Read the following chapters out of Haidt’s “The Happiness Hypothesis” book:
Chapters 5, 7, 8, and 10 of Haidt, J. (2005) The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. New York, NY: Basic Books.
After doing the above reading, please answer the following questions:
Consider a long-term goal you yourself have achieved. Reflect back on your experience with this achievement and what happiness you received as a result. How was your happiness from this achievement distributed – was it all along the way, or clumped toward the end, or both? Describe, including how the happiness felt at different stages. Does the word “happiness” fully capture your experience? What aspects of your experience agree with what Haidt writes in the chapters, and what differ from his predictions?
Have you yourself experienced Haidt’s Adaptation Principle or seen it experienced by others? Describe. According to Haidt, what mistake are the people who expect a “special euphoria” at the completion of a task making and why?
If one had a choice of several long-term goals to pursue, each of which would take at least a decade to achieve, and had studied Haidt’s Progress Principle, as well as the phenomenon of “Flow” discussed in Chapter 5, what principles do you think could be derived so as to enable a happiness-maximizing choice among these long-term goals?
What do you think is the relationship between virtue and being a positive leader? Explain.
According to the book, does “Flow” relate to the concept of “Vital Engagement”? Think back on your career so far, and remember an event during which you felt flow quite strongly. What influenced the strength of your ability to feel flow? Come up with some ideas on how a job might be designed in order to stimulate flow and vital engagement.
What is cross-level coherence, and according to the book, how does it relate to meaning? Consider the implications of cross-level coherence in business organizations. How might cross-level coherence relate to happiness and positivity in organizations?
