Do You Like to Make Fun of Others?
Why Do People Make Fun of Others
Ego-centric Entertainment
Well, there are a few good answers to this, one reason is that they are looking for pure entertainment. For example, a person makes fun of someone for having bushy eye brows or wearing something that is unusual. They find this funny as does everyone around them. When someone makes fun of another person it is also to be funny and to get attention. They feel it will make them more popular and liked if they are funny.
Overrating Themselves
Another reason is because they are sad inside and do it to cheer themselves up. Also, smart people are often made fun of. This happens because they know that they are nowhere near as smart as the person they are making fun of. When they make fun of a smart person, it takes attention away from that person's knowledge and puts it on the person making fun. People make fun of others because privately, they think they are better than the others they are making fun of.
Low Self-Esteem
People with low self-esteem will try to bring you down to their level through insults, teasing, name-calling or any other form of psychological abuse, whatever it takes to lower their own self-loathing. The psychological term for this is called "leveling", and it's fairly common among those who privately have a low opinion of themselves. Rather than resort to outright self-destructive behavior, they will try to chip away at you by pointing out and/or exaggerating your perceived shortcomings either to you directly or in a subtle way to her friends in the form of humour or insults. It's a weaker person's way of trying to look better than you. Call it self elevation. First they try to put you down. Then and only then can they feel elevated. They seldom or never receive praise from anyone. (Probably because they are always putting other people down). So they have to create it for themselves.
How to Be Happy with Yourself
Some people think that they'd be truly happy with themselves if they had a perfect body, a high-powered job, a lot of money or fame. However, there are plenty of well-known, well-off, attractive people who aren't happy. The opposite is also true. Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, who works in the field of positive psychology, surveyed a group of Maasai warriors in Kenya about their happiness. The Maasai don't generally have the things that people in the developed world consider to be happiness generators, such as material wealth. But they still overwhelmingly think of themselves as happy. This doesn't mean that wealthy people can't be happy -- it just means that being wealthy doesn't automatically confer happiness. The same goes for any other attribute.
Being happy with yourself isn't so much about pursuing it, but finding things that you can do to help you recognize your happiness. In this article, we'll examine a few of these ways, starting with accepting yourself.
Self-acceptance
The concept of self-acceptance is pretty basic on the surface. It means recognizing that you're a highly complex individual who is OK just as you are. It requires you to embrace everything about yourself -- including those things that you perceive as weaknesses or flaws. This is different from self-esteem, which is a measurement of how worthy we see ourselves.
Some people think that self-acceptance means ceasing to strive for personal growth, but the two concepts aren't incompatible at all. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn and become a better person, but self-acceptance is about living in the present, not the past or the future. Speaking of personal growth, next we'll look at another important key in being happy with yourself: setting attainable goals.
Goal-setting Studies
There's a famous goal-setting study that was conducted at Yale University in 1953. Seniors graduating that year were asked if they had goals for the future, and 3 percent responded in the affirmative. In 1973, researchers checked back and discovered that those who had specific goals when they graduated were far wealthier 20 years later than the 97 percent who didn't. Countless self-help gurus from Tony Robbins to Zig Ziglar have cited this study. The problem is that the study didn't happen -- it appears to be an urban legend.
There's no way to prove that goal setting equals financial success. However, recent studies, such as a 2007 study conducted at the Dominican University of California, have shown that people who write down their goals and update friends with their progress tend to be more successful in meeting their goals than those who simply think about them [source: Dominican University of California].
Our relationships with others typically play a huge part in our happiness. If one of your goals is to improve and strengthen your personal relationships, consider the importance of forgiveness.
Learn to Forgive
You've probably been taught that forgiving someone who causes you pain is a good thing, while holding a grudge against the person is a bad thing. But like so many other worthy
Doctor, writer and philosopher Deepak Chopra suggests that learning to forgive is a process. It begins with realizing that you are in charge of your own emotions. You have no control over what anybody else does, but you can choose how to react. Then, you focus on your emotions and exactly how you felt when that person wronged you. You may have a mix of emotions -- go ahead and name them. Try to examine the situation from the other person's point of view, or as an impartial observer. Next, discuss your feelings with someone else. It could be the person you're trying to forgive, or just a trusted friend. Consider writing about how the incident made you feel. Some people choose to symbolically "get rid" of their feelings by writing them down and then burning the paper. Chopra suggests that you end by celebrating your new-found freedom in some way, such as hanging out with friends.
Although "forgive" is often followed by "forget," there's a difference between dwelling on the incident and forgetting it. Remembering is an act of self-preservation, and perhaps it can help you avoid being in the situation in the future. You can forgive without forgetting. It's not necessary to confront or otherwise let the person know that you have forgiven them, unless you really want to. Ultimately, learning to forgive is about forgiving yourself for holding on to the negative emotions.
Why Do People Make Fun of Others
Ego-centric Entertainment
Well, there are a few good answers to this, one reason is that they are looking for pure entertainment. For example, a person makes fun of someone for having bushy eye brows or wearing something that is unusual. They find this funny as does everyone around them. When someone makes fun of another person it is also to be funny and to get attention. They feel it will make them more popular and liked if they are funny.
Overrating Themselves
Another reason is because they are sad inside and do it to cheer themselves up. Also, smart people are often made fun of. This happens because they know that they are nowhere near as smart as the person they are making fun of. When they make fun of a smart person, it takes attention away from that person's knowledge and puts it on the person making fun. People make fun of others because privately, they think they are better than the others they are making fun of.
Low Self-Esteem
People with low self-esteem will try to bring you down to their level through insults, teasing, name-calling or any other form of psychological abuse, whatever it takes to lower their own self-loathing. The psychological term for this is called "leveling", and it's fairly common among those who privately have a low opinion of themselves. Rather than resort to outright self-destructive behavior, they will try to chip away at you by pointing out and/or exaggerating your perceived shortcomings either to you directly or in a subtle way to her friends in the form of humour or insults. It's a weaker person's way of trying to look better than you. Call it self elevation. First they try to put you down. Then and only then can they feel elevated. They seldom or never receive praise from anyone. (Probably because they are always putting other people down). So they have to create it for themselves.
How to Be Happy with Yourself
Some people think that they'd be truly happy with themselves if they had a perfect body, a high-powered job, a lot of money or fame. However, there are plenty of well-known, well-off, attractive people who aren't happy. The opposite is also true. Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener, who works in the field of positive psychology, surveyed a group of Maasai warriors in Kenya about their happiness. The Maasai don't generally have the things that people in the developed world consider to be happiness generators, such as material wealth. But they still overwhelmingly think of themselves as happy. This doesn't mean that wealthy people can't be happy -- it just means that being wealthy doesn't automatically confer happiness. The same goes for any other attribute.
Being happy with yourself isn't so much about pursuing it, but finding things that you can do to help you recognize your happiness. In this article, we'll examine a few of these ways, starting with accepting yourself.
Self-acceptance
The concept of self-acceptance is pretty basic on the surface. It means recognizing that you're a highly complex individual who is OK just as you are. It requires you to embrace everything about yourself -- including those things that you perceive as weaknesses or flaws. This is different from self-esteem, which is a measurement of how worthy we see ourselves.
Some people think that self-acceptance means ceasing to strive for personal growth, but the two concepts aren't incompatible at all. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn and become a better person, but self-acceptance is about living in the present, not the past or the future. Speaking of personal growth, next we'll look at another important key in being happy with yourself: setting attainable goals.
Goal-setting Studies
There's a famous goal-setting study that was conducted at Yale University in 1953. Seniors graduating that year were asked if they had goals for the future, and 3 percent responded in the affirmative. In 1973, researchers checked back and discovered that those who had specific goals when they graduated were far wealthier 20 years later than the 97 percent who didn't. Countless self-help gurus from Tony Robbins to Zig Ziglar have cited this study. The problem is that the study didn't happen -- it appears to be an urban legend.
There's no way to prove that goal setting equals financial success. However, recent studies, such as a 2007 study conducted at the Dominican University of California, have shown that people who write down their goals and update friends with their progress tend to be more successful in meeting their goals than those who simply think about them [source: Dominican University of California].
Our relationships with others typically play a huge part in our happiness. If one of your goals is to improve and strengthen your personal relationships, consider the importance of forgiveness.
Learn to Forgive
You've probably been taught that forgiving someone who causes you pain is a good thing, while holding a grudge against the person is a bad thing. But like so many other worthy
Doctor, writer and philosopher Deepak Chopra suggests that learning to forgive is a process. It begins with realizing that you are in charge of your own emotions. You have no control over what anybody else does, but you can choose how to react. Then, you focus on your emotions and exactly how you felt when that person wronged you. You may have a mix of emotions -- go ahead and name them. Try to examine the situation from the other person's point of view, or as an impartial observer. Next, discuss your feelings with someone else. It could be the person you're trying to forgive, or just a trusted friend. Consider writing about how the incident made you feel. Some people choose to symbolically "get rid" of their feelings by writing them down and then burning the paper. Chopra suggests that you end by celebrating your new-found freedom in some way, such as hanging out with friends.
Although "forgive" is often followed by "forget," there's a difference between dwelling on the incident and forgetting it. Remembering is an act of self-preservation, and perhaps it can help you avoid being in the situation in the future. You can forgive without forgetting. It's not necessary to confront or otherwise let the person know that you have forgiven them, unless you really want to. Ultimately, learning to forgive is about forgiving yourself for holding on to the negative emotions.
