how frequently does the letter o appear in:
don’t worry, but don’t be happy, either?
we have examined the topic of happiness on multiple occasions, including in “the situation of happiness” and most recently in “situating emotions.” in addition, situationist friend dan gilbert has authored the best-selling book “stumbling on happiness.” so happiness matters to those who write for the situationist, just as it matters, presumably, to pretty much everyone.
but can too much happiness be a bad thing? according to university of virginia psychology professor shigehiro oishi and his colleagues, the answer appears to be yes. they studied purported levels of happiness among european-americans, asian-americans, koreans, and japanese, and found that while european-americans tend to be most happy, they also experience higher levels of unhappiness–meaning they appear to encounter the most emotional peaks and valleys during their lives. the findings of their study published this month in the journal of personality and social psychology, and below we excerpt a press release from the university of virginia.
are you happy? well don’t try to be happier; you might become less happy. that is the gist of a multi-cultural study published this month in the journal of personality and social psychology.
the study by university of virginia psychology professor shigehiro oishi and colleagues at three other institutions found that, on average, european-americans claim to be happy in general – more happy than asian-americans or koreans or japanese – but are more easily made less happy by negative events, and recover at a slower rate from negative events, than their counterparts in asia or with an asian ancestry. on the other hand, koreans, japanese, and to a lesser extent, asian-americans, are less happy in general, but recover their emotional equilibrium more readily after a setback than european-americans.
“we found that the more positive events a person has, the more they feel the effects of a negative event,” oishi said. “people seem to dwell on the negative thing when they have a large number of good events in their life.
oishi, a social psychologist who grew up in japan and then moved to the united states at 23, is interested in comparing how people from east asia and the united states respond to the daily events of life.
he and his colleagues surveyed more than 350 college students in japan, korea and the united states over a three-week period. the students recorded daily their general state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life, as well as the number of positive and negative events they had during the course of each day.
the researchers found that the european-americans needed nearly two positive events (such as getting complimented or getting an a) to return to their normal level of happiness after each negative event, such as getting a parking ticket or a lower grade than expected. the koreans, japanese and asian-americans generally needed only one positive event to make up for each negative event.
oishi said that people who become accustomed to numerous positive or happy events in their life are more likely to take a harder fall than people who have learned to accept the bad with the good. and because negative events have such a strong effect when occurring in the midst of numerous positive events, people find it difficult to be extremely happy. they reach a point of diminishing returns.
this is why the extreme happiness people may feel after buying a new car or a house, or getting married, can be rapidly diminished when the payments come due or the daily spats begin. it becomes a problem of ratio, or perspective.
his co-authors are ed diener, university of illinois at urbana–champaign and the gallup organization, dong-won choi of california state university, east bay; chu kim-prieto of the college of new jersey, and incheol choi of seoul national university.
this entry was posted on october 20, 2007 at 12:01 am	and is filed under emotions. you can follow any responses to this entry through the rss 2.0 feed. you can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The text includes two hundred and forty-seven "o"s in total.
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