Happiness

An integrative look

Many suicides are from wealthy families

Winning a lot of money in the lottery may increase happiness in the short term, but after a while we tend to return to our usual level of happiness
(people get used to the situation)

Lyubomirsky (2001)

Inborn genetic set-point for happiness Circumstances Something we can influence

50% 10% 40%

Eric Weiner (journalist)

visited 10 countries in search of the answer:

happiness is not so much a concrete state of mind as a cultural construction

Eric Weiner (journalist)

happiness is not money, Quatar = rich BUT not happy Bhutan = poor BUT happy

Life in Bhutan is imbued with spirituality, and meditation is part of everyday life for many. The Bhutanese are happy to spend their time doing nothing, and they find it acceptable that lamas Buddhist priestsdevote themselves to contemplation and the pursuit of wisdom, which in many western eyes is not productive

Eric Weiner:
book The Geography of Bliss(2008)

There are many ways to happiness, and that each country defines what it understands as happiness

See City Slickers movie clips

Bhutan Government
- productivity, efficiency and money + regulate amount of tourists + preserve Bhutanese culture + gross national happinessa measure of growth in happiness instead of (GNP) a measure of economic growth + the ultimate purpose of life is inner happiness so the king must ensure this for his people

Bhutanese inhabitant

Happiness is knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough.

Jeremy Bentham philosopher (17481832)

Positive emotion negative emotion = happiness
+ pleasure - pain ANY action that leads to this is morally right?

BOOK: Intro to the Principles of Morals & Legislation (1780)

Carl Menger economist (18491921)

It is peoples economic choices that reflect what they find to be important in striving for happiness

John Maynard Keynes (18831946)

founder of macroeconomics

the state should play an active role in creating better living conditions for the citizens; since then, economists have focused on material wealth and welfare systems as measures of happiness (mum in hospital now complaining about the food, noisy room mate, messy toilets etc.)
Is it possible to measure peoples individual experience of happiness? Choice activity. On a scale of 1 to 10, how happy are you? Is our survey valid?

Cognitive Factors
although people in the western world become richer, they are not happier (everyone says if only I could earn 10% more) Leon Festinger social comparison theory: people are happy if they have more than those they normally compare themselves to e.g. happy with a new caruntil a neighbour buys one just like it

Julian Rotter
level of aspiration theory: people link happiness to reaching certain goals, but they tend to set higher goals once they have achieved the first ones; therefore they end up never really feeling happy
e.g. expect to be happy when they buy a new house, motivated to work hard to achieve this, the problem is that people only experience happiness for a brief time once they reach their goal, now feel like a slave to the mortgage, I wish I could travel

We are NEVER satisfied we are always trying to better ourselves

link happiness to goals = less happy If only I had that Ferrari, I would be happy, or If I can get promoted, I will be much happier. their happiness does not change markedly when they achieve them, so they set new goals

Myers and Dieners (1995)

1950 1995 One-third of Americans describe themselves as very happy One-third happy (no change) despite the buying power of the average American trippling

no direct link between an increase in wealth & happiness

Hagerty (2003)
compared data from the US and seven other countries, and found that happiness was +vely correlated with equality of distribution of wealth

comparing yourself to those who are more fortunate leads to dissatisfaction competing for wealth with others is not a recipe for happiness

There would always be someone with more money. If you were in this room by yourself, would you be bored?

Consumerism
the media features articles about successful famous people living in big houses & driving nice cars ... they say they are happy and look happy on the photos people tend to believe them because they think that success and money equal happiness a continuous stream of advertising where happy people purchase products ... it is not strange that consumers come to believe that there is an association between happiness and certain products

He who dies with the most toys is still dead and if they did not live with dignity and values good ridance

Johnson and Kruger (2006)

it is satisfaction with ones salary that brings happiness ... the actual size of the salary does not seem to matter much, as long as the person is satisfied with it, and it is enough to provide for his or her family ... become less satisfied with their salary because they think they should earn more, or that other people unjustly earn more than they do

Conway, di Fazio, and Mayman (1999)

Canadian study - questionnaires to 159 young men and women:
high-status individuals with a lot of money
low-status people with no money

BELIEF they were happier, less angry, less depressed & experienced less fear

BELIEF they had an equal chance at love

There is an illusory belief that there is a positive relationship between wealth and happiness, even though this is not supported by psychological research

 Conjoined twins Lori & Reba Schappel have been attached at the side of the skull for 40 years share a blood supply, part of the skull & some brain tissue say they are very happy and optimistic they have a good life and would never dream of being separated because that would ruin both their lives (they would both die) If one of them does die, however, they want doctors to perform surgery so that the other one can go on living (procedure has never been successful) Lori used to work in a hospital, but since Reba is a country singer who has recorded an award-winning album, Lori has now given up her job to support her sisters career as a singer Lori says that she does not think about being a conjoined twin every day because it is not the biggest thing in her life claims about happiness come from your own unique perspective

Never give up - No Arms, No Legs No Worries - Nick Vujicic.mp4

Dalai Lama
the key to happiness is in our own hands and is a state of mind (as long as basic survival needs are met) happiness can be achieved with systematic training of the mind and heart, and through re-shaping attitudes compassion for other people is an important part of ones spiritual development

Compassion
a non-aggressive state of mind desire to help other people feels responsibility towards humanity and respects individual integrity accept that all human beings have an innate desire to be happy and want to avoid suffering helps one feel connected to them
Dalai Lama in an interview with Howard Cutler in The Art of Happiness (1998)

Empathy:
being truly able to understand other people, trusting them and enjoying their company If you base your happiness on connectedness to other people, you will still have something valuable if you lose all your money

RSA Animate: The empathic civilisation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g

Christensen, Herskind, and Vaupel (2006)

Danes are the happiest people on earth why? Survey: +66% very satisfied with life NOT because of climate (cold and cloudy)

Denmark is a welfare state with high income equality, a prosperous economy and a well-functioning Democracy won the 1992 European Championship in football by beating Germany 2-0? do not have particularly high expectations about the future
ARTICLE: Why Danes are smug: comparative study of life satisfaction in the European Union

Denmark

Adrian White

Uni of Leicester, Map of World Happiness, based on data by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the World Health Organization

Adrian White
meta-analysis of 100 different studies around the world, with responses from 80,000 people, who answered questions related to happiness and satisfaction with life
1 2 Denmark Switzerland Austria Iceland the Bahamas Finland Sweden 23 US 61 82 90 125 167 France China Japan India Russia LEAST HAPPY Congo Zimbabwe

41 UK

Burundi

Political Interest in +ve psych

BBC survey found that 81% of the population think the gov should focus on making us happier CORRELATIONS: happiness .62 health .52 wealth .51 education *also very closely associated with each other, illustrating their interdependence

Capitalism leads to unhappy people?

NO: countries with good health care, a higher GDP per capita, and access to education were much more likely to report being happy

RSA Animate: Crisis of capitalism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

Martin Seligman
it is possible to be happierthat is, more satisfied and engaged with life as well as finding more meaning can learn to think positively & smile, in spite of lifes adversities related to mental & physical health most positive psychology research is done in the West need to do more in countries where happiness is low

Ed Diener and Joseph Smiley

average life satisfaction of nations is highly related to income (associated with fulfilment of basic needs & living longer) experiencing positive emotions is also associated with trust, safety, and lack of corruption e.g. social institutions & the economy

Evolutionary Psychologists
we adapt to the environment or become used to the ways things are habituation all experiences lose their primary thrill inherited the tendency to notice trouble (we take positive things for granted class is well behaved so do not need to do anything wife is always there so no need to buy her flowers) we have an inner voice of dissatisfaction that prompts us to do more

David Lykken (1996)

US genetics researcher: the Happiness Twin Study

we have an innate baseline, or set-point, of happiness for our general feeling of happiness, 50% of differences in happiness levels are genetically determined twins were mostly white and born in Minnesota (small sample) identical twins are very similar in their happiness scores; it does not matter if they have been brought up together or reared apart fraternal twins do not show the same pattern

Twin Study Problems

to make valid conclusions about the role of genes, the researchers have to assume that the twins share the same family environments this is perhaps true for identical twins to a large extent, but less so for fraternal twins, who may be of different sexes
only 10% of the variance explained by situational factorsfor example, rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, married or single (supported by research: rich or beautiful individuals are not happier than most people)

Sonja Lyubomirsky
wrote The How of Happiness(2007)

leaves room for people to actively pursue happiness for themselves, since 40% seems to be within peoples own control
can increase or decrease happiness levels through what you do and how you think
observations, comparisons, and experiments with very happy and very unhappy people

Sonja Lyubomirsky
wrote The How of Happiness(2007)

HAPPY PEOPLE: devote a lot of time to family and friends can easily express gratitude for what they have are often the first to offer a helping hand to people who need it have an optimistic outlook on the future enjoy the pleasures of life and live in the present spend time doing physical exercise are committed to lifelong goals and ambitions such as fighting fraud cope well in times of crisis

Sonja Lyubomirsky
wrote The How of Happiness(2007)

Strategies to increase happiness :

expressing gratitude avoiding overthinking and social comparison investigating social connections practising acts of kindness
Survivor examples: how they react when they have a shower being thankful for lifes small pleasures changes your outlook

Swartz et al. (1999)

5 women who had MS trained to act as peer supporters for 67 patients who also suffered from MS learned active and compassionate listening techniques then called each patient for 15 minutes each month happier and reported increased levels of satisfaction and selfefficacy participated in more social activities and experienced fewer episodes of depression the voluntary work had resulted in dramatic changes in their lives they were now thinking of other peoples problems instead of their own; they had become more tolerant and more open to other people, and their confidence in coping had increased a very small sample (not possible to generalize) but it illustrates the rewards of volunteering for community service

What she said to Anthony Robbins

Would keeping busy make you happy?

Is keeping busy or contributing to society the meaning of life?

Would having adventure make you happy?

Would being the best make you happy?

Would following God make you happy?

Should we be concerned with OUR OWN happiness or should we also care about other peoples happiness?

Sense of justice

We should not pursue our own happiness without regard to other people.

Making other people happy

What people say on their deathbeds: I should have spent more time with my friends and family. not I should have spent more time in the office.

People dont say on their death bed

$ I should have spent more time making rich people richer.

A typical story
worked hard drove a fancy car did not have much spare time got divorced lost contact with his children did not look after himself was always serious was often stressed felt lonely died of a heart attack age 51