Harriet Sidford<\/p>\n
Scope:<\/strong> I want to examine our definitions of happiness and success and how they are both related to our obsession with materialism in America. Happiness is acknowledged when it is associated with concrete objects. Materialism is often mistaken for happiness because we think it can be achieved through the acquisition of things. People strive for happiness but these goals usually stem from greed, selfishness, or desperation. Similarly, success is measured in wealth or power, which we promote yet we ignore the fact that some are succeeding while others are suffering. We see this success as positive and use it to overshadow the issues festering in our world today such as poverty, racial tensions, and global warming. This is another extension of the materialistic idea of happiness: success measured in power whether it be political, economical, or social.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Value:<\/strong> Can you have success without happiness or vice versa? Does one depend on the other? Which comes first? When you think of happiness what do you picture? When you say you want to succeed in life what do you mean? Can anyone achieve happiness and success or is it limited to a certain type of person? Where does happiness and success originate? These questions are difficult to answer because our concepts of success and happiness are constantly evolving and adapting to our changing values. Further, materialism taints our beliefs because it shifts our focus and limits our thinking. Once we see the hypocrisy in our perspectives we can adjust our priorities and improve the standards of our world. After all, how can we claim that happiness or success when a large part of the world is suffering?<\/p>\n Originality: <\/strong>I think that happiness and success have always been difficult to define as singular emotion or one idea. Everyone sees things differently and considers certain things more important than others. However the variety in people\u2019s thinking is not the issue but rather our evaluation of what is important in life. Our values have shifted and we have lost sight of what it means to truly be happy and that\u2019s assuming that we ever actually had it in sight. Work relating to this subject usually focuses on either happiness or success but not both and does not focus on materialism as a connecting factor between the two. If we can divert our attention from materialism we may able to have a more pure and wholesome understanding of happiness.<\/p>\n Practicality: <\/strong>There are many sources that will support and expand on my research. The two books that were most useful so far were The Happiness Industry <\/em>and The Happiness Hypothesis <\/em>because they look at happiness in two different ways. The first suggests taking a scientific approach to happiness because it will make the idea more universal. The second focuses on the origin of happiness and why unhappiness exists. Both of these books and the rest of my sources are available in the library or online. I am also going to look at \u201chow to\u201d books that discuss success because I can use the tips in there as evidence to support my idea that success is measured in money and power. These will give me concrete examples of what people view success as. Finally, recent articles from newspapers and journals would also be useful because they are current and deal with the issues of today.<\/p>\n Bibliography:<\/strong><\/p>\n Davies, William. The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Us Well-Being. <\/em>London: Verso, 2015.<\/p>\n Demott, Benjamin. \u201cBeyond the Dream of Success.\u201d Change <\/em>8, no. 7 (1976): 32-37.<\/p>\n Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>New York: Basic Books, 2006.<\/p>\n Saveth, Edward N. \u201cApostles of the Self-Made Man: Changing Concepts of Success in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 America.\u201d Civil War History <\/em>13, no. 2 (1976): 184-186.<\/p>\n Schafer, Roy. \u201cThe Pursuit of Failure and the Idealization of Unhappiness.\u201d American \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Psychologist <\/em>39, no. 4 (1984): 398-405.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harriet Sidford Scope: I want to examine our definitions of happiness and success and how they are both related to our obsession with materialism in America. Happiness is acknowledged when it is associated with concrete objects. Materialism is often mistaken … Continue reading