A very effective way to become unhappy is to use what psychologists call the “negativity effect.” Let me explain this effect to you now.
There are positive and negative experiences in daily life. One great way to become unhappy is to give excessive importance to negative experiences while mostly ignoring positive experiences.
This increased focus on negative experiences makes one feel things are worse than they are.
Psychologists have named this way of thinking, where one’s mind exaggerates negative experiences, the “negativity effect”. It is a good way to cause one to have a low mood or even depression.
The example below shows how negativity can make one unhappy.
Joe has an annual job review, and his boss says he is a valued worker who performs exceedingly well in most aspects. The only thing the boss can find fault with is a minor issue: Joe needs to double-check the spelling when he writes reports, as there were a few errors in the last report he wrote. When Joe goes home, he gets depressed because he only keeps thinking about the minor spelling issue, ignoring all the other good things the boss said.
So, to become unhappy, focus on negative experiences instead of giving equal importance to positive and negative experiences.