Category Archives: Chapter 5

Catastrophic Thinking: The Fates of Chicken Littles

Chapter 4+5

I found it very surprising that the researchers came to the conclusion that happiness was actually less likely to determine a longer life than seriousness. That’s very counterintuitive to me. But I guess it kind of goes along with the … Continue reading

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Ch 4/5

The following chapters focus on the optimists and the catastrophizers. Throughout life, a lot of us are lead to believe that if we focus on improving our happiness, we will physically be in better shape. However, that is not the … Continue reading

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Chapter 4 and 5

In these chapters, the authors discussed the roles that optimism, neuroticism, and catastrophizing, play in longevity. Many believe that happiness is the secret to good health, but the researchers found that cheerful children were less likely to live into old … Continue reading

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Longevity Project Ch 4 & 5

Chapter 4 explores how cheerfulness and optimism relate to longevity. Surprisingly, being cheerful is not corellated with living longer and the more sober Terman participants tended to outlive their optimistic counterparts. There are various explanations for this; humor can be … Continue reading

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Chapters 4 & 5

One of the biggest takeaways from chapter 4 is the idea that the participants who lived a long satisfying life did not pursue happiness, rather their happiness was a by-product of their pathways to long life. Their social relationships, careers, … Continue reading

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Ch. 4 & 5

In Chapter 4, Friedman & Martin discuss how happiness affects or may be affected by health. Their findings again disagreed with many of the common adages about how to live a long, healthy life. They found that those with the … Continue reading

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Chapter 4 and 5

Chapter 4 brought up an interesting point that although optimism can be a good thing, too much of it is not beneficial. I completely agree with this statement because I believe that sometimes too much optimism can leave you disappointed … Continue reading

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Chapter 4-5

These two chapters were especially interesting to me because I used to be someone who was very pessimistic and would look at the bad in life, but I’ve grown to be a cautiously optimistic person. Chapter 4, in its discussion … Continue reading

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Roberson – Chap 4 and 5

I find chapter 2 similar to chapter 4 where the “conscientious and prudent” of the former are similar to the “serious” participants of the latter. Not surprising of this book/study, researchers found that the positive characteristics, in this case those … Continue reading

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Chapters 4 & 5

Relatively similar to last week’s readings, the findings in Chapter 4 came as a surprise to me. It was shocking and quite disappointing to read that a cheerful and optimistic person is less likely to live longer than a mature … Continue reading

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