Ice-cold beer - one of life's small pleasures

Another new study (Quoidbach et al, 2010 – see details below) has been published on the topic of money and well-being, specifically, whether being wealthy enough to access the best things in life affects your ability to savour small pleasures.

The research suggests that wealthier individuals report lower savoring ability, and even being reminded of wealth produces the same negative impact on savoring as actual wealth. In fact, you don’t actually need to enjoy any peak experiences (such as spending time on a tropical beach holiday) for your savoring ability to be impaired – simply knowing that these peak experiences are readily available may increase your tendency to take life’s small pleasures for granted.

For a full review of the research and its implications, see Positive Psychology News Daily.

Reference:

Quoidbach, J., Dunn, E.W., Petrides, K.V. & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Money giveth, money taketh away: The dual effect if wealth on happiness. Psychological Science 21 (6), 759-763.

Image:

Cold beer courtesy of niel schubert

Mt. Taranaki, New Zealand

I’ve just heard that Aaron Jarden, lecturer in psychology at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and  president of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology is about to launch an open source journal for the study of well-being.

According to the website, the International Journal of Well-being is a “blind peer-reviewed journal that publishes timely original high-quality scholarly articles and book reviews focussed on scientific and philosophical investigations into wellbeing. The journal aims to promote thought, discussion and understanding, and to disseminate scientific research on wellbeing through published academic papers and video abstracts“. Normally you have to pay an absurd amount to get access to academic journal articles, so this is a very welcome development.

You can register for free monthly IJW updates here.

Image: courtesy of  Heike_Quosdorf

Thanks to Todd B. Kashdan for the link