Marketing Scoops: positivethinking

Illustration by Jan Buchczik

We’ve heard a lot lately about how miserable young Americans are. In the recently released World Happiness Report, the United States dropped to its lowest ranking since that survey began and that result was driven by the unhappiness of people under 30 in this country. So what’s going on? I have some skepticism about these international rankings of happiness. The organizations that produce them always attract a lot of attention by answering “Which is the world’s happiest country?……..Continue reading…..

By: Arthur C. Brooks

Source: The Atlantic

Critics:

Theories on how to achieve happiness include “encountering unexpected positive events”, “seeing a significant other”, and “basking in the acceptance and praise of others”. Some others believe that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures. Research on positive psychology, well-being, eudaimonia and happiness, and the theories of Diener, Ryff, Keyes, and Seligmann covers a broad range of levels and topics, including “the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life.”

The psychiatrist George Vaillant and the director of longitudinal Study of Adult Development at Harvard University Robert J. Waldinger found that those who were happiest and healthier reported strong interpersonal relationships. Research showed that adequate sleep contributes to well-being. Good mental health and good relationships contribute more to happiness than income does. In 2018, Laurie R. Santos course titled “Psychology and the Good Life” became the most popular course in the history of Yale University and was made available for free online to non-Yale students.

Some commentators focus on the difference between the hedonistic tradition of seeking pleasant and avoiding unpleasant experiences, and the eudaimonic tradition of living life in a full and deeply satisfying way. Kahneman has said that “”When you look at what people want for themselves, how they pursue their goals, they seem more driven by the search for satisfaction than the search for happiness.”

Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, noticed that those who lost hope soon died, while those who held to meaning and purpose tended to live on. Frankl observed that joy and misery had more to do with a person’s perspective and choice than with their surroundings. Three key sources of meaning that he highlights in his writings include the following:

Creation of an important work, or doing a deed.
Love, as manifest in thoroughly encountering another person or experience.
Finding meaning in unavoidable suffering, such as seeing it as a sacrifice or learning opportunity.

Psychologist Robert Emmons has identified the centrality of goals in pursuing happiness. He found that when humans pursue meaningful projects and activities without primarily focusing on happiness, happiness often results as a by-product. Indicators of meaningfulness predict positive effects on life, while lack of meaning predicts negative states such as psychological distress. Emmons summarizes the four categories of meaning which have appeared throughout various studies. He proposes to call them WIST, or work, intimacy, spirituality, and transcendence.

Throughout life, one’s views of happiness and what brings happiness can evolve. In early and emerging adulthood many people focus on seeking happiness through friends, objects, and money. Middle aged-adults generally transition from searching for object-based happiness to looking for happiness in money and relationships. In older adulthood, people tend to focus more on personal peace and lasting relationships (ex. children, spouse, grandchildren).

Antti Kauppinen, a Swedish philosopher and phenomenological researcher, posited that the perception of time affects the change in focus throughout life. In early adulthood, most view life optimistically, looking to the future and seeing an entire life ahead of them. Those that fall into the middle life, see that life has passed behind them as well as seeing more life ahead. Those in older adulthood often see their lives as behind them. This shift in perspective causes a shift in the pursuit of happiness from more tactile, object based happiness, to social and relational based happiness.

Self-determination theory relates intrinsic motivation to three needs: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Competence refers to an individual’s ability to be effective in their interactions with the environment, autonomy refers to a person’s flexibility in choice and decision making, and relatedness is the need to establish warm, close personal relationships.

Ronald Inglehart has traced cross-national differences in the level of happiness based on data from the World Values Survey. He finds that the extent to which a society allows free choice has a major impact on happiness. When basic needs are satisfied, the degree of happiness depends on economic and cultural factors that enable free choice in how people live their lives. Happiness also depends on religion in countries where free choice is constrained.

Sigmund Freud said that all humans strive after happiness, but that the possibilities of achieving it are restricted because we “are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from the state of things.” The idea of motivational hedonism is the theory that pleasure is the aim for human life. Happiness research understands “happiness” as “life satisfaction” or “well-being”.

Since it has proved difficult to find a definition of happiness, individual people are instead asked how happy they feel. Numerous surveys are then summarized and analyzed using static methods. Although some researchers believe that the scales are fundamentally unsuitable for estimating happiness, other researchers argue that the happiness indices formed on the basis of the survey have a high statistical correspondence with characteristics that are generally understood to indicate a happy person.

For example, individuals who report high happiness on scales smile more often, exhibit more social behavior, are more helpful, and are less likely to commit suicide. For this reason, happiness indices determined on the basis of the survey are considered reliable by happiness researchers. Before recommending strategies, it is crucial to rely on rigorous, large-scale experiments that confirm their effectiveness.

Over the past decade, there has been a significant shift in what constitutes ‘high-quality evidence’ in psychology (there were adopted e. g. practices like pre-registration, committing to specific methodological and analytical decisions in advance, and increased sample sizes to avoid underpowered studies). A meta analysis of 2023 has used this modern evidence-based approach, evaluating evidence for common happiness-boosting strategies.

The study aimed to shed light on the effectiveness of these strategies and their impact on subjective well-being. As a first step, the authors analyzed numerous media articles on happiness to identify the five most commonly recommended strategies, these were: expressing gratitude, enhancing sociability, exercising, practicing mindfulness/meditation, and increasing exposure to nature.

Next, the published scientific literature was searched but limited to the above-described high-quality criteria that tested the effects of these strategies on subjective well-being in everyday individuals (non-clinical samples). Only 10% of the initially retrieved studies met those rigorous criteria.

“Happiness”.

Two Philosophical Problems in the Study of Happiness”. i:10.1111/j.1467-9752.2008.00650.x. ISSN 0309-8249.

What the New Nobel Prize Winner Has to Say About Money and Happiness”.

Happiness and Its Discontents”.