探

论述在中职学校高职招生考试英语辅导中运用积极教育的具体教学策略、教学内容、教学方法及其教学效果.     

高职大学生幸福能力培养的三重维度

幸福是一种体验,一种价值,更是一种能力。幸福能力培养是高职大学生思想政治教育重要内容和鲜亮特色。就当前实际来说,要培养高职院校大学生的幸福能力,应该注重特色凸显、制度保障和情感维系三重维度。     

Interpreting the Good Life: Growth Memories in the Lives of Mature, Happy People.

In 2 studies, the authors examined autobiographical memories for the presence of 2 growth orientations that were expected to correspond differentially to maturity and well-being, which are considered to be key facets of "the good life" by L. A. King (2001). Mature participants emphasized integrative memories (conceptual integration and learning), whereas happy participants emphasized intrinsic memories (humanistic concerns). Both kinds of growth memories correlated more strongly with eudaimonic than with hedonic measures of well-being. Growth memories were largely independent of Big Five traits in relation to maturity and well-being. Finally, older participants were more likely than younger participants to have greater maturity (marginally) and well-being, but this was in part explained by older participants' greater tendency to have growth memories. The discussion considers the role of growth memories in the intentional cultivation of the good life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcoholics Anonymous and Relapse Prevention as Maintenance Strategies After Conjoint Behavioral Alcohol Treatment for Men: 18-Month Outcomes.

Ninety men with alcohol problems and their female partners were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 outpatient conjoint treatments: alcohol behavioral couples therapy (ABCT), ABCT with relapse prevention techniques (RP/ABCT), or ABCT with interventions encouraging Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) involvement (AA/ABCT). Couples were followed for 18 months after treatment. Across the 3 treatments, drinkers who provided follow-up data maintained abstinence on almost 80% of days during follow-up, with no differences in drinking or marital happiness outcomes between groups. AA/ABCT participants attended AA meetings more often than ABCT or RP/ABCT participants, and their drinking outcomes were more strongly related to concurrent AA attendance. For the entire sample, AA attendance was positively related to abstinence during follow-up in both concurrent and time-lagged analyses. In the RP/ABCT treatment, attendance at posttreatment booster sessions was related to posttreatment abstinence. Across treatment conditions, marital happiness was related positively to abstinence in concurrent but not time-lagged analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Further evidence for mixed emotions.

Emotion theorists have long debated whether valence, which ranges from pleasant to unpleasant states, is an irreducible aspect of the experience of emotion or whether positivity and negativity are separable in experience. If valence is irreducible, it follows that people cannot feel happy and sad at the same time. Conversely, if positivity and negativity are separable, people may be able to experience such mixed emotions. The authors tested several alternative interpretations for prior evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur in bittersweet situations (i.e., those containing both pleasant and unpleasant aspects). One possibility is that subjects who reported mixed emotions merely vacillated between happiness and sadness. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 1–3 by asking subjects to complete online continuous measures of happiness and sadness. Subjects reported more simultaneously mixed emotions during a bittersweet film clip than during a control clip. Another possibility is that subjects in earlier studies reported mixed emotions only because they were explicitly asked whether they felt happy and sad. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 4–6 with open-ended measures of emotion. Subjects were more likely to report mixed emotions after the bittersweet clip than the control clip. Both patterns occurred even when subjects were told that they were not expected to report mixed emotions (Studies 2 and 5) and among subjects who did not previously believe that people could simultaneously feel happy and sad (Studies 3 and 6). These results provide further evidence that positivity and negativity are separable in experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)