Under the Microscope/Prof William Reville: The attainment of happiness is an important area of psychology that has received too little attention. This deficit is now being addressed and much interesting work has been done by the American psychologist Martin Seligman and others, described by Seligman in his book Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realise your Potential for Lasting Fulfilment (The Free Press, 2002).
In general the philosophers have not been good at defining happiness - indeed in general they seem a disgruntled lot. Ludwig Wittgenstein once opined: "I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves." However, we all know that happiness is desirable and is under normal circumstances to a large extent achievable. Happiness can be defined in a commonsense way as that state in which one experiences joy, pleasure and contentment.
There are many misconceptions about what causes happiness. Probably the most common misconception is that wealth brings happiness. People who live ordinary lives in modest circumstances often dream of winning a fortune and giving up work to pursue a blissfully happy life of leisure and pleasure. Many studies have investigated the connection between wealth and happiness. While there is no doubt that it would be extremely difficult to be happy if you lived in severe poverty, the studies show that once your income is sufficient to provide for your basic needs and those of your dependents, there is little correlation between happiness and further increase in wealth. For example, lottery winners do not end up significantly happier than control groups. Some other things that do not correlate highly with happiness are high levels of education, high IQ, youth, being single, and living in a sunny climate.
So what makes us happy? Probably the biggest aids to happiness are strong ties to family and close relations with friends, as shown in a 2002 study carried out by Seligman and others. Other things that correlate well with happiness are marriage and religion. In the latter case it is difficult to tell whether it is belief in God or the community aspect of religion, or both, that help.
Seligman discerns three components of happiness - pleasure, engagement and meaning. Pleasure is the weakest of the three components as an aid to achieving a happy, satisfied life. Engagement means depth of involvement. Meaning refers to the use of personal strengths to serve larger ends. Based on this and other work, eight steps are recommended to help one achieve a more satisfying life: first, invest time and energy in family and friends; second, count your blessings (do this once a week); third, practise acts of kindness (these should include both random and systematic acts); fourth, savour life's joys, for example the warmth of the sun, the sweetness of a grape; fifth, thank those who help you; sixth, learn to forgive (this allows you to move on); seventh, take care of your body; eighth, learn to cope with stress. (Reviewed by Claudia Wallis, Time magazine, 2005.)
Some people naturally find it easier to be happy than others because, as with all human traits, there is a genetic component to happiness. In 1996 a large study of the role of genes in determining satisfaction with life showed that about 50 per cent of one's satisfaction with life is genetically programmed. However, this leaves 50 per cent to manipulate and it is now clear that we can significantly change our happiness levels, up or down.
Our brains seem biologically predisposed towards negative thinking. Seligman reckons this is because Homo sapiens evolved 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago in an environment of hardship and turmoil - an ice age followed by ferocious flooding, and in the company of dangerous terrifying animals such as mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers. Our brains evolved to scan the world for things that are wrong. This favoured human survival at the time, but it doesn't suit the modern world. Our brains tend to remember failure more vividly than success and we ruminate over what went poorly. When things go well our brains run in automatic mode.
Our ancient brains have us stuck on a "hedonistic treadmill". We are rarely happy with what we have because we constantly compare ourselves to our neighbours in a negative fashion. As a young man or woman you think you will be happy when you own a house and a car, but when you get these things you quickly decide that what you really need is a bigger car and a holiday home abroad - and so it goes. (Reviewed by Dorothy Wade, the Sunday Times, 2nd October, 2005)
Research has shown that we have separate brain systems for liking and wanting. The wanting part of the brain is of ancient origin and acts in an insatiable manner. The liking part of the brain developed later in human history. Many of the things the ancient brain wants, we do not like as much as we expected when we get them.
The way around this unreliable path to happiness is to deliberately train yourself to be happy by directly appealing to the liking side of your brain with what we know is likeable. We can do this reflecting positively on the past, thereby reducing the brain's tendency to scan for threats and "failures" by savouring the present, and by increasing the amount of engagement and meaning in our lives such as by helping others, having good friends, appreciating beauty and developing spirituality. This takes a little discipline as our economic system caters to the psychology of wanting, not liking.
William Reville is Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Public Awareness of Science Officer at UCC