The Study of Happiness
When people are interviewed and asked whether they are happy in their lives, 70% answer in the affirmative. On the other hand, in recent years the number of people taking anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication has grown significantly, within the adult population as well as among children. Since the beginning of the economical crises, the number of unhappy, anxious and depressed people multiplied. Until 2000 interest in knowing about and understanding the nature of happiness were done by philosophers, the clergy and of course, also by people generally. The following sayings demonstrate people's attitudes towards happiness. (If you know any other ones, please send them to me and I will add them to the list):
• Who is rich? He who appreciates what he has
• Looking for happiness is in itself happiness
• Instead of fighting darkness you should turn up the light
• Don’t look for happiness far away; you should identify it around you
• A happy experience is a place for a brief visit, not a permanent dwelling
• Happiness is not a goal you have to attain; it's a way of life
In 1998 Professor Martin Seligman was elected president of the American Psychological Association. It is customary for each president to encourage new developmental directions in psychology. In the year 2000 Prof. Seligman published an article in the American Journal of Clinical Psychology, the monthly publication of the American Psychological Association. This article introduced a new and now extensive branch of research into the subject of happiness.
Prof. Seligman called this branch "Positive Psychology." In his article, he stated that up to that time psychologists focused on the question of how to cure pathology and help people go back to their basic level of functioning. He suggested looking for methods that would help people feel better than they did in the past, to be happier in their daily lives. Thanks to his influence, numerous psychologists started investigating the topic of happiness and numerous studies and books have been published on this subject.
The increased interest of psychology students in the new branch has been demonstrated at Harvard University. Dr. Tal Ben Shachar, an Israeli psychologist, taught a course in positive psychology. In the first year eight students enrolled in his course; in the second year, 380 students; and in the third year, 850 students. The New York Times published an article about the course, pointing out that it enjoyed the highest registration rate at Harvard ever. I recommend to every person interested in the subject to go to Prof. Martin Seligman's website,
http://www.authentichappiness.com, and also Google the term Positive Psychology.
In the next portion of my article I will focus on three aspects of Positive Psychology: the definition of happiness, comparative studies examining who is the happiest person, and findings in studies pointing out ways to increase the feeling of happiness.
The Definition of Happiness
Defining happiness is extremely problematic. Let us examine two situations. The first: two people indicate that they are feeling happiness at level 8 out of 10. One of them is 25 years old, healthy, and about to get married in a few days. The other one is 75, suffers from advanced arthritis, but right now feels no pain and is relaxing in the warm sun. Although both of them are experiencing happiness at the 8 level, is their happiness level alike? The second situation: Two famous conjoined twins named
Abby and Hensel.
They are connected along their entire body, with two arms and two legs but with two separate heads and completely different features. They
claim to be very happy connected together and if given the imaginary possibility of being separated they would strongly reject it. Is their
happiness equal to the happiness of other girls?
The emotion of happiness may be divided into two categories: brief feelings of joy based mainly on the current satisfaction and immediate gratification of personal needs and desires, and a more enduring fundamental feeling of happiness based on a meaningful life. Brief feelings of joy stem from an increased flow of the happiness hormones dopamine and endorphin. People vary in the levels of joy they are capable of feeling and expressing. There are those who express feelings of joy openly, strongly and from an early age; and there are those who experience this feeling only rarely and to a low degree.
The assumption is that the brief feelings of joy are mostly inherited but, of course, life experiences impact it as well.
Evolutionary Psychology
assumes that the emotion of joy contributed to the survival of prehistoric man because events that brought about happiness contributed to his health and to an increase in birth rate. For example, feeling happy when finding ripe fruit, or having a successful hunting experience intensified his desire to engage in those activities more often. The enjoyment of sexual relations contributed to a higher birth rate. When the level of the "happiness hormones" decreases, the person returns to his basic happiness level.
These genes of brief joy guide us to believe that if our desires come true we will be happy for the rest of our lives. For example, people believe that if they get to be with their beloved, if they win a lot of money in the lottery, if they purchase the house of their dreams, if they win a gold medal in the Olympics, etc. they will be much happier. Studies have proven that expectations of such eternal bliss are an illusion because after a relatively short period the feeling of happiness reverts to its basic level. The evolutionist explanation of this phenomenon is that Nature wanted us to believe in eternal happiness so that we can repeatedly chase our heart's desires.
A fundamental feeling of happiness includes assorted components, like positive self-image, optimistic approach to life and living a purposeful life. The ability to feel fundamental happiness is mostly nurtured by a positive upbringing and childhood experiences, and to a lesser degree genetic. In every culture and in every time frame the purpose of life has been different, but its basic tenet has been altruism, which means dedicating efforts to the improvement of the environment or the community. This activity may be accomplished in a volunteer or professional capacity. A study conducted among cleaning personnel in a hospital found that some of them were happy with their work and some hated it. The happy ones reported that they had found a positive purpose in their work by developing personal ties to the patients whose rooms they were cleaning.
Results of Comparative Studies on the Topic of Basic Happiness
• Great wealth does not bring about happiness. People with middle income, which meets their basic needs, report experiencing more happiness and satisfaction in life than people with very high income. Wealth may increase happiness only if a person
invests his money in public works, which in turn brings about positive emotions.
• Middle class people in India and South America report higher
degrees of happiness than middle class people in industrialized countries.
• People with higher education are not happier than people with 12 years of schooling.
• People with very high IQ are not happier than people with medium IQ.
• Healthy people are not happier than the disabled, provided the disabled people do not suffer from pain due to their disability.
• 50 – 60 year olds are happier than 20 – 30 year olds.
• Religious people are happier than secular people.
• Married people are happier than singles and live longer.
• People having a permanent sex partner are happier than those who switch their sex partners often.
• 50 years ago US citizens reported a higher level of happiness than today in spite of a higher standard of living and all the technological innovations, such as television, computers, cell phones and I Pods.
• The more choices a person has in life, the more stressed and less happy he is. In a study, one group was asked to choose one of three possible presents and another group was asked to choose one of ten possible presents. The people in the first group were more satisfied in their choice than the people in the second group.
Ways to Increase Your Fundamental Happiness Level
• Good family ties.
• Good social ties.
• Activities providing a purposeful life. Such actions assure us that someone will miss us
when we are gone.
• Gratitude. When someone helps us, it is important to communicate to him directly let him know how much we appreciate his deeds. We can also be grateful for our place in life, our good fortune, the positive heredity we received from our parents, beautiful Nature and God.
• Increasing the awareness of our talents such as painting, music, dance and writing and taking action to implement them and improve on them.
• Writing down positive experiences, we had each day. It is possible to increase the basic happiness of children by encouraging them to tell us about daily experiences that made them feel good, even if it was a minimal feeling. Doing so will train them to focus on and remember the positive rather than the negative happenings in their life.
• Laughing out loud, heartily and often. Studies have found that laughter may speed up recovery from different diseases and help cope with depression and anxiety. An American psychologist, Dr. Steve Wilson, learned a method of group therapy through laughter in India. He is spreading the "laughter therapy" method in the Western world by training therapists to work in hospitals, nursing homes and schools. His website is
World Laughter Tour
• Practicing a variety of relaxation techniques (for more information read my chapters within the category
"Methods of Relaxation")
• Activities providing a purposeful life. Such actions assure us that someone will miss us we are gone.
• Be active physically and spiritually all your life. we can take a lesson from a 70+ man on YouTube:
• Happiness: A YouTube video by Selfimprovementsguide.com
It will make you happy to watch what famous people think about happiness.