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Re:New High of 90% of Americans Satisfied with Personal Life by ravenstine on Friday February 07, 2020 @02:44PM (#22270029)
I have my doubts in people's ability to assess their own emotions. I'm fairly conscientious, but I often have trouble boiling down my thoughts and feelings into simple words like "happy" or "satisfied". If I were asked if I'm satisfied with my personal life, I'd say yes, but only because saying I'm dissatisfied is negative and gets interpreted the wrong way. People assume too much and make judgments when you give them even the slightest hint that not everything is perfect with you. Life is too complicated for me to actually satisfied or dissatisfied.
Re:New High of 90% of Americans Satisfied with Personal Life by dhdejejdhfyx on Friday February 07, 2020 @03:11PM (#22270353)
I feel like there's too many "I" and "me" statements here to substantiate the conclusion that people at large can't assess their own emotions.
Re:New High of 90% of Americans Satisfied with Personal Life by ravenstine on Friday February 07, 2020 @03:30PM (#22270567)
I didn't say that people at large can't assess their emotions. When I said I have my doubts, what I meant is that I think that people are generally poor at it, which doesn't mean I don't think they're capable. There's a difference.

The rest of what I wrote wasn't really my full reasoning for that conclusion. I can only experience my own emotions, so I have to go with that. And I don't have any diagnosed psychiatric conditions, so I don't think it's that unfair to reflect on my emotional introspection. I never dictated anything other than that I have "doubts".

I don't have a specific reason why I think people aren't very good at assessing their emotions. It's a conclusion from an amalgam of my experiences with other people. People can certainly recognize if they are happy or sad, for instance, but I don't find they are very good at distinguishing between things like contentment and happiness. I've met lots of people who think that an absence of happiness is sadness, when in reality someone can be emotionally neutral.(the connotations around the word unhappy don't help) It's common for people to confuse depression for sadness. Personality and how someone can respond to emotion can mask their feelings, making them less obvious to both others and themselves.