13 Mar The Worst Way to Think About Happiness and Sadness
Happiness and unhappiness, for that matter, are not just objective phenomena to be observed or experienced.
They’re very much subjective; which means the ways we think about and interpret happiness and sadness and all other emotions matters. It matters a lot.
Do you even know how you think about happiness?
Read on to learn a bit more about the ways that thinking about happiness can be helpful, or unhelpful …
via Psychology Today by Kevin Bennett
KEY POINTS
- Although people talk as if they are opposites, happiness and sadness are not mutually exclusive emotions.
- It is possible to be happy while experiencing sadness and vice versa.
- The neurotransmitter dopamine is often associated with positive affect, but also plays a role in negative affect.
Dids/Pexels
Family Feud Host: “Top five answers are on the board, here’s the question: Name two words that are opposites.”
Family 1: “Happy and sad!”
Family Feud Host: “Show me happy and sad”….*ding-ding-ding* “Number 1 answer on the board.”
This is not the place to explore the other four antonym answers—sorry—but be sure to look for my upcoming writing on “why Steve Harvey looks for sexual innuendo in every answer”).
Are Happy and Sad Emotional Opposites?
Common antonyms include up-down, good-bad, big-small, black-white, rich-poor, Michigan-Ohio State, win-lose, and hot-cold. Why does “happy vs. sad” come to mind so quickly for many of us? Are they truly antonyms?
Happiness and sadness are two emotions often conceptualized as being opposite ends on the same continuum. Some believe that happiness is simply the absence of sadness, and sadness is the absence of happiness. However, recent research suggests that happiness and sadness are separate, independent emotions that can coexist in a person’s emotional experience.
Not Mutually Exclusive
Psychologists at Purdue University found that happiness and sadness are not mutually exclusive emotions. Participants in this study reported experiencing both happiness and sadness at the same time, and the researchers found that these emotions were not necessarily inversely related. This suggests that happiness and sadness can coexist, and that one does not necessarily have to be absent for the other to be present.
In another study, researchers in England found that people who reported higher levels of happiness also reported higher levels of sadness. This suggests that happiness and sadness are not mutually exclusive, but rather that they can coexist within a person’s emotional experience…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE