The Surprising Science Of Happiness Rhetorical Analysis

She presented with anxiety, academic concern, and depressed mood. She reported that she has a habit of avoiding things that increases anxiety. She noted that her strategy in avoiding anxiety provoking situations also makes her feel stuck. She reported that she can be self-critical that it is difficult for her to motivate herself. She reported that she has been missing her classes in an attempt to avoid a stressful situation.

When having good experiences, most people, if asked, would claim that they feel happy. However, if one decided to ask Martha Nussbaum, author of “Who is the Happy Warrior? Philosophy Poses Questions to Psychology,” she would most likely respond that she was feeling pleasured. In her article, she draws a restrictive line between pleasure and happiness. She introduces the viewpoints of many intellectuals who have spoken on the definition of happiness, and then offers her own opinions in regards to theirs. Her thoughts generally align with those of Aristotle, Plato, and the ancient Greek thinkers – the very ones she spent much of her higher education studying. Her main ideas, that happiness is too complex to be concretely defined and that pleasure is a feeling that we may experience while doing certain things, are well-explained and supported. She offers the idea that happiness is not an emotion – rather, it is a state of being that we should all hope to attain as a result of self-reflection. Nussbaum continually counters the beliefs proposed by psychologists, like the notion that happiness is a one-note feeling, or the concept that happiness is only influenced by positive emotions. In my essay, I will explain how Martha Nussbaum’s explanation of the complexities of happiness is superior, as well as how the ideas of two psychologists, Sonja Lyubomirsky and Daniel Gilbert, are faulty and disreputable. However, it is important to note that just because Nussbaum is the least wrong

Jennifer Senior discusses her research concerning positive psychology and whether or not happiness is teachable and highlights some of the darker sides of happiness. To start the article, Senior reveals her score on her test from the Authentic Happiness Inventory. The test designed by Chris Peterson of the positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. This test is intended to numerically score ones level of happiness. In a scale of 1 to 5, Jennifer got a grade of 2.88. This indicated she was below average for most rankings such as “age, education level, gender and occupation” (422). Senior states she is at the 50 percent mark for her given zip code. She stated that liking her

In “Happiness: Enough Already,” Sharon Begley argues that happiness is overrated and it should not always be a priority in your life.

Attention Materials: Many times I have wondered what is true happiness. Is there such thing as true happiness? Can it even be attained if there is such a thing? Is it more of fulfilling desires, or satisfying psychological needs? Every person attempts to realize happiness in its fullest essence. It seems like today people are too busy trying to get rich. Nowadays it is believed that happiness lies in that new mansion, or a nice Ferrari. People are mistakingly assuming that wealth will bring to them a personal significance in which they will achieve happiness.

Many people can confuse joy and pleasure because they are similar or the same thing but author Zadie Smith mentions the differences between joy and pleasure. She explains that sometimes joy can’t be pleasurable at all. She talks about joy as a different type of emotion.

looking at how to minimize pain and not maximize happiness. He starts the article by recounting

Happiness is a euphoric state, it is the light at the end of the tunnel, it is what individuals seek to achieve. Human beings inherently want to be happy. Happiness is unique because it has seven billion different definitions. In his book Immune to Reality, Daniel Gilbert argues that individuals are only as happy as the subconscious function of their brain allows them to be. Additionally, he questions the state of happiness by citing the psychological immune system. The psychological immune system is a subconscious process of the human brain, which favorably rationalizes human decisions whether they were right or not, regardless of outcome it always finds something favorable to take away. In Barbara Fredrickson’s Love 2.0, she introduces the vagus nerve as a biological apparatus to increase loving potential; Fredrickson links higher levels of loving potential to increased overall health. Most importantly, Fredrickson establishes the relationship between love and happiness as an interdependent one, “Having at least one close relationship like this is vital to your health and happiness” (108). Fredrickson believes that humans have the power within them to biologically alter themselves and to shape their own identity. Inversely, Malcolm Gladwell proclaims that human identity is shaped by the environment an individual is subject to in his book The Power of Context. Gladwell affirms that humans have the power to shape their identity, however only by changing the

This excerpt was used to form sympathy also known as pathos.The author did this to pull and emotional feel towards this situation.By describing how she looked and how they are wondering how her sister would take it when she sees her,actually makes you think how much this kid went through.No girl would want to have stitches going down the middle of their head with a bald spot,and how she had to get fed with a feeding tube makes you feel like you should be more appreciated about life cause what she had to go through is just such an emotional thing.

In The Happiness Hypothesis Jonathan Haidt talks about how our brains work and how best to find happiness with the different ways it works. Haidt describes the different ways a positive and negative person’s brain works and how each can find happiness through various and different methods. He also discusses different aspects of society that can affect our level of happiness. All of these things can be considered to find the best way to raise your level of happiness.

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.

The everlasting question of "What is Happiness?" has been inquired since the creation of men. Unfortunately, the only agreed answer that humanity came up with is that all the creatures seek happiness, but no one has the concrete directions for achieving it. Our libraries are overwhelmed with books about happiness, but no dictionary definition explains which path men must take to be happy. No mathematician gave us the axiom which we could use to solve the problem of living in bliss. No scientist brought up the formula of fusing certain ingredients to produce the "drink of happiness". Still almost all the people consider that their ultimate purport in

In the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” there was a lot of life lessons incorporated in the film. One of the things that Chris Gardner told his son, Christopher "Don't ever let somebody tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. All right? You got a dream? You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can't do it. You want something, go get it. Period." I think that this is really inspirational, and can be used for everyone in any situation. Chris Gardner displayed a great deal of determination, humbleness and always had a good disposition. These things stood out to me because personally, I do not think I would be able to obtain all of those qualities while going through the situations Chris

“Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality” (James “William James Quote”). This sentiment from William James who was a leading philosopher and psychologist at the turn of the 19th Century inspires one to challenge their labeling of a current circumstance, suggesting happiness is a perception that can be manipulated. This mind over matter approach to life’s struggles has become commonplace in the repertoire of motivational speakers, close friends, coaches, and other well-meaning influencers alike. This ambiguous concept has the ability to produce very real consequences, even death. In

Hello everybody. I'm going to show you some pictures and I want you to think about the first emotion that comes to mind. Now I'm sure these pictures made you feel sad, negative, depressed, pity,and a lot of other negative emotions. Now i'm going to show you another set of pictures and I want you to do same thing as you did with the last pictures. These pictures have been voted on and determined that these are the happiest pictures on the internet. Why you may ask? Because genetically we are all wired to like cute things such as babies or cute animals. We can use this genetic wiring to our advantage, just looking at these pictures improves your efficiency, your short-term happiness, and caught your attention better than just looking at a picture of a carrot or say one of zak’s many selfies. (Martinez-Conde). Now that i've got you attention I want you to raise your hand if you ever been taught what causes happiness, the benefits being happy has, or how to become happier.. The fact that *if everyone raises their hand pivot to something else* almost no one in this room has been taught these things is insane to me. This is telling of the ideas that we have as a society concerning happiness. What I'm trying to say is that as a culture we need to redefine happiness as something that needs to be constantly worked towards and is not something easily attainable. I'm going to start off with with talking about the problem we have with happiness. Next we're going to talk about what effects are caused by being unhappy and finally we're going to talk about ways you can become happier.