Happiness and Expectations

[da5zeay]

I think this might have been asked before, how does happiness interact
with one's expectations?

An optimist who has low expectations that are met
An optimist who has low expectations that are not met

An optimist who has high expectations that are met
An optimist who has high expectations that are not met

A pessimist with low expectations that are met
A pessimist with low expectations that are not met

A pessimist with high expectations that are met
A pessimist with low expectations that are not met

I don't have an answer in mind...just pondering this, with the recent
talk about optimism / pessimism.

[Think_n_See]

Mmm, interesting... I'll think on this too.
B. Schwartz says "Expectations management is the key to happiness."

Hmmm... Yea, I wonder what ideas people have on this, and what ideas
you or I come up with, da5zeay. Interesting. Seems like it called for
a 2x2 model of expectations and happiness! :)

[da5zeay]

heh! "Happiness is exploring every axis!" :-D

[da5zeay]

I'll start with a simple set of guesses...not sure what this will show

An optimist who has low expectations that are met == Happy! It's like
free gum!
An optimist who has low expectations that are not met == Whatever! It
wasn't that important anyway!

An optimist who has high expectations that are met == Super Happy!
Let's go again!
An optimist who has high expectations that are not met == Oh well, next
time will be better!

A pessimist with low expectations that are met == Of course, the bar
was low enough. Satisfied.
A pessimist with low expectations that are not met == Of course, my
expecations were low, and I was right to not expect it anyway. Happy
because the world disappointed them?

A pessimist with high expectations that are met == Wow, this has never
happened before. Am I dreaming? Maybe the world isn't so bad after all!
Cautiously happy?
A pessimist with high expectations that are not met == Crushed, but of
course it was going to happen. I was dumb to dare to have such
expectations!

( I messed up the last line of my 2^3 expansion in the first post, if
you notice! )

[da5zeay]

I was going to say that optimists might generally feel more happy in
more outcomes (sort of a "half full" mentality), whereas pessimists
with their "half empty" outlook are less happy. But on the other hand,
a pessimist might EXPECT negative outcomes, and maybe that validates
their world view...which perversely makes them happy!

Could it be that happiness is also a function of expectation being met,
somewhat independent of whether the outcome is positive or negative?
Outside of crisis-level events, that is.

Another way of thinking of it: Oscar the Grouch is generally a pretty
satisfied grouch, which means he might be happy. There might be another
word that fits better than happy, since I think I'm mistakenly making
two aspects of happy equivalent: happy meaning stereotypically "up" in
mood, versus happy meaning "pleased with the outcome". Positivity
perhaps, which I'll quickly define as "feeling like one is being
affirmed and moving forward", versus "being held back / devalued".

Stop me if I'm talking nonsense...I'm just wallowing around here trying
to find a footing.