Happiness Strategies | How to be Happy

Lesson: Money changes everything -
except happiness

Strategy 8 highlighted the small contribution of external life conditions to happiness, and Strategy 9 showed that changes to these conditions only make a short-term difference – we adapt and our happiness levels are soon restored.

Since for most of us money is one of the most important life conditions – and one often expected to produce happiness – money is the subject of this strategy.

The research on money and happiness may not be what you expect:

• Personal incomes in the US have doubled over the past half-century, yet people are no happier (1)
• Spending money on life experiences (doing) makes people happier than spending money on possessions (having) (2)
• Spending money on possessions is linked to lower life satisfaction and higher risk of psychological illness – that is, it can actually undermine happiness (2)

Why don’t larger incomes make us happier? And why should doing make us happier than having? Psychologists have some suggestions. (2)

1. Whereas things fade into the background through hedonic adaptation, experiences continue to please through memories and shared anecdotes. Even crappy experiences can be re-interpreted or narrated as funny stories that give the teller pleasure.

2. A pay rise, house purchase or new car can disappoint if someone else has more. (And someone always does.) This may help account for dramatic income rises not bringing greater happiness.

Don’t underestimate the power of social comparison in eroding possession-pleasure. In one study half the participants preferred an income of $50,000 to $100,000. (Read that again.) The catch?  Their peers would earn half as much in the first case ($25,000), and twice as much in the second ($200,000). (3)

Happiness strategy: Don’t keep up with the Joneses

Money is a truly wonderful resource. It can bring physical comforts, ease others’ suffering and give peace of mind. I want lots of money so I can have all these things – and more!

But if you’re using money as a barometer – an indicator of your social worth – then it’s less likely to make you happy than to bring you dissatisfaction and perhaps even psychological troubles. Decide not to play that game – set your financial goals based on your own needs and desires, not what others have. This is incredibly difficult for most of us to do, but reminding yourself that the comparison game is one you can never win might give you resolve.

Nor will filling your life with stuff create lasting happiness. Instead, think about spending your money on experiences – even simple ones like books, hobbies, outings with family and friends, or travel. These can add to your happiness in a way that’s not so short-lived.

Strategies 8, 9 and 10 have shown, perhaps counter-intuitively, that circumstances have a pretty small impact on happiness, and that life events affecting relationships, employment, money or health may temporarily change happiness, but hedonic adaptation will eventually, and in many cases quickly, return us to pre-change levels.

But what about genes – aren’t some people just born happier than others? That’s where we’ll pick up next time.

Research sources:

(1) Myers, D. G. (2000). The funds, friends, and faith of happy people. American Psychologist, 55(1), 56-67.

(3) Solnick, S. J., & Hemenway, D. (1998). Is more always better?: A survey on positional concerns. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 37(3), 373-383.

(2) Van Boven, L. (2005). Experientialism, materialism, and the pursuit of happiness. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 132-142.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Image by zzzack under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Lesson: We adapt quickly to the good and the bad

We saw in Strategy 8 that, outside extreme stress or deprivation, circumstances add little to happiness. But what about changing those circumstances – wouldn’t getting a different job, winning the lottery or moving to a new state make us happier? The research might surprise you.

• Happiness boosts from life events don’t last (1), and in most cases people adapt within about three months. (2)
• Even following drastic changes in conditions, people tend to return to their pre-change happiness levels. Amazingly, this happens for extreme highs like winning the lottery as well as severe losses like becoming paraplegic. (3)
• Despite a windfall like winning the lottery, people can still become depressed. (4)

Why don’t ‘better’ circumstances bring us greater long-term happiness? Psychologists call it the hedonic treadmill – a tendency to quickly take stock of the new situation and revise our expectations accordingly (5). For example one year after winning the lottery, winners enjoyed simple pleasures like watching TV less than the average person – they seemed to need more to be happy.

Adaptation appears to happen when a change is continuous or repetitive – as most changes in circumstances are (6). Because of this repetitive exposure, people habituate to extreme as well as routine conditions – they take advantage for granted, and learn to live with misfortune (7).

Happiness strategy: Get off the hedonic treadmill

Because people rapidly adapt to new conditions, changing your external situation leads at best to a short-term boost in happiness. Life events affecting relationships, employment or even health can temporarily shift your happiness level, but hedonic adaptation will eventually, and often quickly, return happiness to pre-change levels.

Realizing that externals don’t bring long-term satisfaction can take a lot of pressure off you. Change is often wonderful, stimulating and good for our growth, but constantly switching your job, partner or ’stuff’ can be a distraction as well as a source of disappointment. As a strategy for happiness, running after external answers means you have to keep running to maintain the good feelings. To get a sustainable happiness boost we have think and act differently – as later strategies will explore.

We can’t leave the topic of life conditions without taking a closer look at money. Cyndi Lauper, among others, said it changes everything. Does that include happiness? Check out the next strategy to find out.

Research sources:

(5) Brickman, P., & Campbell, D. T. (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society. In M. H. Appley (Ed.), Adaptation-level theory: A symposium (pp. 287-302). New York: Academic Press.

(3) Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 36(8), 917-927.

(7) Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1980). Influence of extraversion and neuroticism on subjective well-being: Happy and unhappy people. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 38(4), 668-678.

(1) Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1989). Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: Toward a dynamic equilibrium model. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 57(4), 731-739.

(6) Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

(4) Nissle, S., & Bschor, T. (2002). Winning the jackpot and depression: Money cannot buy happiness. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 6(3), 183-186.

(2) Suh, E., Diener, E., & Fujita, F. (1996). Events and subjective well-being: Only recent events matter. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 70(5), 1091-1102.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Image by maHidoodi under Creative Commons.

Lesson: Externals don’t have a big impact on happiness

You might think the happiest people are the ones with great life conditions – money, health, youth and a good marriage. But researchers have used statistical techniques to quantify how much circumstances contribute to happiness, and their findings tell a different story.

Here’s what they’ve found:

• –Factors like age, gender, social class, culture, marital status and employment are only weakly-to-moderately associated with happiness (1;2)
• -The combined contribution to happiness of circumstances, demographics and events in a person’s life is small (between 8-15% of happiness variance in statistical terms) (1; 3)
  -A large twin study found education, income, marital status, socioeconomic status and religiousness each contributed little to happiness (at most 3% of variance) (4)

Now, there are certain times when externals make a big difference to happiness:

• Better conditions can dramatically boost happiness under very deprived circumstances (5)
• Acute stress or unpleasant life episodes can undermine happiness (6)
• Both within and between nations, the poorest are the least likely to be happy (7)

Beyond extreme stress or deprivation, though, circumstances add little to happiness. And in developed nations there’s little relationship between income and happiness (7).

Happiness strategy: Make happiness an inside job  

We all know people who seem to ‘have it all’ yet lack any contentment in their lives. And we can easily think of celebrities blessed with looks, money and success who struggle with drugs, depression and despair.

The circumstances and conditions of our lives don’t provide a direct link to our happiness level, and looking to these externals may be a misleading path to happiness – as the studies, and life, show. Realizing that being happy is an inside job could be the single smartest thing you do toward your own happiness goal. Future strategies will shed more light on just how to develop these internal resources.

Meanwhile, you may be wondering what would happen if we changed our circumstances – got a new job, won the lottery, or moved to a new state. Surely that would make us happier, right? 

Tune in for the next strategy to find out.

Research sources:

(3) Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality. New York: Plenum Press.

(7) Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002). Will money increase subjective well-being? Social Indicators Research, 57(2), 119-169.

(1) Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125(2), 276-302.

(6) Headey, B., & Wearing, A. J. (1992). Understanding happiness: A theory of subjective well-being. South Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.

(4) Lykken, D., & Tellegen, A. (1996). Happiness is a stochastic phenomenon. Psychological Science, 7(3), 186-189.

(5) Oishi, S., Diener, E. F., Lucas, R. E., & Suh, E. M. (1999). Cross-cultural variations in predictors of life satisfaction: Perspectives from needs and values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(8), 980-990.

(2) Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Image by ewanr under Creative Commons.

Lesson: Happiness isn’t the opposite of depression

Before the growth of positive psychology, psychologists were mainly concerned with problems. Research focused on understanding what caused difficulties like depression, and on alleviating them. It was thought easing depression would bring about – well, happiness.

But newer research has shown that understanding what leads to depression doesn’t reveal the whole story about human experience – it doesn’t help people to thrive. Most people would like to know about the positive side of life too!

It turns out that easing suffering is not the mirror image of promoting happiness. You can’t just focus on fixing problems and expect to be happy. Happiness, it seems, needs a focus all its own.

Happiness strategy: Don’t just ease the bad, boost the good too

It certainly makes sense to address problems. But letting a problem dominate your thinking can give it a life of its own.

Take Sally, the perpetual dieter. She obsessed with calorie values, devours every new diet book and talks constantly about her weight. She’s had her career and love-life on hold for years as she waits for those pounds to push off.

Or Jake, whose long-term depression has become his whole life. There’s no room for friends, work, or hobbies. He talks about ‘my depression’ like it’s an old friend.

Fixating on problems can be exhausting and never-ending – after all, there’s always something else to worry about. It can be like a mountain without a peak. So it makes sense to put some energy into the flip side – not just the absence of bad, but the presence of good.

Perhaps Sally could learn a language on her iPod while taking walks – anything to boost her self-esteem and take the focus off her weight.

Maybe Jake could start a hobby that’s always interested him – like gardening or playing the guitar – and do one small thing each day to develop his interest. Before long he’d have something new in his life and would see himself in a more empowering light.

For the rest of us, building more good stuff into life could mean aiming for calm under pressure rather than avoiding stress (which is pretty impossible anyway), or eating more vegetables rather than forbidding chocolate (double ditto).

By all means, ease your pain, but don’t let that be all you do.

Research sources:

Cheng, H., & Furnham, A. (2003). Personality, self-esteem, and demographic predictions of happiness and depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 34(6), 921-942.

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

Sheldon, K. M., & King, L. (2001). Why positive psychology is necessary. American Psychologist, 56(3), 216-217.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Image by fdecomite under Creative Commons.

Lesson:
A review of happiness perks

By now you probably need no more convincing that being happy is a good thing. We’ve seen how happiness supports your health, how happiness comes before, and sometimes causes, many other benefits, and how happiness is good for people around you, too.

Before moving on to new research lessons and strategies for applying them it’s worth reviewing the perks of choosing to be happy:

• Enjoying physical health
• Enjoying mental health
• Having better coping skills
• Being more resilient
• Feeling satisfied at work
• Having good relationships with colleagues, friends and loved ones
• Living a long life
• Having immune system strength
• Liking yourself
• Being more altruistic
• Liking others
• Being better at managing conflict

Of course, these findings are generalized across people – for some the effects are small or non-existent, for others they’re significant. In general, though, simply being happy is likely to have advantages for you and the people in your life.

The research is compelling, but you also know yourself that you have greater energy, get more done, suffer fewer colds, and find work better when you’re happy. When you’re down everything seems to go wrong.

Happiness strategy: Make happiness a goal

Contrary to being a selfish preoccupation, choosing to be happy can help boost your mental and physical resilience, improve your work, relationships and health, and lead you to be more altruistic, sociable and better at conflict management. It puts you in a strong position to contribute to your family, friends, community and society.

What all this means is that you can feel really good about making happiness a goal for yourself. Happiness isn’t just an end in itself, it’s also a means to being, doing, and giving more. With that in mind, let today be the day you make the choice to be happy. And there are many more strategies ahead to help you do just that.

Research sources:

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803-855.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Image by by matsukawa1971 under Creative Commons.