As I mentioned in my last post, happiness is no doubt the central goal of every sentient creature on the planet. I also talked some about ways to increase our level of happiness, namely in expressing positive emotion and being altruistic toward others. In today’s post, I’d like to introduce and briefly outline a relatively new movement within psychology.

Introduction to Positive Psychology

Psychology has historically focused its energies on illness, and it has been largely successful in this regard. Many, if not most types of mental illness are now amenable to some sort of treatment, whether it be psychotherapy, medications, or a combination of these. The focus of mental health professionals has long been limited to relieving mental illness; the goal of optimizing individual strengths and positivity has not received as much attention.

This illness-oriented model remained the focus of psychologists and psychiatrists until the late 1990’s, when a psychologist by the name of Martin Seligman wrote of the need to shift our focus toward helping people become more fulfilled. This movement, which was cofounded by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has come to be known as positive psychology. It’s mission, simply put, is to foster the development of virtues such as “…courage, optimism, interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty, and perseverance..” (Seligman, 1998) as protective buffers against mental illness. In other words, positive psychology aims to discover and nurture within us that which makes us happy, strong, and resilient.

There appear to be three general categories of human experience that are important in living a happy and fulfilling life. These are:

1)    The pleasant life: living in the present, experiencing positive emotions about the past, and being hopeful for the future

2)    The engaged life: using our so-called “signature strengths” in our life’s work (recognizing our talents and finding a career that allows us to use them)

3)    The meaningful life: becoming involved in something that is greater than ourselves, such as a movement, institution, or group that promotes some greater goal within society

In other words, positive psychology looks not so much at what’s wrong with us so much as it searches for strengths and personal resources in order to alleviate or even prevent the development of psychological problems. However, it is not enough to simply remove the negative; on the contrary, it is necessary to look for and encourage the positive that is within all of us in order to achieve the goal of a happy and meaningful life.

Positive emotions not only make us feel good; they also instill us with greater psychological resiliency in the face of adversity. They appear to make negative emotions disappear more readily, and serve to reduce stress and promote physical health and longevity.

From a therapy standpoint, therefore, instilling hope, enhancing interpersonal skills, fostering the capacity for pleasure, increasing personal responsibility, and helping people become more genuine (among others) are ways in which we can help others experience positive emotions, develop different and more optimistic views of the world and of themselves, and perhaps live more meaningful and fulfilled lives.

Read more about Positive Psychology

References

Duckworth, A. L., Steen, T. A., & Seligman, M.  E.P. (2005). Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 629-651.

Seligman, M. E.P., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.

I think most of us have had the experience of being amazed at how happy some people can be, even when faced with very unpleasant life circumstances. On the other hand, there are many people (some well-known celebrities come to mind) that appear to be blessed with “everything” in life, yet are plagued by personal difficulties. In this post, I’ll look at some of the current ideas about happiness, why some people seem to be happier than others, and ways to increase one’s personal level of happiness.

Happiness is defined in the dictionary as “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment,” and it’s something we all strive for. In fact, the right to pursue it is even written into the Declaration of Independence: “…certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Happiness is not only important to Americans however; to paraphrase Aristotle, it is perhaps the central goal of human existence. Clearly, the attainment of happiness is important to all of us. And just as clearly, it seems, material wealth does not necessarily lead to a happier life. How can this be?

It turns out that the factors that mostly influence how happy we’ll be are our personality and temperament; in other words, how we tend to interpret and relate to the world at large. These characteristics are based upon our genetics, plus our early childhood years. These are determined either at birth or at a very early stage of life (the personality is pretty much “set” by age 2), and we can’t do much about either of them.

The other two major determinants of future happiness are the circumstances in which we find ourselves at any given time (things like health, income, and geographical locale) and current life activities (such as engagement with others; eating right; exercising regularly; and from a cognitive standpoint, trying to look at the “bright side” of life).

Of the two of these, that is life circumstances and life activities, the former does not really have a significant long-term effect on happiness. Yes, it’s true that if you win the lottery, you will experience a significant boost in happiness; however, it turns out that this is short-lived. Studies have been done that look at lottery winners, for instance, and found that within a couple of years, they have reverted to their pre-winning level of happiness. (This is why people who have focused their energies solely on material gain remain personally troubled. Simply put, material wealth is not a cure for unhappiness).

Conversely, if you look at people that have suffered a disabling injury or illness, there is a temporary decline in their reported level of happiness (as you might expect). Over time, their level of happiness rises, back to its former baseline.

How then, can we pursue this elusive state of bliss? Are we as powerless as we seem to be? Don’t give up hope just yet! Remember, I haven’t talked much about how life activities may be factoring in to the happiness equation. As you might have guessed by now, it is by changing our life activities that we can achieve a significantly greater level of happiness that does persist.

This kind of makes sense, if you think about it. Life circumstances are just that, circumstances. They may change from time to time (getting a raise, moving to an expensive home, buying a luxury car) but they tend to remain relatively static over time, and do not require any ongoing personal effort once we have attained them. In a sense, we get used to the idea of having more creature comforts available to us. This is referred to in the literature as “hedonic decay,” which is the tendency for the effects of either positive or negative changes in our life circumstances to fade over time.

Life activities, on the other hand, require the ongoing expenditure of effort and energy on our parts (starting a new project, going back to graduate school, embarking on a new career path). In turn, these kinds of changes will most likely result in new experiences, new social ties to other people and the community, and a different way of viewing oneself. Exposure to new circumstances leads to new opportunities and possibilities presenting themselves, which in turn may very well lead to long-term positive benefits.

Of these life activities, those considered to be altruistic are among the most powerful agents of change. It seems that by expressing positive emotions and helping others (without being emotionally overwhelmed) we can ultimately achieve not only a greater sense of personal well-being and happiness, but also improved health and longevity.

References
Post, S. G. (2005). Altruism, happiness, and health: It’s good to be good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12, 66-77.

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). Achieving sustainable gains in happiness: Change your actions, not your circumstances. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 55-86.