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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A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?

• The Paradox of Choice (Schwartz, 2004)
• The Ubiquity of Choice Robs Us of Satisfaction
• Satisficers versus Maximizers

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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. They did not enhance minor pleasures
  relative to controls.

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A Bleak Outlook Is Happiness Relative?

• Conclusions from The Paradox of Choice (Schwartz,
  2004)
• We would be better of if we embraced certain
  voluntary constraints on our freedom of choice.
• We would be better of 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?

• 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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Final Thoughts

• We pass through this world but once. Few
  tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting
  of life, few injustices deeper than the denial of
  an opportunity to strive or even to hope, by a
  limit imposed from without, but falsely
  identified as lying within.
• Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, pp. 28-29

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Traits of Happy People
1. Happy people like themselves. 2. Happy
people feel personal control. 3. Happy people
are optimistic. 4. Happy people are extraverted.
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Hell 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.