Women who valued happiness more felt less happy in good moments

Happiness is good for you, so wanting more of it should help. That is the idea.

The authors call that a reasonable thing to expect. Then they argued it may not always hold.

There were two studies, and everyone in them was a woman.

In the first, the authors measured how much each woman valued happiness. They also looked at how much stress was in her life.

In the second, some women were led to value happiness more. Then a happy or a sad feeling was brought on, and the authors measured how they reacted.

In the first study, women who valued happiness more were less happy. This held when life stress was low, not when it was high.

In the second, women led to value happiness reacted less well to the happy feeling. The sad one showed no such effect.

Disappointment in their own feelings explained the effect. The authors say valuing happiness may leave people less happy just when happiness is in reach.

Only women took part, in two studies. The abstract does not give the number of people.

It does not say caring about happiness is wrong. The studies did not test The Archivist Method.

Success Sabotage is the pattern of undoing things just as they start to work. A good moment arrives, and something in you marks it down.

Behavioral Interception is the practice of catching an automatic pattern as it begins, intercepting its usual response, and practicing a different action until it becomes more natural.

Start with the body signal, like a sinking stomach when a good day feels flat. Catch it and name the pattern. Then name one good thing in the moment, with no score.