The pursuit of happiness: a psychological puzzle

‘Mental health should be more than the absence of mental illness. It should be a vibrant and muscular fitness of the human mind and spirit.” So said American psychologist Martin Seligman when he launched positive psychology at the end of the last century.

Soon afterwards, psychologists around the world, particularly in the United States, began to examine what does and doesn't make people feel satisfied with life, whether optimism was associated with good physical health, less depression, longer life and greater happiness, and whether you can induce happiness states or at least promote a feeling of wellbeing.

The meaning of happiness and how to achieve it will be put under a microscope during Trinity Week, which runs from April 7th to 11th. Talks and events organised by the the faculty of health sciences in Trinity College Dublin will investigate the science of happiness.

Positive psychology has been embraced by academics and clinicians around the world. The word “happiness” – once the preserve of philosophers – has become a scientific concept to dissect and analyse. There has been a corresponding growth in studies into positive emotions, healthy character traits and behaviours.

American researcher Dr Edward Diener found that once you have enough money to meet basic needs, more money doesn’t make you happier. Neither does education, a high IQ or youth. Older people were found to be more consistently satisfied with their lives than the young.

Religious faith was found to lift the spirits but it has been hard to tell whether it’s the God part or the community involvement that is key. And married people generally were happier than singles.

Research tools such as the Satisfaction with Life Scale, developed by Diener and colleagues, or the OECD guidelines on measuring subjective wellbeing, spawned international studies into happiness. And in Trinity College Dublin, the school of psychology ran the National Happiness Experiment in 2012, a survey whose findings are published in Happy Nation? by Malcolm MacLachlan and Karen Hand. Again and again, results have shown higher levels of happiness in those with the strongest ties to friends and family, and a commitment to spending time with them.

Finding a coin

Some researchers have distinguished between the experiencing self and the remembering self when looking at happiness. Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman says social scientists studying happiness need to pay attention to people’s experiences rather than their reflections.

Kahneman carried out experiments testing how subjects rated their happiness after finding a coin in a telephone booth compared with a group who didn’t find anything. “The former group gave a higher rating of happiness, which shows how we can be tricked or deceived by our perceptions,” says Prof Ian Robertson, the head of the school of psychology at TCD.

In his book Authentic Happiness , Seligman defines three components of happiness: pleasure; engagement (depth of involvement with one's family, work, romance, hobbies); and meaning (using personal strengths to serve some larger end). Many researchers went on to study so-called happiness boosters, such as keeping a gratitude journal (in which you write down things you are thankful for), performing random acts of kindness and counting your blessings.

University of California psychologist Robert Emmons found that gratitude exercises improved people’s physical health, raised their energy levels and, for patients with neuromuscular disease, relieved pain and fatigue. Seligman’s biggest recommendation for lasting happiness is to figure out your strengths and find new ways to use them.

However, as with all fields of study, there are some detractors from the positive psychology optimism. Julie Norem, author of The P ositive Power of Negative Thinking , suggests it overemphasises individual initiative and how a positive attitude can solve complex problems.

Similarly, Will Buckingham, author of Introducing Happiness: Big Ideas for Real Life , suggests that national scales of wellbeing can be hijacked by politicians who want a happy electorate without providing the social and economic infrastructure for their citizens. Just consider how Irish people often score highly on happiness scales – even during the recession. Perhaps the questions the positive psychology researchers are asking need to be broadened out to include justice, equality as well as subjective wellbeing.

Prof Jim Lucey, clinical professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, will partake in The Science of Happiness academic symposium next Wednesday. He says rebuilding our economic capital will be possible only if we reinvest in our people and their happiness. "Resilience is an essential basis for adaptation to change and for survival. There is good evidence for the benefits of sports, music, exercise, dance and mindfulness-based stress reduction to build mental strength to overcome these troubled times," he says.

Trinity Week runs April 7-11, tcd.ie/trinityweek


IT'S IN YOUR HANDS: FIVE WAYS TO GET HAPPY

Studies show the following five ways can help you to get – and stay – happy:

1 Count your blessings
2 Express gratitude
3 Carry out random acts of kindness
4 Smile
5 Stay connected to friends and family (and not just via the internet)


CORNERS UP: THE BIOLOGY OF SMILING

Prof Nancy Etcoff upends our usual perception of smiling as a social construct that encourages positive human interaction. Instead, the assistant professor of psychology at the department of psychiatry in Massachusetts General Hospital says that smiling has a biological role.

“Smiling induces bodily processes where the heart rate calms, the muscles relax and the tone of voice softens. We have found that you can put a pencil in your mouth to make a smile and these states will follow. You don’t have to be happy to smile but you can fake it till you make it,” says Etcoff. This physiological emotional programming, she says, shows that we can induce happiness by changing our facial muscles.

Etcoff lectures in positive psychology at the Harvard Medical School. “There are spiralling levels of depression and anxiety, and there are therapies to cure them, but people often have recurring bouts, and where positive psychology is very helpful is giving people the tools to maintain optimism, have hope, feel compassion and self-compassion when they are feeling better so they are more resilient to life’s obstacles,” she says.

Etcoff has also researched how psychological stress damages the body and is associated with the onset of chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

“We need ways to help the body to adjust to modern life – without going into overdrive. We need to tame down the basic biological mechanisms of flight, fright and freeze, because they are no longer appropriate.

"And, studies have shown that positive emotions are a protective factor in staving off disease."
Prof Nancy Etcoff is the keynote speaker at The Science of Happiness Trinity Week programme in Trinity College Dublin next week. All events open to the public.