Psychology of Happiness

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Psychology of Happiness
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Happiness

• Subjective Well-Being
• A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?
• The Luck Factor
• Final Thoughts

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Subjective Well-Being

• Satisfaction with Life Scale
• In most ways, my life is close to ideal.
• The conditions of my life are excellent.
• I am satisfied with my life.
• So far, I have gotten the important things I want
  in life.
• If I could live my life over, I would change
  almost nothing.

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National Well Being
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National Well-being and Wealth
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Happiness and Wealth, U.S. Data
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The country grandpa came from was a stinking
hellhole of unspeakable poverty where everyone
was always happy.
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A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?

• The Paradox of Choice (Schwartz, 2004)
• The Ubiquity of Choice Robs Us of Satisfaction
• We live in a time of more choice than ever (e.g.,
  products, beauty, identity, education, career,
  love, worship, where to live)
• More choice leads to more regret
• Trade-offs, missed opportunities
• We have a difficult time estimating how
  happy/miserable we once were, or will be

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(No Transcript)
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From Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
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Maximization Scale

• Whenever I am faced with a choice, I try to
  imagine what all the other possibilities are,
  even ones that arent present at the moment.
• When I am in the car listening to the radio, I
  often check other stations to see if something
  better is playing even if I am satisfied with
  what Im listening to.

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Maximization Scale

• I treat relationships like clothing I expect to
  try a lot on before finding the perfect fit.
• No matter what I do, I have the highest standards
  for myself.

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Is Happiness Relative?Brickman, Coates,
Janoff-Bulman (1975)

• Surveyed state lottery winners and paralyzed
  accident victims about their well-being.
  Included control group.

• Lottery winners not happier and took less
  pleasure from mundane events than controls.
• Paraplegics rated their past as happier than
  controls. Relative to controls, they did not
  enhance minor pleasures and were somewhat less
  happy (but felt that they were happy overall).

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A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?

• Conclusions from The Paradox of Choice (Schwartz,
  2004)
• We would be better off if we embraced certain
  voluntary constraints on our freedom of choice.
• We would be better off seeking what is good
  enough.
• We would be better off if we lowered our
  expectations about the results of decisions.

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A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?

• More conclusions from The Paradox of Choice
  (Schwartz, 2004)
• We would be better off if the decisions we made
  were not reversible.
• We would be better off if we paid less attention
  to what others around us were doing.

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The Luck Factor (Wiseman, 2003)

• Maximize your chance opportunities
• Lucky people build and maintain a strong network
  of luck
• Lucky people are open to new experiences in their
  life.

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My Neighborhood
UC San Diego
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The Luck Factor (Wiseman, 2003)

• Expect Good Fortune
• Lucky people expect their good luck to continue
  into the future.
• Lucky people expect their interactions with
  others to be lucky and successful.
• Turn your Bad Luck into Good Luck
• Lucky people see the positive side of their bad
  luck.
• Lucky people do not dwell on their ill fortune
  and take constructive steps.

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Traits of Happy People

• Happy people like themselves.
• Happy people feel personal control.
• Happy people are optimistic.
• Happy people are extraverted.

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Socializing and HappinessHell is other people.
-Sartre

• Self disclosers are happier (and healthier).
• Married people are happier.

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Faith of Happy People

• Highly spiritual people 2 times more likely to
  say they are very happy.
• Slightly less vulnerable to depression.
• Greater happiness retained after suffering.