The Pursuit of Happiness
Happiness, or Subjective Well-Being may be hard to measure and define, but it is a state we all know we want. At a lecture on "Is it possible to learn to be happy" at the Open University, Prof. Yoram Kirsh discussed the latest research discoveries about SWB, including the fact that Israelis appear to be quite happy!
1 Happiness may not be a warm puppy, as Charles M. Schultz, the American cartoonist, famous for Peanuts comics, once claimed. But, what is it? And how do we achieve this desirable state?
2 At a recent lecture at the Open University on the subject "Is it possible to learn to be happy?", Prof. Yoram Kirsh of the Department of Natural Sciences, discussed recent research findings in such diverse fields as economics, psychology and sociology related to Subjective Well-Being (SWB) - the scientific name for how we evaluate happiness in our lives.
3 Philosophers, he noted, have been discussing the meaning of happiness for millennia. However, it is only since the 1960s that scientists began to study the concept and only since the 1980s that this study achieved legitimacy. Today, the many journals devoted to this subject, such as The Journal of Happiness Studies, indicate how significant and widespread a field of study it has become.
4 Some philosophers say that happiness belongs to the person who has everything he desires. Others say that having everything is no prescription for happiness because that state leaves no room for anything to hope for.
5 Whether or not they have what they desire, a statistical study among Israelis reveals, as Prof. Kirsh noted, that in general, "Israelis are so happy!" Some 85% of women reported themselves to be happy, 82% of men, 85% of Jews, 78% of Arabs, 97% of Haredi (ultraorthodox) respondents. In addition, happiness was reported by 86% of those who said they were religious, 82% of those who said they were traditional, 85% of those who said they were secular, 87% of those born in Israel and 76% of immigrants who had come to the country since 1990.
6 But this response may not be all that it seems. Because feelings of happiness are so subjective, they are difficult to measure. One method of measuring SWB is through self-report surveys. In these surveys, the respondent judges and reports his life satisfaction, the frequency of his positive emotions (positive affect) or the frequency of his unpleasant emotions (negative affect).
7 "We may not be able to depend on this entirely," said Prof. Kirsh. "People want to look good, even to themselves. Saying they are not happy is like admitting they have not been successful in life. In addition, it has been shown that replies can vary according to mood, according to the order of the questions and even according to the weather. The way the questions are worded can also be significant: for example, it might be easier for a respondent to say that he is not happy about the security situation than for him to say that he is not happy. There are differences between the subjective answers people give and the answers of family and friends on the same subject."
8 Another method of measuring SWB is the day-reconstruction method of collecting mood reports at specific periods over time. Participants fill out a long diary and questionnaire detailing everything they did the previous day and how they felt about it.
9 The difficulties in measuring happiness were evident in a study on two groups of people who volunteered to undergo a colonoscopy without anesthetic. The first was a control group which had the standard procedure, in which the colonoscope was moved through the colon for the whole period of the test. The other group had a colonoscopy which was extended for an extra 60 seconds of the procedure. However, during that minute, the colonoscope was held stationary. (It is usually the movement of the colonoscopy which causes discomfort.) The patients who had the longer procedure, with a non- painful ending found it less unpleasant than the other group and they were more willing to register for a future colonoscopy.
10 When we are asked about our happiness level, we tend to react like the people who had a colonoscopy. We remember the pleasant end, not the painful middle. Another conclusion is that the way we judge an experience is particularly influenced by the emotional high and low points and by how it ends. Similarly, if you ask people who climb mountains if they enjoyed the experience, those who were successful report the experience as terrific in retrospect. "Memory distorts what you feel in real time," said Prof. Kirsh. "You tend to remember the overall experience, not the minute by minute one and what you felt at the end was what you remember most."
11 Another example: people often report that children give them their greatest joy in life. However, research conducted by Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman and his group, showed interesting findings. When 909 working women from Texas were asked to rate the daily activities that gave them the most happiness, childcare rated low. In fact, taking care of the kids seemed to be considered as much of a headache as housework! It is only in looking at child-raising globally, or overall, that children were rated high as a source of happiness. (By contrast, sex, friendship, rest, prayer or meditation and eating rated the highest, in that order.)
12 In another study, people rated work low as a predicator of happiness. However, this finding was contradicted by the fact that the unemployed and pensioners are on average less happy than people who are working.
13 What makes us happy? Research has shown that it is not necessarily things like money, contrary to what many believe. In 1978, Philip Brickman and Dan Coates conducted a study on "Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?" Three groups - people who had won large lottery prizes, accident victims and a control group - were questioned on happiness and pleasure on a scale of one to five. The study showed that the accident victims, who would remain disabled, were less happy in the present than the other two groups. Yet, their future expectation of happiness was in fact higher than either, and in terms of mundane pleasure, they were all quite similar. In other words, people adjust to their circumstances. This phenomenon is known as "Hedonic Adaptation."
14 Other factors which, surprisingly, had less influence were age (though happiness rating was high in the 20s, low in the 40s and happier again after age 50), ethnic group, education, intellect, profession, climate and health, up to a certain point. But, it appears that some populations are just happier than others.
15 More important is a stable marriage, with 40% of married people rating themselves as very happy, compared to 25% of single people. Being connected to friends and a social circle is a significant factor and people with more friends report themselves happier. Religion is also a factor. This may be because religion often involves a social sphere, because religious people may be more hopeful or because religion may give more meaning to life for those who believe.
16 Perhaps the most important factor of all is genetics. Temperament has a powerful effect on SWB and that may not be under our control. A research study was conducted, in which identical twins raised in the same household, fraternal twins raised in the same household and twins separated at birth were studied as adults. The results showed that genetics influenced about 50% of their well-being.
17 Given this inherited capability, telling people to 'be happy, don't worry' is pretty futile. According to Prof. Kirsh, "Some people are just congenitally optimistic. For others, if someone doesn't say 'hello' to them, their day is ruined. The 'set-point' theory of happiness suggests that we all have a level of happiness to which we revert. The exceptions seem to be the loss of a spouse or a child. These events are so devastating that it can take a long time for people to return to their baseline of well-being.
18 "The 'Five Factor Model of Personality' assumes that the traits which influence a person’s degree of happiness are extroversion (spontaneity and friendliness) and neuroticism (how nervous a person is or is not) and to a lesser extent, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience."
19 But, Prof. Kirsh noted, happiness isn't just something that we have been born with a capacity for. "Much of our happiness is genetic and the rest is learned. It's like our cholesterol level. Nature gives us a tendency for a high or low cholesterol level, but we can change the rest through our efforts. Similarly, we can change our happiness level to some extent by things such as psychological counseling, marriage, divorce, change of job, and so on." A person who has an inherent bad temper may never become an optimist, but scientists have found that certain actions can have an effect. Counting one's blessings, looking for meaning in life, acts of altruism, figuring out one's strengths and finding ways to use them are all strategies that have been cited. It certainly can't hurt - and it might make you happier.
20 Is the effort to change worthwhile? Yes, because we all want to be happy and reap the benefits. Happy people live longer; even optimistic AIDS patients live longer than the realists. Moreover, happiness not only feels good, but it leads to success. In a paper "The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?" Sonja Lyobomirsky, Laura King and Ed Diener pointed out that numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful in many fields, including marriage, friendship, income, work and health. They propose that the reason for their success is their happiness level. Not only does success make people happy, but happiness strengthens success.
21 In short, if your basic needs are met, if you have a strong connection with your family and social group, if you don't cry over spilled milk, if your life has meaning and if you are optimistic by nature, you are likely to be happy. And if not, you may be able to do something about it.
Adapted from the “Open Letter”
The Open University of Israel
Original article by Carol Novis
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