Happiness and memory: Affective significance of endowment and contrast.

Abstract

Three studies (two conducted in Israel and one in the United States) examined associations between self-rated dispositional happiness and tendencies to treat memories of positive and negative events as sources of enhanced or attenuated happiness through the use of "endowment" and "contrast." Although participants generally endorsed items describing happiness-enhancing tendencies more than happinessdiminishing ones, self-reported happiness was associated with greater endorsement of "positive endowment" items and less endorsement of "negative endowment" items, and also with less endorsement of items that involved contrasting the present with happier times in the past. Only in the American sample, however, was happiness associated with greater endorsement of items that involved contrasting the present with less happy times in the past. These data suggest that relatively unhappy people show somewhat conflicting memorial tendencies vis-à-vis happiness, whereas very happy people show simpler, and less conflicting, tendencies. These findings augment the existing literatures on the affective consequences of memory, which have been concerned more with mood than with temperament and/or have dealt only with a subset of the endowment and contrast tendencies explored in the present work. Life inevitably offers a mixture of good and bad times, triumphs and defeats, periods of bliss and periods of sadness, loss, or even humiliation. With the passage of time, such experiences remain with us as memories-memories that can play an important role in determining both our immediate and enduring happiness and sense of well-being. The present research examines two perspectives that can mediate the effect of positive and negative past experiences. These perspectives regarding past events, using language suggested by Tversky and Griffin (1991), can be termed endowment and contrast.

Are proneness to forgive, optimism and gratitude associated with life satisfaction?

“…Conversely, unhappy, discontent and dissatisfied people habitually have a pessimistic approach to life, experience negative emotions and perceive unfavourable aspects of reality. Also Liberman et al (2009) demonstrated that participants, who showed a greater tendency to endow positive events, reported greater satisfaction with their lives and displayed more optimism about the future as well. On the contrary, respondents who showed a greater tendency to dwell on adverse events expressed lower satisfaction with their lives and displayed less optimism about the future.…”

The Promise of Sustainable Happiness

“…This construal theory prompts us to explore how an individual's thoughts, behaviors, and motivations can explain her happiness over and above the mere objective circumstances of her life. A growing body of research suggests that happy people successfully enhance and maintain their happiness through the use of multiple adaptive strategies vis-à-vis construal of themselves and others, social comparison, decision making, and self-reflection (Liberman, Boehm, Lyubomirsky, & Ross, 2008;Lyubomirsky, Boehm, Kasri, & Zehm, 2007;Lyubomirsky & Ross, 1997Lyubomirsky, Tkach, & DiMatteo, 2006;Lyubomirsky & Tucker, 1998;Lyubomirsky, Tucker, & Kasri, 2001;Schwartz et al, 2002).…”

Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away

“…Regarding past experiences, research has begun to examine individual differences in the extent to which memories of the past can either enhance or diminish joy in the present (Liberman, Boehm, Lyubomirsky, & Ross, 2009). Thus, an important research goal lies in delineating when, how, and for whom awesome life experiences-in the past and future-shape the extent to which individuals savor diverse pleasures in the present.…”