Happiness

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Happiness Unlocking the Mysteries of
Psychological Wealth Ed Diener Smiley
Distinguished Professor of
Psychology University of Illinois 4th European
Conference on Positive Psychology
July 1- 4, 2008 Rijeka, Croatia
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• The most authoritative
• and informative book
• about happiness ever
• written

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Unique Aspects of the Book

• We present the research on the benefits of
  happiness to health, work, and relationships
• We also show the need for negative emotions,
  and that you dont necessarily need to be happier
• We show the danger of averages when applied to
  individuals, like for religion or marriage
• We present self-scoring measures for 7 variables
• We expose myths such as the Set-point
• We have a lot of fun stories

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• Part l Understanding true wealth
• Psychological Wealth The Balanced Portfolio
• Two Principles of Psychological Wealth
• Part 2 Happy people function better
• Health and Happiness
• Happiness and Social Relationships You Cant Do
  Without Them
• Happiness at Work It Pays to be Happy
• Part 3 Causes of happiness and genuine wealth
• Can Money Buy Happiness?
• Religion, Spirituality, and Happiness
• The Happiest Places on Earth Culture and
  Well-Being
• Nature and Nurture Is There a Happiness
  Set-Point, and Can You Change It?
• Our Crystal Balls Happiness Forecasting
• Taking AIM Attention, Interpretation, and Memory
• Part 4 Putting it all together

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Pie Chart of True Wealth
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• Understanding true wealth
• Two Principles of Happiness
• Part 2 Happy people function better
• Part 3 Causes of happiness and genuine wealth
• Part 4 Putting it all together

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1. Happiness is a Process, Not a Place

• Ongoing new challenges
• How one travels
• Winning an award
• Climbing Mt. Denali

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2. Happiness Is Desirable
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Flauberts Error

• To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are
  three requirements for happiness, though if
  stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
• Gustave Flaubert

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Dalai Lama

• Stupid
• Happiness

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Why Beneficial Happiness?

• Broaden and build (Fredrickson)
• Creativity (Isen)
• Challenges look easier when happy
• (Proffitt)

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Benefits of SWBLyubomirsky, King, Diener

• Social relationships
• Work and income
• Health longevity
• Societal benefits
• Causal direction?
• Longitudinal, lab experiments,
• quasi-experiments

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Social Benefits

• Happy people more likely to have
• Self-confidence, leadership
• Warmth, sociability
• More friends

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Work Success

• A. Higher supervisor ratings
• B. Organizational citizenship
• Example Helping others on the job
• C. Higher income

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College Entry Cheerfulness, and Income 19 years
later Diener, Nickerson, Lucas, Sandvik
(2002)
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Health Longevity The Nun Study

• Dr. Snowdon with Sisters Agnes and Gertrude

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Longevity in The Nun Study
Survival Rate at Age 85 93 Most Cheerful
Quartile 79 52 Least Cheerful
54 18 Danner, Snowdon, Friesen
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Smoking (pack/day)
Exercise

Light drinking
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Smoking (pack/day)
Exercise

Light drinking Heavy
drinking
Hey, Doc, what about
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Smoking (pack/day) Exercise Light
drinking Heavy drinking Hey, Doc, what
about Becoming a Nun?
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Smoking (pack/day) Exercise Light
drinking Heavy drinking Hey, Doc, what
about How happy are you? Very
Happy vs. Less Happy 10.7 years
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Why happy are healthier?

• Stronger immune systems
• Better cardiovascular health
• Health behaviors (e.g., seatbelts)
• Fewer lifestyle diseases (e.g.
• alcoholism)
• Younger genes (telomeres)

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Societal Benefits of Happiness

• Volunteering
• Pro-peace attitudes
• Cooperative attitudes

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Part 3 Influences on Happiness

• Supportive social relationships
• Temperament adaptation
• Money
• Society culture
• Cognition Positive attitudes

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1. Strong Social
Relationships

• Every single one of the happiest people we
  studied have good social relationships

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GIVING social support People who help others
live longer and are happier!
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2. Temperament AdaptationIdentical
(Monozygotic) Twins
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Eds Daughters Clinical Psychologist and
Developmental Psychologist
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Inborn Temperament

• Identical twins reared apart are much more
  similar in happiness than fraternal twins reared
  together
• Heritability 20 to 50 percent of individual
  differences in happiness

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Adaptation

• Temperament has substantial effect in long-run
  because people adapt to their conditions to some
  degree
• They react strongly, but then adapt back to
  their baseline

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Daily moods of a 20-year old
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Unemployment
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Slow Adaptation to Widowhood
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But what of Brickman et al.?

• Lottery winners
• Paraplegics

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Life Satisfaction and 100 Percent Disability
(Lucas)
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Conclusion

• The Set-point is really more like a Set-range
• Temperament is important, but circumstances
  matter too

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3. Money

• Despite popular myths, money is correlated with
  happiness, although not always strongly

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But Warnings About Money!

• Toxicity of materialism
• Dont sacrifice too much of other components of
  wealth, such as relationships
• Declining marginal utility

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Even the poor can be happy

• Maasai
• Inuit
• Amish
• Slums of Calcutta
• A. If basic needs met, for food etc.
• If not desiring more
• Have other rewards such as relationships

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4. Society Influences Happiness

• The individualism bias in positive psychology
  happiness is within you only
• But what of positive institutions?

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Life Evaluation LadderIdeal to Worst (10 to 0)

• Denmark 8.0
• Finland 7.7
• Switzerland 7.5
• Netherlands 7.5
• Spain 7.2
• Ireland 7.1

• Togo 3.2
• Cambodia 3.6
• Sierra Leone 3.6
• Georgia 3.7
• Zimbabwe 3.8
• West Bank 4.7

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Culture Influences Levels of Well-beingPleasant
EmotionsEnjoyment etc.

• High Low
• Honduras Pakistan
• Panama Bangladesh
• Costa Rica Palestine
• Puerto Rico Tajikistan

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5. CognitionPositive Mental Outlook

• The habit of seeing the glass
• half-full
• Seeing opportunities, not
• threats
• Generally trusting and liking
• oneself and others

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Cognition AIM Model

• Attention
• Interpretation
• Memory

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Cognition AIM Model

• Attention
• Seeing beauty and good in the world
• Interpretation
• Interpreting many things as positive
• Memory
• Savoring rather than ruminating
• COGNITIVE HABITS PEOPLE GET INTO!

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Spirituality Experiencing Broadening Positive
Emotions

• which make life larger than just our own
  self-interests
• Gratitude
• Love
• Awe
• Transcendance

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• Part l Understanding true wealth
• Part 2 Happy people function better
• Part 3 Causes of happiness and genuine wealth
• Part 4 Putting it all together
• Yes, You Can Be Too Happy
• Living Happily Ever After
• Measuring Your Psychological Wealth

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Being too happy?

• No negative emotions
• They can be appropriate
• They sometimes help functioning
• Searching for constant euphoria ecstasy
• Expectations too high
• In some instances 8s do better than 10s

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National Accounts of Well-BeingRobert Kennedy,
1968

• Too much and for too long, we seemed to have
  surrendered personal excellence and community
  values in the mere accumulation of material
  things. Our Gross Nation Product . . . counts air
  pollution and cigarette advertising, and
  ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. Yet
  the gross national product does not allow for the
  health of our children, the quality of marriages,
  the intelligence of our public debate or the
  integrity of our public officials. It measures
  neither our wit nor our courage, neither our
  wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion
  nor our devotion to our country, it measures
  everything in short, except that which makes life
  worthwhile.

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National Accounts of SWB

• Measuring well-being for policy
• Information beyond wealth
• GDP, employment, etc.
• These will help the positive behavioral sciences!

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Self-Scoring Scales in the book

• Life satisfaction
• Positive affect
• Negative affect
• Positive thinking
• Negative thinking
• Strong social relationships
• Psychological well-being

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Suggestions to Increase Well-Being

• Have important values and goals
• Develop strong relationships
• Cultivate spiritual emotions
• Intelligent happiness forecasting
• AIM your mind
• Live as though happiness is a process

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• Thanks very much
• Questions?
• Discussion?