The Truth of Happiness project is just what it sounds like, finding what happiness really is. In this project we began in a clueless state, collecting information from every angle and perspective on the topic of happiness. We read a book called Brave New World, we watched documentaries and read countless articles that were funneled into a annotated bibliography, created happiness experiment to see just how much a change can affect your mood and built documentaries of our own in attempt to understand happiness. Yet, by the end we were still asking ourselves the project essential question: What is the truth of happiness?
Our Happiness DOCUMENTARY - Flow
Annotated Bibliography
The Happiness experiment
Project Reflection
Honestly, after a few months of studying the subject I don't have a clear answer when asked “what is the truth of happiness”. I have learned that social connections bring people happiness. I've learned that having ‘flow’ puts the brain into ease. I've learned that intrinsic values cause more joy than extrinsic. Yet in the end after looking over my gatherings, the truth of happiness seems to be something that can't be exactly fathomed or understood because it varies from person to person and is such an abstract concept.
For me the biggest challenge in this project was not falling behind. In the beginning there was so many readings, documentaries, papers, assignments, research and lectures that it was easy to get lost and tired. Many times I found myself wondering how much information I could take in or how much longer the knowledge gathering would take. I worked through this struggle by remembering that this would all lead to a grand final project, that every minute of research meant something.
As a group worker in this project I learned how to step away from the leader role. Recently I have become a leader type person in a group projects when I used to always be a follower. This jurassic transition on my role in group projects set an off balance where I always took on more stress in group projects but stepping away from being a leader let me get another perspective and give someone else the chance.
If I could refine anything in this project I would take my happiness experiment more seriously. I treated it as not as much as a big deal and did the bulk of it last moment and that lead to a poor outcome. While my score did not affect my grade very much it was still disappointing to look down and see a 28/40 when I had an entire week to work on it. If I could refine it I would remember to take the oxford happiness quiz before and after the experiment. I would also go more into depth when describing the daily procedure and the reflection. I will use the failure in the future as a reminder to work as hard as I can and not give up even when I really don't want to do the assignment.
For me the biggest challenge in this project was not falling behind. In the beginning there was so many readings, documentaries, papers, assignments, research and lectures that it was easy to get lost and tired. Many times I found myself wondering how much information I could take in or how much longer the knowledge gathering would take. I worked through this struggle by remembering that this would all lead to a grand final project, that every minute of research meant something.
As a group worker in this project I learned how to step away from the leader role. Recently I have become a leader type person in a group projects when I used to always be a follower. This jurassic transition on my role in group projects set an off balance where I always took on more stress in group projects but stepping away from being a leader let me get another perspective and give someone else the chance.
If I could refine anything in this project I would take my happiness experiment more seriously. I treated it as not as much as a big deal and did the bulk of it last moment and that lead to a poor outcome. While my score did not affect my grade very much it was still disappointing to look down and see a 28/40 when I had an entire week to work on it. If I could refine it I would remember to take the oxford happiness quiz before and after the experiment. I would also go more into depth when describing the daily procedure and the reflection. I will use the failure in the future as a reminder to work as hard as I can and not give up even when I really don't want to do the assignment.