In A Dark Side of Happiness? Grubers purpose is to expand on the idea with her team that there is in fact a dark side to happiness.

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Psychologists, June Gruber, along with her colleagues, Iris Mauss & Maya Tamir, discuss their findings in “A Dark Side of Happiness?” Gruber’s purpose is to expand on the idea with her team that there is in fact a dark side to happiness. Gruber adopts an educational and informative tone throughout the article in an attempt to relate to other colleagues conducting peer review or others that are simply reading the information on this new found study.  

Gruber opens up her paper with an abstract informing the audience on exactly what they should expect to find before they continue reading on. By doing this, Gruber has already expressed exactly which audience she is targeting which would be fellow colleagues in the psychology field, medical field and students aspiring to someday be in the felid of psychology.

In the opening page, Gruber starts off with a quote by Aristotle. The opening quote sets the tone for the entire paper by having the reader question if the pursuit of anything or having anything in abundance can result in a negative feeling. Once Gruber gets the audience to question themselves, she comes in with her theory on why the pursuit of happiness can lead to negative feelings such as depression. This was a great tactic simply because she quickly obtained the readers’ interest and presented her theory all before the reader could notice what just happened.

Later on, June makes a reference as to how happiness is now in high-demand among people in this present time. She makes reference to how the use of motivational speakers and self-help books are at an all-time high. In a related article by Gareth Cook, he also takes notice these two methods of obtaining happiness has swept the nation. Gareth Cook addresses the issue in the first three paragraphs of his paper by first imitating an advertisement that one would relate to a self-help book, he then mocks these same exact methods and finally gives a brief breakdown on the study of happiness and the rise of these methods to obtaining happiness. Further on in the study, Iris Mauss adds that the more we strive for happiness, the higher the standard is placed on the idea of happiness. Cook shifts his focus to the study conducted by Jane Gruber. He dissects the study and rephrases it so it can be understood by the casual reader as well as psychologists. He does this realizing the forum that his article is being presented is a public newspaper available for purchase by the common public. Another example of this would be further down in the article when he begins to discuss how those that seek happiness often tend to focus on themselves. When focusing on yourself you tend to lose social connections and begin to feel lonely leading to unhappiness and disappointment. While discussing this, he manages to fit “(How happy am I? How do I do better?)” Seamlessly into the paragraph as a way to keep the reader focused and engaged.

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 When this standard cannot be reached, the disappointment is toxic. Cook responds with a simple solution to the problem posed by Mauss by simply suggesting that people gain acceptance that what they are striving for is often unrealistic and impossible to attain.

Continuing on in the study, Gruber and his colleagues ask another question which is “Are There Wrong Types of Happiness?” The psychologists then go on to mention how certain levels of happiness can actually impact the body negatively. Three examples are provided for exactly how this happens and what types of emotions are associated with happiness. In the ...

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