Volume 28 · Number 3 · Spring 2011
The Pursuit of Happiness
Research finds that money actually does help, but — when it comes to happiness — our relationships, generosity and gratitude buy a lot more.
Psychologist Robert Emmons has found that acts of gratitude — such as thanking people, volunteering, helping with homework — improve physical health and raise levels of energy. He is the author of the book, Thanks!: How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Mariner Books, 2008).
Is happiness everything it's cracked up to be?
It depends. Throughout the ages, our greatest thinkers found happiness an inherently slippery thing to measure or define. Ancient Greek philosophers racked their brains in search of the cleverest answer to this question, and the brightest Enlightenment sages deeply pondered one of humanity's most perplexing and popular subjects.
Times change, and today we live in a huge-bandwidth world with learning and growing opportunities unimagined by our ancestors. Still, these two existential questions remain for us as they did for Aristotle: What is happiness, and how do we achieve it?
There is progress to report. Faculty members at UC Davis are leaders in the study of the "science of happiness." And while happiness research is in its infancy, three major points are emerging:
- the positive trumps the negative
- social participation trumps materialism
- generosity trumps selfishness
Sounds like common sense, right? But it's all in how you define those concepts, and personalities and preferences count a lot. What makes an extrovert happy might not be the same thing that makes an introvert gleeful. Everybody is different, of course, but some things appear to prod even the biggest grumps to crack a smile.
No matter your personality type, thinking about happiness is a grand tradition in philosophical circles dating back to the dawn of civilization. In ancient Greece, Aristotle wrote extensively on the relation between pleasure and happiness in his Nichomacean Ethics.
"Aristotle's own view was that the good life, the happy life, is a life of virtue or excellence," UC Davis philosophy instructor G.J. Mattey said. "The more valuable a person's powers are, and the more perfectly those powers are exercised, the happier the person's life."
Philosopher's ideas about happiness have changed over time. Today, Mattey is skeptical whether there is any single meaning for terms like "happiness," "goodness," and "knowledge," all of which have changed over time. With social science now grappling with the issue, other conclusions are arising.
The importance of gratitude
One key component in any concept of happiness is "gratitude," said UC Davis psychologist Bob Emmons, who has written numerous scholarly articles and several books on the subject — including Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier.
The History of Happiness
Thinking and philosophizing about happiness date to the dawn of civilization, though ideas about what happiness is and how to achieve it have changed dramatically.
A 2003 research project conducted by Emmons and a colleague from the University of Miami found that people who expressed gratitude regularly by means of a "gratitude journal" — basically a list of things, no matter how small or ordinary, for which they were thankful — were more satisfied with their lives, more optimistic and in better physical health, among other things, than those who did not.
Happiness, he believes, is possible for everyone, though genetics and environmental factors, of course, play a role.
"Recent studies show that 25–50 percent of people change significantly from their baseline levels of happiness over time," Emmons said.
As for the old adage, money can't buy happiness, some hard-nosed social science says there's some truth to that.
"The correlation between income and happiness is positive but modest. Money buys happiness, but it buys less than most people think," said Emmons, explaining that people often do not spend their money the right way.
Instead, "pro-social" spending — money spent on other people or good causes — creates more happiness, according to another study, Emmons stated. "Filling a grocery bag for another rather than purchasing that coveted designer bag for oneself — is a promising route to lasting happiness."
Relationships are another element in long-term happiness. "We have a longing for belonging, an urge to merge that is hard-wired into us," said Emmons, noting that some of the harshest punishments that societies dole out are social ostracism and solitary confinement. And, in less severe forms, "who has not felt the pangs of loneliness or unrequited love?"
Married people on the whole are happier than those in any other category (single, widowed, cohabitating, divorced), though Emmons notes this is based on averages. Happy people are also more likely to get married in the first place, he added.
Perspective matters, too. Michael Hagerty, a professor emeritus in the Graduate School of Management, has studied people's perceptions of whether life was better in the "good old days" of some distant Golden Age than it is today. While many people casually remark or even believe this to be true — it has achieved almost mythic status — he found quite the opposite.
"My research goes directly to the people to ask whether their own lives have gotten worse or better," said Hagerty, who reported his findings in a paper selected as The Journal of Happiness Studies' best article of 2003. "All 14 surveys that I examined in developed countries show that a majority of people say that their own life satisfaction has risen."
People are likely mistaken in their belief that things are getting worse for the average person, he noted. Significantly, all the economic and medical advances of the last century have resulted in "spectacular growth in innovation, buying power and life span."
Why the disconnect then? Hagerty blames the media's coverage of crisis situations and the bad deeds that sometimes dominate the headlines. "Happy outcomes are underreported."
The pursuit of happiness does not equate to the pursuit of materialism and individual ambition. In fact, those who rated highly the goals "being able to buy things" and "success in my job" tended to be less happy over time than those who gave higher ratings to relationships, helping other people, and social and political activity.
Moreover, people who adopt a spiritual or religious practice exhibited higher rates of happiness, studies have found. "Part of this is probably due to social support, but also the spiritual practice itself seems to confer some resilience when going through hard times," he said.
Gross National Happiness
Some of those same findings are as true for large groups of people — even entire nations — as they are for individuals. For example, countries that have become richer have not become happier in the long run either, according to the largest-ever review of the links between a nation's wealth and the well-being of its citizens. Researchers, led by economist Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California, looked at data in 37 countries over a 12-to-34-year span. In countries like China, South Korea and Chile, where per capita income in the last 20 years has doubled, life satisfaction has not risen.
"On average, people with higher incomes are happier, but when incomes increase generally, there is no increase in average happiness," Easterlin said, noting that the U.S. is fairly high in happiness, but not as high as you'd expect, based on its GDP per capita.
Another survey of more than 136,000 people in 128 countries reveals that while life satisfaction usually rises with income, positive feelings don't necessarily follow. The findings, from an analysis of data gathered in the first Gallup World Poll, appear in the July 2010 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
In 1972, Bhutan — a small Buddhist nation in the Himalayas — proposed that countries consider their sum of "Gross National Happiness," rather than the traditional financial yardstick of Gross Domestic Product. While GDP measures the amount of goods and services produced in a year in a country, a national happiness index looks at a country's record on sustainable development, cultural values preservation, conservation efforts, and good governance. The yardstick now has several variations, but is not in widespread use.
One longtime advocate for measuring national and social well-being is Robert Reich — the former Clinton-era Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor of public policy. In a recent e-mail, he said Gross Domestic Product is a "faulty measure," because there is much more than commercial growth that counts for a high quality of life.
Smile and Love
the Soreness
Andrea Khoo '97, a physical education lecturer, is a brawny believer in fitness and its happiness dividends. Countless stressed-out students come to her class out-of-shape and even "down" on themselves, and later leave with rejuvenated moods and self-esteems, thanks to the exercise.
"Exercise is an excellent tool for acquiring happiness and living a long, productive life," she said. "When I succeed in achieving my fitness dreams, I am proud of myself for not giving up, [even when] the activity or sport was difficult to master."
Khoo, who has a degree in design and is certified in personal training, said physiological roots exist for the emotional contentment — the release of endorphins — typically associated with exercise. Endorphins are produced during exercise, excitement, love and other heightened experiences, and they resemble opiates in their abilities to produce a feeling of well-being.
"A Gross Happiness Index sounds a bit loony," Reich said, "until you discover at least one nation has been using it (Bhutan), and other nations and international bodies are actively seeking new measures of the physical and psychological health of their inhabitants, as well as the quality of the environment, life expectancy, the quality of jobs and wages, and the distribution of the benefits of economic growth."
Shifting consciousness is the big challenge, he acknowledges. "What we measure is often what we end up valuing," said Reich.
Genetics, personality
To be sure, financial hardship can take a deep toll on happiness.
"During economic hardship, there is an increase in anxiety and depression," said Andreea Seritan, a UC Davis assistant professor of clinical psychiatry, "but there are also more people losing their jobs and their health insurance, so there may be many more untreated individuals without access to services."
Seritan, who works with mentally ill patients to help them achieve and maintain wellness, broadly defines happiness as the "the emotional state that people achieve when they are balanced, fulfilled, successful in relationships and productive contributors to the society."
Due to genetics, some people are at higher risk for emotional trauma than others, Seritan noted. "Medications can help treat depression by addressing underlying biological mechanisms."
And with the help of psychotherapy, many can cultivate lifelong coping mechanisms to keep frustration, anger, depression and other negative moods from ruling their emotions.
Seritan suggests that people reflect on their values, what gives them pleasure and what is rewarding, and how they can approach life in a fully engaged way.
"Once they know what their impetus for a creative life is, they can actively search for it. Growth — learning about new subjects or challenging oneself — is a great reward," she said.
Reflection on one's current situation and listing all the positives and negatives is helpful. "If negatives outweigh positives, it is time for a change and a new environment that embodies one's values," Seritan said.
Emmons, the psychology professor, calls for "gratitude interventions," sharing experiences with friends and family, showing generosity, and cultivating one's talent. Happiness is about how you relate to your own mind and the world around you, he said.
"Most people desire more happiness," said Emmons, urging more research into the details of happiness. "This makes it a serious issue for science and informed societal discourse."
The path to bliss is to learn more.