IBP Social Psychology Summary - Dealing with Adversity and Achieving a Happy Life -ch 12

Social and Organizational Psychology

IBP 2017-2018

Dealing with Adversity and Achieving a Happy Life

Stress: a contributing factor to psychological and physical health problems

• Can stem from traumatic events, or frequent daily hassles
• Interferes with the operation of the body’s immune system, and can be measured at the cellular level
• Stress can be reduced by social support

Loneliness: when a person has fewer and less satisfying relationships than desired

• If you see your personality as “fixed”: you are likely to react to rejection by cutting yourself off from others
• If you perceive yourself as capable of change: experience rejection as an opportunity for future improvement or growth

• Interventions related to self-change help to improve people’s resilience in the face of stress and reduce the likelihood of depression

Discrimination

• Experiencing discrimination based on disability, sexual minorities, and weight, is associated with harm to well-being
• Weight discrimination predicts mortality

Improving mental health

• Regular exercise
• Social support has shown to be beneficial for people with PTSD
• Joining groups can foster social connectedness and help prevent depression
• Practicing self-forgiveness

Is the legal system fair?

• Understand potential sources of error and bias within the current system
• Lineups used to identify criminal suspects are subject to bias if all the suspects are shown at once (simultaneous lineup)
• In legal proceedings, defendants’ race, gender, physical attractiveness, and socioeconomic status can influence jurors’ perceptions and judgments

Happiness: often referred to as subjective well-being with four basic components:

• global life satisfaction
• satisfaction with specific life domains
• a high level of positive feelings
• a minimum of negative feelings

Several factors consistently account for a nations’ average happiness levels:

• degree of social support
• per capita income
• healthy life expectancy
• freedom to make life choices
• generosity toward others
• amount of violence
• degree of corruption

On being happy:

• Happy people are more community-oriented than unhappy people
• Monetary wealth beyond a certain point does not necessarily increase happiness
• The optimum level of well-being theory: very high levels of happiness can foster complacency or lead to unjustified overoptimism
• Growing evidence supports the idea that happiness levels are fundamentally changeable
• Many of the characteristics needed to be a successful entrepreneur are the same ones that contribute to happiness levels
  • Self-determination theory: entrepreneurs typically have strong intrinsic motivation

References:

Baron, R., & Branscombe, N. (2016). Social psychology (14th edition) Harlow: Pearson Education Limited

--Chapter 12