Interview with Mrs. Gallagher

I interviewed Mrs. Gallagher, one of the school psychologists, on the morning of April 26. She has a masters in psychology. Here is what our conversation consisted of:

• Does genetics have anything to do with happiness (nature vs nurture)?
• Are optimism and confidence the same thing as happiness, do they produce happiness, or is there no correlation at all?

Here is what we personally decided:

• Genetics does play a role- based on articles done by Michael Sigman and stuart Wolpert
• Optimism and confidence contribute to happiness, but a person can have one but not the other- based on experience
• Certain people are born with more of a predisposition for happiness- based on the gene studies done by Shelley Taylor.

The articles she gave me are:

• "'Happiness' Gene Helps You Look on the Bright Side"- Andy Coghlan (newscientist.com)
• "UCLA Psychologists Discover a Gene's Link to Optimism, Self-Esteem"- Stuart Wolpert (newsroom.ucla.edu)
• "The Genetic Reason Some of Us are Happier"- Michale Sigman (huffingtonpost.com)
• "Happiness Gene Located"- N/A (medicalnewstoday.com)