Depression Hurts (Checkpoint 3)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/367181993_e5fa779be4.jpg

"depression"

http://www.school.eb.com/all/eb/article-9029988?query=depression%20psychology&ct=null
Article posted/updated: March 5th
Author: Encyclopedia Britannica
Author is reliable.

• mood or an emotional state- feelings of low self-worth or guilt
• symptoms include:
• sadness
• loss of appetite
• low self-esteem
• insomnia
• alternating states of mania and depression is usually bipolar disorder
• caused by many things including not enough neurotransmitters (serotonin & norepinephrine in the brain)
• medications called antidepressants like Cymbalta and Prozac or Celexa help to accumulate neurotransmitters to elevate a persons mood.
• electroconvulsive therapy- when you send an electrical wave through a persons head
• two major treatments are psychotherapy (aims to change the way the person thinks) and medications (balance out the chemicals in your body to regulate your mood)

Checkpoint 2

http://search.proquest.com/docview/337178122?accountid=6222
(ProQuest Platnuim- The Secret of Happiness)
http://search.proquest.com/docview/751175738/13510B483563D99A492/4?accountid=6222
(ProQuest Platnium- Happiness: Origins, Forms, and Technical Relevance)

• "happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence"                  -Aristotle
• the study of genetics led to the research that the ammount of happiness is out of our control.
• people think of happiness as an emotion- but Aristotle never classified it as an emotion.
•  for Aristotle, happiness was what he called the telos of human experience, the natural end.
• Sigmund Freud- the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century.
•  "The feeling of happiness derived from the satisfaction of a wild instinctual impulse untamed is incomparable more intense than that derived from sating an instinct that has been tamed" -Freud             (means that happiness comes from the a spontaneous impulse; instinctual discharge causes happiness and instinctual tension causes displeasure) 
• instinct- a natural or innate impulse, inclination, or tendency

1. does searching for happiness make you unhappy?
2. if its not an emotion, what is it?
3. can we control what makes us happy?

1- Joanna Jacobs (Checkpoint One)

#1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-12-08-happy-main_x.htm
#2. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hot-thought/201004/what-are-emotions
#3. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/opening-happiness

• emotions are judgments about the extent that the current situation meets your goals. (2)
• happy people surround themselves with friends and family. (1)
• sadness is an evolution that your goals are not satisfied. (2)
• happiness is about broadening your perspective. (3)
• Buddhism- life goal: pursuit of happiness. (3)
• cognitive- pertaining to the mental process of perception, memory, judgment, and reasoning.
• materialism is toxic for happiness- "stuff" wont make you happy. (1)
• altruism- the practice of unselfish concern for others welfare. 
• happiness can be a brain process that simultaneously makes appraisals and perceives the body.
• appraisals- the act of estimating or judging the value of something or someone. 

Questions:

1. If emotions are judgments about the situation you are in meeting your ultimate goal, is your ultimate goal happiness or something else?
2. If "stuff" doesn't make you happy, why do you feel happy when you receive presents or when you buy objects like clothes or electronics? How long can materials keep you happy?
3. If you look at the glass half empty, how can you begin to look at the glass half full? How accurate is the glass with your emotions/ feelings of happiness and depression?

How can you be happy?

To answer this overall research question I will try to find out:

1. what makes people happy?
2. what is depression?
3. what medications can you take to "make you happy"?
4. is your happiness in your control?
5. what are emotions? what makes emotions?
6. serotonin? norepinephrine? 

This is what I already know about this topic and what I want to find out:

I know that everyone feels different and has different emotions. People take medicine if they are depressed, and that seems to make the feel better. For example, when someone is diagnosed with clinical depression, they may be prescribed Cymbalta which increase the levels of the neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine, in the brain, or Celexa which works by increasing just the amount of serotonin in the brain. I know that everyone wants to be happy. I don't know if some people choose to be unhappy or if that is something beyond their control, but I do know that when people are happy, others around them tend to be happy too.

What is happiness? (overall question)

To answer this overall research question I will try to findout:

1. what makes people happy?
2. what is depression?
3. what medications can you take to "make you happy"?
4. is happiness a choice?

What I already know about this topic is that happiness is a feeling that people experience.