When the Mind Wanders, Happiness Also Strays

AUTHOR: John Tierney

PUBLICATION NAME:The New York Times.

DATE OF PUBLICATION: November 15, 2010

SUMMARY: This article is about the study that humans stating that when their minds wander off a lot, it is a sign of unhappiness. In this study, they analyzed 2,200 people and recorded over 250,000 of their thought processes and times when they are most happy. Psychologists did studies on iPhones of the people's moods at certain times and it came up as when people are happiest the most, they don't wander off at all. The time where people were happy the most is when they were having sexual intercourse. During then, noone wants to daydream about something else. But when commuting or working, people daydream about something better that they want to do over 40% of the time. When people wander, they want to be somewhere better because they are unhappy, but get even more depressed when they come back to reality. These results don't pose an important role in our society but gives us new evidence of people's daily lives and how much of us daydream in times of unhappiness. So if you see someone daydreaming in class, they are most likely sad about something going on. This article will help psychologists study a new breakthrough of something more genetic as many psychologists befor have written stories and articles about the human mind and day dreaming, but none has any clear cut evidence of their expectations. Hopefully, with the help of the iPhone, psychologists can help lengthen their research on this experiment. Over time, psychologists will be more advanced in this technology, and if you are intereested in this type of studies, this will be an interesting thing to look out for later in the future.

LINKS TO STUDY: None

ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/science/16tier.html?_r=1&ref=psychology_and_psychologistsThe

SUBMITTED BY: Matthew Menezes