Pursuit of Happiness
How to measure happiness
• Well-being and life satisfaction
• General questions
– At the moment are you: very happy, pretty happy,
unhappy
• A bit more specific questions
– During the past weeks have you felt:
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•
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•
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Particularly excited or interested in something
Pleased about having accomplished something
On top of the world
Bored
Upset because someone criticized you
Depressed or very unhappy
Other techniques
• Measure it with a one time survey
• Measure it in diary format
– Have people rate their happiness everytime a
pager or alarm goes off throughout the day
– Can subtract the negative feelings from the
positive ones to get an overall level of
happiness (or unhappiness)
Rating happiness
• Observations seem to find that most
people are unhappy
– Counselors rate that 10-20 percent of
Americans are truly happy
– Up to 33% are depressed
• If you ask people directly, only 1/10 say
“not too happy”
• More than 80% rate themselves as more
satisfied than dissatisfied
Can we trust people’s perceptions
of themselves?
• People suffer from two major biases according
the Myers
– People focus and overreport good things
– “pollyanna syndrome”
– College students rate themselves as far more likely
than their classmates to get a good job, draw a good
salary, and own a house
• Rate themselves as less likely to get divorced, have cancer,
be fired, and drop out
• Only 2% say there is a good chance they’ll drop out, but only
½ of students entering a 4 year institution will graduate within
5 years
So… what if people are always
painting a rosy picture?
• Well, we can still compare across people;
if everyone seems to look at things in a
better view than they really are, we are still
comparing “like” responses
– Imaging a thermometer that always was 10
degrees to high; it still could be useful to tell
whether you were hotter or colder than normal
Another effect on people’s
perceptions of themselves
• People’s momentary moods
– If people are in a good mood, they see the
world through rose-colored glasses
– Depressed adults are more likely to recall
parents as rejecting, punitive, and guiltpromoting
– Formerly depressed adults see their parents
positively
Two reassuring facts
• People’s reports retain consistency at
various points in time
– Those that report happiness and satisfaction
are likely to report the same a year from now
• People that report happiness show more
signals of happiness than those that don’t
– Smile more, laugh more, more happy
memories, report more joy, observed as
happy by friends and family
Does money buy happiness?
• Asked what would improve quality of lifethe first answer often is “more money”
• Many people believe earning 10-20%
more money would make them happier
From 1970 to 1990…
• Importance of
– “being very well off financially” rated as very
important or essential increased from 39-74%
of people’s ratings
– “develop a meaningful philosophy of life”
dropped from 76-43%
Are people in wealthier countries
happier?
• Some small correlation between national
affluence and well-being
• Not perfectly consistent
– Ireland is considerably poorer than West
Germany (nearly 1/3 of GNP per person) yet
rates happier
• Maybe stability is more important?
Are the richest people in a country
the happiest?
• Modestly
• Important for people to have enough money to
buy necessities
– Having more than enough does little for happiness
• Some studies find it isn’t how much money you
make, but how satisfied you are with how much
money you make
• “Satisfaction isn’t so much getting what you want
as wanting what you have”
» David Myers in The Pursuit of Happiness
Ed Diener (University of Chicago)
• Surveyed 49 of the wealthiest Americansthey were only slightly happier than
average
• There are many examples of wealthy
people that are unhappy
Does happiness rise with
affluence?
• Between 1950-1990, buying power
doubled
– Twice as many cars per capita in 1990
– One in three say they are very happy
• Between 1956 and 1988, percentage of
Americans that were “pretty satisfied with
your present financial situation” dropped
from 42-30%
1960’s teens vs 1980’s teens
• 1980’s: had declining family poverty,
smaller families, increased parental
education, doubled per pupil expenditures,
11% drop in class size
– Delinquency rate doubled, suicide rate tripled,
homicide rate tripled
Satisfaction is little affected by the
events in our lives
• Able-bodied students
– Describe themselves as 50% of the time
happy, 22% of the time unhappy, 29% of the
time neutral
• Disabled students describe their emotions
identically (within one point)
• Car accident victims say they have more
happiness than not 3 weeks after the
accident
Catastrophe victims and lottery
winners
• Cancer patients report benefiting from
their experience
• Lottery winners report brief euphoria
– Other pleasures in life don’t seem quite as
pleasurable
• Raises in income causes small temporary
jumps in happiness
Happiness is relative
• To prior experience
– Opponent process principle for emotions
– Emotions trigger opposing emotions
• After happiness, many get the blues
• After terror, many feel elated
– Some theories state that as you have more
pleasure, it gets diminished and you are more
likely to have pain
– Having experienced sorrow, people report
more pleasure in the “good times”
Happiness is relative
• To others’ attainment
– As societies get richer, happiness does not increase
• These people have a higher standard to compare themselves
to
– To those making $10,000 / year, $50,000 / year is rich
– To those making $500,000 / year, $1 million is rich
– On average people say 21% of Americans are rich
• Virtually none perceive themselves as rich
Interesting application
• To be at a Harvard
– How do you feel about yourself and your
achievement compared to your classmates?
• What about at a no-name college?
– Turns out that Harvard University and Hope
College (where is that even?) had the same
amount of male graduates go on to get PhDs
More examples
• After watching sexually attractive women,
men tend to see their partners as less
appealing
• Women that have had lumpectomies (for
breast cancer) compare themselves with
those that had mastectomies
– We feel better when we look at others that
have it worse
Random fact
• People often believe that if they made
more money they would be happier and
more generous
– People earning $50,000-60,000 give 1.7%
– Those earning over $100,000 give 2.9%
– Seems to possibly be true until you find out
that:
• People with incomes under $10,000 give 5.5% to
charity
Experiment on expectations
• Adults were asked to write down a low
moment in their lives or a high moment
from their lives
– Although the high memories are more
pleasant, people feel better about their
present life after remember the lows
Rabbi Story- pg 65 PoH
•
Jewish fable
– A farmer seeks a rabbi’s counsel because his wife nags him, his children fight,
and his surroundings are in chaos. The good rabbi tells him to go home and
move the chickens into the house. “Into the house!” cries the farmer. “But what
good will that do?” Nevertheless, he complies and two days later returns, more
frantic than before. “Now my wife nags me, the children fight, and the chickens
are everywhere, laying eggs, dropping feathers, and eating our food. What am I
to do?” The rabbi tells him to go home and bring the cow into the house. “The
cow!” cries the distraught man. “That can only worsen things!” Again, the rabbi
insists, the man complies, and then returns a few days later more harried than
ever. “nothing is helping. The chickens are into everything and the cow is
knocking over the furniture. Rabbi, you have made things worse.” The rabbi
sends the man home to bring in the horse as well. The next day the man returns
in despair. “Everything is knocked over. There is no room for my family. Our lives
are in shambles. What shall we do?” Now the rabbi instructs, “Go home and take
out the horse, cow, and the chickens.” The man does so and returns the next day
smiling. “Rabbi, our lives are now so calm and peaceful. With the animals gone,
we are a family again. How can I thank you?” The rabbi smiles.
What does it all mean?
• Our “norm” resets all of the time
– Once we experience more pleasure, this becomes the
norm to which most other things are compared to
– We then need more pleasure than before to feel
pleasure
– The bright side is that this happens with sadness too
• Once you experience sadness, that level feels less sad and
you adjust what is your “norm”
• Now you need to experience much higher levels of sadness
to actually feel sad
Count your blessings
• This may actually lead to more happiness
– People that had to complete the sentence “I’m
glad I’m not a …” 5 times reported feeling
happy and satisfied more than those that had
to complete “I wish I were a …” sentences
When are people happiest?
• Less than 1 percent of the variation in well
being is related to age
– Across 16 nations
• What about at specific time of life?
– Menopause
– When children leave the house
– Mid-life crisis
Menopause
• Not a bad time
– 2/3 of menopausal women agreed with “after
menopause, women generally feel better than
they have for years”
– 80% of menopausal women agreed with
“women are generally calmer and happier
after the change of life than before”
Children leaving home
• Empty nest syndrome
– The idea that after children leave home, the
parents are depressed
• Myers refers to it as a “post-launch
honeymoon”
• Things that have lead to depression:
– Having children return home
– Not having a relationship with children after
they have moved out
Midlife Crisis
• Men realize that they will not accomplish all of
those things that they had always wanted to do
– So they search for life meanings, change
relationships
• Surveys have shown no dip in sense of wellbeing or any increase in job dissatisfaction,
marital dissatisfaction, career changes, divorce,
anxiety, depression, or suicide
• No real evidence of any emotional distress in
men at any time between 30 and 60 years of
age
One major difference across ages
• Teenagers have more extreme but shortly
lasting emotions
• Adults have more mild emotions but they
typically last longer
Older adults
• Typically report more satisfaction with their
work, marriage, standard of living, housing
and community
• Typically are unhappy with their health and
attractiveness and report being lonelier
• These two seem to balance out
Remember that we compare
ourselves with others
• Typically we compare among like groups
– Older people compare with older people and
teenagers compare with teenagers
– Thus, maybe older people have more chronic
illnesses, but they compare how they are
feeling with their sick friend
– They conclude: “I’m not as bad off as so and
so…”
What factors matter most to well
being?
• Depends on the age considered
– Young adults report job satisfaction as being
important
– Retired adults report that their leisure
activities are most important for whether or
not they’re happy
Type A people
• Intense and anger prone
• Middled aged Type A heart attack
survivors
– Group 1: receive advice on medications, diet
and exercise
– Group 2: similar advice plus advice on how to
slow down and relax
– After 3 years, group 2 had ½ as many repeat
heart attacks than group 1
Possible positivity enhancers
• Laughter
– Releases muscle tension, exercises the lungs
• Aerobic exercise
– Increases self-confidence, self-discipline
– Decreases anxiousness and depression
What about Gender?
• Gender accounts for less than 1% of wellbeing
– Men and women appear equally likely to
report being very happy and satisfied/very
satisfied with life
• Across 39 countries
Do employed married women vary
compared to those that are not
employed?
• Only slightly
• Employed women are slightly more likely
to say they are very happy or fully satisfied
compared to those that don’t work
How to explain this?
• Some women find housework repetitive
but may find other rewards
• Likewise, a working woman may find more
identity at work but have guilt from leaving
children at home
• The two balance each other out
Working mothers
• No more or less likely to have problems
with their marriage
– No more or less satisfied with marriage and
family life
– No more of less likely to say they are
understood by their husbands or than they
understand their husbands
– No more or less likely to have husbands that
are happy with their marriages
What seems to matter?
• Not the role they play (mother, wife,
working woman) but instead the quality of
their lives within those roles
– Work may be important, but it doesn’t have to
be paid work
• Anything that enables them to feel productive and
competent
What about sad feelings?
• Women are more vulnerable than men for
depression
– Housewives and unassertive women are
more vulnerable to depression
– The more roles that someone has, the more
they can fend off depression
• If things are bad at home, at least they have work
Women are…
• More likely than men to have strong
feelings
– Both negative and positive feelings
– Their average happiness is equal to men’s
average happiness, but women have higher
highs and higher lows
– More likely to attempt suicide than males
• Although men are 2-3x more likely to succeed
Why do women have stronger
emotions?
• They are better at reading emotions
– When given a slightly ambiguous facial
expression, they are better at interpreting the
true emotion than men are
• Have more empathy than men
Does well-being for women
correlate with their menstrual
cycle?
• Some research reports that some women
will see a dip in well-being the few days
before or after menstruation
– Called “late luteal phase disorder (PMS)
• When looked at on a larger scale…
– No predictable difference found throughout
their cycle
• Yet most women believed that their moods did vary
with their cycle
Other things that don’t seem to
matter
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Having children
Where in a country one lives (city vs country life)
Race
Education
– Race and education found to account for less than
2% of well-being
• How can this be?
– Most people compare themselves to members from
their own group
Self-help in happiness
• Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking
(1952) sold more than 2 million hardcover
copies in 2 years
– “Think yourself to happiness”
• Other movements in self-help
– Firewalking
• If you can walk across these coals, your mind must
be very powerful- thus you can do anything
(including be happy!)
Movements in self help
• Astrology
– Unsure of why this is mentioned (MAYBE
DELETE FROM NOTES?
• Subliminal tapes
– Present people with things that they are
unaware of getting
• These things get to your subconscious and you will
believe it to be true
Do subliminal tapes work?
• Largely, NO
• We can prime behavior through subliminal
messages
– Showing something subliminally can change small
responses from people later
• Never been shown to change major behaviors
such as quitting smoking or increasing positive
feelings
– Any benefits reported are probably placebo effects
– People think it will work so it does…
Subliminal tapes study
• Two groups
– Group 1 got a self-esteem tape
– Group 2 got a memory enhancement tape
– Researchers switched the labels for ½ of the tapes
• The results
– No effect of which tape people got
– People thought they were better with their memory or
self-esteem (based on which tape they think they got,
not which they actually got) but no difference was
observed at all
What about hypnosis?
• Some report that hypnosis can help them
overcome their negativity and be happier
What are the truths behind
hypnosis?
• Memories obtained through hypnosis are
not reliable
– Most state courts don’t take testimony from
witnesses that have been through hypnosis
• People that have been hypnotically ageregressed are not genuinely ageregressed
– These people typically act as they believe
children would act but outperform most
children
What about those that are
supposed to regress to past lives?
• Nearly all report being their same race
unless the hypnotist suggests that
changing races is common
• Most report being someone famous
• Most don’t know things that would be
known by those people
– Wouldn’t know the president at that particular
time, even though the person they “become”
would definitely have known that
What else?
• People cannot do anything all that special
while hypnotized
– Hypnotized people report cutting up American
flags, defacing the Bible, stealing an exam or
selling drugs- possibly even throwing “acid” in
an experimenter’s face
– People asked to simulate hypnosis will do all
of the same things though
What CAN hypnosis do?
• Pain relief
• Helps patients “harness their own healing
powers”
– People have been able to get rid of
headaches, asthma, warts, and even sores
– However, people given positive suggestions
without hypnosis see the same benefits
– Expectations matter
• Those that expect to be hypnotized may be more
easily “hypnotized” than others
What is the best predictor of wellbeing?
• Previous well-being
• Only child?
– Doesn’t matter
• Physical attractiveness?
– “Homely” people rated their life satisfaction at
4.8/7
– “Strikingly handsome or beautiful” people
rated their life satisfaction at 6.38/7
Does Self Esteem predict wellbeing?
• Low self-esteem predicts defensive
behavior
– People that have been put through something
humiliating will respond to attitude questions
with more hostility than those that weren’t
humiliated
– Those made to feel insecure are more likely
to put others down
Best predictor of life satisfaction…
• Satisfaction with the self (self-esteem)
– Most people have a fairly high opinion of
themselves
– Most people view themselves as above
average
• 90% of business managers and college professors
rated their performance as above average
• Most high school seniors rate themselves in the
top 10%
– Might not be bad- it protects our self-esteem
Personal control
• Those with an internal locus of control
– More likely to achieve more in school, cope with
stress and live happily
• When you raise or lower one’s sense of control
– More depression, learned helplessness, stress is
worse, health issues
• NOTE: Remember that stable democracies have
higher well-being ratings than other forms of
government
– Democracies have more self-control
Happy people are…
• Hopeful (remember optimism)
• Extraverted
– Possibly because they are more connected to
people, they may enjoy greater social support
Genetic influences
• Since personality traits like outgoingness
and optimism affect happiness and
personality traits have some genetic
component, happiness may have some
genetic component
Can you change your attitude?
• Actions affect attitudes
– Foot in the door phenomenon
• Can progressively get you to change your
attitudes starting small and working up to a
large change
• Even getting people to fake a smile makes
them more likely to report higher wellbeing afterward
How does work play a role in
happiness?
• Unemployed people are less satisfied with
life than employed people
– White-collar workers are more satisfied than
manual workers (not a large difference
though)
Satisfying work is most important
• Myers discusses
– Personal identity
• A career provides us with this
• Most people when asked what they do, they go to their
career first
– Community
• Colleagues provide a sense of community
– Purpose
– Personal control
• Higher satisfaction at places that allow employees to
participate in decision making
Don’t forget flow
• When challenges engage our skills, we
often become so absorbed in the flow of
an activity that we lose consciousness of
self and time
Rest from work
• Abnormal amounts of sleep are correlated
with depression (too much or too little)
• Restricted Environmental Stimulation
Therapy (REST)
– Provide someone with a soundproof dark
room, a bed, food, water, a toilet
– Most of the time people report feeling more in
control after these “REST days”
Close Relationships and happiness
• A study of widowed people found their risk
of death doubled the week following their
partner’s death
• After experiencing a trauma, those that
keep it to themselves are more vulnerable
to health problems
– Of course, the more severe the trauma
(especially sexual), the more problems too,
but they are enhanced if they are not
discussing it
Does being an individual lead to
happiness?
• Actually, just the opposite seems to be
true
– People in societies that focus on individuals
(Western societies) typically:
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•
•
•
Make more money
Take more pride in personal achievements
Are less geographically bound by elderly parents
Are less likely to prejudge those outside their
groups
• Enjoy more privacy
BUT…
• They are also:
– Lonelier
– More alienated
– Less likely to feel romantic love
– More likely to divorce
– More homicidal
– More vulnerable to stress related diseases
– Depression and meaninglessness
More from Myers
• Those that can name 5 or more friends
that they “discussed matters important to
you” were 60% more likely to feel “very
happy” than those that named 0 people
Other things that relate to
relationships and happiness
• Satisfaction with love life
• Having close relationships leads to better
coping through tragedy
• One with a group of changing friends is
less satisfied than those with a stable
group of friends
Self-Disclosure seems important
• Happiness promotes intimacy
• Intimacy also leads to happiness though
• “Disclosure reciprocity effect”
– Opening up to someone leads them to open up to you
and back and forth
• Rogers listed the following as important for well
being:
– Genuineness
– Accepting of others
– Empathetic, sensitivity, and reflectivity
Furthermore
• Discussing your problems and thoughts
with anyone are more likely to be happy
– Therapy seems to lead to increased
happiness
– Even psychotherapy, where one is essentially
talking to oneself (when the therapist mirrors
their questions with questions) leads to
increased happiness