John Colton's blog

A couple of news articles today on happiness. I thought they were interesting.

First article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061126/ap_on_he_me/be_happy

Some interesting points from that article:

For decades, a widely accepted view has been that people are stuck with a basic setting on their happiness thermostat. It says the effects of good or bad life events like marriage, a raise, divorce, or disability will simply fade with time.

We adapt to them just like we stop noticing a bad odor from behind the living room couch after a while, this theory says. So this adaptation would seem to doom any deliberate attempt to raise a person's basic happiness setting.

As two researchers put it in 1996, "It may be that trying to be happier is as futile as trying to be taller."

But recent long-term studies have revealed that the happiness thermostat is more malleable than the popular theory maintained, at least in its extreme form. "Set-point is not destiny," says psychologist Ed Diener of the University of Illinois.

While I think some people are much more naturally disposed towards happiness [*cough* John *cough*] than others [*cough* Pauline *cough*], I find it astounding that apparently until recently researchers did not believe that individual actions affect one's happiness. Glad they've caught up with scripture:

"Do not suppose...that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/alma/41/10#10

Since people can repent of wickedness, of course they can improve their happiness level!

Another interesting section:

As a motivational speaker and executive coach, Caroline Adams Miller knows a few things about using mental exercises to achieve goals. But last year, one exercise she was asked to try took her by surprise.

Every night, she was to think of three good things that happened that day and analyze why they occurred. That was supposed to increase her overall happiness.

"I thought it was too simple to be effective," said Miller, 44, of Bethesda. Md. "I went to Harvard. I'm used to things being complicated."

Miller was assigned the task as homework in a master's degree program. But as a chronic worrier, she knew she could use the kind of boost the exercise was supposed to deliver.

She got it.

"The quality of my dreams has changed, I never have trouble falling asleep and I do feel happier," she said.

[snip]

The think-of-three-good-things exercise that Miller, the motivational speaker, found so simplistic at first is among those being tested by Seligman's group at the University of Pennsylvania.

People keep doing it on their own because it's immediately rewarding, said Seligman colleague Acacia Parks. It makes people focus more on good things that happen, which might otherwise be forgotten because of daily disappointments, she said.

Miller said the exercise made her notice more good things in her day, and that now she routinely lists 10 or 20 of them rather than just three.

Reminds me of the hymn:

When upon life's billows
You are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged,
Thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings,
Name them one by one,
And it will surprise you
What the Lord hath done.


Second article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061126/ap_on_bi_ge/be_happy_money

"There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness," said economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. The main debate, he said, is how strong the effect is.

[snip]

Does money make you happier? Or does being happier in the first place allow you to earn more money later, maybe by way of greater creativity or energy? Or does some other factor produce both money and happiness? There's evidence for all three interpretations, Lucas says.

In any case, researchers say any effect of money on happiness is smaller than most daydreamers assume.

So money affects happiness, but it's not clear by how much. That's not too surprising to me, since a lack of money can produce stress (which I would assume is somewhat contrary to a feeling of happiness)--but my guess would be than after a certain minimum standard of living is met, then probably the effect of money would be minimal. Doesn't seem like they've tested out my own particular theory yet.

Here's another interesting section:

They noted that in one study, people with household incomes of $90,000 or more were only slightly more likely to call themselves "very happy" overall than were people from households making $50,000 to $89,999. The rates were 43 percent versus 42 percent, respectively. (Members of the high-income group were almost twice as likely to call themselves "very happy" as people from households with incomes below $20,000.)

But other studies, rather than asking for a summary estimate of happiness, follow people through the day and repeatedly record their feelings. These studies show less effect of income on happiness, Kahneman and colleagues said.

I thought that last point dovetailed nicely with the first article I read. It seems like the people *are* happy, but don't necessarily recognize it in their "summary estimate". That would explain nicely why "counting your blessings" before you go to sleep as mentioned in the first article seemed to have a positive effect--maybe it just helps recognize that they are indeed happy.

I close with Joseph Smith's quote:

"Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God."