Download Bennett IB Psychology Cognitive Level of Analysis Review Cognitive

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IB Psychology
Cognitive Level of Analysis
Review
Cognitive psychology concerns itself with the structure and functions of the mind.
Cognitive psychologists are concerned with finding put how the mind comes to know things about the
world and how it uses this knowledge.
Cognitive neuroscience combines knowledge about the brain with the knowledge about cognitive
processes.
Cognition refers to processes such as perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language, and
attention. Cognition is based on one’s mental representations of the world, such as images, words, and
concepts. People have different experiences and there for they have different mental representations.
Example: what is right or wrong is different for everyone.
Principles of the cognitive level of analysis
1. Human beings are information processors and mental processes guide behavior.
a. Mind is seen as a complex machine – rather like an intelligent, information-processing
machine using hardware (the brain) and software (mental images or representations.)
b. According to this line of thinking, information input to the mind comes via bottom-up
processing – that is from the sensory system. The information is processes on the mind
by top-down processing via pre-stored information in the memory.
c. Cognition is important in understanding, there is a subtle relationship between how
people think about themselves and how they behave – for example how they deal with
challenges.
d. People’s memory are not as infallible as they think, this is because of the reconstructive
nature of memory. Researchers have discovered that people do not store exact copies of
their experiences, but rather an outline which is filled out with information when it is
recalled.
e. People often have false memories, because they cannot distinguish between what they
have experienced and what they have heard after the event. The brain is able to
fabricate illusions so realistic, we think they are real.
2. The mind can be studied scientifically by developing theories and using a number of scientific
methods.
a. Theories and models of cognition are discussed and continuously tested.
b. New finding result in new amendments to original models, or a model or theory is
rejected because evidence no longer supports it.
c. Cognition is studied in the laboratory as well as in a daily context.
3. Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors
a. Frederic Bartlett, coined the term schema, which is a mental representation of
knowledge.
b. Bartlett was interested in how cultural schemas influence remembering.
c. He found that people have trouble remembering a story from another culture, and that
they constructed the story to fit into their own culture schema.
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Cognitive Processes
Studying the Mind
Researchers have favored the controlled experiment that takes place in a laboratory, because the
variables can be controlled. The limit is that if may suffer from artificiality.
◦ Other methods of research include: case studies, CT, MRI, PET, and EEG.
◦ Neuroscientists can study which brain areas are active when people make decisions.
◦ They also study how cognitive processes can be disrupted by brain damage – for
example, amnesia or Alzheimer's disease.
◦ Researchers then use their data to support or refute cognitive models – or to propose
new models.
Cognitive Processes
The human mind is quite sophisticated. It can manipulate abstract symbols like words and images. These
mental representations can refer to objects, ideas, and people in the real world; people use them when
they think, make plans, imagine, or daydream. You have an idea of how you look somewhere in your
mind – a self-representation. You also have ideas about how other people are. Mental representations
are organized in categories, and the mind contains all sorts of mental representations stored in memory.
Cognitive schemas – pre-stored mental representations.
Mental representations – how we store images and ideas in memory.
 Researchers believe that what we already know (cognitive schemas) affects the way we
interpret events and store knowledge in out memory.
A theory of cognitive process: schema theory
Schema - “how to score knowledge”
Schema theory – a cognitive theory about information processing.
Cognitive schema – defined as networks of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about particular
aspects of the world.
◦ Schemas can describe how specific knowledge is organized and stored in memory so that it can
be accessed and used when it is needed.
◦ It is not possible to see a schema inside someone’s head, but using concepts like schemas help
psychologists to understand and discuss what it would otherwise not be possible to do.
◦ Schema theory suggests that what we already know will influence the outcome of information
procession. This idea is based upon the assumption that humans are active processors of
information (principle #1).
◦ People do not passively respond to information. They interpret and integrate it to make sense
of their experiences, but they are not always aware of it.
◦ If information is missing, the brain fills in the blanks based on existing schemas, or it simply
invents something that seems to fit in. This can result in mistakes – called distortions.
Office Schema
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Cognitive Schemas
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Organize information about the world with fixed and variable slots; if a slot is left out or
unspecified, it is filled by a “default value” – meaning a best guess.
Are active recognition devices (pattern recognition)
Help to predict future events based on what happened before.
Represent general knowledge rather than definitions.
Schema theory and memory processes
Schema theory has been used to explain memory processes, into three main stages:
◦ Encoding: transforming sensory information into meaningful memory
◦ Storage: creating biological trace of the encoded information in memory, which is either
consolidated or lost.
◦ Retrieval: using the stored information.
It is now believed that schema processing can affect memory at all stages.
Anderson and Pichert (1978) Participants read a story about two boys playing in a house. The participants were
asked to take one of two perspectives: as a potential home buyer or burglar. The story was about two boys who
decided to stay home from school one day; instead they went to the house of one of them because the house was
always empty on that particular day. The house was described as being isolated and located in an attractive
neighborhood, but also having a leaky roof, a deck that needed repair and damp basement. The story also
mentioned various objects in the house, such as a 10-speed bike, a color TV, VCR, and a rare coin collection.
Participants had to recall what they remembered about the story. On the first recall the participants that took the
potential buyer perspective remembered the leaky roof and the deck that needed repair. The participants who to
took the burglar perspective remembered the TV, VCR and coins. On the second recall the participants were asked
to change their perspectives. Now they were able to recall previously unrecalled information relevant to the new
perspective. Research showed that people encoded information that was irrelevant to their prevailing schema,
since those who had the buyer schema at encoding were able to recall burglar information when the schema was
changed, and vice versa.
Actual Story:
[Coding: Burglar items (18); Homebuyer items (18)]
There are three color TV sets in the house. One is in the large master bedroom (which has a three piece bathroom en suite),
one is in the main floor family room, and one is in Tom's bedroom. The house contains four bedrooms in all, plus an office,
family room, and three washrooms. In addition to the TV, the family room contains a new stereo outfit, a microcomputer, a
VCR, and a rare coin collection.
The boys enter the master bedroom. Beside the jewelry case in the closet they find Tom's father's collection of
pornographic video tapes. They select their favorite (an encounter between a guy and 12 women in a park in downtown
Kitchener) and go to the family room to watch it.
RECALL #1
RECALL #2
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Evaluation of schema theory
An abundance of research has supported the idea that schemas affect cognitive processes such as
memory.
◦ Theory helps people categorize information, interpret stories, and make inferences.
◦ Theory helps us understand memory distortions as well as social cognition
◦ Psychologists often refer to “social schemas” when trying to explain stereotyping and prejudice.
A model of memory: the working memory model
Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) were the first to suggest a basic structure of memory, with their multi-store
model of memory.
◦ Memory consists of a number of separate stores
◦ Memory processes are sequential
◦ Model is very simplistic and reflects knowledge of 1960s
Multi-store model of memory
For permanent memory storage, processes such as attention, coding, and rehearsal are essential.
You need to pay attention to something in order to remember it; you need to give the material a form
which enables you to remember it. Rehearsal simply means keeping material active in memory by
repeating it until it can be stored. Rehearsal plays a key role in determining what is stored in LTM.
Sensory memory – modality specific, meaning related to different senses (e.g. hearing, vision)
Short-Term Memory (STM) – capacity limited to 7 items, duration is about 6-12 seconds. Material is
quickly lost if not given attention.
Long-Term Memory (LTM) – unlimited capacity, stored in outline form. LTM is vast storehouse of
information – unlimited although psychologists don’t know how much can be stored. The material is not
an exact copy, it’s in outline form. Memories may be distorted when retrieved, because we fill in gaps to
create a meaningful memory as predicted by schema theory.
The working memory model
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The central executive
The central executive is a kind of controlling system that monitors and coordinated the operations of
other components, which are called slave systems. It is the most important part of the model because it
is seen as a kind of CEO of the memory system. The central executive has a limited capacity and can
process sensory information. The central executive drives the system, decides how attention is directed,
allocates the resources, has no storage capacity, and has limited capacity so cannot attend to many
things at once.
Baddeley has worked on the model since it was devised in 1974 and now suggests that the most
important job of the central executive is attentional control. This happens in two ways:
◦ The automatic level is based on habit and controlled more or less automatically by stimuli from
the environment. This includes routine procedures like riding a bike to school.
◦ The supervisory attentional level deals with emergencies or creates new strategies when the
old ones are no longer sufficient – for example, when a car is suddenly coming at you when you
are riding a bike.
The episodic buffer
The episodic buffer has general storage space for both acoustic and visual information; it integrates
information from the central executive, the phonological loop, the visual sketchpad and the long-term
memory. It has limited capacity.
The phonological loop
Deals with auditory information and the order of information. Baddeley (1986) divided it into two
components:
◦ The auditory store (the inner ear) which holds information in speech based form for 1-2
seconds.
◦ The articulatory control process: Used to rehearse verbal information from the phonological
store. Memory traces in the auditory store decay in 1.5 -2 seconds but can be maintained by
articulatory control process.
The visuo-spatial sketchpad
Holds visual (what things look like) and spatial (relationship between things) information for a
very short time. You use it when you are planning a spatial task i.e. going from your home to
the college.
Dual-task techniques – also called interference experiments, a participant is asked to carry out a
cognitive task that uses most of the capacity of working memory. (Example telling a story to someone,
while also trying to learn a list of numbers two cognitive tasks at once). Baddeley and Hitch (1974)
provide evidence for this by people being able to carry out more than one task at once where both tasks
involve STM functions. Experiment had the students study a list of numbers while also reading prose.
Baddeley (1996)
Asked participants to think of random digits that bore no connection to each other (by tapping
in numbers on a keyboard). Either carried out its own, or with one of the following tasks:
1. Reciting the alphabet
2. Counting from 1
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3. Alternating between letters and numbers e.g. A1 b2 c3
Generated number stream was much less random in condition 3 – Baddeley said they were
competing for the same central executive resources.
Baddeley, Thompson & Buchanan (1975) - word length effect. Presented words for very brief periods of
time. One condition – 5 words, one syllable, familiar. Two conditions: 5 polysyllabic words. Average
correct recall over several trials showed participants remembered the short words much better. This is
the ‘word length effect’.
Baddeley, Grant, Wight & Thompson (1973) - Participants were given a visual tracking task- track a
moving line with a pointer at the same they were given one of two tasks:
1. To describe the angle of the letter F (which system did this task involve?)
2. To perform a verbal task (which system did this task involve?)
Evaluation of the model
The working model can explain why people are able to perform different cognitive tasks at the same
time without disruption – known as multi-tasking.
Working memory plays an important role in learning as seen in Pickering and Gathercole (2001). In this
study the Working Memory Test Battery for Children was used and found that there is an improvement
performance in working memory capacity and h from the age of 5 years until about 15 years.
Memory and the Brain
Memory is the job of the brain and science is continuously exploring the way memory is organized in the
human brain.
Eric Kandel – winner of Nobel Prize in 2000, he studied learning and memory at a cellular level in the sea
snail aplysia, a very simple organism. He found that STM as well as LTM result in synaptic changes in the
neural network. The snail’s memory is located in synapses, and changes in these synapses are important
in memory formation.
Some biological factors in memory
Kandel’s research shows that learning means formation of a memory – that is growing new connections
or strengthening existing connections between neurons to form neural networks. Over the years,
researchers have used animals to study how areas of the brain are related to memory. Typically, animals
learn to perform a specific task. Example: running through a maze, then a memory is formed. To find out
what areas of the brain are involved in a specific task, researchers cut away areas of the brain involved
in such a task, researchers cut away brain tissue and the animal has to run through the maze again. This
procedure is called lesioning, is repeated a numner of times until the animal can no longer perform the
task.
The long-term memory system
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Explicit Memory - memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare, also
called declarative memory.
◦ Semantic memory - memory for general knowledge.
◦ Episodic memory – memory for personal experiences and events.
Implicit Memory - retention independent of conscious recollection, also called procedural memory.
◦ Procedural memory – non-conscious memory for skills, habits, and actions – “knowing how.”
◦ Emotional memory – (not well understood) emotional memories can be formed via the limbic
system and they may persist even when brain damage has destroyed other memories.
The hippocampus-neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.
Research has shown that people with damage in the hippocampus can no longer form new explicit
memories, but they still can form new implicit memories.
The amygdala plays a role in the storage of emotional memories. Because emotions are used to
evaluate experience, it would explain why memories based on emotional vents are remembered better.
The case of HM
In the 1940s, HM had a lobotomy performed on him to correct epileptic seizures.
After the surgery, HM was no longer able to form new long-term memories. For many years, he believed
that he was 27 years old, and the year was 1953.
HM had kept his procedural memory (memory for skills) but not his episodic memory (memory of
events).
Clive Wearning
Clive Wearing (May 11, 1938) is a British musicologist, conductor, and keyboardist suffering from an
acute and long-lasting case of anterograde and retrograde amnesia. Specifically, this means he lacks the
ability to form new memories.
On March 27, 1985, Wearing, then an acknowledged expert in early music at the height of his career
with BBC Radio, contracted a virus which normally causes only cold sores, but in Wearing's case attacked
the brain. Since this point, he has been unable to store new memories. He has also been unable to
control emotions and associate memories well.
Because the hippocampus, an area required to transfer memories from short-term to long-term
memory is damaged, he is completely unable to form lasting new memories – his memory only lasts
between 7 and 30 seconds. He spends every day 'waking up' every 20 seconds, 'restarting' his
consciousness once the time span of his short term memory elapses (about 30 seconds). He remembers
little of his life before 1985; he knows, for example, that he has children from an earlier marriage, but
cannot remember their names. His love for his second wife Deborah, whom he married the year prior to
his illness, is undiminished. He greets her joyously every time they meet, believing he has not seen her in
years, even though she may have just left the room to fetch a glass of water. When he goes out dining
with his wife, he can remember the name of the food (e.g. chicken); however he cannot link it with
taste, as he has forgotten.
Despite his amnesia, Wearing still recalls how to play the piano and conduct a choir – all this despite
having no recollection of having received a musical education. This is because his procedural memory
was not damaged by the virus. As soon as the music stops, however, Wearing forgets that he has just
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played and starts shaking spasmodically. These jerkings are physical signs of an inability to control his
emotions, stemming from the damage to his inferior frontal lobe.
In a diary provided by his caretakers, Clive was encouraged to record his thoughts. Page after page is
filled with entries similar to the following:
9:34 AM: Now I am superlatively, actually awake.
Earlier entries are usually crossed out, since he forgets having made an entry within minutes and
dismisses the writings–he does not know how the entries were made or by whom, although he does
recognize his own writing. Wishing to record the important life event of "waking up for the first time",
he still wrote diary entries in 2007, more than two decades after he started them. Clive Wearing can
form procedural memories but not episodic memories.
Reliability of one cognitive process: memory
Chunking - organizing items into familiar, manageable units, often occurs automatically.
Memories may be influence by other factors than what was recorded in the first place, due to the
reconstructive nature of memory. The term “reconstructive” refers to the brain’s active processing of
information to make sense of the world.
Sigmund Freud was convinced that forgetting was caused by repression, meaning defense mechanism
that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories. According to
Freud people that experience emotional and anxiety-provoking events may use repression to protect
their conscious self from knowing things that they cannot cope with. This is done by sending the
dangerous memory to the unconscious, deny it ever happened. But the memory will continue to haunt
them in symbolic ways in their dreams until a therapist is able to retrieve the memory. Critics claim
these techniques create false memories.
Memories of child abuse are often recovered by therapists. There is a controversy over whether the
memory was recovered or a false memory. Elizabeth Loftus argues that some recovered memories may
simply be created by post event information during therapy. Her research shows that it is possible to
manipulate people’s memories.
False Memory Syndrome - condition in which a person’s identity and relationships center on a false but
strongly believed memory of traumatic experience; sometimes induced by well-meaning therapists
What Jennifer Saw
Jennifer Thompson's case is one example: She was a college student in North Carolina in 1984, when a
man broke into her apartment, put a knife to her throat, and raped her. According to her own account,
Ms. Thompson studied her rapist throughout the incident with great determination to memorize his
face. "I studied every single detail on the rapist's face. I looked at his hairline; I looked for scars, for
tattoos, for anything that would help me identify him. When and if I survived the attack, I was going to
make sure that he was put in prison and he was going to rot."Ms. Thompson went to the police station
later that same day to work up a [composite sketch] of her attacker, relying on what she believed was
her detailed memory. Several days later, the police constructed a photographic lineup, and she selected
Ronald Junior Cotton from the lineup. She later testified against him at trial. She was positive it was him,
without any doubt in her mind. "I was sure. I knew it. I had picked the right guy, and he was going to go
to jail. If there was the possibility of a death sentence, I wanted him to die. I wanted to flip the switch.”
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But she was wrong, as DNA results eventually showed. It turns out she was even presented with her
actual attacker during a second trial proceeding a year after the attack, but swore she'd never seen the
man before in her life. She remained convinced that Ronald Cotton was her attacker, and it was not until
much later, after Mr. Cotton had served 11 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, that she
realized that she had made a grave mistake. Jennifer Thompson's memory had failed her, resulting in a
substantial injustice. It took definitive DNA testing to shake her confidence, but she now knows that
despite her confidence in her identification, it was wrong. Cases like Ms. Thompson's, including a long
history of eyewitness errors traceable back to Biblical times, prompted the emergence of a field within
the social sciences dedicated to the study of eyewitness memory and the causes underlying its
frequently recurring failures.
Empirical testing on reliability of memory
Reconstructive Memory - Bartlett (1932) one of his most famous investigations involved asking
participants to read a Native American folk tale, "The War of the Ghosts", and recall it several times up
to a year later. All the participants transformed the details of the story in such a way that it reflected
their cultural norms and expectations, i.e. in line with their schemata. The factors that influenced their
recall were:
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Omission of information that was considered irrelevant to a participant;
Transformation of some of the details, or of the order in which events, etc., were recalled; a
shift of focus and emphasis in terms of what was considered the most important aspects of the
tale
Rationalization: details and aspects of the tale that would not make sense would be "padded
out" and explained in an attempt to render them comprehensible to the individual in question;
Cultural shifts: the content and the style of the story were altered in order to appear more
coherent and appropriate in terms of the cultural background of the participant.
Bartlett's work was crucially important in demonstrating that long-term memories are neither fixed nor
immutable but are constantly being adjusted as our schemata evolve with experience
We tend to see and interpret and recall what we see according to what we expect and assume is
'normal' in a given situation.
Bartlett referred to these complete mental pictures of how things are expected to be as Schemas. These
schemas may, in part, be determined by social values and therefore prejudice.
Schemas are therefore capable of distorting unfamiliar or unconsciously 'unacceptable' information in
order to 'fit in' with our existing knowledge or schemas. This can, therefore, result in unreliable
eyewitness testimony.
Loftus and Palmer (1974) 45 student participants were shown short video clips. They were split into 5
groups, with 9 participants in each one. All of the participants were asked:
◦ ‘About how fast were the cars going when they ________ each other’
◦ Each group was given a different verb to fill in the blank. These verbs were ‘smashed, collided,
bumped, hit or contacted’. Therefore the independent variable was the verb used.
◦ The dependent variable was the estimate of speed given by the participants.
◦ How the question was phrased influenced the participants’ speed estimates
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◦
When the verb ‘smashed’ was used, participants estimated that the cars were travelling much
faster than when the verb ‘contacted’ was used.
VERB
MEAN ESTIMATE
OF SPEED (mph)
Smashed
40.8
Collided
39.3
Bumped
38.1
Hit
34.0
Contacted
31.8
Cognition and Emotion
Emotion consists of three components:
◦ Physiological changes – arousal of the autonomic nervous system and the endocrine system
that are not conscious.
◦ The person’s own subjective feeling of an emotion (e.g. happiness)
◦ Associated behavior, like smiling or running away.
Emotions serve as a guide to evaluate how important situations and it is not necessarily a conscious
effort.
Fight or flight occurs when a perceived dangerous event or stimulus (stressor) will result in a
physiological response which prepares the individual for direct action to confront the danger or avoid it,
and a decision about what to do based on previous experience.
Cognitive psychologists Lazarus and Folkman have suggested that it is not the emotion that is
important, but rather how people appraise the situation and cope with it.
◦ Problem-focused coping – change problematic situations that causes the emotional stress.
◦ Emotion-focused coping – when the purpose is to handle the emotions rather than changing
the problematic situation.
◦ Methods: escape, self control over expression of emotions, seeking social support.
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Biological factors in emotion
The amygdala is critical to the brain’s emotional circuit and in emotional memories. Studies of animals
and humans indicate that stress hormones such as adrenaline are released when strong emotions are
evoked.
In the Emotional Brain (1999), LeDoux describes two biological pathways of emotions in the brain. The
first is the short route that goes from thalamus to amygdala; the second is a long route that passes via
the neocortex and thalamus, and projects these to areas in the brainstem that control response systems
such as fight or flight. It is the connections between the different brain structures that allow the
amygdale to transform sensory information into emotional signals, and to initiate and control emotional
responses.
According to LeDoux, the advantage of having direct and indirect pathways to the amygdale is flexibility
in responses. In the case of danger, the fast and direct pathway is useful because it saves time. This
could be important in matters of life or death. On the other hand, the long pathway allows for a more
thorough evaluation if a situation, which can help people – and animals – to avoid inappropriate
responses to situations.
LeDoux’s model of biological pathways of emotion in the brain
Emotion and cognitive process: the flashbulb memory
Flashbulb Memory - a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Example of events that have flashbulb memory
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1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (Neisser, 1982, 1986; Thompson & Cowan, 1986)
1963: Assassination of US President John Kennedy (Winograd & Killinger, 1983; Yarmey & Bull, 1978)
1986: Assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme (Christiansson, 1989; Larsen, 1992)
1989: Hillsborough Soccer Riot (Wright, 1993)
1990: Resignation of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Cohen, Conway & Maylor, 1994)
2001: September 11 attacks (Talarico & Rubin, 2003)
An integrative look at happiness
According to Sonia Lyubomirsky (2001):
◦ inborn genetic set-point for happiness accounts for 50% of our happiness
◦ 10% is due to circumstances
◦ 40% is something that can be influenced by each individual.
Happiness may be culturally constructed.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) defined happiness as the sum of positive emotions minus the sum of
negative emotions.
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Cognitive factors in happiness: beliefs about happiness
Modern happiness research is based on the assumption that it is possible to measure people’s individual
experience of happiness.
Although people in the western world become richer, they are not happier.
Social Comparison Theory is based on the idea that people learn about and assess themselves by
comparison with others. (Leon Festinger) Social Comparison Theory - According to this theory, people
are happy if they have more than those they normally compare themselves to. The consequence is that
one may be very happy with a new car – until a friend buys one just like it.
People like happiness to reaching certain goals, but they tend to set higher goals once they have
achieved the first ones. Therefore they end up never feeling happy.
Level of Aspiration Theory is where people examine what they gain and how likely it is that they will
achieve it before making decisions about what to do.
Expectations are influenced by previous experience as well as a desire to reach the goal.
If people think they need wealth and status , they work hard to achieve their goals. Problem is that they
only experience happiness for a brief period once they reach the goal.
General expectancy – people formulate general ideas about what to expect in different situations.
Myers and Dieners (1995) study shows that there is a discrepancy between wealth and happiness.
Despite the buying power of the average American has tripled since 1950, the proportion of Americans
who describe themselves as “very happy” remained the same at 1/3. Meaning there is no direct link
between wealth and happiness.
Hagerty (2003) studied the relationship between happiness and the distribution of wealth. He compared
data from the US and seven other countries, and found that happiness was positively correlated with
equality of distribution of wealth in the country.
Upward comparison – comparing yourself to those who are more fortunate leads to dissatisfaction.
◦ If I only had_____________, I would be happy.
◦ Psychological research found that it is normal for people to believe they will be happier in the
future than they are right now.
◦ Is the media to blame?
◦ Does advertising have an impact on our happiness?
Johnson and Kruger (2006) found that:
◦ Many people believe there is a relationship between happiness and money, it is the satisfaction
with one’s salary that brings happiness.
◦ The actual size of the salary does not matter, as long as the person is satisfied with it, and it is
enough to provide for his/her family.
◦ People become less satisfied with their salary if they compare themselves to others.
◦ Once people have established beliefs, no matter how they acquired them, it is very difficult to
change them.
◦ If their beliefs are challenged by evidence they are likely to disregard it, and look for information
that confirms their beliefs.
Happiness can be defines in different ways
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappel have been joined at the skull for 49 years. They share a blood
supply , part of the skull and some brain tissue. The sisters say they are very happy and optimistic, they
do not want to be separated. Likely both would die. If one does die they want the other to perform the
surgery so the other can go on living.
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Sociocultural factors in happiness
Gross national happiness – a measure of growth in happiness – as a contrast to the western gross
national product (GNP).
British social psychologist Adrian White, created the first Map of World Happiness, based on data
published by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the World Health Organization, and
other official sources from around the world.
Map of World Happiness is based on a meta-analysis of responses from 80,000 people who answered
questions about happiness and satisfaction with life.
meta-analysis (a study that uses data from a number of studies).
Happiest Countries
1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
Other Happy Countries
◦ Austria, Iceland, the Bahamas, Finland, and Sweden.
Other countries
23. US
41. UK
61. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia
Least Happy Countries
◦ Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, and Burundi
US psychologist Martin Seligman coined the term positive psychology, meaning to conduct research
that promotes human happiness and well-being. Seligman demonstrated that people can learn to think
positively and smile, in spite of life’s problems.
Habituation – humans become used to the way things are.
Genetics
Set-point – innate baseline of happiness which is an aspect of our personality.
Happiness Twin Study – compared happiness scores among sets of identical and fraternal twins who
grew up together or were reared apart. (Minnesota Twin Study)
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◦
Identical twins very similar in their happiness scores, while fraternal twins are no more similar
than other siblings.
Lyubomirsky’s typical characteristics of happy people.
◦ They devote a lot of time to family and friends
◦ They can easily express gratitude for what they have
◦ They are often the to offer a helping hand to people who need it.
◦ They have an optimistic outlook on the future
◦ They enjoy the pleasures of life and live in the present
◦ They are committed to lifelong goals and ambitions
◦ They spend time doing physical exercise
◦ They cope well in time of crisis
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