Author Topic: Why Do Happy People Feel So ... Miserable?  (Read 688 times)

hazel

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Why Do Happy People Feel So ... Miserable?
« on: October 23, 2007, 12:46:27 AM »

We are in a perpetual search of happiness. But it is in fact this happiness that makes us feel not miserable, but extremely miserable. That is the result of a multi-cultural research led by psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi of University of Virginia.

The researchers found that, on average, European-Americans appeared happier than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese, but they are more vulnerable to negative events, and recover slowly from negative events, than their Asia or Asian ancestry counterparts.

Oppositely, Koreans, Japanese, and to a
lesser level, Asian-Americans, have a lower level of happiness, but they regain their emotional balance much rapidly following a setback, compared to European-Americans.

"We found that the more positive events a person has, the more they feel the effects of a negative event. People seem to dwell on the negative thing when they have a large number of good events in their life. It is like the person who is used to flying first class and becomes very annoyed if there is a half-hour delay. But the person who flies economy class accepts the delay in stride.", Oishi said.

Oishi moved from Japan to the US at 23, and wanted to compare how people from East Asia and the US react to the daily life events. His team surveyed over 350 college students in Japan, Korea and the US over a three-week period. The subjects recorded each day their general level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life, but also the positive and negative events of each day.

European-Americans required about two positive events (like getting complimented or an A) to come back to their previous level of happiness following a negative event, like getting a parking ticket or a lower grade than predicted. But the Korean, Japanese and Asian-American subjects required just one positive event to bypass nasty events. "People who become accustomed to numerous positive or happy events in their life are more likely to take a harder fall than people who have learned to accept the bad with the good.", said Oishi.

As negative events can induce such a powerful harmful effect, despite the number of positive effects, people find it hard to be extremely happy. This explains why, after the extreme happiness experienced when buying of a new car or a house, or getting married – we are again overwhelmed by sadness and problems at seeing the playbills or by the daily quarrels. "In general, it's good to have a positive perspective. But unless you can switch your mindset to accept the negative facts of everyday life — that these things happen and must be accepted — it becomes very hard to maintain a comfortable level of satisfaction. Don't try to be happier.", advised Oishi.

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Re: Why Do Happy People Feel So ... Miserable?
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2007, 10:53:00 AM »
"People who become accustomed to numerous positive or happy events in their life are more likely to take a harder fall than people who have learned to accept the bad with the good.", said Oishi.




This is true...




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