Participant 1: I was in the police academy and I got injured.
Participant 2: My grandpa has prostate cancer. Participant 3: I lost my dad in January of this past year.
Participant 4: On April 19 I faced a life threatening surgery, which it caused me to be paralyzed
and my major concern was that I could not walk again
but as you see, I am here and I've got work to do.
Julian: Glass is half full. Could have been worse. Look on the bright side!
When life knocks you down, these are the things you hear people say. There's no way what they're
telling could actually be helpful could it? Well buckle up, because psychologists have
found that a substantial amount of your happiness in life is determined by your ability to focus
on the positive. We gathered a group of volunteers who experienced a significant and sometimes
difficult life event in the past year. First we handed them a test to gauge their current
level of happiness. Now, in order to be super scientific, we split them into two groups,
a control group and a variable group. Now what about that control group. Well, we asked
them to think of something they had no opinion on whatsoever. They didn't feel too strongly
about it one way or the other. And then, we asked them to share that story with us.
P5: I found apples to be rather neutral because they don't really taste particularly good
or bad. P6: I think the color yellow is a nice color.
People like the color yellow because it looks very nice and that's all I had to say about yellow.
P5: I think they're rather bland and fairly innocuous looking
They're cheap to purchase which helps to make up for the rather obvious
lack of flavor. P7: The feeling I get when I watch a show
that I think is just okay when I really don't want to watch it is a feeling of not wanting
to be there. I want to get up and get ready to go.
P5: I think overall the pros and cons of this fruit tend to balance itself out when you
compare it to other fruits and hence that was why I chose this fruit, apple.
Julian: For the variable group we brought them in, sat them down and asked them to think
of a recent time in their life when they experienced something positive. Maybe something they achieved,
something good that happened to them, something good they did for somebody else. The idea
was to put them in a positive state of mind. We asked them to focus on the details and
three strengths that they had. Of those three, we told them to choose their biggest strength
and tell us a story that showed off that quality of theirs.
Would you mind reading for us what you wrote? P3: Yeah sure. I wrote, I have a top notch
quality of caring and being sympathetic with those people close to me.
P4: I have a talent for and the gift for helping young people who don't like school.
Helping them to become intelligent and enjoy learning. P1: The one quality I like most about myself
is that I am very caring towards other people. I do a lot of volunteer work, which is good
for the person in need and lifts my spirit immensely.
P8: My strongest strength is my knowledge. Not only because it's a tool I use on a daily basis,
but also because it's a tool that helps me get myself out of a lot of trouble.
P2: My favorite part of my personality is basically my self motivation. Because when
a lot of people doubt me and tell me I can't do stuff, I just take the stuff people say
I can't do and use it as motivation and prove them wrong in the end.
P4: Well one thing I ask everyone to do is to be your authentic self. Stand up and be
who you are no matter what. What you think of me is no concern of mine.
P1: I deliver for the meals on wheels program at the senior center and I love seeing my
elderly recipients each week. They truly light up my day and I don't feel complete without
giving them a big hug and making sure everything is okay with them.
P3: Recently a friend of mine, his father also died and I was able to come together
and help him with his mourning and with his understanding process of death. And to let
him know that you are not alone and it hurts like hell but you'll get through it with the
help of good friends and that's what life is all about just overcoming and advancing.
P2: Well my uncle was doubting me calling me dumb and stuff like that and then they
were telling me I wasn't going to pass the California High School Exit Exam, I was a
dummy, I was a failure and other stuff like that. But then I passed it so that was when
I just realized that all the doubts that people give me, I just use it as motivation and just
use it to keep going on. Julian: When they were finished we had them
take another test. After they finished we measured their happiness again to see what
kind of effect the positivity exercise had. Now keep in mind, our findings show an instantaneous
increase in happiness. Changes ranged as high as 43% increases in happiness and drops as
low as 31%. For those who did the exercise we saw a much narrower range. For some people
happiness went up 18% and the lowest drop was as little as 6%. So, maybe instead of
focusing on your weaknesses, you should focus on your strengths instead. What are your strengths?
When was the last time you really got to show it off and use it? Let us know in a video response
We'll do something awesome with it. I'm Julian, and this has been The Science of Happiness.
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