Happiness

Main Wiki Page for Alfino's Happiness Course

This page has a variety of links related to the Happiness Class, taught by Dr. Mark Alfino at Gonzaga University. Click here for the course web page.

Study Questions

Study Questions for Happiness

The Movie List

Here's our movie list, which is useful for movie reflection papers, or just for a slow Thursday or Saturday night. (You might invite some of your classmates over.  Ask them to bring popcorn.) I'm not sure all of these will work for an individual paper, but I'll make notes about the ones I know about. Please look at the assignment description for advice on how to do a movie reflection paper. Feel free to add your thoughts on these movies or suggest others.

The first nine are solid.  Add your own suggestions and we'll talk:

1. The Pusuit of Happyness
2. 13 Conversations about One Thing - Should almost be required viewing.
3. Amelie - Excellent at capturing the subtlety of a form of state-happiness that is often overlooked.
4. American Beauty - Good for both cultural critique of forms of American happiness and for state-happiness.
5. About Schmidt - Excellent for issues of meaningfulness.
6. Life is Beautiful - Raises profound questions about how we respond to evil in maintaining happiness.
7. Groundhog Day - Makes a philosophically interesting case for perfectionism and happiness.
8. 21 grams
9. Broken Flowers

I'm not sure that next ones will work, even though some of them are really good movies:

1. I Heart Huckabees - Ok, but a bit more about the fun of thinking about big philosophical issues.
2. The Waking Life
3. Lost Horizon
4. The Family Man
5. City Slickers
6. It's a Wonderful Life - a classic with a good message, but let's skip it, ok?
7. Office Space - This is a funny and somewhat insightful movie, but let's not use it for a whole movie reflection paper since it isn't as serious or complex as many others. Combine it, perhaps, or use details from it in other papers. Definitely worth watching for this class

Mindfulness Meditation Exercise

Click here for the course webpage on the Mindfulness Exercises.

Savoring

I'll be working on this topic for the "savoring exercise" I'd like to write. If anyone wants to follow some of the research, feel free. From the first search, I've settled on the following book by Savoring research pioneers Fred Bryant & Joseph Veroff. Here's the bibliography record from the database:

Title: Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Author(s): Bryant, Fred B., Loyola University, Chicago, IL, US

Veroff, Joseph, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, US Source: Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2007. xv, 278 pp. ISBN: 0-8058-5119-4 (hardcover)

0-80585120-8 (paperback) Language: English Keywords: savoring; positive experience; life; positive psychology; emotion; motivation Abstract: (from the cover) This book is about savoring life--the capacity to attend to the joys, pleasures, and other positive feelings that we experience in our lives. The authors enhance our understanding of what savoring is and the conditions under which it occurs. Sarvoring provides a new theoretical model for conceptualizing and understanding the psychology of enjoyment and the processes through which people manage positive emotions. The authors review their quantitative research on savoring, as well as the research of others, and provide measurement instruments with scoring instructions for assessing and studying savoring. Authors Bryant and Veroff outline the necessary preconditions that must exist for savoring to occur and distinguish savoring from related concepts such as coping, pleasure, positive affect, emotional intelligence, flow, and meditation. The book's lifespan perspective includes a conceptual analysis of the role of time in savoring. Savoring is also considered in relation to human concerns, such as love, friendship, physical and mental health, creativity, and spirituality. Strategies and hands-on exercises that people can use to enhance savoring in their lives are provided, along with a review of factors that enhance savoring. Savoring is intended for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in positive psychology from the fields of social, clinical, health, and personality psychology and related disciplines. The book may serve as a supplemental text in courses on positive psychology, emotion and motivation, and other related topics. The chapters on enhancing savoring will be especially attractive to clinicians and counselors interested in intervention strategies for positive psychological adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved) Subjects: *Life Experiences; *Pleasure; *Positive Psychology; *Positivism; *Well Being; Emotions; Motivation Classification: Personality Psychology (3100) Population: Human (10) Intended Audience: Psychology: Professional & Research (PS) Publication Type: Book, Authored Book; Print Release Date: 20061226 Accession Number: 2006-11872-000 Number of Citations in Source: 466

Persistent link to this record: http://proxy.foley.gonzaga.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2006-11872-000&site=ehost-live

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