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Jon Gertner, The Futile Pursuit of Happiness

Jon Gertner, The Futile Pursuit of Happiness

Read The Futile Pursuit of Happiness and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.

1. The author’s thesis is

we should not underestimate the power of positive thinking.

with the right preparation, predicting how one will feel in the future is possible.

predicting how one will feel in the future is almost impossible.

we should pay very little attention to intuitive grounding when it comes to predicting how we will feel at any given time.

2. According to academics, most of our actions are based on what prediction?

our eventual economic success

the belief that luck will be the better part of any outcome

the emotional consequence of an action

our sociological situation when the action is completed

3. The gap between our prediction and what we actually experience is called

a “fail safe.”

an “impact bias.”

an “adaptive margin.”

a “validity gap.”

4. What is the concept of “adaption”?

a Darwinian term that applies to unconscious responses—flight or fight—to real threats

the way we acclimate ourselves to events

reading the facts in different ways

the ability to address and conquer bad situations

5. What is the “psychological immune system”?

the ability of the mind to fabricate positive situations

a wall of unconscious and often dangerous responses to real danger

the system of defenses that helps us to feel better when bad things happen to us

the more or less permanent system of denial, despite the situation