The Two Selves.
May 4, 2016 at 2:31 pm
(This post was last modified: May 4, 2016 at 2:42 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
I find the concept of two selves to our psychology, the reflective self and the experiencial self, to be very interesting.
On the one hand we experience everything here and now, in moods, and on the other hand we experience memories and anticipations of memories that feel very different to when those things were/will be actually experienced. How we remember or expect to remember certain experiences is very different to how they feel when they are experienced.
We can be in a shitty mood day to day quite regularly, but feel satisfied with our life.
We can be in a good mood day to day quite regularly, but feel dissatified with our life.
There is our mood felt in our moment to moment experience, one type of happiness, and there is our overall life satisfaction, another type of happiness.
Studies have shown that provided we are not suffering too much from poverty, due to the hedonic treadmill money doesn't tend to make people much happier.
But studies have also shown that more happiness does increase more life satisfaction, not just past the poverty line.
That's because some studies of happiness are about life satisfaciton, and some are about moment to moment happiness -- and some are about both -- and it's important to avoid the equivocation and not mix the two up.
The concept I am talking about was conceived by the studier of bias and statistics, psychologist and author of Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow
Here's an interesting video of his TED talk, all about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg
I'd be interesting what others think of this interesting concept of how we experience life cognitively and emotionally. And I'd be interested to hear from anyone who watches/has watched this full TED talk, or is already familiar with Daniel Kahneman or his book.
On the one hand we experience everything here and now, in moods, and on the other hand we experience memories and anticipations of memories that feel very different to when those things were/will be actually experienced. How we remember or expect to remember certain experiences is very different to how they feel when they are experienced.
We can be in a shitty mood day to day quite regularly, but feel satisfied with our life.
We can be in a good mood day to day quite regularly, but feel dissatified with our life.
There is our mood felt in our moment to moment experience, one type of happiness, and there is our overall life satisfaction, another type of happiness.
Studies have shown that provided we are not suffering too much from poverty, due to the hedonic treadmill money doesn't tend to make people much happier.
But studies have also shown that more happiness does increase more life satisfaction, not just past the poverty line.
That's because some studies of happiness are about life satisfaciton, and some are about moment to moment happiness -- and some are about both -- and it's important to avoid the equivocation and not mix the two up.
The concept I am talking about was conceived by the studier of bias and statistics, psychologist and author of Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman:
Wikipedia Wrote:Thinking, Fast and Slow is a best-selling 2011 book by Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics winner Daniel Kahneman which summarizes research that he conducted over decades, often in collaboration with Amos Tversky. It covers all three phases of his career: his early days working on cognitive biases, his work on prospect theory, and his later work on happiness.
The book's central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: "System 1" is fast, instinctive and emotional; "System 2" is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The book delineates cognitive biases associated with each type of thinking, starting with Kahneman's own research on loss aversion. From framing choices to people's tendency to substitute an easy-to-answer question for one that is harder, the book highlights several decades of academic research to suggest that people place too much confidence in human judgement.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow
Here's an interesting video of his TED talk, all about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg
I'd be interesting what others think of this interesting concept of how we experience life cognitively and emotionally. And I'd be interested to hear from anyone who watches/has watched this full TED talk, or is already familiar with Daniel Kahneman or his book.
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