Olivia Bloom

Professor Debra Jizi

UWRT 1102
18 February 2016
Double Entry Journal
Citation: Mochon, Daniel, Michael I. Norton, and Dan Ariely. "Getting Off the Hedonic Treadmill,
One Step at a Time." Pursuing Happiness. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016. 324-336. Print.
Source: Quote (Page# or Paragraph #)

Responses

some studies have found that there is a

This for me is true I am naturally a happy

positive relation between workers stable

person when I am at work and Im very good

happiness and their work performance

at what I do. I think if someone is happy with

(Wright & Staw, 1999) (pg. 325)

their life then they wont be miserable at work.

I used to have a job I hated and even though I
was miserable going into it I was still good at
what I was doing

The study about the lottery winners and the

I think the initial event made them happy or

paralyzed people (pg. 326)

sad but I think after a while it set in and their

lives changed but if didnt change how they
felt about it, they probably did things a little
differently now but it didnt change how they
felt about their lives. Like the book says those
events dont have lasting impact on our wellbeing (pg. 326)

people return to their baseline in the long Everyone has different personalities and the
run, a baseline which is determined primarily way they handle different situations. So when

by their personalities and the events that

the book says this and they do studies on

those personalities cause them to pursue.

people and their measure of happiness I think

(pg. 327)

its not really good research. Some people

might be happier if something happens than
the other would be.

Can Well-Being Be Improved? (pg. 327)

Before I even read the paragraph underneath

the subtitle, I thought of course it can, only if
the person wants it to be. If the person wants
it bad enough to try and change things about
themselves to be improved I think their wellbeing can be improved. After reading

Nonetheless, it seems as though people

I can see how this can be seen from

generally should not even bother to pursue

researchers but I think there is more to it than

goals that make them happy (and not try as

that. I think that if people do pursue their

hard to avoid many of the activities that they

goals that make them happy it will lead them

expect to cause them unhappiness) as

to pursue bigger and more goals making

achieving them will not have any lasting

them happier longer. I think that its good to

impact (pgs.327-328)

have those accomplished goals to look back

on.

We suggest that the cumulative impact of

I agree with this statement because of my

repeating minor but positive life events in

own personal experience. I used to work out

the short term- such as choosing to attend

and go to church all the time. When I got to

religious services each week or to work out

college it kind of slimmed out and I can see

several days a week- may be sufficient to

how much it changed my well-being. I wasnt

increase well-being(pg. 328)

sleeping or eating well, after I started up

again, it took a while to get in the groove but I

could see the change.
intentional activities, discrete actions in

They might be small events but I think if you

which people choose to engage, can lead to

do enough of these small events it can lead to

higher levels of well-being because they

having enough of these small events will lead

draw attention to positive events, (Pg.

to more happiness

329)