PS54: Dveloping a short course on happiness and wellbeing for fifth

Transcription

Farmington fellowship
Dylan Bartlett
Developing a short course on happiness and well –
being for fifth year students at The Royal High School
(RHS), Edinburgh.
ABSTRACT. Wellbeing has begun to find its way on to the curriculum
in a number of schools across the UK and has its celebrants and
detractors. Following an inspection by HMIE, the Religious, Moral &
philosophical Studies (RMPS) department was commended and the
recommendation made that we have greater input into the senior school
curriculum. This led to us being offered the opportunity to develop an
eight - week compulsory element to the current personal development
(PD) rota system, which operates for S5 pupils. I had welcomed the
emergence of well – being lessons, most notably at Wellington College
and so decided to apply for a Farmington fellowship to undertake reading
and to develop a course for our students. What would a short course in
wellbeing look like from an RE perspective? The following report and
lesson outlines / materials demonstrate my approach.
KEY WORDS: happiness, wellbeing, transcendence
The Background
Since entering the profession, I have believed that RME is at its best
when it is taught in a child – centred manner. In Scotland, the 5-14
guidelines document identified three strands in RME, which were
Christianity, Other World Religions and Personal Search. It is the
personal search model that the department at RHS has pursued as long as
I have been there and it is this model, as opposed to either the
confessional or the phenomenological model that, in my opinion,
represents RME at its best. This model begins in the world of the child,
with a personal perspective, moves out to a more general view (society,
humanity etc.) before visiting the religious dimension. Along this
journey, pupils are introduced to greater complexity and their thinking is
challenged and developed. More recently, the curriculum for excellence
(CFE) initiative in Scotland seeks to foster certain capacities (indeed,
values) in children, which involve them being exposed to learning
experiences which enable them to become confident individuals,
successful learners, effective contributors and responsible citizens. In a
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recent conversation with a colleague, we agreed that, essentially what the
CFE seeks to produce is ‘good people’. I fully believe that RMPS has a
vital and unique contribution to make to the development of the whole
person and that it goes way beyond these four capacities and looks at the
best of human religiosity and spirituality in order to highlight what this
area has contributed to the understanding of both what the good is for
humans and what is meant by a good person.
This is embedded in our work at RHS and is given as a constant
reminder of our approach on both our departmental handbook and our
web site, in the form of a letter that was sent each year by an American
high school principal to his staff:
Dear Teacher,
I am a survivor of a concentration camp.
My eyes saw what no man should witness:
Gas chambers built by learned engineers.
Children poisoned by educated physicians.
Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and
babies shot and burned by high school and
college graduates.
So I am suspicious of education.
My request is: Help your students become human. Your efforts must
never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated
Eichmanns.
Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our
children more human.
I further believe that the subject comes alive when it is taught
thematically, incorporating a wider ‘canon’ than religion alone. The
inclusion of philosophy, psychology, art and music, poetry and film etc.
makes for a much richer approach to a subject, which at its heart is
considering the question of what it means to be human and what the good
for humans is. We can learn a great deal from philosophy and
psychology, as well as other disciplines, when considering this question.
Following work I had done for a number of years with pupils in the
area of exam preparation and study support, I found that pupils were
eager to learn about themselves and how they functioned. For example,
recent research on brain function had helped a number to understand
themselves as learners and to be able to adapt their revision techniques
accordingly. This for me is where treasure is to be found, when we give
students something they can use and assimilate in order to make their
lives / experience somehow better and more satisfying. I began to read
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more psychology and my interest in philosophy had been burgeoning for
many years already. I was inspired by the ancient philosophers, who
advocated, not merely reflective thinking but reflective living, being often
excellent psychologists as well as philosophers. I agree that the
unexamined life is not worth living and seek to inspire my pupils to live
that life. . It seemed to me that religious traditions had also for thousands
of years been considering the same questions from a theological /
spiritual perspective. Theistic religions are essentialist, in that they assert
that humans are the creation of a transcendent being. This means that
humans have an essence, which precedes their existence. The conclusion
of this is that, in order to flourish and be ‘happy,’ humans must fulfil that
essence. In the Christian tradition for example, since God is love and
humans are created in his image, then our essence needs to ‘feed’ on love
- the love of God, in order to flourish. If there is a transcendent creator
and we do indeed have an essence, something, which it means to be
human, then this has implications for discussing human wellbeing that
any other subject area cannot address in the way that RE can. Also, any
discoveries in the field of psychology etc. may be viewed as discoveries
about the creature as provided for by the creator. And so, I would assert
that any serious provision on wellbeing must take this into account and
include an element of RE.
Add to this, the fact that happiness research continually posits
religious belief / practice as a key societal indicator of happiness, most
obviously for the social connections collective worship fosters, but also
for the sense of meaning and purpose religion provides for people,
especially in the face of trial and suffering. And the belief in the presence
of a transcendence which is transformative and which provides a meta –
narrative and rituals / spiritual practices, which enables the individual to
transcend themselves and the identification with ego which so often
contributes to a sense of frustration and dissatisfaction with life. Again, I
would suggest that RE, widening its scope and canon, provides a most
appropriate context for such issues to be considered.
Whilst this is a key part of our investigation of wellbeing, it is not
the only approach / tradition and so there is the inclusion in the course of
the Aristotelian Eudaimonistic tradition. Aristotle also believed that
human beings have an essence but instead of taking this as an a priori
given and then arguing for a particular approach to wellbeing, he looked
at good people and considered what it was that they did and declared that
there are common denominators to what is good for humans and what is a
good human. He looked at the final result (human virtue / excellence) and
argued backwards. There has been a resurgence of virtue ethics in recent
years and I believe that this should also be reflected in education. As
Nina Rosenstand rightly points out in ‘The moral of the story’ we have
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taught young people that ethics is a matter of solving dilemmas and so we
learn to ‘compartmentalise’ ethics as something to be carried out when
some sort of calculation is required and thus it also becomes divorced
from its original meaning of questioning how we ought to live. However,
it is much more about the character, which we develop in our lives and
this includes, as Asristotle pointed out, both intellectual and practical
wisdom. A department/course which encompasses; Philosophy, Religion
and Psychology, alongside of course health education can, I believe make
a significant contribution to the wellbeing of students.
Further to these influences, a recent UNICEF study announced the
wellbeing of young people in the UK to be amongst the lowest in the
world based on a number of factors, including subjective wellbeing
(SWB) assessment. The report can be seen here:
http://www.unicef.org/media/files/pdf_01.pdf Research also indicates that
the average age for the onset of depression 50 years ago was 30+,
whereas it is now just over 14! Whilst this is almost certainly the result of
a combination of factors, probably including variables such as the extent
of television viewing and exposure to the cult of celebrity, which
encourages the symptoms of what Oliver James calls ‘Affluenza’, it is
still worrying. Schools are recognising the importance of seeing our
pupils not merely as result – achievers, but human beings with key needs,
which are not being met by the prevailing culture. The call for ‘happiness
lessons’ and the plethora of research and literature on the subject is
clearly indicative that we have been barking up the wrong ‘happiness
trees’ and that something needs to be done for human wellbeing to
flourish. I would argue that the RME classroom is a very good place for
some of the questioning around this to begin.
Coming from these ‘angles’, I decided to introduce a course on the
theme of wellbeing when my department was offered eight hours on a
rota system with fifth year students. I wanted the course to be a
combination of some elements of the history of the pursuit of and concept
of happiness from early Greek philosophy onwards, as well as a look at
some findings of contemporary happiness research from the fields of
psychology and economics and to finally explore religious ideas on the
subject.
The fellowship
The first two weeks of the fellowship saw me reading as much as I could
on the topic, in order to get a feel for the ‘landscape’ in this area. I had a
study plan which provided the basis for my investigations but I allowed
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myself to deviate as those with whom I came into contact offered their
serendipitous suggestions for worthwhile reading material. Following this
initial period of general reading, I began to focus on particular topics in
order to decide upon the themes for each lesson. I began by selecting
those stories, pieces of research etc. which I myself found illuminating,
inspiring and hilarious! I figured that they would provide vital moments
of engagement for the students. I then began to look for common themes /
threads which might emerge as a progressive theme. This process was a
difficult and laborious one and I am grateful to Rev. Dr. Ralph Waller for
providing me with some interesting and helpful contacts in the form of
Berndt Wannenwetsch, Paul Kennedy and Janet Orchard, who all played
a part in helping me move forward. I am grateful to them all.
It became obvious to me that my materials were beginning to take
on the form of an ‘upward spiral’ in terms of the themes. I had begun
with the idea that we are all ‘pleasure / happiness – seeking missiles’,
after Jeremy Bentham and had moved through a consideration of
hedonism and materialism to begin to consider the role that meaning
plays in human wellbeing. I met with Prof. Paul Kenedy and we
discussed his work with those with spinal chord injuries at stoke
Mandeville Hospital. Prof. Kennedy’s input was inspiring as is his work.
I began to read about narrative psychology and the importance of the
creation of a meaningful ‘life story’ for human beings. This particular
course is too short for its worthwhile inclusion but I will certainly add
elements to future courses I develop. I also looked at the subject of
resilience, as prof. Kennedy had said that it operated like a ‘bubble’,
which protected people when tragedy strikes. I decided that encouraging
resilience in our students should be a key priority. Our improvement plan
now states this as an aim and we will praise and encourage children in
terms of their effort and willingness to face challenges much more
frequently. Carol Dweck’s book ‘Mindset’ provided good background
reading for this.
It was at this point that I visited Wellington College and met Ian
Morris, the head of wellbeing there. Ian kindly allowed me to observe
him teaching a wellbeing lesson, as well as an RE lesson and I was very
impressed by the school and the teaching. Ian was also extremely
generous in inviting me to return to Wellington to hear a talk by Tal Ben
Shahar, author of Happier and Harvard positive psychologist. Tal had
many interesting things to say and I found his reports regarding the
benefits of meditation to be so convincing that I began attending a daily
meditation class back in Oxford the following week! It was intriguing to
me to hear Tal explain his own interest in this area as having been
inspired by a less than happy childhood and a desire to be happier
himself. I couldn’t help but think that some of the ‘happiness – boosters’
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that positive psychologists in his ilk advocate resembled a piecemeal
approach to character development at times and that it would be better to
focus on the whole character rather than isolated ‘rituals’ such as listing
five things one is grateful for each evening. However, I also recognised
that, just as Jesus is reported to have said ‘it is the sick who need a
physician’ and this apparent ‘cart before the horse’ approach may simply
be indicative of the fact that so many of us don’t develop such a character
and need to do a ‘patch up job’. That’s fine for those already through the
system but we all know prevention is better than cure.
I found the whole experience to be invaluable and inspirational and
am grateful to Ian for his generosity. I left Wellington feeling very
strongly that wellbeing is an extremely worthwhile ingredient in the
school curriculum. The students had enthused about the lessons and the
staff seemed to be rallied under a common cause that such a laudable
‘umbrella’ provided. The fact that the PSHE programme at Wellington
was now the wellbeing programme was, I felt, very exciting. It gave the
whole thing a raison d’etre and an obvious telos. In my mind, and in
RHS, I also saw the RE department making a key contribution to the
delivery of wellbeing provision.
Following Wellington, I focused my reading on the spiritual /
religious dimension and explored my upward spiral further. I had read
about Marcus Aurelius and how he compared happiness more to
wrestling than dancing. This struck a chord with me and reminded me of
Jacob in the old testament who left the womb grasping, stole his brother’s
birthright and then saw a ladder from earth to heaven before wrestling
with a heavenly figure and becoming Israel. It occurred to me that I had
found a story I could use as a metaphor for the religious notion of
transcendence and transformation. I liked the idea of the ladder as an
image / metaphor for the whole course and it seemed to provide a strong
parallel with positive psychology in the form of Martin seligman’s model
of wellbeing:
The meaningful life
The engaged life
The pleasurable life
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The full life
The course
The course is eight lessons of an hour. The title of the overall course I
settled on was What is the good life? The titles of each lesson are:
1. Hard - wired for happiness?
2. Welcome to the pleasuredome
3. Get rich or die trying
4. Why the long face?
5. Dead man walking?
6. Your inner virtuoso
7. Get over yourself
8. Wrestling with angels
Brief commentary on each lesson with reading list – The reading lists
are not exhaustive but identify the most useful texts.
1. Hard – wired for happiness
It seemed an obvious place to start, by beginning with the assertion that
happiness is the ultimate goal of human activity. It provided me with the
personal starting point central to the personal search model, by suggesting
to the students that they are happiness – seeking ‘missiles’ and that their
behaviour could be explained in these terms. I also wanted to introduce
the means / end distinction as this would be an important concept for the
rest of the course. The ‘hard – wired’ theme had struck me as a useful one
to explore and I decided to use it as a ‘sub plot’ in the unit and to use it as
a way of surprising the students and developing complexity as the early
suggestions about human hard – wiring were challenged. I had read
Jonathan Haidt’s book and found it to be superb. It provided me with one
of the key texts and springboards for reading / research throughout the
fellowship. His model of the divided self, using the elephant / rider
metaphor works brilliantly.
Reading material
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The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt. Arrow books. Chapters one,
two and five.
Happiness, lessons from a new science – Richard Layard. Penguin.
Chapters one, two and three.
An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation – Jeremy
Bentham. Online text, available at:
http://www.utilitarianism.com/jeremy-bentham/index.html
The implication from the first lesson is that humans are ‘hard – wired’ to
pursue happiness. The kind of happiness hinted at is pleasure and feeling
good. This is an ancient as well as very modern view of happiness and is
linked with the hedonic tradition most famously associated with
Epicurus, however it is Bentham’s philosophy which more closely
resembles the modern conception of happiness, Epicurus having been
more evaluative in terms of distinctions between pleasures. The key
episode for considering this approach to happiness is a thought
experiment based on Robert Nozick’s pleasure machine from Anarchy,
state and utopia. This experiment reveals the pleasure hypothesis to be
wanting for a number of reasons. We value an authentic life more than a
merely pleasurable one. We may also want to argue that plugging into
such a machine may rob us of activities and experiences that allow our
‘higher nature’ to flourish. Seligman highlights the distinction between
pleasures and ‘gratifications’ in order to demonstrate this too. We are
beginning to investigate the limitations of a ‘lower’ order approach to
wellbeing. This will be taken further in the next lesson.
Reading material
The essential Epicurus. Eugene Michael O’Connor (translator). Great
books in philosophy.
Authentic Happiness -Martin Seligman. Nicholas Brealey publishing.
Part one – Positive emotion.
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt. Arrow Books. Chapter five.
Happiness… Richard layard. Penguin. Chapters
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Anarchy state and utopia – Robert Nozick.
Wellbeing – Mark Vernon. Acumen publishing. Introduction and chapter
one.
A person – centred approach to subjective well – being – Busseri et al.
The journal of happiness studies. Available online.
Hedonism and happiness – Ruut Veenhoven. Journal of happiness
studies.
Happiness in the garden of Epicurus. Bergsma et al. Journal of happiness
studies.
3. Get rich or die trying
For many the pleasure machine is unnecessary since it already exists –
this world! This lesson continues the pleasure hypothesis by looking at
materialism / consumerism. Research done with lottery winners and the
rich shows that people rapidly habituate and adapt to increases in income
and that within 12 months of winning the lottery, the winner has reverted
to their ‘base level’ of happiness. Further research highlights the impact
of the human tendency for social comparison on happiness. Richard
Layard discusses the effect of reference groups on our happiness,
pointing out that constantly comparing ourselves to others, particularly
those ‘above’ us is a recipe for discontent (the desiderata and the 10
commandments. Many have pointed out that TV provides a ‘keyhole’
through which we can easily access the worlds of the super rich (MTV
cribs being an obvious example) and that this promotes ‘status anxiety’
(Alain De Botton) and ‘Affluenza’ (Oliver James). It seems that we may
actually be ‘hard – wired’ in such a way as to be incapable of finding
happiness from materialism / consumerism and that this simply leads us
to a ‘hedonic treadmill’.
Reading material
Happiness… Richard Layard. Penguin. Chapters
Affluenza – Oliver James
Amusing ourselves to death- Neil Postman
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Please may I have a bike? Better yet, may I have a hug? An examination
of children’s and adolescent’s happiness - Lan Nguyen Chaplin. Journal
of happiness studies.
Toxic Childhood. Sue Palmer. Orion books.
4. Why the long face?
This lesson begins the ascent towards the engaged and meaningful life by
introducing the importance of relationships and meaning for human
beings. It begins with a controversial suggestion that happiness may be
genetically determined as implied by research on identical twins. This is
challenged by the human genome project and the work of Martin
Seligman via his ‘happiness formula’. The assertion is made that there is
much we can do to increase our own wellbeing and that an important first
step may be to admit that we are not satisfied by hedonistic / materialistic
approaches to happiness. All the evidence suggests that this approach
leads to greater anxiety, depression and dissatisfaction. The lesson
considers what can be done when negative feelings overwhelm and
become problematic, as well as suggesting, as Darian Leader asserts in
The new black: Mourning, melancholia and depression, that depression
has an important place in modern life, not least as an indicator that
something is amiss with our approach to living. It points us towards a life
of greater meaning and its onset often signals a search for a greater sense
of it in life, love and work.
Reading material
Happier – Tal Ben Shahar.
The new black: Mourning, melancholia and depression. Darian leader
Wellbeing – Mark Vernon. Acumen publishing. Chapter two.
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt. Arrow. Chapters two and
seven.
Opening up, the healing power of expressing emotions – Jamie
Penenbaker. Guilford Press.
The stories we live by – Dan. P. McAdams. Guilford Press.
Man’s search for meaning – Viktor Frankl. Beacon
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5. Dead man walking?
Having considered the pleasure / materialist hypotheses and found them
wanting (whilst acknowledging their appropriate place in a full life), we
turn to the need for an ‘inner life’ in order to generate the meaning which
human beings seem ‘hard – wired’ to seek. This lesson uses the metaphor
of the vampire as a way of exploring the concept of an inner life.
Vampires are unreflective (their reflections don’t show in mirrors). They
also live lives of episodic pleasure – seeking and hate the idea of
mortality. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to kill a vampire is to liberate the
humanity which has become buried under a false identity. These ideas are
used to consider the question of whether it’s possible for us to ‘die’
before our heart stops beating. In response to this, The Buddha is used as
an example of someone who faced up to death at an early age and saw the
need to develop an inward approach to life that would sustain him beyond
youth, vitality and beauty to old age, sickness and death. The image of
the ‘third eye’ is a symbol of this approach to life.
This lesson also continues the upward spiral by pointing to the inner lives
of Socrates (virtue) and a monk at Worth Abbey (religion). These are
representative of two significant traditions of wellbeing that will be
considered in the final lessons.
Reading Material
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan haidt. Arrow publishing. Chapter
five.
Happiness… Mattieu Ricard. Atlantic books.
The secrets of happiness. Richard Schoch. Profile. Chapter 4
Looking for happiness. Robert Kirkwood. Longman
Buddhism plain and simple. Steve Hagan. Harperone.
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This lesson begins to take the theme a little higher into the realm of the
virtuous character. It uses the central idea of virtuosity in music as an
analogy for virtuosity in humanity. It may not be essential to go into such
detail on Aristotle, although one of the aims of the course was to
introduce students to key figures in philosophy and so it may well serve
to support this aim. This is combined with a key figure in positive
psychology, Martin Seligman and his strengths test is used as a way of
rooting the virtue theory in the contemporary world and in their
experience in particular by showing them what virtues they already
possess. Ben Franklin is offered as a role model, as someone who didn’t
leave the development of a virtuous character to chance and took
responsibility for the development of it himself and his approach forms
the basis of an assignment. This lesson also raises the point that wellbeing
rests greatly upon one’s relationships and interactions with others.
Reading Material
Authentic Happiness. Martin Seligman. Nicholas Brealey publishing. Part
two: strength & Virtue.
The moral of the story. Nina Rosenstand. Mayfield publishing. Chapters;
1, 2, 8, 9 and 10.
Nicomachean ethics. Aristotle. Online translation by W.D. Ross:
http://www.constitution.org/ari/ethic_00.htm
The Happiness Hypothesis. Jonathan Haidt. Arrow. Chapters; 3, 6 and 8.
The pursuit of happiness. Darrin McMahon. Penguin. Chapter one.
The meaning of life. Terry Eagleton. Oxford University Press. Chapter 4
After virtue. Alasdair Macintyre. Notre Dame press.
The good life. Herbert McCabe. Continuum.
7. Get over yourself
The initial inspiration for this lesson was undoubtedly Jonathan Haidt’s
chapter on ‘elevation’ in The Happiness Hypothesis. It seemed to me that
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such an experience is essential for higher flourishing and a sense of
wellbeing that transcends self. I was disappointed however, that his
account seemed to point towards something but didn’t ever seem to quite
get there. This led me to the topic of the final lesson. Haidt uses the story
Flatland by Edwin Abbott as an allegory for experiencing the
transcendent. It occurred to me that many films and stories had used the
concept of portals to another dimension and so this idea features in the
lesson, suggesting that art, music and spiritual practices are portals in this
sense. Haidt points out that the human mind simply does perceive
divinity, the ‘third dimension’ whether God exists or not and so it is an
important dimension of wellbeing. The lesson introduces students to this
idea via flatland and encourages them to consider their own connections
with transcendence.
Reading Material
The happiness hypothesis. Jonathan haidt. Arrow. Chapters; 9, 10 and 11
Wellbeing. Mark Vernon. Acumen. Chapter 3
Authentic happiness. Martin Seligman. NB. Part 3, The mansions of life.
Happiness… Richard Layard. Penguin. Final chapter.
The secrets of happiness. Richard Schoch. Profile books.
Happiness and benevolence. Robert Spaemann. Notre Dame press.
8. Wrestling with angels
The final lesson visits the religious dimension. So far, we have been on
an ‘upward’ journey from pleasure and possession – seeking, to the
search for an inner life of meaning, a virtuous character and experience of
the transcendent. For religious people, the transcendence, which we
experience is personal and it cannot be changed or manipulated. It
transforms us. For religious people, the ‘voice’ that continually calls and
invites us to live according to what we might describe as our ‘higher
nature’ is the voice of a personal transcendence and for them, wellbeing
rests upon our relationship with and to that transcendence. In the
Christian tradition, the transcendence is characterised by love and thus
love is the ultimate key to wellbeing. The story of Jacob is used as a
metaphor for these themes as Jacob experiences a vision of a ladder to
heaven and has a wrestling match with a divine figure after which he is
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never the same again. Dancing is the metaphor for the pleasurable life,
whereas wrestling is the metaphor for the meaningful life.
Students are invited to reflect upon the content of the course and to reach
any conclusions for themselves.
Reading material
The happiness Hypothesis. Jonathan Haidt. Arrow. Chapter 11
The secrets of happiness. Richard Schoch. Profile. Chapters 5, 6 & 8.
Finding happiness. Abbot Christopher Jamison. Weidenfield & Nicolson
Out of my life and thought. Albert Schweitzer. JHU press
Wellbeing. Mark Vernon. Acumen. Chapters 4 & 5.
Happiness And Benevolence. Robert Spaemann. Notre Dame.
Next steps
Having returned to RHS, I have begun to teach the materials and, so far
so good. Clearly the materials will need to be ‘road – tested’ fully and
ratified in the light of experience. I would welcome any comments and
suggestions for improvement / resources etc. to
[email protected]. I hope they prove useful. Work is already
underway at RHS to incorporate wellbeing more fully into our curriculum
and I anticipate the RMPS dept. being fully involved with that. A great
deal is being done in Scotland under the banner of ‘Health & wellbeing’,
I am sounding the note of caution against seeing health as wellbeing and
endeavouring to see that a holistic approach is taken where possible.
Thanks
My thanks go to the Farmington Institute for their kind support of my
fellowship, especially to Rev. Dr. Ralph Waller and Suzanne Tetsell for
their tremendous support. Thanks also to the wonderful people who work
at Harris Manchester College in their many guises. From the Library to
the Bursary, the ‘podge’ to the Arlosh Hall, where David Woodfine
demonstrates what it means to see your work as a calling and serves
delicious food to boot! Thanks also to the exceptional students of HMC,
the football team, the bluegrass society, the choir and those with whom I
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enjoyed inspirational conversation. I am also grateful to Professor David
Charles for superb lectures on Aristotle. A never to be forgotten
experience.
Dylan. L. Bartlett. Dec 2008.
Lesson outlines
The following materials are the lesson outlines. I realise that there is often
too much material but once the lessons have been delivered I will be in a
position to be able to amend them, as will anyone who wishes to use
them.
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What is the good life?
lesson 1: Hard- wired for happiness?
Learning aim – For students to consider whether their actions, choices,
behaviour and desires can all be understood / explained as an (often
unconscious) instrumental desire / search for one ultimate goal: happiness.
Learning outcomes
Students will:
1. Understand why happiness is held by many to be the ultimate goal of
human activity.
2. Know about their approach / avoidance mechanism and the possible
implications for the pursuit of happiness.
3. Understand the elephant/rider model of the divided self and use it to
interpret their actions / behaviour.
1. Introduction - The quality street test – Students will be asked if they like
chocolate. Those who say ‘yes’ will be offered a chocolate. Those who
express a desire by taking one will then be offered two, next week / at the
end of the lesson, if they leave the one they have right now in front of them
on their desk. Those who opt to take the one chocolate may eat it now. We
will come back to the test later and reflect on it in the light of the learning in
the lesson.
Throughout the lesson, body language and behaviour of those with chocolates on their
table will be noticed.
2. Happiness – It’s what everybody wants, right?
Activity – End Game. This activity will be used to introduce students to the idea
that many consider happiness to be ultimate goal which all of us pursue. That any
other goal is instrumental to the ultimate goal of happiness, which is therefore the
‘end game’ of human activity.
i)
On the top of a piece of paper is written the statement I go to school in
order to…
ii)
The students write a response (framed POSITIVELY i.e. not ‘In order to
avoid having to get a job).
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iii)
iv)
v)
This is passed on to the next student who carries out the same instruction
but this time using the statement from the previous student as their starting
point e.g. If the previous student said ‘In order to get good qualifications”
then the next student must complete the sentence ‘I get good qualifications
in order to…’
This continues (probably for around 7 turns) until someone completes a
sentence with ‘In order to be happy’.
Once this has been reached, students can be made to see that this can be
seen as the ‘end’ of the activity as to ask someone to complete the
sentence ‘I want to be happy in order to…’ Is ridiculous.
Question / task
‘All my actions can be explained as the pursuit of happiness.’
In pairs, argue for / against this statements. You have 3 minutes to prepare. You will
present your ideas to the class.
Discussion question - It may be that happiness is the ultimate goal at which all other
goals aim. Do human beings really ultimately aim for happiness?
3. Hard – wired for happiness?
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Students will be introduced to the quote from Jeremy Bentham “Nature has
placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pleasure and
pain.” (An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation 1789). They
will be asked to ‘translate’ Bentham’s statement in order to demonstrate
understanding of his key idea. Namely that human beings are happiness
seeking and unhappiness avoiding beings by nature.
Two Sovereign masters - Jeremy Bentham
I did that
without moving
my lips!
Nature has placed
mankind under the
governance of two
sovereign masters;
pleasure and pain.
Interpretation
A. Put what Bentham is saying into your own words to show that you understand him.
The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat - seeking, short-range, air-to-air
missile carried by fighter aircraft and recently, certain gunship
helicopters. It is named after the Sidewinder snake, which detects its
prey via body heat.
One way of looking at what Bentham is saying is that human beings,
like the sidewinder, have a goal, however we are not heat – seeking
(unless you live in Scotland!) but we are happiness – seeking and more
than that, unhappiness – avoiding ‘missiles’.
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What evidence is there to support this claim?
What evidence is there against it?
John Bargh’s experiments may well provide evidence for this claim.
Activity – Forward / Backwards.
This is an activity based on John Bargh’s experiments on the unconscious
approach / avoidance ‘mechanism’ in humans.
•
•
•
•
Students will stand and have enough room for a short jump forwards or
backwards.
Explain that they will be shown images, some of which will be pleasant and
some unpleasant.
For the images, which they find pleasant they should jump forwards and vice
versa for the unpleasant ones.
This exercise will be repeated but the responses reversed.
Bargh’s experiments revealed that subjects found it more difficult when the response
was reversed. This indicated an innate drive to approach what we see as being
pleasant and to avoid what isn’t. Are we ‘hard – wired’ for happiness?
Discussion
•
How did it feel to move towards an unpleasant image and away
from a pleasant one?
•
What does Bargh’s experiment tell us about ourselves and
happiness?
Bargh’s experiments revealed an unconscious approach / avoidance mechanism
in the human mind. This stage of the lesson will explore this further.
4. Activity - The divided self
Students will be introduced to the idea that we often think of people as being a single,
unified self, whereas modern psychology reveals us to be more like a ‘committee’
which has been assembled to get a job done. In his book The Happiness Hypothesis,
psychologist Jonathan Haidt used a model of the divided self, it is the elephant and
rider model. Students will be introduced to this using the activity sheet ‘The divided
self.’
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Activity sheet - The divided self: The elephant &
rider metaphor of Jonathan Haidt
Task - Haidt uses the metaphor of an elephant and rider as a model of a human being’s mind.
With a partner, use the area around the picture below to write any ideas that occur to you about
the elephant and rider. Think about:
•
•
•
•
•
What
Why
When
Where
How
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A brief overview of the evolution
of the brain will be given. This
information is widely available.
The main points to be made are that:
1. The elephant represents the reptilian and limbic systems. Which control
autonomic function, fight or flight and stress response. And emotion,
motivation & memory, respectively.
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2. The rider represents the neo cortex, the rational, reasoning part of the brain
The elephant is much bigger, and has been
around a lot longer than the rider. But we are both, we are the whole. The major
Function of both is survival and it drives a great
deal of our choices, actions and behaviour
although we’re often unaware of it because it is
unconscious and automatic. The rider is like a
bus and the elephant like a tram. Most of what
happens is unconscious and difficult to control.
4. A week of elephant riding
Students should be shown the quote from Jonathan Haidt:
The image that I came up with for myself, as I marvelled at my own weakness, was that I
was a rider on the back of an elephant. I’m holding the reins in my hands, and by pulling
one way or the other I can tell the elephant to turn, to stop, or to go. I can direct things,
but only when the elephant doesn’t have desires of his own. When the elephant really
wants to do something, I’m no match for him.
Jonathan Haidt – The Happiness Hypothesis.
Discussion – What is Jonathan Haidt trying to say here about the relationship
between the elephant and rider?
Assignment – A week of elephant trekking
Every evening for next week, take some time to reflect on your day from the perspective of
the elephant and the rider. Write a diary entry for each day from both perspectives.
Part of this may involve describing some of the things you have done each day but the main
focus should be on the inner experience of the elephant and rider.
5. Conclusion - Return to the quality street test
Those students who opted to delay gratification will be given their second chocolate
and the class will relate what has been learned in class to the test. Show the clip of the
Dilley’s M&M test
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4CYr4FgMYGI&feature=related
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Students may be told that this is based on a famous experiment carried out by Walter
Mischel, a Stanford psychologist, in the 1960s. The experiment has been repeated
numerous times, including once with the Dilley sextuplets.
Question
•
How does this clip relate / connect to what you’ve learned in this
lesson? Not just the beginning, the whole of it.
As you leave the room, tell me your connection. Good connections get a
sweetie!
Odds and ends – Things you may want to use
The divided self - Alternative exploration of brain evolution
Ask students which they would rather be and why:
A. A crocodile
B. A wolf
C. A human
From their responses, a brief lesson in the evolution of the brain can be given.
Information on this is widely available and I will only briefly explain here. The
crocodile represents the ‘reptilian’ brain, the first developed through evolution and is
responsible for autonomic functioning and fight / flight response. The wolf represents
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the limbic system, responsible for emotion, sensory perception, especially olfactory.
The human is the neo cortex, the newest part of our brain, which is the intellect and
rational part of us. This will be explored in greater detail in the next lesson, but the
point for now is that the majority of our functioning is unconscious and perhaps part
of being happier is to become aware of this and how our hard – wiring affects our
behaviour.
The ultimate human goal?
Another useful exercise from the Exploring ethics resource is ‘The world’s most
valuable thing’. This allows students to go through a process of electing ‘winners’
from certain categories of things and to select an ultimate world’s most valuable
thing. Happiness is one of these. Happiness is rarely selected as the world’s most
valuable thing and so this can help to facilitate a discussion of whether happiness is
indeed the ultimate ‘end game’ of human activity.
Forwards / Backwards - Push / Pull
An alternative to jump forward / step back may be push / pull, using pictures placed in
front of the students by a partner. And an alternative to asking how it felt to push
away things, which they see as being good and to pull towards them things which
they think of as bad may be to time them as Bargh himself did.
Lesson two: Welcome to the pleasuredome
Learning aim – For students to understand and engage with the hedonic
tradition, which sees happiness as pleasure, and the absence of pain as the
ultimate good. And to consider the role that the experiencing of pleasure has to
play in happiness.
Learning Outcomes
Students will:
1. To understand the hedonic hypothesis that happiness is pleasure and
positive emotion.
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2. To know about Bentham’s hedonic calculus and that it limits distinctions
between pleasures to quantity.
3. To know that modern scientific techniques are reviving this hedonic
‘measurability’ approach to happiness.
4. To understand some of the major objections to the hedonic hypothesis as
highlighted by Nozick’s ‘pleasure machine’ thought experiment.
1. Starter : To be happy when you want it… … eat ice cream!
I will sing ‘To be happy when you want it…’ and play guitar.
In small groups, the students must come up with their own ending to the line by
giving an example of something that makes them happy and an action to go with
it.
Each time a new response is sung, the originating group will write up their answer
on the board.
This will give us a picture of what makes them happy.
2. Family Fortunes
Family fortunes
We asked 100 people ‘what pleasures do you most
enjoy in life?’
Students should discuss what they think the top
answers would be and then feed back.
Answers will be written up
Students will be given a brief explanation of the hedonic hypothesis, that pleasure and
the absence of pain is the good in life as Epicurus taught in ancient Greece.
3. The like – o- meter.
Last lesson, the assertion was made that we are like happiness – seeking missiles.
Today the assertion is being made that the happiness we are seeking is pleasure. It’s
as though we have an in-built ‘like-o-meter’ for pleasure.
The like – o – meter in action
Research by Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin has shown the like – o
– meter in action. Students should be warned that they are to be shown an unpleasant
image of a deformed baby to prepare them.
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QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and a
QuickTime™ and a
QuickTime™ and a
The pictures on the right show the brain activity in a person who has just been shown
the picture to the left. Pleasure is registered in the left cortex and displeasure in the
right.
Questions
1. What sorts of things makes the like – o – meter light up for you?
2. Your elephant? Your rider?
4.
Back to Bentham – Students will be reminded of Bentham and that he
believed happiness = Pleasure and the absence of pain.
Bentham’s hedonic calculus
Jeremy Bentham a moral philosopher believed
that the good in life is happiness, which he
defined as ‘pleasure and the absence of pain’
and that therefore the right thing to do is that
which brings the ‘greatest happiness to the
greatest number.’
Bentham realised that if you see pleasure as
the good then you have to have a way of
choosing between pleasures because there are
many types. He came up with his ‘hedonic
calculus.’
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Bentham came up with seven variables between pleasures, which need to be taken
into consideration when deciding which to prefer
1. Intensity: How strong is the pleasure?
2. Duration: How long will the pleasure last?
3. Certainty or uncertainty: How likely or unlikely is it that the
pleasure will occur?
4. Propinquity or remoteness: How soon will the pleasure occur?
5. Fecundity: The probability that the action will be followed by
sensations of the same kind.
6. Purity: The probability that it will not be followed by sensations
of the opposite kind.
To these six, which consider the pleasures and pains within the life of
a person, Bentham added a seventh element:
7.Extent: How many people will be affected?
Task
1. Using Bentham’s calculus, decide which of the pleasures from family
fortunes he would say should be the top answer. Do you agree?
2. Choose three other possible pleasures and decide which the calculus would
favour and
why. seem to matter what the pleasure is, so long as it yields
For Bentham,
it doesn’t
the highest ‘score’ it’s good. Many people have pointed out that this can lead to
2. If Bentham
here,
what
would you
want to say
to him
aboutnature’
his ideas?
pleasures
which was
many
would
describe
as reflecting
‘Lower
human
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(Elephant) being seen as just as good as those reflecting ‘Higher human nature’
(Rider).
There are also general problems with the hedonic hypothesis that will be
explored via Robert Nozick’s pleasure machine thought experiment.
Students will conduct the thought experiment as a critique of the hedonic hypothesis
Welcome to the pleasure dome - A thought experiment.
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You may be used to conducting experiments in science lessons. Well, you can carry
out experiments in Philosophy too. In Philosophy, rather than carrying out a physical
experiment, with chemicals or gases etc. we carry out ‘thought experiments’. Athought experiment is simply where we imagine a scenario, think about what it would
be like and what our reaction to it might be. It may also involve considering positive
and negative aspects of the scenario. This allows us to put ideas to the ‘test’ to see if
they’re any good.
Scientists have developed an amazing new machine, which they call
the pleasure dome. The pleasure dome is a virtual – reality machine that taps
into your brain to generate sensations as vivid and real as the world you now
inhabit. By stepping into the pleasure dome the scientists can guarantee that
you will receive pleasures, of a variety of sorts, for the rest of your life. Your
physical well – being is not threatened by your inactivity as your body is kept
moving (as in a virtual world) by the machine, and, in all effects, your life
expectancy in the pleasure dome is exactly what it is in this world. The only
downside is that once you have stepped into the pleasure dome you cannot
come back out, but then again, you won’t want to. As the adverts for the
pleasure dome say: ‘You Won’t ever want to Leave: Welcome To The
Pleasure Dome.’
Question
1. Given that the pleasure dome is completely safe, with no side –
effects whatsoever, and no threat to your health, would you
plug yourself in for the rest of your life? Explain your reasons.
A discussion will follow this exercise and students will be given the opportunity to
reflect upon the pleasure hypothesis. Reference may be made to the character Cypher
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in the Sci – Fi movie The Matrix, who decided that he wanted to be re – inserted into
the artificial reality of the matrix and experience a pleasant life as “somebody
important, like an actor” If their deliberations do not include the following naturally,
they should be introduced to them:
•
•
•
•
•
More than a pleasurable life, we value an AUTHENTIC life – an
authentic life is not one of artificially achieved happiness.
We want to be able to DESERVE happiness – passive enjoyment of
pleasures can’t give us that.
A good life, or a happy life can, and many say must, include PAIN as
well as pleasure.
We value MEANING, not just pleasurable sensation.
This kind of life might rob us of activities which might increase our
humanity and engage our higher faculties.
Whilst this thought experiment is limited and basic, it serves as a good illustration of
the ultimate limits of pleasure and helps to make the point that happiness is not
entirely based on it.
6. Conclusion - Epicurus
Even Epicurus, the person most famously
associated with the view that happiness = pleasure
and the absence of pain didn’t think that feeding
the elephant was what a happy life is all about.
Unlike bentham, he thought it did matter which
pleasures we focused on.
Watch part 1 of ‘Epicurus on happiness’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=20LTTRQcZ8c
Plenary – Students will decide if they are going to be a ‘disciple’ of Bentham or of
Epicurus. A picture of both will be at opposite sides of the classroom and the students
will congregate around them. They will then be asked to tell somebody next to them
why they have decided to follow their chosen ‘leader.’
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Lesson three: Get rich or die trying
A. Learning aim – For students to consider the view that they may never
experience happiness / satisfaction in life if they ‘buy into’ the prevailing
cultural message that having is what counts for happiness.
Learning outcomes. Students will
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of habituation, social
comparison, the hedonic treadmill and how they relate to the pursuit of
happiness.
2. Understand the role TV play in perpetuating the ‘hedonic treadmill’.
3. Make a reasoned personal response to the idea that happiness equates to
getting rich.
1. Introduction - Activity – Oh the good life!
In small groups, students will be given five minutes with a small box of
newspapers / magazines and asked to select pictures which, for them depict the
good life.
They will then briefly present their pictures of ‘the good life’ to the class.
2. The best things in life…Students will be shown a video of the flying lizards
performing ‘Money’, expressing the idea that the good life is all about money.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=insVgcOVVDQ
Discussion
‘The best things in life are free’
If someone said this to you, what would your response be and why?
An extension of the pleasure hypothesis is the idea that there is no need for a machine
to give us a ‘pleasuredome’ the world is a pleasuredome and all we have to do is to
get what we want and enjoy it. This can be described as materialism and can be
symbolised by the national lottery.
3. Activity - It’s you!
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Task
Imagine you have won a large amount of money on the lottery. How
would you react? What difference would it make to your life? Express
your ideas by doing one of the following:
•
•
A quick drama sketch with some friends (e.g. a news broadcast
interview etc.)
A letter to a friend / diary entry
4. The adaptation principle
Research that has been carried out with Lottery winners reveals something very
interesting and surprising. They experience extreme reactions at first, gaining a great
increase in happiness. The interesting thing is that, within a year, they have returned
to their ‘base level’ of happiness (the level of happiness they experienced before their
win). What’s going on here?
Discussion
How would you explain this?
Students will be introduced to the idea of ‘The adaptation principle’ and how it works
in such situations. This information is widely available, a possible visual way of
introducing the students to this is by showing an extract from this TED talk by
Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
Discussion - What examples can you recall from your life, of having been very happy
/ unhappy about something that you just got used to fairly quickly?
5. Activity - Social comparison.
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Students should be put into groups of four.
A further factor affecting human happiness is social comparison. The tendency
we have to compare who we are / what we have, with others.
Each group will be given a set of envelopes and each envelope contains 4
pictures of status – linked objects, for example, a house, a car, a holiday
destination and clothing. Each student will keep their own picture a secret but be
asked to rate how happy they would be if that were theirs for real from 1-10, 1
being totally unhappy and 10 being deliriously happy.
Then all students will be asked to compare their pictures with those of others in
their group and asked to re – rate their own to see if comparison elicits a change.
Finally, students will be asked to create a hierarchy of the pictures in each
category from the ‘least’ to the ‘greatest’ to see if there is agreement and if we
can do this quite instinctively.
Discussion question: What does this activity have to do with the pursuit of
happiness?
5. Reference groups – Related to social comparison is the idea of reference
groups, to whom we compare ourselves. Ask the students the following
question
Question: If you had competed in an Olympic event final and didn’t win
the gold medal, would you rather win the silver or the bronze?
Ask them to move to one half of the room depending on their choice.
Ask some for their reasons.
In reality, which group do you think tend to be happier?
Research suggests that it is bronze medal winners who are happier than silver medal
winners. This illustrates the role that our ‘reference group’ plays in the pursuit of
happiness. Silver medallists’ reference group is gold medallists, whereas the bronze
medallists’ reference group are those who didn’t get any. This is not to be seen as an
imperative to lower our standards, but to appreciate what we have and what we have
done rather than to inflate or deflate it based on others.
A summary of some research on this can be found in this article from the Washington
post:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/17/AR2008081702196.html
A further illustration related to income will be given:
The students will be given the following question: If everything else were exactly the
same, which of these two worlds would you rather live in?
A. You get £50k a year and others get half that
(on average)
B. You get £100k a year and others get more than double
that (on average)
This question was put to a number of Harvard students and the majority, preferred
world A. Having less money didn’t bother them, so long as other people had less than
them. This has been borne out by numerous studies, which show that people are more
concerned about how they’re doing income / possession – wise in comparison to
others rather than just how they’re doing.
A fun illustration of the tendency for social comparison can be found here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AIMzWHdKxPY
And a ‘naughtier’ but hilarious one, here
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qxVEjpWZWkc
Discussion
In what ways / situations do you compare yourself with others? When does it
make you happier?
5. What does it all mean for the pursuit of happiness?
The hedonic treadmill
Students will be shown this ‘equation’ and asked to consider what the ‘result’ might
be:
Adaptation + Social comparison = ?
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Illustration:
I often tell the story of a former school- mate of mine, who once when we were
having a drink in a bar ordered a pint of wine. When I expressed my surprise at his
order, he explained that it was ‘The only way I can get drunk’. He had been drinking
regularly and heavily for a while and found that, in order to experience the pleasure of
being drunk, he had to gradually increase the volume and the strength of what he was
drinking. He could no longer achieve the desired effect by drinking beer, or gin and
tonic, he needed a few ‘pints of wine’. He NEEDED (or felt that he needed) more and
stronger alcohol, in order to experience his pleasant high. Note that he wasn’t
drinking pints of wine to get MORE DRUNK than he used to, he drank them to get
AS DRUNK as he used to. This is a good illustration of what has been called the
Hedonic Treadmill.
Students may be able to recount their own stories of needing to ‘up the
dosage’ or getting used to certain levels of something and so feeling
that they need more just to sustain their existing levels of happiness /
pleasure.
The combination of the adaptive nature of human beings and the tendency to compare
ourselves with others means that we get trapped on a hedonic treadmill, perhaps one
key to happiness is to consider whether the things we are investing our time and
energies in are subject to adaptation and whether our motive is one of social
comparison.
Adaptation + Social comparison = Hedonic treadmill
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YXRH50fvHWA&feature=related
Written task
1. Explain how the adaptation principle and social comparison can
turn us into ‘hamsters’ on a ‘hedonic treadmill’.
2. Give examples from your life of when you have been like the
hamster in the wheel.
6. Affluenza – It will be suggested to the students that they may never experience
happiness because they have contracted a deadly virus which is worse than HIV
because those with HIV can be happy and their disease can be controlled. The virus
has been called AFFLUENZA. Oliver James’ book also has a symptoms checklist,
which can be used as an activity if time allows.
6. Assignment - Television – Students will be given the opportunity to explore the
possible relationship between TV and the hedonic treadmill.
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Assignment topic - ‘Television makes us unhappier and infects us with
affluenza’
What evidence is there to support this?
What evidence is there against it?
Write a one - page report giving evidence on both sides. This can include
information from articles, as well as examples of programme content you have
seen this week.
9. Conclusion – It seems as though we may actually be ‘hard – wired’ in such a way
as to make materialism fail as a means of happiness. The pursuit of such a life seems
to be self – defeating in humans.
Students will respond to the content of the lesson by writing a comment around a
large picture of the hedonic treadmill as they leave the room.
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Lesson four: Why the long face?
Learning aim – For students consider the view that trying to be happy may be
futile for some and unnecessary for others, due to the ‘cortical lottery’ – our
genetic inheritance. Students will also consider what responses there are to
unhappiness - and the view that it may suggest that we are ‘hard – wired’ for
meaning.
Learning outcomes
The students will:
1. Understand why many have concluded that a significant part of our
‘positive/negative affect’ is genetically determined.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the possible value / meaning of pain /
painful emotions.
3. Know what strategies are most effective for coping with negative feelings /
states of mind.
4. Understand via Martin Seligman’s work that there is a great deal we can
personally do to raise our happiness / well – being.
1. Introduction – The giggle twins and the cortical lottery
Many people purchase a little ticket every week in the hope of winning the
national lottery. There are far more losers than winners. Recent research also
suggests that we are either winners or losers in another ‘lottery’, the cortical
lottery.
Researchers think that between as much as 50 and 80 per cent of all the variance
among people’s average levels of happiness can be explained by their genes, rather
than life experiences. In other words, no matter how much we earn, how well we
marry and how virtuously we live, the pursuit of happiness will end up being partly
determined by the set of genes we were born with. Consider the story of identical
twins Barbara Herbert and Daphne Goodship:
Both:
1.Raised outside London
2.Left school at 14
3.Worked in local govt.
4.Met husbands aged 16 at
local dance
5.Miscarried at same time
6.Had 2 boys and a girl
7.Phobias such as blood &
heights
8.Habits e.g. cold coffee
and ‘squidging’
9. Very happy
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Daphne and Barbara are identical twins studied by Angle & Niemark in 1997 ( See
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt page 33). The 8 points to the right are
facts about them which are perhaps not surprising, until you learn that they were
adopted at birth and raised apart from each other, didn’t meet until they were 40 and
turned up wearing virtually identical clothing! They became known as the ‘giggle
twins’ because they also seemed to be equally very happy people
(http://www.science-spirit.org/article_detail.php?article_id=596)
Studies of identical twins frequently find a high degree of similarity in many things,
including happiness. The same is not true for non – identical twins, suggesting that, to
a startlingly high degree, happiness may be genetic and hereditary. Critics of this
research point out that often, the twins are raised apart but in similar (middle class)
backgrounds and that the connection is strong but not as strong as might first be
thought and that a more realistic percentage of influence is 25%
Question
1. What do these types of study suggest about people’s happiness?
3. Is my happiness fixed?
Students will be reminded of the left brain / right brain activity seen in the lesson on
pleasure.
QuickTime™ and a
QuickTime™ and a
All human beings (brain damage etc. notwithstanding) are capable of being stimulated
in both ways by pleasure and pain. However, all human beings also have what is
known as their ‘affective state’, this is their general level of positive / negative feeling
when ‘at rest’ i.e. when just at their ‘normal level’. This research suggests that there
just are some people who are born ‘lefties’ and some born ‘righties’ and there is also
evidence to suggest that this stays pretty much constant throughout their lives. It
seems as though each person has a sort of inner ‘happiness thermometer’ which can
go up and down, but within a set range. As Martin Seligman, founder of the ‘Positive
Psychology’ movement says “We appear to have a genetic steersman who charts the
course of our emotional life” (Authentic happiness – Nicholas Brealey publishing).
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2. Are you a cortical ‘leftie’ or a ‘rightie’?
Activity - Jonathan Haidt provides a short ‘test’ on page 34 of The happiness
hypothesis which students will use. They should also simply state which they believe
themselves to be. Relocation to the left / right side of the room is an option for
plenary following this.
Question
What are the implications for your life and your future of being a ‘leftie’ and
of being a ‘rightie’?
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3. Not as fixed as you think! - The happiness formula
The Happiness Formula
Just as in a game of cards, we have to play the hand we’re dealt. Some of us may be
better off than others in the happiness stakes but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope.
The work of Martin Seligman provides a great deal of hope for those who seem to be
playing cards with a pair of two’s!
The initial response to the genetic nature of happiness shocked the world and
psychologists in particular, who had always taken nurture, rather than nature, to be the
decisive factor in happiness. Biologists, mapping the human genome however, helped
with the understanding that genes themselves are often sensitive to environmental
conditions. Each person does have a characteristic level of happiness, but it’s less like
a set point, and more like a range of probability. Genes represent a propensity to
respond in a certain way to external stimuli. Thus there are external factors at play
too.
Martin Seligman and his colleagues identified two kinds of external factors with
which your genes could interact:
•
•
Conditions of your life – Some of which you CAN’T change, E.G. race, age,
sex, disability etc. and some which you can E.G. romance, where you live,
your job etc.
Voluntary actions / activities / thoughts – E.G. meditation, learning guitar,
travelling, keeping a gratitude diary etc.
The thing about conditions is that they tend to be steady states for a period of time,
which means that we we adapt to them which means they don’t significantly affect
our happiness, whereas our voluntary choices and actions offer greater opportunities
to increase happiness.
They devised the ‘happiness formula’
H=S+C+V
H = Happiness
S= Set point
C = Conditions of life
V = Voluntary activities
The level of happiness you
experience is these factors
combined.
Questions
1. What is your reaction to the happiness formula?
2. Give 3 examples of things you could improve about your happiness
based on it.
Dylan Bartlett
4. Faking it – Students will briefly consider the idea that one volountary choice we
may need to make is to admit when we’re not happy and be honest with ourselves that
the kinds of things that a lot of people say will make us happy, just don’t.
Discussion
1. What examples can you think of when people ‘pretend’ to be happy /
enjoying themselves when they’re not?
2. When have you done this and why?
5. Negative feelings – Power point
This power point will look at negative emotions and offer a brief introduction to
some of the most effective strategies for dealing with negative emotion /
depression.
It will also begin the journey to the next level of complexity by introducing the
idea of meaning as important for human lives via the concept of pain being
meaningful.
5. Conclusion
Students will be given a card with the following on it:
C-
V-
On it, they will write some thoughts as to what they might want to do in either of
these categories to increase their well – being. They will flash the card to me as they
leave.
Dylan Bartlett
Odds and ends – extras you could use
Cortical ‘Leftie / Rightie’
* The students can be encouraged to consider whether they are a cortical ‘leftie’ or
‘rightie’, one way of doing this is to watch some of the interaction between dory and
Marlon in the film Finding Nemo available here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QH3y6CT66x4
The students can then consider which character they most identify with. It may also
help to raise the question ‘If happiness is genetic, what’s the point in trying to be
happy? Shouldn’t we just give up and accept what we cannot change.
In other words, should we be less like Dory, refusing to accept things as they are and
more like Marlon, who sees the limitations and experiences a sense of hopelessness
(reminiscent of Seligman’s concept of ‘Learned helplessness’).
Serenity prayer
Students could be introduced to the serenity prayer as a way of considering what they
may be able to change / need to accept about themselves and their lives:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom
to know the difference.
This is the serenity prayer most commonly attributed to the theologian Reinhold
Niebuhr, who first used it in a sermon on Practical Christianity in 1934. Niebuhr was
opposed to war (although he supported the opposition to the Nazis in WWII because
he felt it was a just war) and to working conditions that dehumanised people such as
the assembly lines of the car factories in Detroit, where he served as a pastor.
The sentiments of the prayer can be linked to the happiness formula.
The prayer suggests that serenity (peace) is promoted in our lives when we accept
that which cannot be changed – our set range and unchangeable life conditions. That
courage (a virtue) is developed when we make the effort to change that which we can
– by making changes to our changeable life conditions and undertaking voluntary
activities which promote our well being. Wisdom resides in knowing which is which.
Dylan Bartlett
Questions for homework
1. Think about yourself, what would you put under the three headings:
(i). Things I would like to change about me / my life
(ii). Things that I could change
(iii) Things I may need to just accept
2. For the things that you have said you could change, try to thing of some ways
of beginning to change one or two of them.
Some have pointed out that Niebuhr’s prayer simply echoes the sentiments of a rhyme
from mother goose in the 1600s:
For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.
You may prefer to use this alternative as a way of getting your students to consider
ways in which there voluntary activities can improve their well - being.
Dylan Bartlett
Lesson six – Dead man walking?
Learning aim: If human beings are ‘hard – wired’ for meaning, then this
requires an ‘inner life’ of reflection. Students will consider this by comparing
unreflective and instrumentalist approaches to life with vampires. The Buddha
will be presented as the spiritual / religious alternative via the concept of ‘the
third eye.’
Learning outcomes
By the end of the lesson students will:
1. Understand that vampires can be seen as being symbolic of an unreflective life
and that this may be analogous to the life of pleasure / materialism.
2. Know about The Buddha’s image and what the ‘third eye’ symbolises.
3. Know about The Buddha’s life and basic teachings.
4. Reflect upon the status of their own ‘inner life’ and consider how it may be
developed.
1. Activity: ‘Bite me’ - Students will be asked the question:
If you met a vampire, would you want them to bite you so you become one too?
Activity
All students stand up and they get to sit down again by telling me something
either good or bad about being bitten by a vampire.
Their response should be either:
‘Bite me because…’ or ‘Don’t bite me because…’
No repetition allowed and Ideas will be written up on the board
This will generate information on the classic characteristics of vampires.
Worksheet: Bite me – The students will work through this sheet.
2. Activity: An inner life – The Buddha
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yJeLPcemxzU
Task
Whilst watching the montage of images of The Buddha, note down some of the
themes,
which emerge about his appearance and the way he is portrayed.
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Bartlett
3. The third eye.
Discussion
What do you think the ‘third eye’ symbolises?
How do you think our ‘third eyesight’ can be improved?
A guided meditation on the theme of my ‘inner guru’ is pertinent here.
4. Song ‘I me mine’ – The Beatles. George Harrison wrote this song about what he
described as ‘the ego problem’. It will be used to support The Buddha’s teaching.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=o2WpTjjEq_c
Dylan Bartlett
Students will be introduced to the story of The Buddha. The power point will be
used based on the following information:
The Buddha
It was whilst he was a healthy young
man that Siddhartha Gautama (The
Buddha) reflected on old age, sickness
and death and he wondered how it was
possible to be happy in life knowing
that these things come to all of us.
He lived a life of luxury and riches, but
saw four sights that changed the
course of his life, and of millions of
others.
On four separate journeys from his
palace he saw old age, sickness and
death. These things shocked and
worried him. Finally, he saw a
wandering holy man who had nothing
of material value but Siddhartha could
see that he possessed something
much more precious, inner peace. Not
a ‘happiness’ based on pleasure and
the absence of pain, but something
deeper and more vital.
For him, it was all well and good having a philosophy for when you’re young,
healthy and gorgeous but what about when the party’s over? The Buddha
famously said ‘The world is on fire and are you laughing?’ He suggested that,
in order to begin our search for happiness, we must first face up to the fact
that our philosophy of life must be strong enough to see us through not just
youth, beauty and vitality but also old age, sickness and finally, death.
He started his journey inwards and followed a path of meditation through
which he achieved what Buddhists refer to as ‘enlightenment’. Exactly what
enlightenment is, is difficult to say. Buddhists claim we can only know what it
is by experiencing it (a bit like your mum telling you that, when you meet the
right person for you ‘you’ll just know’) but they believe that it may take many
lifetimes to achieve it. For now, Buddhists approach life by recognising that
our lives are the creation of our own minds. The Buddha said “What we are
today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build
our life of tomorrow: our life is the creation of our mind”.
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The purpose of meditation is to become aware of and eliminate ‘mental
toxins’, such as ignorance, greed and hatred, which poison our thinking and to
eliminate them by mental discipline. A further purpose is to surrender
‘attachments’ to material things like possessions and money as these are not
lasting sources of well – being. It’s not having them that causes suffering, it’s
being so attached to them that losing them would destroy our peace.
The Buddha also said that a great deal of our suffering comes from craving for
more and more, from not accepting that everything changes and from attachment to our ego, our sense of self and so Buddhists seek to detach
from this through the discipline of meditation. Meditation also promotes what
Buddhists call mindfulness, this is the ability to ‘be in the present’ often our
mind can look backwards or race forwards, but mindfulness focuses on the
now.
Some of The Buddha’s final words were:
"Hold fast to the Truth and the Discipline as a lamp. Seek deliverance
alone in the Truth. Strive on with diligence. Free yourself from the tangled
net of sorrow and dissatisfaction. Look not for assistance to anyone besides
yourself. In regard to the body and the mind, let one be mindful and
overcome the greed, which arises from the body's craving, which arises
from craving for sensations, which arises from craving due to ideas,
reasons and emotions. If one is mindful, seekers of Truth shall surely
reach the top- most pinnacle of freedom. But they must be willing to
learn."
Like The Buddha, Buddhists say that lasting happiness, or Sukha as they call
it, which, as Mattthieu Ricard in ‘Happiness a guide to developing life’s most
important skill’ translates as: ‘…the state of lasting well – being that manifests
itself when we have freed ourselves of mental blindness and afflictive
emotions. It is also the wisdom that allows us to see the world as it is, without
veils or distortions. It is finally, the joy of moving toward INNER FREEDOM
and the loving – kindness that radiates toward others.’
So the purpose of inner peace and freedom is not simply to sit back and enjoy
it, but to show loving – kindness towards others, but this can only happen if
we are not distracted by the attachments which so often cause unhappiness
in ourselves.
Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled
with joy. A fool is happy until his mischief turns against him. And a good man
may suffer until his goodness flowers. - The Buddha
Questions
1. What do you think when you see old people?
2. How does the thought of death make you feel?
3. What sorts of things ‘poison’ your mind and cause you unhappiness?
4. How does your ego cause you to be unhappy?
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What do you think of the idea that in order to be truly happy, it is necessary to
achieve something important in your inner world first?
3. Conclusion
Students will consider whether they are more like a vampire or The Buddha. As
they leave the room, they will tell me ‘Dracula because…’ or ‘Buddha
because…’
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Bite me!
The vampire legend
The vampire legend is one that has held fascination for us for centuries. It has
both intrigued and frightened audiences and readers. Whilst he didn’t invent
the vampire, Bram Stoker created the most famous one of all, Dracula and his
1897 novel was more compelling than earlier English fictional characters such
as Varney the Vampire (1847).
Until Stoker’s Dracula, Vampires had been portrayed as monsters and killing
one was simply monster – slaying. Stoker used Dracula as a metaphor to
explore questions about humanity. Dracula as a character only physically
appears in 40 of the book’s 300 pages. The rest of the book is occupied with
the other charcters’ fear of Dracula and what he represents. Many have
commented that it is the fear of becoming ‘undead’ that makes the book so
compelling. Here are two accounts of vampire – killing. The first is the killing
of Clara Crofton in Varney the Vampire and the second is the killing of Lucy
Westenra in Stoker’s Dracula.
The eyes of the corpse opened wide – the hands were clenched, and a shrill,
piercing shriek came from the lips – a shriek that was answered by as many as
there were persons present, and then with pallid fear upon their countenances
they rushed headlong from the spot
The thing in the coffin writhed, and a hideous, blood – curdling screech came
from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild
contortions…finally it lay still. The terrible task was over…There, in the coffin lay
no longer the foul thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work
of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but
Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and
purity. True that there were, as we had seen them in life, the traces of care and
pain and waste; but these were all dear to us, for they marked her truth to what
we knew.
Task 1 – * With those sat close to you, discuss and note any similarities
and differences that occur to you between the two accounts.
* Describe how each scene might be shot cinematically.
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For Stoker’s vampire – hunters, killing a vampire is not just to fight against evil
or to satisfy a thirst for blood, but to set free a ‘true’ humanity that has become
trapped inside a ‘false’ inhumanity. Later in the book, as they are preparing to
hunt Dracula in Transylvania, Mina Harker reminds the hunters to have pity
for the poor human soul trapped inside the undead body.
I want you to bear something in mind
through all this dreadful time. I know you
must fight – that you must destroy even
as you destroyed the false Lucy so that the
true Lucy might live hereafter; but it is
not a work of hate. That poor soul who has
wrought all this misery is the saddest case
of all. Just think what will be his joy when
he too is destroyed in his worser part that
his better part may have spiritual
immortality. You must be pitiful to him
too, though it may not hold your hands
from the destruction.
Dracula is therefore to be seen as a symbol of a certain kind of life, it is the life
of a ‘dead man walking.’ A certain kind of human being, who lives an
inauthentic kind of life. This kind of life is not our ‘true humanity’ because it
ignores the fact that humans are ‘hard – wired’ for meaning. In order to find
meaning in life, we have to develop an ‘inner life’, not just an life of external
materialism or sensory pleasure. Stoker is using Dracula to say that it is
possible for us to die before our heart stops.
Dead man walking?
What is it about Dracula that represents the kind of person who is ‘undead’?
One of Dracula’s characteristics
Is his inability to be reflected in a
Mirror. Whenever he passes one,
Nothing appears in it. Stoker, in
the early 1890s wrote a list of
what would be his vampire’s
essential characteristics. One
of them was “Painters can’t make
a likeness of him- however hard the
artist tries, the subject always ends up
looking like someone else.”
Unreflective living
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Many have suggested that this is an obvious metaphor for Dracula’s
unwillingness or inability to be reflective – thoughtful. Dracula’s life is similar to
that of the pure pleasure – seeker who has no real inner life of reflection and
meaning but who simply lives, from one feeding frenzy’ to another.
Socrates famously said ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ and this is the
very life that Dracula and those whom he represents, live.
Dracula is also able to ‘shapeshift’ , to appear in different forms. He appears
as an old man, a monster / demon figure, a bat, a young man and as mist.
Old man
Monster
Bat
Young man
Mist
Fourth on Stoker’s list of Dracula’s characteristics was “absolutely despises
death and the dead.” He sees death as something, which only happens to
lower creatures than himself.
These are very interesting and intriguing characteristics when we consider
what Dracula might have to say to us about the good life, or its opposite.
Questions
1. What was different about Stoker’s Dracula, compared to previous
vampires?
2. A. List the four characteristics of Dracula mentioned in this sheet.
B. What kind of person / life do these characteristics represent?
C. How does our humanity become distorted as we live our lives?
3. It has been suggested that Dracula represents the kind of person
who is a ‘dead man walking.’ In what ways could this describe you or
anyone you know? (this could also include fictional characters).
Lesson six: Your inner virtuoso
Dylan Bartlett
Overall aim – For students to engage with the Aristotelian tradition of
Eudaimonia, in order to consider what it means to be a ‘virtuoso’ human being.
Learning outcomes
1. Respond the idea that there may be such a thing as a ‘virtuoso human
being’ and what that involves.
2. Understand Aristotle’s view of Eudaimonia (well – being) and virtuous
character. That the best of us is what we are ‘hard – wired’ to develop.
3. Understand why Socrates is considered to be a virtuoso human being.
4. Consider their own strengths, the virtues involved in them and how they
might be developed.
1. IntroductionStudents were asked to complete the VIA strengths test at
www.authentichappiness.org for homework and bring a printout to class. Check
this has been done and issue any necessary tests to absentees / non – completers.
2.
A virtuoso performance
A) A virtuoso musical performance - Students should be shown an example of a
virtuoso musical performance. Perhaps Maxim Vengerov may be a good example (or
Jimi Hendrix):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1bDjafRi0Q&feature=related
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDRQQ_5Ahw
Activity
All pupils to stand up in their places and they get to sit down by giving me a word
which they associate with Vengerov and his performance. Areas may include:
•
•
His Skills
His Character
The words generated will help to build a picture of what it takes to become what we
call a VIRTUOSO.
A second virtuoso performance
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Students should be introduced to an example of outstanding human moral excellence.
There are innumerable possible examples e.g. The Good Samaritan would serve well.
Personally, I will use a scene from the recent film The Kite Runner, where the father
of the main protagonist makes a stand against an armed soldier to protect a woman
whom the soldier wishes to rape, whilst her husband is too fearful. This, I believe,
demonstrates in a powerful way, moral excellence: the virtuosity of virtue.
Discussion
Give me reasons why this man could be described as a virtuoso human
being.
Reference may be made to the ideas generated about Vengerov as well as
considering what ‘more’ or ‘other’ there might be here.
3. Why might Aristotle describe this man as a virtuoso?
Students will be introduced to the ideas of Aristotle on telos, eudaimonia and virtue in
order to gain a basic grasp of this tradition, as well as what is meant by a virtue.
Aristotle and Euadaimonia
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The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC –
322 BC) would approve of the man’s action greatly.
He would say that he has developed a virtuous
CHARACTER.
Aristotle contemplating Homer
- Rembrandt
Let’s briefly consider three things; what their purpose is and where their virtue may
lie.
Task
For each of these three things, say:
A. What their ‘best and highest purpose’ is.
B. What a virtuous example of it would be like / would do.
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For Aristotle, the answer to the question of what is the
Farmington
fellowship
best and highest
purpose
of humans was obvious. He
thought it was contemplation (thinking). So, we should
lead reflective / contemplative lives. However, he didn’t
suggest we should just sit around thinking all the time with our head in the clouds and not go to class! He also
thought that a further excellent purpose of humans was
moral goodness. For him, human excellence has two
elements:
1. Intellectual wisdom – Thinking with excellence
2. Practical wisdom – Doing with excellence
Excellence involves virtues, which one develops by
training (habit). Intellectual virtues include wisdom,
knowledge and understanding. And moral virtues lie in
a balanced character, which seeks the golden mean of
virtue between a vice of excess and a vice of defect. For
example:
Vice of
defect
Mean of
virtue
Vice of
Excess
Stinginess
Generosity
Extravagance
Homo Habilis
2,000,000 bc
1 ¼ Lb brain
For a full list:
http://pages.interlog.com/~girbe/virtuesvices.html
Homo Sapien
200,000 bc
3 Lb brain
Task - In pairs
A. Under the two headings of Intellectual wisdom / Practical wisdom, give a minimum of 5
examples of the kinds of thing that might be involved.
B. Join up with another pair who aren’t close to you in the room and discuss your ideas in a group
of four.
Discussion question
What reasons are there as to why Aristotle would think that the man in the kite runner scene could be
described as a virtuoso human being? What are the arguments for and against this?
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Task - Students should now focus on the results of their strengths test set for h/w last
lesson.
•
•
•
They should be allowed a few moments to compare their test results with
others.
They should then be shown the 6 ubiquitous virtues on which the test is based.
Their task is to identify which strengths belong to which virtues to see which
of the virtues they currently embody well.
5. The habit of virtue:
Show the students the following quote from Aristotle:
…human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more
than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete…But we must add 'in a
complete life.' For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day,
or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.
Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics Book 1 CH 7
They should be asked to interpret what Aristotle is saying here, especially in the
last sentence.
The point to be made is that for Aristotle, well – being (happiness) arises from
developing virtuous character traits based on repetition and habituation. A good way
of developing this is to have a mentor and to be disciplined.
6. A masterclass.
Show a brief clip of a masterclass with maxim vengerov
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WX8Y-IiN8cE
A further virtuoso performance – The death of Socrates
Students could be shown this video on the death of Socrates:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=N_V1ITZBTu4
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Students could answer the following questions whilst watching
The death of Socrates
1. Why did the state want rid of Socrates?
2. What did Socrates believe was worth dying for?
3. How would you describe his attitude towards death?
4. What words do you think describe Socrates’ character?
5. What new conception of a good human being did Socrates create?
Some discussion of their responses can follow and the assertion below will form
the basis of its continuation.
Task
‘You haven’t started living until you’ve become the kind of person who believes
there are some things worth dying for’
In pairs, one person argue for and one against this idea for 2 minutes each
Then report back
7. Assignment – In the footsteps of Franklin – This will be handed to the
students on a printed sheet in order to save time.
The task for this week is to select five of their strengths, from at least three different
virtues, and to make a deliberate and determined effort to ‘play to’ those strengths.
Three should be strengths with a high score and two with a lower score in order to
develop it. As a mentor, read the story of Ben Franklin before beginning and produce
a table like he did in order to monitor each day’s progress. A report should be written
on the experience which details:
•
•
•
The chosen strengths & relevant virtues
The efforts and experiences involved in attempting to ‘play to’ and develop
them.
An evaluation of the contribution to their sense of well – being / happiness
that such an endeavour can provide.
8. Conclusion
As the students leave the room, they will tell me two of the virtues they possess and
one they wish to work on.
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Ben Franklin’s Virtues - Franklin's thirteen virtues can be divided
into personal and social character traits.
Personal - The eight personal virtues relate to your attitudes
toward activities and their challenges.
Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your
business have its time.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without
fail what you resolve.
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself;
i.e., waste nothing.
Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much
as you think they deserve.
Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful;
cut off all unnecessary actions.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or
habitation.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or
unavoidable.
Social - These five social virtues that Franklin stated concern your
attitudes toward people with whom you have dealings.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid
trifling conversation.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if
you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that
are your duty.
Chastity: Rarely use sexual activity but for health or offspring,
never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's
peace or reputation.
Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
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Franklin’s virtue table
Down the left = The first letter of each virtue
Along the top = Each day of the week
In the boxes = A black mark for days where he ‘blew it’
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Lesson seven: Get over yourself:
Overall aim – For students to understand that for key ancient philosophers,
religious traditions and according to much psychological research, human well –
being flourishes when their lives include a sense of ‘elevation’ or transcendence
when we ‘get over ourselves.’ Indeed, we may well be ‘hard – wired’ for a
connection with the transcendent.
Learning outcomes
Students will
1. Understand what is meant by Transcendence.
2. Identify experiences of / routes to transcendence.
3. Understand that for many, meaning, and therefore wellbeing, rests on
transcendence.
5. Shawshank - ‘There are places in the world that aren’t made of stone.’
Students will be shown a scene from ‘The Shawshank redemption’ where Andy
Dufrain (Tim Robbins) interrupts the lives of the prisoners with a Mozart aria:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GAJ2skOJvdY
Questions
1. How would you describe the effect that hearing the music had on the prisoners in
Shawshank?
2. What differences between Andy and the other prisoners does this clip highlight?
3. Why do you think the director included the shot of all the inmates looking up at
the speakers?
4. What did the music ‘give’ to Andy that he took with him into solitary
confinement?
5. Which approach to life in the prison do you think makes most sense – Andy’s or
the other prisoners? Give reasons for your answer.
The clip may be seen as symbolic in many ways. I will suggest that one possible way
is to see the prison as representing our mind; the prisoners are our ‘lower selves’,
Andy represents our ‘higher self’ and that the music is symbolic of another
dimension, which we are often completely unaware of, but which sometimes intrudes
or breaks through into our world. The warden & guards can be seen as the ‘guardians’
of our lower nature, perhaps our fear or ignorance.
Dylan Bartlett
This can be compared to the story of Flatland, which Jonathan Haidt uses in his book:
The happiness hypothesis. A trailer gives the sense of what the film is about and is
available here:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C8oiwnNlyE4&NR=1
6. Portals to transcendence – The concept of transcendence will be explained
and students will be asked to reflect on any times in their lives when they have
had the experience of a sense of transcendence. Following this, they will be
shown examples of what may be described as ‘portals’ to transcendence. We
will then re visit the question and see if they can recall any more experiences.
It may be interesting to divide the class into those who identify with Andy and
those who, like the other inmates, just ‘don’t get it’. This could then lead to an
interesting discussion as to why some people have these experiences and
others don’t.
Students will be introduced to the suggestion that those people who seem to
experience the greatest sense of well - being, according to great philosophers (Plato)
religions (e.g. Buddhism / Christianity) and psychological research (Jonathan Haidt /
Martin Seligman), perhaps even economists (Richard Layard) are those who have a
greater sense of what people call ‘Transcendence’. Jonathan Haidt uses the expression
‘elevation’ to describe this. And, that in order to experience this, we have to ‘get over
ourselves’.
7. Flatland – The 30 minute film Flatland will be shown. This is available to buy
for schools online from www.flatlandthemovie.com
Whilst watching the movie, students will be expected to try to interpret the
message of the story by considering what type of people the major characters
represent.
8. Activity – Interpreting Flatland
Task –
1. In small groups, see how many examples of films / stories you can think of
that involve the idea of another world / dimension into which human beings
travel (or from which others travel here). For each, say what the ‘portal’ is (the
‘gateway’).
2. Using your thoughts about the symbolism of the characters in the film, explain
what you think the major message of Flatland is.
3. Compare The Shawshank Redemption and Flatland by connecting the
characters and themes using the sheet provided.
4. Who/what do you think the characters of Andy and The Sphere represent in
the real world?
5. Which character (s) do you most resemble and why?
6. What do you think of the idea that there may be a ‘third dimension’? What
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might it be?
9. Assignment – Students will be asked to interview several different people,
across generations, in order to discover what experiences of transcendence
people may have had.
10. Conclusion – As students leave the room, they will tell me which
character from Flatland they most identify with and why.
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Flatland
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Shawshank
Lesson 8- Wrestling with angels
Learning aim – For students to understand that, for religious people, lasting well –
being rests upon living in the ‘ordinary’ world but with a sense of the transcendent.
This often requires a ‘wrestling match’ both with our own will and with a
transcendent will. This wrestling match with a transcendent will is transformative and
true well – being comes when humans submit / commit to the transcendent, which
some call God. For Christians, it is love.
Learning outcomes
The students will:
1. Understand that psychologists and philosophers have agreed that we are ‘divided
selves’ who ‘wrestle’ with different aspects of our psyche.
2. Understand Plato’s model of the three – part soul.
3. Know that, for religious people, the wrestling match that we engage in when we
attempt to get over ourselves is not only with ourselves, but also with a personal
transcendence.
4. Know that, for Christians, the nature of this personal transcendence is love and that
human wellbeing reaches its pinnacle when we commit ourselves to opening up to the
transformative power of this force.
1. Introduction - Activity – Thumb wrestling
Students will be invited to take part in the RHS thumb wrestling championship. Each
table will have its own mini – tournament and the winners from each table will go
into the next round, where the final two shall compete for a prize.
2. Wrestling or dancing?
Students will consider the meaning and possible value of Marcus Aurelius’ analogy of
well – being to wrestling rather than dancing.
3. Two models of the divided self
Students will be reminded of Haidt’s model of the self and will be asked to remind
each other of what each part represents and to give an example from the last week of
the behaviour of their elephant / rider.
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They will then be introduced to Plato’s model of the self and be given the opportunity
to decipher it by analysing a picture of Plato’s model.
An excellent exploration of Plato’s model of the divided self is given by Mark Vernon
in wellbeing chapter 8.
4. An ancient wrestling match – Jacob
The story of Jacob will be read, using the images on the power point. The story of his
birth includes the idea of him being a ‘grasper’, one possible way of seeing this is that
he wanted everything for himself. In order to secure this, he swindled his brother out
of his birthright and took the Patriarchal blessing reserved for the firstborn. Following
this, he has a dream, in which he sees the ‘third dimension’ of the transcendent and
hears the voice of God. This can perhaps be seen as an invitation to ‘get over himself’
and to make an inner journey upwards. This is later symbolised by Jacob’s mysterious
‘wrestling match’.
7. Hard – wired for service? A section of video from Dan Gilbert’s TED talk will be
shown, this section describes how humans can experience two types of happiness
‘real’ happiness, which is when you get what you want (earlier lessons have shown
the limitations of this approach) and ‘synthetic’ happiness, which is what we
experience when we want what we get. Humans ‘synthesise’ happiness best, says
Gilbert when we are ‘stuck’. Perhaps another word for stuck might be committed /
faithful, or when we have wrestled to the point of submission.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LTO_dZUvbJA
Students should be encouraged to consider the implications of Gilbert’s research for
well – being.
5. Not my will – ‘Freeing service’
Students will be asked to consider the nature of freedom via the power point slide on
‘What is perfect freedom?’ For religious people, freedom is service or submission, or
FAITH. The example of Jesus for Christians will be used as a way of picturing this.
Jesus also had a wrestling match, in Gethsemane.
6. Hard – wired for transcendence – The apparatus for an inner upward journey
Students will be shown the material on the power point presentation for the parietal
lobes and their role in experiences of transcendence. This will be used to discuss the
idea that we have been ‘hard – wired’ for transcendence
7. Video clip – I am legend
A clip for this film will be shown, where Will Smith’s character has the key to the
cure for the disease, which has almost destroyed humanity and turned them into
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monstrous mutants. He is offering to help the leader of the mutants whilst looking out
at him from a glass case. The mutant simply keeps ramming himself against the case
in order to get to Smith and satisfy his urge to destroy.
This can be seen as the religious position on human well – being – that in order to live
‘the good life’ for humans, we need help, but we often pursue self – destruction rather
than seeking help. The help we need, say religious people, comes from God when we
‘seek’ him. The Christian conception of God is love. For Christians true wellbeing
comes from being connected to love, to God.
Question: In the film, humanity needs a cure to transform from the
mutation it has become to what it was intended to be. Religious people
see things this way, what do you think the cure might be for our
mutated humanity?
A.I. – Hard – wired for different stuff.
Students will be told about A.I. artificial intelligence. In this film David, a
sophisticated computerised boy who wishes to be a real boy so that he can love and be
loved. At one point, he eats the food of humans and breaks down. This introduces the
religious idea that we have an essence which precedes our existence and that our well
– being rests upon us ‘feeding on the right kind of stuff. It may also be used to make
the point that ‘Man cannot live by bread alone’ and that as well as being hard-wired
for physical appetites, we have an ‘inner circuitry’ for transcendence that, if we
neglect, can cause us to ‘break down’.
8. Transformed by love – The point will be made that for religious people,
especially Christians, we are hard – wired for love and that this is the ‘food’
we need to be nourished by. This is experienced with friends, family, lovers
and the causes we involve ourselves in. However, it goes further up the ladder
to a transcendent reality that ‘is love’. Love for religious people, is a personal
force, not an impersonal idea / ideal. Getting over ourselves and experiencing
this love is to be transformed by it.
The students will be given the example of Rubin Carter ‘The Hurricane’ a boxer
who was wrongly imprisoned. During his time in prison, he isolated himself
physically and emotionally because of his hurt and pain. It was a letter by a little girl
that broke into his heart and transformed him.
9. Return to the world – the final point that will be made is that for the
religious, the experience of transcendent love is not a means of escape from
the world. It signals the point of return to the world to love others. Just like
The Buddha taught The Dharma out of compassion, well – being for religious
people involves living in the world in a transcendent way. The connection can
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be made with Flatland and the shawshank redemption. Once the square has
encountered the ‘third dimension’ the way he lives in flatland has been
transformed. In Shawshank, Andy’s love of music enables him to transcend
the prison walls.
10. Conclusion – Students will express the themes and their learning on the
course by coming up with a ‘catchphrase’ type slogan, which encompasses the
essence of each of the 8 lessons.
An opportunity is also given, if there is time, for the creative students to present the
course in a ‘reduced Shakespeare company’ type performance.
.
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PS54: Dveloping a short course on happiness and wellbeing for fifth

Transcription

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