The Pursuit of Happinessor

How to improve yourself without making New Year’s resolutions

1) How satisfied are you with your life

as a whole these days? ____ 1=extremely unsatisfied, 7=extremely satisfied

2) List 2 things you’d like to change about yourself

I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having, from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. --from Samuel Johnson’s Diary

I) The Divided Self (great truth #1)

Medea’s lament: I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.

St Paul’s lament: The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye cannot do the things ye would.

Models of the Mind

Q: Is consciousness the driver of a car? Or a rider on an elephant?

Two kinds of thinking

Automatic (elephant)

Intuition

Fast, easy… indefatigable

“hot” – connected to motivations, reward centers

99% of all cognition

Two kinds of thinking

Automatic (elephant) Controlled (rider)

Intuition Reasoning, language, logic

Fast, easy… indefatigable Slow, effortful… tires out

“hot” – connected to motivations, reward centers

“cool” – not connected to motivational centers

99% of all cognition 1% of all cognition

Automatic vs. controlled perception

Automatic vs. controlled perception

Automatic vs. controlled perception

Automatic vs. controlled motivation

Take home lesson: Self-change is elephant training.

1) Change the elephant, gradually --Develop new habits, take 12 weeks to stick --Use small but immediate rewards --Try cognitive therapy, or meditation

2) Change the elephant’s surroundings --Animals are “stimulus bound”; people too

3) Get relations right BETWEEN elephant and rider --know your elephant, and its strengths and weaknesses

YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5

7654321

II) Life itself is but what you deem it (Great Truth #2)

“How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?”

1=extremely unsatisfied, 7=extremely satisfied

YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5

7654321

What we imagine will happen: Permanent effects

Baseline

Win Lottery

Paralyzedfor life

YR: 0 1 2 3 4 5

7654321

What actually happens: We adapt very quickly(Brickman, Coates, & Janoff-Bulman, 1978)

Win Lottery

Paralyzed for lifeAdaptation!

Who is happy? (Demographics)

1) Age? No differences in overall SWB2) Sex? No difference in overall SWB3) Race? Small or no differences

4) Wealth? --In very poor countries, and for poor people: YES --But, once above subsistence level, correlation becomes small --In the U.S., correlation is .12 --Tripling national wealth since WWII had NO effect on happiness --We’re on a “hedonic treadmill”: the more we get, the more we want

Life itself is but what you deem it (Marcus Aurelius)

--There’s nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

--We are what we think. All that we arearises with our thoughts

--Life is a banquet, and some poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death

Why? Because Everyone has a biological set point

--Avg happiness level is fairly stable from year to year--Avg happiness level is highly heritable: 50-75% of variance

due to genes: almost none due to shared family environmnt

Won the cortical lottery

Lost the cortical lottery

What did they win? Happy people…

--Have more friends--Have happier marriages and fewer divorces--Live longer--Recover from adversity faster, and grow from it--Become more successful: --clients like them, buy from them --bosses like them, promote them --throw themselves into projects more fully; live in the

“realm of possibility” --Exception: lawyers. Pessimism is adaptive.

But: Live above your set-point!

There IS a biological set point, but experienced happiness forms a distribution around that point, a “set range”.

H = S + C + V

S(et-point)

C(onditions)

V(oluntary activities)

But: Live above your set-point!

There IS a biological set point, but experienced happiness forms a distribution around that point, a “set range”.

H = S + C + V

Raise S(et-point): Prozac

Raise C(onditions): --Increase control in daily life

--Increase relatedness

Raise V(oluntary activities): ….

Voluntary Activity #1: Diagnose Yourself

--are you on the negative half of the happiness distribution? (Find out at www.authentichappiness.org)

--What are your strengths? How can you use them to get around your weaknesses? (take the “Signature Strengths Test” at www.authentichappiness.org)

Voluntary Activity #2: Improve Mental Hygiene

--If you ARE low, or you ruminate, then buy “Feeling Good”, by David Burns. Or see a cognitive-behavioral therapist

--Every evening, write down three things that went well that day, and their causes. (Especially the role you played, the strengths you used, the friends and supporters you have.)

--These practices are as effective as Prozac at raising happiness levels

Voluntary Activity #3: Diet less, Exercise more

--Dieting makes people irritable, and rarely works--Pleasure is an important part of the good life--A slight increase in exercise improves mood throughout

the day

Voluntary Activity #4: Improve relatedness

--The unexpected theme of most chapters in the Happiness Hypothesis: Relationships are the key to happiness!

--Work on existing relationships!--Write a gratitude letter--And cultivate new relationships, especially in groups

Conclusion:

Happiness Hypoth #1: Happiness comes from outside (from getting what you want: wealth, health, love)

Conclusion:

Happiness Hypoth #1: Happiness comes from outside (from getting what you want: wealth, health, love)

Happiness Hypoth #2: Happiness comes from within (Buddha, Epictetus, most pop psych)

Conclusion:

Happiness Hypoth #1: Happiness comes from outside (from getting what you want: wealth, health, love)

Happiness Hypoth #2: Happiness comes from within (Buddha, Epictetus, most pop psych)

Happiness Hypoth #3: Happiness comes from between