Cognitive traps that make it difficult to think about happiness.

Full Answer Section can identify with the focusing illusion the most. I tend to focus on the negative aspects of my life and let them overshadow the positive aspects. This can lead to me feeling unhappy, even when I have a lot to be grateful for. The two selves The two selves are the experiencing self and the remembering self. The experiencing self is the part of us that is experiencing life in the moment. The remembering self is the part of us that is remembering past experiences and imagining future experiences. The confusion between the two selves is part of the "mess about happiness" because we often make decisions based on the remembering self, even when it is not in the best interest of the experiencing self. For example, we might choose to stay in a job that we hate because we remember the good times we had when we first started working there. However, the remembering self is not experiencing the bad parts of the job right now, so it is not making a fair decision. An example of a time when I can relate to this confusion is when I was choosing a college to attend. I was accepted to two colleges, one that I really liked and one that was a better school academically. I chose the better school academically, even though I knew that I would be happier at the school that I really liked. I made this decision based on the remembering self, which remembered the good times I had at the better school when I visited it. However, the remembering self was not experiencing the bad parts of the school, such as the long commute and the cold weather. A bad memory ruins the memory of the experience but not the experience itself This idea means that even if we have a mostly neutral or positive experience, a bad memory can ruin the memory of the experience. For example, we might have a great vacation, but if we get food poisoning on the last day, we might only remember the food poisoning and not the rest of the vacation. An example of this is when I went on a camping trip with my friends. We had a great time hiking, swimming, and roasting marshmallows. However, on the last day, I got food poisoning and had to spend the entire day in the bathroom. I still remember the good parts of the camping trip, but the food poisoning ruined the memory of the whole experience. How we make decisions based on memories of experiences but not based on the experiences themselves We make decisions based on memories of experiences because we cannot experience the future. We can only imagine the future based on our memories of the past. This is why we are often disappointed when our expectations for the future are not met. For example, we might imagine that a new job will be amazing, but when we actually start the job, we might be disappointed. This is because our memory of the job interview was better than the reality of the job. How happiness of the experiencing self and satisfaction of the remembering self are really different The happiness of the experiencing self is the happiness that we feel in the moment. The satisfaction of the remembering self is the happiness that we feel when we look back on our experiences. These two types of happiness are different because the experiencing self is only concerned with the present moment, while the remembering self is concerned with the past and the future. The experiencing self is also more sensitive to negative experiences than the remembering self. For example, we might have a great vacation, but if we get food poisoning on the last day, the experiencing self will be unhappy. However, the remembering self might still be satisfied with the vacation, even though it ended on a bad note.

Sample Answer Three cognitive traps that make it difficult to think about happiness The three cognitive traps that make it difficult to think about happiness are:

• The focusing illusion: This is the tendency to overestimate the importance of negative events and underestimate the importance of positive events.
• The adaptation effect: This is the tendency for people to get used to positive or negative events and for the happiness boost from these events to wear off over time.
• The hedonic treadmill: This is the tendency for people to return to a relatively stable level of happiness over time, regardless of positive or negative events.