Ted Talk Interactive Happiness

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4-6

The Surprising Science of Happiness

Listening Practice

Match the words in bold to their definitions

Here's two different futures that I invite you to contemplate.

We synthesize happiness, but we think happiness is a thing to be found.

He resigned in disgrace.

which drives us to violate the rules either of prudence or of justice.

to consider one particular thing for a long time in a serious and quiet way

to break or act against something, especially a law, agreement, principle, or something that should be treated with respect

to give up a job or position by telling your employer that you are leaving

to produce a substance by a chemical reaction in plants or animals

Match the words in bold to their definitions

but none of them can deserve to be pursued with that passionate ardor

Something we call the impact bias, which is the tendency for the simulator to work badly.

This is a 50-year old paradigm

the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing

Great enthusiasm or love

a substance or product that can be traded, bought, or sold; a valuable quality:

a model of something, or a very clear and typical example of something

the action of supporting or opposing a particular person or thing in an unfair way, because of allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment

What is happiness to you?

Synthetic happiness is...

Natural happiness is...

what we get when we get what we wanted

what we make when we don't get what we wanted.

02:08

Which of the following statements about the brain are correct according to Daniel Gilbert?

1. During the course of evolution a new part was formed in the brain, called the frontal lobe..
2. The structures of the human brain have so far remained unchanged.
3. The brain has tripled in size.
4. The pre-frontal cortex is like an experience simulator.

03:54

The impact bias is the tendency for people

1. to judge based on their respective moods.
2. to judge on what they predict rather than on experience.
3. to overestimate the length and intensity of future states
4. to underestimate the after-effects of traumatic events.

04:11

How much time foes it take to get over major life traumas and return to (a former state of) happiness according to a recent study?

1. three months
2. half a year
3. a year
4. people never quite recover

08:07

Jim Wright, Moreese Bickham, Harry S. Langerman and Pete Best are used by Daniel Gilbert as examples of people who

1. do not seem to care about wordly goods.
2. do not seem to have had a specific purpose in life.
3. have had extremely bad luck in life.
4. have synthesized happiness.

08:07

Match the descriptions to the people.

Jim Wright

Moreese Bickham

Harry S. Langerman

Pete Best

did not become part of one of the most famous popgroups ever.

missed out on becoming the richest man in America

spent a very long time in prison for a crime he did not commit

was a very respectable American politician who lost everything

09:23

Synthetic happiness is...

Natural happiness is...

what we get when we get what we wanted

what we make when we don't get what we wanted.

13:47

Dan Gilbert tells about the experiment with the Monet prints to show that...

1. amnesiac patients are very unreliable as research controls.
2. amnesiac patients find it difficult to find happiness in art.
3. people actually change their affective reactions to achieve happiness.
4. people easliy deceive themselves in order to feel happy

15:01

What is the enemy of synthetic happiness?

1. Freedom to change and make up your mind
2. Irreversible conditions
3. Limited choice
4. Self-satisfaction

18:56

The Harvard experiment makes clear that studends (and by inference people in general)...

1. are more likely to change their minds if offered the opportunity to deliberate.
2. are unaware that the freedom to choose can work to their disadvantage.
3. experience greater satisfaction at a task when asked to use their creativity.
4. Usually make correct predictions about their future behavious

21:15

The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life seems to are from ... between one permanent situation and another.