Tyler McHone

Debra Jizi
UWRT 1102-029
22 February 2016

Double Entry Journal

Citation: Gilbert, Dan. "The Surprising Science of Happiness." Dan Gilbert:. TED, Feb. 2004.
Web. 22 Feb. 2016. <https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy?
language=en>.

Source: Quote (Page# or Paragraph #)

Responses

It turns out the pre-frontal

cortex does lots of things, but
one of the most important
things it does is an experience
simulator. (01:06)

I think that this is one of the most

fascinating aspects of the human
brain. We learned about this in
Anthropology. Its crazy that you can
produce different experiences in
your head and play them out in your
head. You can visualize yourself in a
place and can remember it with
minute detail. No other species can
do this, which is crazy.

Because the fact is that a

year after losing the use of
their legs, and a year after
winning the lotto, lottery
winners and paraplegics are
equally happy with their lives
(02:47)

You would think that this wouldn't be

true because these are two extreme
scenarios on different spectrums. I
don't even believe it; but I guess,
you become accustomed to your life
so that your happiness cannot
fluctuate.

Well, it turns out it's precisely

the same remarkable
machinery that all off us have.
Human beings have something
that we might think of as a
"psychological immune
system." A system of cognitive
processes, largely nonconscious cognitive processes,
that help them change their
views of the world, so that
they can feel better about the
worlds in which they find
themselves. Like Sir Thomas,
you have this machine. Unlike
Sir Thomas, you seem not to
know it. (04:30)

I think that this is a great ideology

that no one uses in their daily life.
This idea that happiness is a system
that we cannot control is something
I believe to be true. BUT we can
control our outlook on life, and I
think that determines our happiness.

"I'm happier than I would have I find this hilarious honestly. I don't
been with the Beatles.
think that this is true in anyway,
because Im sure he wanted to be
(07:15)
apart of the Beatles. They are one
of the greatest rock bands of all
time, theres no way he wouldn't
want to be apart of that. Theres
also the negative, maybe they
wouldn't have been so big if he was
apart of it and not Ringo Starr.

Natural happiness is what we

get when we get what we
wanted, and synthetic
happiness is what we make
when we don't get what we
wanted. And in our society, we
have a strong belief that
synthetic happiness is of an
inferior kind. (08:37)

I think that these are two great

definitions for the different types of
happiness are true. We tend to be
discouraged when we don't get what
we want and I think that has to deal
with typically getting what we want
as humans, more specifically
Americans. I don't believe synthetic
happiness to be inferior, not to say I
wouldn't like to get what I want, but I
think its equal. We can learn to
become happy when we don't
happen to get our way.

It's a 50-year-old paradigm

called the "free choice
paradigm. (09:34)

We have done this experiment in

high school during my AP
Psychology class. Although we
didn't use paintings in the
experiment it did have similar
outcomes.