cogsci 115 - Happiness - lecture 4

Two types of happiness

hedonia, eudaimonia

hedonic approach

•  focuses on pleasure attainment and pain avoidance 

eudaimonic approach

focuses on meaning and self-realization – the degree which a person is fully functioning

Maslow’s theory of self-actualizations 

• Developed hierarchy of needs, with self-actualization forming the top of the hierarchy 

  • Defined as the drive to realize one’s talents and fulfill one’s potentials, to express one’s true self and develop “a sense of connectedness with the broader universe”

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

• Lower levels focus more on physical and affective components of happiness

• Higher levels include more cognitive components 

• physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization

Characteristics of self-actualizing people, as indicated by Maslow’s research 

• Self-aware and self-accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, not paralyzed by others opinions 

• Tend to focus energies on a particular task, one often regarded as one’s mission in life 

• Most enjoy a few deep relationships rather than many superficial ones 

• Interests are problem-centered rather than self-centered

Peak experience

moments of ecstasy and bliss in which one experiences a sense of “oceanic oneness” and a transcendence of the small sense of self

self-transcendence

to be motivated by values that transcend the self 

Two problems with the hedonic approach to happiness

it focuses only on the present, and happiness requires meaning

hedonic adaptation

in the vast majority of cases, shortly after reaching our destination, we return to our base level of well-being

Related flawed premise

Happiness is highly dependent on the state of our bank account

Daniel Kahneman analyzed 450,000 responses from daily Gallup surveys of US residents and found that people with higher incomes

• Report being somewhat more satisfied with their lives, but…

• Are in fact more likely to experience daily anxiety and anger

• Don’t spend time in any more enjoyable activities than their less prosperous peers

Looking for happiness in the wrong direction is not only ineffectual, but can actually produce negative effects

• Those for whom making money is the primary objective generally

  • Experience more distress

  • Are more likely to be depressed and anxious

  • Are less healthy, less vital

study found that individuals from lower social class

• Scored higher on tests of empathic accuracy, including identifying emotions on photos of faces (from MSCEIT) and on a Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) − Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET)

• Judged the emotions of a partner in a mock job interview more accurately

study with high and low-income participants were shown photos of objects or human faces with accompanying stories

• On social-information trials (relative to object-information trials), brains of low income participants, demonstrated much more activity in areas associated with theory of mind and empathy (dmPFC, mPFC, precuneus) than wealthy participants’ brains

The happiness advantage

positive emotions increase external success

Researchers have found that happy people tend to…

• Have high self-esteem 

• Be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable 

• Have close friendships or a satisfying marriage 

• Have work and leisure that engage their skills 

• Have meaningful religious faith or spiritual life 

• Sleep well and exercise 

• Subjective health (what you think about your health)

However, happiness seems not much related to other factors, such as 

• Age 

• Physical attractiveness 

• Gender (women are more often depressed, but also more often joyful)

• Educational level 

• Parenthood (having children or not) 

• Objective health (what doctors say)

top factors influencing happiness

1. Social relationships

2. optimism

3. self-esteem

4. locus of control

5. sense of meaning and purpose to life

6. sleep and exercise