Readings on Happiness and Wellbeing

1. At the beginning of her article, Begley acknowledges that anecdotes aren’t the same thing as data. That is, stories can’t be used as evidence of a trend in the same way that other measurements can. So why does Begley begin her article with anecdotes? What role do anecdotes play in her argument?
2. According to Begley and her sources, what value does sadness have in our lives? At the same time, what are the dangers of too much happiness (or of insisting on too much happiness)?
3. Do you agree or disagree with Eric Wilson (quoted by Begley) that Americans express a “craven disregard for the value of sadness”? What value do you think Wilson places on sadness?
4. One study shows that people who regard themselves as an “8” on the happy scale are more successful than those who are at “9” or “10.” What accounts for this?  Does the reasoning seem sound to you?
5. Paragraph #8 lists several well-known people—usually very creative people—known for their sadness. What current or recent people would you add to this list?

Writing Questions:

1. Begley addresses her article to a general audience but she pays some special attention to feelings of college students. As a college student yourself, you’re in the perfect position to respond to her argument. Compose a Summary and Response Essay in which you summarize Begley’s article, including her claim, main ideas, and most important examples. Then, respond to what she says about our culture’s focus on happiness. What value do you see in different levels of happiness or sadness? What pressures have you experienced to feel one way or the other? How has your understanding of this topic shifted or changed after reading Begley’s article?
2.  Compose a Summary and Response Essay in which you summarize Begley’s article, including her claim, main ideas, and most important examples. Then, respond to her ideas about depression in particular. Begley does not dismiss depression, but she does appear to think it is over-diagnosed.  Would you agree, given what you experienced or observed?   Consider the problems that many of us face in our current age: bullying, lifestyle choices, daily stress.

1. How do Joshanloo and Weijers define “aversion to happiness”? Why are people averse to happiness, and what forms does this aversion take?
2. If you don’t often read scientific research, some of the writing conventions in this article may have been unfamiliar to you. Look closely at how Joshanloo and Weijers organize their article, how they cite their sources, and the tone they use. How do these writing choices contribute to the ethos and logos of their article? How do these choices help the writers achieve their purpose?

Writing Questions:

1. Compose an Analysis Essay in which you use Joshanloo and Weijers’s ideas to analyze attitudes about happiness in your own small corner of Western culture. First, you will need to interview friends, family members, and fellow students, asking them which types of happiness are appropriate and which should be avoided and why. Then, analyze your findings using the concepts and categories that Joshanloo and Weijers have provided. What types of “aversion to happiness” are present in your culture and which are not? How do your findings line up (or not) with Joshanloo and Weijers’s? Be sure to include detailed summaries and direct quotations from your interviews to support your argument. Also, review the ethics of interviewing in Chapter 21.7 before writing your essay.
2. Compose a Synthesis Essay in which you bring Joshanloo and Weijers into conversation with Sharon Begley (“Happiness: Enough Already”) and David Brooks (“What Suffering Does”). All of these writers question whether personal happiness is as important as we often assume it is. Your essay should summarize and draw connections between these sources, and you should use them to contextualize and support your own argument about the value of happiness (and/or sadness) in our personal lives and culture.

1. The title of this article is “Happy All the Time,” but most of the piece is really about surveillance. What connection does Parramore make between those two concepts: happiness and surveillance?
2. Like many writers of creative nonfiction, Parramore doesn’t state her thesis as explicitly as you will in your own academic essays. Still, what is Parramore’s argument or position on her topic? How do you know?

Writing Questions:

1. Parramore provides several examples of how surveillance is used to monitor and perhaps even improve productivity and happiness. She mentions surveillance in prisons, factories, and offices. She discusses old surveillance technologies (like the panopticon) and new surveillance technologies (like the Humanyze sociometric badge). Compose an Analysis Essay in which you use Parramore’s ideas and examples to analyze a similar, perhaps more recent example of surveillance, focusing on something you’re familiar with: surveillance at school, surveillance online, monitoring apps on phones, etc. How does your example of surveillance compare to Parramore’s? How does your example of surveillance (allegedly) improve happiness and wellbeing?
2. Compose a Synthesis Essay in which you bring Parramore into conversation with Jon Meacham (“Free to Be Happy”) and Joshanloo and Weijers (“Aversion to Happiness Across Cultures”). All of these writers touch on tensions between personal happiness and public happiness, the happiness of the individual in contrast to the happiness of the group. Your essay should summarize and draw connections between these sources, and you should use them to contextualize and support your own argument about how (or whether) we can balance these two forms of happiness.

1. Seligman, Parks, and Steen are writing to an audience of fellow psychologists. What is their purpose for writing? How do they use ethos, pathos, and logos to support their argument and achieve their purpose?
2. In order to define “happiness,” the authors divide it into three “constituents of happiness” (1380). Does this definition make sense to you? Is there anything you would add to the definition, and why?

Writing Questions:

1. Seligman, Parks, and Steen describe the “good things in life” exercise as an example of an intervention that can increase happiness: “Designed to increase positive emotion about the past, this exercise requires individuals to record, every day for a week, three good things that happened to them each day and why those good things occurred” (1380). For this assignment, you’ll put that intervention to the test. Compose a Summary and Response Essay in which you summarize Seligman, Parks, and Steen’s article, including their claim, main ideas, and most important examples. Then, share the results of your “good things in life” exercise. What are some of the “good things” you wrote about? Did writing about them for a week affect your sense of happiness in any way? More generally, what did you learn about happiness (especially your own happiness) from reading this essay?
2. Compose a Synthesis Essay in which you bring this article into conversation with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (“If We Are So Rich, Why Aren’t We Happy?”), Hal E. Hershfield, Cassie Mogilner, and Uri Barnea (“People Who Choose Time Over Money are Happier”) and Graham Hill (“Living With Less. A Lot Less”). All of these writers are trying to figure out what makes people happy. Your essay should summarize and draw connections between these sources, and you should use them to support your own argument about how to maximize happiness.

1. David Brooks, “What Suffering Does”
2. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “If We Are So Rich, Why Aren’t We Happy?”
3. Ed Diener and Martin E. P. Seligman, “Very Happy People”
4. Hal E. Hershfield, Cassie Mogilner, and Uri Barnea, “People Who Choose Time Over Money are Happier”
5. Graham Hill, “Living with Less. A Lot Less”
6. Darrin M. McMahon, “From the Happiness of Virtue to the Virtue of Happiness: 400 B.C – A. D. 1780”
7. Jon Meacham, “Free to Be Happy”
8. Martha C. Nussbaum, “Who Is the Happy Warrior? Philosophy Poses Questions to Psychology”
9. Kipling D. Williams, “The Pain of Exclusion”