Question

What is the Good Life, according to you? As a society, what should we be focusing on? In this assessment piece, you are required to draw on the concepts covered in the workshops and lectures, and your own ideas and experiences to briefly describe your view of the Good Life.

In this description, you can consider what you think our society should aspire to achieve, what you think progress is (and isn’t), what we should value, or whether you believe in promoting equality, equity or opportunity. Highlight how your idea of the Good Life compares or contrasts with the arguments made in the course readings. Reflect on these concepts in relation to your own motivations for enrolling in your degree. For example, is there a relationship between what you value, and the program that you have enrolled in?

Answer 1

So far we have learnt from psychology that a good life includes experiencing more positive than negative feelings, feeling like your life has been lived well, continually using your talents and strengths, having close interpersonal relationships, being engaged at work and other activities, being a part of a social community, perceiving that life has a meaning, and feeling healthy and safe. And while these conclusions may seem like common sense, we as humans fall short on knowing just how to obtain and maintain these qualities."In speaking about the psychological good life, we are fond of saying that other people matter."
It can be argued that your values are one of the drivers of what you perceive to be the good life. Values such as power, security, tradition, or benevolence are a collection of principles that guide our selection or evaluation of actions, events, and people and what we “deem to be correct and desirable in life." It seems to me that the good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted, fulfilled, or actualized….The good life is a process, not a state of being…It is a direction, not a destination. Thed is that which is selected by the total organism, when there is psychological freedom to move in any direction.So far we have learned from psychology that a good life includes experiencing more positive than negative feelings, feeling like your life has been lived well, continually using your talents and strengths, having close interpersonal relationships, being engaged at work and other activities, being a part of a social community, perceiving that life has a meaning, and feeling healthy and safe. And while these conclusions may seem like common sense, we as humans fall short on knowing just how to obtain and maintain these qualities."In speaking about the psychological good life, we are fond of saying that other people matter."
It can be argued that your values are one of the drivers of what you perceive to be the good life. Values such as power, security, tradition, or benevolence are a collection of principles that guide our selection or evaluation of actions, events, and people and what we “deem to be correct and desirable in life." It seems to me that the good life is not any fixed state. It is not, in my estimation, a state of virtue, or contentment, or nirvana, or happiness. It is not a condition in which the individual is adjusted, fulfilled, or actualized. The good life is a process, not a state of being.It is a direction, not a destination. The direction isthat which is selected by the total organism, when there is psychological freedom to move in any direction.