Week 7- Science of Happiness Notes

 Section 1: This is your mind, On Gratitude. 

Video: Psychological Benefits of Gratitude 

  • Gratitude as a practice leads to prosocial tendencies and increased happiness. 

  • Gratitude leads to decreased negative states, stress, and anti-social tendencies.

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  • How does gratitude improve happiness? 

  • Gratitude enhances the frequency and magnitude of enjoyment of pleasant/ positive emotional experiences. 
  • It amplifies the good. 
  • “Positivity Bias” inclination to orient your attention towards positive emotion or happiness. 
  • Gratitude counteracts adaptation/ habituation. 
  • Grateful people recognize perks that others take for granted. 
  • Gratitude lowers the threshold of appreciation for everyday events. 
  • Gratitude facilitates access to the enjoyment of pleasant memories. 
  • Grateful people reminisce upon and savor moments. 
  • The ability to reminisce upon “savor-worthy” memories shapes expectations to be more positive and pro-social. Being grateful makes us spontaneously perceive things around us in a positive light.  

  • What does gratitude do for negative states/ emotions? 

  • After stressful events, grateful people were more likely to engage in positive reinterpretation and growth. 
  • After stressful events, grateful people were less likely to engage in self-blame. 

 

Essay: Why Gratitude is Good 

  • A study including 1000 individuals ages 8 to 80. 

  • Psychological: 

  • Higher levels of positive emotion. 

  • More alert, alive, awake. 

  • More joy, pleasure, and optimism. 

  • Physical: 

  • Stronger immune systems. 

  • Lower blood sugar levels. 

  • Less bothered by aches and pains. 

  • Exercise more frequently and are aware of health and wellness. 

  • Better sleep. 

  • Social: 

  • More helpful and generous. 

  • More compassionate 

  • More forgiving. 

  • More outgoing. 

  • Fewer feelings of loneliness and isolation.  

  • Why does gratitude have transformative effects on people’s lives? 

  • Gratitude celebrates the present and magnifies positive emotion. 

  • Gratitude blocks toxic, intrusive, negative emotions (envy, resentment, regret) that would otherwise work to destroy happiness. 

  • Grateful people are more stress-resistant. 

  • Grateful people have a higher sense of self-worth. 

 

Video: Gratitude Brings Happiness (Sonja Lyubmirsky) 

    • Robbert Emmons defines gratitude as: “a felt sense of wonder, thankfulness, and appreciation for life”. 
    • Gratitude allows us to savor positive emotions. 
    • Gratitude allows us to be more helpful and prevents us for taking things for granted. 
    • Gratitude neutralized negative emotions (greed, envy, etc.) 


  • Study 1 “Count your Blessings”. Participants kept a gratitude journal for six weeks. 

    • Three groups. Group one counted their blessings once a week, Group two counted their blessings three times a week, and finally a control group (not counting blessings). 
    • Happiness measured through a scale, evaluating subjective happiness and life satisfaction. 
    • Participants who counted their blessings once a week reported feeling more grateful. 
    • Participants who counted their blessings once a week reported greater happiness. 
    • So why did it only work for those who counted once a week? Three times a week became a chore. Once a week was a great measurement on average. 


Essay: Stumbling toward Gratitude 

    • We are born with a “set point” regarding happiness meaning some people are naturally happier than others. 
    • We are born with a “set point” regarding happiness meaning some people are naturally happier than others.
    • Positive Psychologists now suggest that we can control our happiness by up to 40 percent with engagement in intentional activities. 
    • Intentional activities include keeping a gratitude journal and writing gratitude letters. 
    • 6-week “gratitude infusion” 
    • Defensive pessimism- expecting the worst or running through all the bad possibilities so you are not let down by the reality of a situation. Often used by anxious people to help cope with anxiety and getting let down. 
    • “Sometimes positive psychologists sound like we’re trying to sell miracles to people. There are no miracles. … There are no long-term quick fixes for happiness,” said Peterson, when I asked him how I could maintain my happiness boost. “So if you become a more grateful person and you add those exercises to your repertoire, you’ll be different six months or a year from now. But if you say okay, I’m done with the story and I’m going back to the way I was, it’ll just have been a six-week high. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not going to permanently change you.” 

 

Section 2: Gratitude, the Body, and Relationships 

Video: The Physical and Social Benefits of Gratitude 

  • Physical Benefits of Gratitude: 

  • Fewer physical ailments and discomforts. 

  • Reduced blood pressure. 

  • Social Benefits of Gratitude: 

  • More grateful people are more likely to find success in new friendships. (Study on sorority sisters) 

  • Partners who receive gratitude report greater life satisfaction. 

  • The Find, Remind, and Bind Emotion 

  • Gratitude helps us find partners and friends for solid relationships. 

  • Gratitude reminds us of the good things we experience. 

  • Gratitude binds us to partnerships by reminding ourselves of their strengths. 

 

Video: The Physiological Benefits of Gratitude (Wendy Berry Mendes) 

  • “How does gratitude get under the skin to affect health and longevity?” 

  • Lab study, blood draw, sleep study. 
  • Higher levels of gratitude result in increased well-being (less anxiety, more optimism, less neuroticism, less depression). 
  • Grateful people have better social connections.  
  • Grateful people are less rejective sensitive and do not feed into social hierarchies. 
  • Grateful people tend to be less angry. 
  • Gratitude brings improvements to sleep. 

  • Gratitude correlates with biological markers of health including: 

  • Lower levels of resting blood pressure. 
  • Lower blood pressure response to stressors. 
  • Screens of bloodstream for risk factors that make people susceptible to cardiovascular disease, gratitude linked to higher levels of good cholesterol and lower levels of bad cholesterol. 
  • Gratitude is linked to lower levels of creatinine (an indicator of how functioning your kidneys are). 

 

 

Video: The Social Benefits of Gratitude (Phil Watkins) 

“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is with gratitude that life becomes rich”. -Bonhoeffer 


  • How does gratitude help us live well? 

  1. Gratitude enhances wellbeing by amplifying the good in one’s life. 
  2. Gratitude may amplify in emotional experiences, relationships, your ability to cope, and in cognitive processes. 

  • How might gratitude train happy habits of thought? 

    • Study in which results showed that groups who participated in gratitude treatments showed significant increases in happiness over an extended period. 
    • Why does gratitude continue to increase after the treatment is over? Because grateful recounting trains cognitive habits that enhance happiness. 
    • Grateful recounting trains you to notice the good and reflect more positively. 

  • How does gratitude amplify the good in social processes? 

  • Gratitude is a moral emotion.  
  • Gratitude works as a moral barometer, is a moral motivator and a moral reinforcer. 


  • The social benefits of gratitude: 

  • People like grateful people (study results). 

  • Gratitude enhances our desire to affiliate with others. 

  • Gratitude helps us bind to relationships that benefit us. 

 

Section 3: Challenges to Gratitude 

Video: Two Types of Challenges to Gratitude 

  • Roadblocks/ obstacles to gratitude: 

  1. Narcissism 
  2. Individualism 
  3. Entitlement 
  4. Materialism 
  5. Lack of time 

  • Skepticism/ myths about gratitude: 

  1. Gratitude is superficial. 
  2. Gratitude leads to laziness or complacency. 
  3. Gratitude makes us over accommodating. 

  • Data shows the opposite, that gratitude is empowering and energizing. 

 

Video: The Psychological Barriers to Gratitude (Tom Gilovich) 

  • Two enemies to gratitude: 

    • The headwind/ tailwind asymmetry: We are more aware of the barriers than the things that move us towards gratitude. 
    • The remarkable capacity of adaptation: Over time we lose joy for things that once brought us lots of joy. 

 

Section 4: Scaling Gratitude 

Video: Cultivating Gratitude 

Research Tested Ways to Cultivate Gratitude: 

  • Gratitude Letter 
  • Gratitude Journal 
  • Shifts in day-to-day habits (saying thank you) 
  • Intentional focus on appreciation 

 

Essay: Six Habits of Highly Grateful People 

  1. Grateful people have occasional thoughts about death and loss: according to studies, contemplating the end of life does make individuals more grateful for the present. 
  2. Grateful people often take time to “Smell the Roses”: savoring positive experiences makes them last longer in the brain, cultivating gratitude. 
  3. Grateful people take good things as gifts instead if as birthrights: entitlement is the opposite of gratitude. 
  4. Grateful people practice gratitude towards people instead of just objects: gratitude strengthens connection among individuals. 
  5. Grateful people are specific: gratitude thrives with specificity. 
  6. Grateful people think outside the box. 

 

Video: How can we Cultivate Gratitude in Schools 

  • What are children grateful for? 

    • Ages 5-6: helping an injured friend, sharing food, protecting, helping to clean up, and returning things. 
    • Ages 7-8: sharing personal items, helping with schoolwork, and helping learn a skill or activity (game or sport). 
    • Ages 8-10: encouragement, emotional support, and social inclusion. 
    • The emergence of two factors: appreciation mentioned less than generosity and more overlap between generosity and appreciation themes with age. 

  • Longitudinal Study among 10–14-year Olds. 

  • Girls tend to be more grateful. 
  • Increasing gratitude among young boys leads to a decrease in delinquency. 
  • Year 1 result: higher subjective wellbeing four years later, decreased likelihood of depression four years later, more hopefulness four years later, greater meaning in life four years later, greater prosocial behavior four years later, and more social integration four years later. 

  • How can schools encourage gratitude? 

  1. Encourage empathy with friends. 
  2. Train benefit appraisals to appreciate and thank others. 
  3. Practice kindness. 
  4. Use strengths to contribute to the community. 

 

Video: How does Gratitude affect Romantic Relationships? 

    • Gratitude motivates and helps us to make gestures that bind us more closely to romantic and social partners. 
    • Feelings of value increases bind. 
    • Everyday gratitude works as a booster shot within the satisfaction and happiness of relationships. 


  • How to begin cultivating gratitude within a relationship: 

  1. Begin noticing things you appreciate and take note of them. 
  2. Don’t forget to show your appreciation. 
  3. Be genuine. 

  • References:
  • Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., Founding Faculty Director, Greater Good Science Center, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, UC Berkeley
    •       Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., Science Director, Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley

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