Hayley was so happy when she received the acceptance letter from her chosen law school. A couple of weeks later however, she is only mildly happy about getting into law school. This change in her feelings can best be explained in terms of

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

In this question, we are asked to explain a shift in Haley's emotional reaction over time after a positive event.
Option a: learned helplessness. This concept refers to a state where an individual feels powerless to control outcomes, usually after repeated uncontrollable events. It does not describe changes in reaction to initially positive news over time, so this option is not appropriate here.
Option b: relative deprivation. This idea involves feeling deprived when comparing oneself to others who are better off, leading to diminished satisfaction. While it can lower happiness in some contexts, the scenario focuses on a personal baseline shifting after receiving acceptance, not a comparison-driven sense of deprivation, so this is not the best fit.
Option c: the feel-good, do-good phenomenon. This describes a situation where people feel virtuous after positive moods and may engage in prosocial acts as a downstream effect. It does not address the waning happiness about the acceptance itself, making this option less suitable for explaining the change described.
Option d: the adaptation-level phenomenon. This concept explains how people’s judgments and feelings adjust to a new baseline or standard after repeated exposure to a stimulus. Haley’s initial happiness would set a new baseline, and after a few weeks the same event yields only mild happiness because it’s now part of her adapted level. This aligns with the described change in her feelings over time.

PSY 200 (003) Fall 2025 Introduction to Psychology (TR, 1:30pm)

Hayley was so happy when she received the acceptance letter from her chosen law school. A couple of weeks later however, she is only mildly happy about getting into law school. This change in her feelings can best be explained in terms of

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