What Music Means to Me

Sarah Thompson

Bentall, Richard P. "A Proposal to Classify Happiness as a Psychiatric Disorder." Journal of Medical Ethics 18.2 (1992): 94-98. Web. 20 July 2015.

        Richard P. Bentall, the Senior Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Liverpool University, comprised this report as a proposal to classify happiness as a psychiatric disorder. It was published into the Journal of Medical Ethics in 1992 with the purpose of attempting to have happiness included in future editions of the major diagnostic manuals. Interesting studies brought to attention by this report show happiness as scientifically abnormal and most likely reflect abnormal functioning of the central nervous system. One of the biggest possible objections to this proposed idea is that happiness is not usually a cause for therapeutic concern. It is also brought up that happiness is not negatively valued. Although Bentall’s work drew much attention in his field and continues to do so today, his proposal was never accepted into scientific journals.

Clark, Josh. "What Is Positive Psychology?" HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 15 June 2009. Web. 20 July 2015.

        Josh Clark is an award winning senior writer and podcast host at HowStuffWorks.com. By using the sources listed at the bottom of his article, mainly from the American Psychological Association, Clark comprised a summary of the most recent discoveries in the subfield of positive psychology. I believe the article was written to given people a basic overview of what positive psychology is, as it is a new concept to most people. The way Clark describes it, since we have had so much success in making sad people happy through medicines and therapy, it is time for psychology to start focusing more time on making the happy people happier. Although ignoring negativity is unrealistic and potentially very dangerous, this new mission should be possible considering its been proven that happiness is not the natural state of the human condition.

Dean, Dr. Jeremy. "Cognitive Psychology Studies Everyone Should Know." PsyBlog RSS. N.p., 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 July 2015.

        Dr. Jeremy Dean is a psychologist and the author of multiple blogs and books. His popular website mostly focuses on psychological studies that are relevant to everyday life. This blog post is a broad overview of his ten favorite psychological studies. This post was to briefly educate common people on the new psychological studies that are relevant and helpful to us as a society right now. After reading the ten studies Dean believes everyone should know, I learned that not only does doing good make us happier, we are also benefited on a genetic level. Another heath bonus that comes with being happy is stronger antibodies and antiviral genes, making us fight off infections quicker. A few other interesting facts from the post are that education has absolutely nothing to do with being happy, extroverts are happier than introverts, and concrete goals fore achieving happiness are more effective than abstract goals.