Brilliant Positive Psychology

42 brilliant positive psychology

If you would like to test your own time perspective profile,

you can do so online with the Zimbardo Time Perspective

Inventory.

Note The emphasis on being past positive mirrors Ryff’s

findings on healthy self-acceptance, which is also dependent

on a positive attitude to the past.

If you don’t have a positive feeling towards the past, it might be

for a good reason. For now, just notice that this is what you think

and that having this thought may be affecting how you enjoy

life in the present. There will be plenty of opportunity in later

chapters to find ways to accommodate and find meaning and

benefit in all experiences. For now, don’t feel any pressure to

do more than just notice.

 What is your predominant time perspective?

 How might this be affecting your happiness and enjoyment

of life?

A flexible and balanced time perspective starts with noticing

your relationship to time and how you use it.

Happiness and choice

Our happiness is greatly affected by how much choice we have

and the manner in which we choose. This is not the same as the

underlying needs and motivations that govern all our actions and

behaviours that we touched on in the last chapter; choice in this

context is much more about the practical way we choose.

Too much choice is not good for us!

In a series of studies, people who were given the chance to sample

jams and chocolate were more likely to buy when they had only six

to sample than when they had to choose from 24 or 30.

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Happiness and psychological well-being 43

According to the psychologist Barry Schwartz there are two

types of choosers: maximisers and satisfiers.

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The agony of maximising choice

If you are a maximiser, you will spend hours assessing and com-

paring all options, trying to find the right choice that maximises all

scenarios. If you are choosing shoes, for instance, you will try on

every pair of the style you want in your price range before making

your purchase on the grounds of value for money, comfort, fashion

and utility. You will probably make a very well-informed decision

but you are also less likely to be completely satisfied.

What is it like to live as a maximiser with the amount of choice

we have around us today? Shoes or a healthy yogurt are simple

commodities to choose compared with where you live, what car

you drive, what career you choose, what insurance you need,

where you want to go on holiday, what school you send your

children to or who you spend your life with. Looking at all the

options is not only exhausting and time consuming but if, after

investing all the time and effort, you make a wrong decision,

regret and self-reproach can be a further burden to bear.

The joy of being satisfied

If on the other hand you are a satisfier, choosing is a more

functional action, decision making reflects current needs, and

options help to meet the minimum requirement. Satisfiers may

Changing your mind doesn’t make you happy

After being asked to choose only one of two meaningful photographs

as a keepsake of their time at university, the group of students who

had a minute to choose and were not allowed to change their minds

were happier with their choice a year later than those who had been

given a three-month delay before making their final choice.

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