Recipe for Happiness

To continue with Barry Schwartz’s views of happiness and the paradox of choice, he suggests that people are happier when they make their decisions irreversible and when they truly appreciate the lives they have. Rather than thinking that  the grass is greener on the other side and that just maybe you’d be much happier if you worked at XYZ Widgets instead of M & M Industries, maybe you should just stay where you are. Remember, the grass will still need watering, fertilizing and mowing wherever you are. And besides, don’t you have friends at M & M? And aren’t the hours flexible and the work challenging? Just look on the bright side and be thankful you have a job.

There are many other applications of this concept, and I’m sure you can find some in your own life. For instance, do you think knowing that divorce is an option that wasn’t available “back in the day” increases a person’s dissatisfaction with a current marriage partner? If you knew that there was no way out, would you be more likely to make the best of it and try to find some redeeming qualities in the spouse? If you knew that chicken noodle soup was the only choice for dinner, would you be better off just accepting it and being grateful for something to eat instead of squawking about  how you wish you had pizza ?

Do you agree with Dr. Schwartz’s recipe for happiness? Do you think making decisions that are irreversible will make you happier than continuing to look for something bigger, brighter, and more exciting? What about the gratitude part? Does stopping to think about the many good things you have going on in your life make you happier than grumbling about what you don’t have?

Decisions, Decisions

Continuing the happiness topic begun in the last post, I came across some interesting insights by Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice. Schwartz feels that in rich nations such as the United States, too much choice can adversely affect our happiness. Just think about it. It used to be that the people drank Pepsi or Coca-Cola, but now entire sections of the grocery store are devoted to soft drinks. So many decisions! When I was a child, we basically ate corn flakes, cheerios, or rice krispies, but now I feel like I need an advanced degree to help me figure out the best cereal in terms of fat, fiber, and sugar.

Schwartz tells of a study in which college students were asked to rate chocolate candy. One group had six choices to taste and rate while the second group had thirty. Surprisingly, the first group rated their tasty sweet treats higher than the second group. Could it be that having too many choices decreases our satisfaction and our happiness? In his words, “After millions of years of survival based on simple distinctions, it may simply be that we are biologically unprepared for the number of choices we face in the modern world.”

What’s your opinion? Do you think one secret to happiness may lie in limiting our choices instead of increasing them?  In my estimation cheerios are just as tasty and healthy as many of the more recently developed brands, and I’d probably be just as happy sticking to them instead of always looking for something better.

What about you? Are you happier with such a glittering array of choices, or do you think you’d be more contented with fewer options?

Can Happiness Last?

A couple of my favorite psychological principles involve happiness. That shouldn’t surprise you. After all, one of psychology’s founding fathers, William James, stated that how to gain, keep and recover happiness is for most men (and women too) the secret motive for all they do. But how can we keep it? Is it possible?

I saw a short clip on utube last night that illustrates one of the principles of happiness, the adaptation level principle.  Simply stated, it’s our human tendency to form judgments relative to a level defined by our prior experience.  For example, I once thought I’d be deliriously happy if only I could finish college.  I did, and I was…for a while anyway. I thought I’d be even happier with another degree and more money. Same thing happened. When I was younger, we saved our money for the down payment on a house that I (we) just knew would make us happier yet. Ah, it was nice for a while, but before long we were reaching for yet another goal and complaining about cutting the grass and other home maintenance duties. When I was a kid, we had a black and white t.v. with three channels and a lot of “snow.” Now we have a 42” flat screen with a jillion channels, and yet we’re often overheard saying, “There’s nothing on tonight.” HUH???? 

The gist of the theory is that sooner or later people return to their prior levels of happiness or misery regardless of circumstances. They adapt to the change, good or bad, and revert to their earlier way of thinking and feeling. My children often tell me what they’re going to do when they win the lottery. Optimistic, they say “when” and not “if.” But guess what. If they should be so fortunate, research tells us that people who win big bucks in the lottery return to their earlier level of happiness. 

Can you see the application of the adaptation level principle in your life? Share an example with us.

Hot Cognition

Doesn’t this sound like an intriguing term? It is indeed. Since we recently studied problem solving in General Psychology, I thought this topic might appeal to some people who often use heuristics (mental shortcuts) when making decisions. Frankly, that could apply to all of us since we all act from feeling and desire once in a while.

 

Hot cognition is a relatively new psychological term describing the mental processes that occur when emotions and personal goals influence judgment. Unlike cold cognition that is purely intellectual, it often relies on biases, hunches, feelings, intuition, “gut feelings,” and heuristics. People are especially likely to rely on this type of processing when making decisions that involve powerful emotions and self-interest.

 

Have you ever made a decision based on emotion before fully analyzing the situation? Have you ever found it hard to calm down enough to critically and clearly analyze what’s going on? Would you like to share an example?

 

Things that Enable Happiness

I just reread David Myers’ The Pursuit of Happiness, a book that debunks many old ideas linking happiness to gender, race, age, and financial state. Friends, flow, and faith count more. In the epilogue, Myers lists things that do enable happiness:

• Fit and healthy bodies
• Realistic goals and expectations
• Positive self-esteem
• Feels of control
• Optimism
• Outgoingness
• Supportive friendships that enable companionship and confiding
• A socially intimate, sexually warm, equitable marriage
• Challenging work and active leisure, punctuated by adequate rest and retreat
• A faith that entails communal support, purpose, acceptance, outward focus, and hope.

 

I curious about your reaction to the above list. Does anything in particular seem out of place? Is there something there that surprises you? Or perhaps something IS NOT there that you believe should be. If so, what is it? For example, I frequently hear people saying something like, “I sure wish I would win the lottery. Then my troubles would be over, and I’d be happy.” According to decades of research , that’s not true.

 

Gratitude: A Positive Emotion

This morning I was previewing a new textbook for possible adoption in an introductory psychology course and came across an even stonger incentive to experience gratitude. According to Laura A. King in The Science of Psychology by McGraw Hill, gratitude is a complex positive emotion that comes from the “experience of having something good in your life that you realize you have not earned or necessarily deserved.”

Read on. She quotes philosopher Robert Solomon who suggests that gratitude is not only “the best answer to the tragedies of life. It is the best approach to life itself.” King cites others who have shown that being grateful can lead to enhanced happiness and psychological well-being. What’s so neat about this research is the evidence that “even those who are not naturally grateful can benefit by taking a moment to count their blessings.”

Isn’t psychology great? Don’t you want to be happier and have a heightened sense of well-being? Then let’s get started. Share something on this blog that you’re grateful for…and be specific about it.

I’ll start. I’m grateful that the semester is drawing to a close and that I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many neat people this past 15 weeks.