Description
Part I
Note that in the past psychology was not totally comfortable with the introduction of the concept of positive psychology, inspired by the general cultural orientation toward more existential/humanistic concepts that represented more of the culture’s contemporary post-modern approach. The earlier approach to research really did not fully consider the extent of individual differences.
a) Please view the Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce video for an understanding of how horizontal universals may oppose the actual reality of variability. As we noted in Weeks 1 & 2, diversity does need to be embraced in order to understand happiness for a particular individual.
Also view the video The Surprising Science of Happiness. Note that not mentioned in this latter video is the fact that actually there are individual differences in whether people tend to synthesize happiness. Whether or not that is done depends both on the person’s individual personality and also on the particular context in which it happens. After viewing these two videos please share with us a personal instance, a personal example, involving
1) The happiness and spaghetti sauce concept
And
2) The synthetizing of happiness
Part II
Emotional Intelligence:
Five factors of emotional intelligence have been proposed (originally by Salovey, P. & Mayer, J. D., 2002) and explored. They are the ability to:
1. know one’s emotions and recognizing what you are feeling
2. handle interpersonal relationships well
3. control and regulate one’s emotions to help reach goals
4. recognize emotions in others
5. handle stress, regulate moods, and manage ones emotions
a) Do a library search inserting the words either Developing Emotional Intelligence or Manage One’s Emotions, or Recognizing Emotions of Others. There will be a number of relevant full text articles. Choose an article from one of these three topics. Describe to us what you found about the article that was interesting. Would the information be of use to a professional clinician?
b) Share with us your thoughts about why there are individual differences in emotional intelligence. Also, might a person’s Jungian type be related to their emotional intelligence? If so, why would that be? Would the same approach to the teaching of emotional intelligence work for everyone? Why not?
c) finally, view the following two short videos and briefly tell us your thoughts about the content:
Getting stuck in the negatives and how to get unstuck:
The person you need to marry:
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