PSYC1005 Chap.4 Accomplishment and the Arrival Fallacy
Accomplishment and the Arrival Fallacy
Accomplishment is the A in PERMA: a sense of achievement, success and mastery. This chapter follows the week’s popular reading, a journalist’s account of feeling empty days after finishing the most meaningful project of her career, and the name a positive psychologist gives that experience: the arrival fallacy, the illusion that reaching a goal will bring lasting happiness.
It connects the case to affective forecasting and focalism from the first week through a study of professors awaiting tenure, sets out practical advice for holding goals without expecting them to deliver happiness, and reviews the accomplishment condition of an online intervention trial and its limits.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Accomplishment in the PERMA model
- 02
The arrival fallacy
- 03
The tenure study and affective forecasting
- 04
Focalism and unseen consequences
- 05
Holding several goals at once
- 06
The accomplishment writing exercise
Worked example · free
Sketching forecast and experienced happiness around a goal
- 1Before the goal, forecast and experienced mood sit at the same everyday level.
- 1At the goal, the forecast jumps and is expected to stay high, while experienced happiness rises only briefly.
- 1Experienced happiness then drifts back toward where it started; the remaining gap is the forecasting error behind the arrival fallacy.
Key terms
- Accomplishment
- The PERMA element describing a sense of achievement, success and mastery.
- Arrival fallacy
- The illusion that attaining a goal or destination will produce lasting happiness.
- Concurrent goals
- Several goals held at the same time, in and outside work, so finishing one leaves others to pursue.
Accomplishment and the Arrival Fallacy FAQ
What is the arrival fallacy?
It is the illusion that once we reach a goal we will be lastingly happy. Tal Ben-Shahar, who is credited with the term, argues that people who expect happiness on arrival can end up unhappy and without hope once the brief glow fades, because the promise that sustained them has gone. He saw the pattern after winning a squash tournament.
What did the tenure study show?
Professors who had been granted tenure and professors who had been refused it in the previous five years reported similar happiness, while assistant professors awaiting the decision expected tenure to make them much happier than it did. The reading explains the gap with affective forecasting: people predict the direction of a feeling well but overestimate its intensity and duration.
Does the course say we should stop setting goals?
No. The reading stresses that people need goals and are future-oriented, and cites higher mortality among men who retire as soon as they are eligible. Its advice is to hold several goals at once, in and outside work, to drop the belief that happiness waits at a finish line, and to spend time on activities you enjoy.
How did the accomplishment exercise perform in Gander and colleagues' trial?
Writing down three daily experiences of success or of doing something really well raised happiness relative to placebo for three and six months. Its effect on depressive symptoms was weaker, appearing only immediately after the week and at six months, and the authors caution that this group began with the highest depression and lowest happiness.
How does accomplishment connect to other weeks?
It links back to Week 1, because the arrival fallacy is an affective forecasting error shaped by focalism, and forward to personal growth and the end of history illusion, which also concern how we imagine future selves. The reading’s point that relationships predict happiness best echoes the relationships week.
What does income have to do with happiness in the reading?
The reading says income matters up to a point: there is no joy in living in squalor, but beyond the point where food, safety and decent housing are covered, more income no longer goes with more happiness. It also cites a 2012 international report suggesting that in rich countries, community and cooperation may matter more than income.
Exam move
Learn the term, its originator and one sentence of definition, then practise explaining the tenure study with two Week 1 concepts, affective forecasting and focalism. Write the reading’s advice as three short rules you could follow yourself.
Finally, memorise the accomplishment condition’s mixed result, strong on happiness and weaker on depression, together with the authors’ caution about its starting scores, because a question can offer an option that overstates it.
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