Catching Happiness: Putting Positive Psychology into Practice

Catching Happiness:Putting Positive Psychology into Practice Bill O’Hanlon www.billohanlon.com

New book out in June 2011

What is Positive Psychology? Research evidence about what works in human life; what makes people happier; what gives their lives a sense of satisfaction and meaning; what helps them function better; Also called “Subjective Well-Being”

Psychological studies are biased toward the negative Psychological publications and studies dealing with negative states outnumbered those examining positive states by a ratio of 17 to 1 in a survey done in 1995. Myers, D. and Deiner, E. (1995) “Who is Happy?,”Psychological Science, 6:10-19.

Therapy has had a negative bias

The Power of Negative Thinking “I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?” –Ronnie Shakes

This comes in part from the Freudian legacy • Freud thought the best we could hope for was “ordinary misery.” • He questioned the quest for happiness and indeed, all our motives, and ascribed dark impulses and infantile wishes to them.

Relevant research People who are in a more positive mood are better liked by others and more open to new ideas and experiences. Fredrickson, Barbara. (1998). “What good are positive emotions?”Review of General Psychology, 2:300-319.

Negative talk shown to increase stress hormones A recent study shows that extensive discussions of problems and encouragement of ‘‘problem talk,’’ rehashing the details of problems, speculating about problems, and dwelling on negative affect in particular, leads to a signiﬁcant increase in the stress hormone cortisol, which predicts increased depression and anxiety over time. Byrd-Craven, J., Geary, D. C., Rose, A. J., & Ponzi, D. (2008). “Co-ruminating increase stress hormone levels in women,”Hormones and Behavior, 53, 489–492.

The essence of this approach • Discover what works and what’s going well • Focus on what can enhance rather than merely fix human life • Focus on resources rather than problems • Identify strengths and use those in the service of change

Seligman’s List of Virtues/Signature Strengths:Six areas [The Reverse-DSM] • Wisdom and Knowledge • Courage • Love and Humanity • Justice • Temperance • Spirituality and Transcendence Find this list and some self-tests at: www.viacharacter.org

Wisdom and Knowledge Cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge

Wisdom and Knowledge • Curiosity and interest in the world • Love of learning • Judgment • Critical thinking • Open-mindedness • Ingenuity • Originality • Practical intelligence • Emotional intelligence • Perspective

Courage Emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal

Courage • Valor and bravery • Perseverance • Industry • Diligence • Integrity • Genuineness • Honesty

Love and Humanity Interpersonal strengths that involve “tending and befriending” others

Love and Humanity • Kindness • Generosity • Loving and allowing oneself to be loved

Justice • Citizenship • Duty • Teamwork • Loyalty • Fairness and equity • Leadership

Justice Civic strengths that underlie healthy community life

Temperance Strengths that protect against excess

Temperance • Self-control • Prudence • Discretion • Caution • Humility • Modesty

Transcendence Strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and thereby provide meaning

Transcendence • Appreciation of beauty and excellence • Gratitude • Hope • Optimism • Future mindedness • Spirituality • Sense of purpose • Faith, religiousness • Forgiveness and mercy • Playfulness and humor • Zest, passion and enthusiasm

Relevant research Two studies show that focusing on or creating pleasant experiences enhances our learning or performance abilities. • Kids who were asked to spend 30 seconds remembering happy things did better on learning tasks they were given just after remembering the happy stuff. • Internists who were given some candy or who watched a funny video (vs. reading humanistic statements about medicine and a control group) did better at diagnosing a hard-to-diagnose case of liver disease. References: Masters, J., Barden, R. and Ford, M. (1979). "Affective states, expressive behavior, and learning in children," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37:380-390 Isen, A, Rosensweig, A. and Young, M. (1991). "The influence of positive affect on clinical problem solving," Medical Decision Making, 11:221-227.

How to apply this to changework • End sessions with compliments or pleasant topics • Or at the very least, neutral topics and emotional tones

Caveats and Challenges • Much of this research is new and preliminary • Some of it is correlational and some of it is experimental • Much of is not done by and for clinicians or pointed toward practical uses, so it takes some translation • We will have to wait to find out what really works in clinical settings

Happiness defined Pleasure/positive emotions +engagement +meaning =Happiness

There are some benefits of happiness Happy people: • Are half as likely to die over the same time period as others Danner, D.D., Snowdon, D.A. & Friesen, W.V. (2001). “Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the Nun Study,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80:804-813. Diener, Ed and Seligman, Martin. (2002). “Very happy people,”Psychological Science, 13:81-84. • Half as likely to be disabled • Live longer than average • Have better health habits • Have lower blood pressure • Have more robust immune systems • Are more productive on the job • Are able to tolerate more pain

There even seem to be economic benefits to happiness Cheerful college students ended up earning $25,000 more per year than their dour counterparts. King, Laura and Lyubomirsky, Sonja. (2005). “The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?”Psychological Bulletin, 131:803-855.

Happiness and longevity • Happiness both seems to prevent people from falling ill and reduce stress (which is associated with inflammation, which is associated with chronic and acute illnesses) • Happiness is also associated with better health habits, which likely is a factor in the longevity of happy people Veenhoven et al. (2008). “Healthy happiness: effects of happiness on physical health and the consequences for preventive health care,”Journal of Happiness Studies, 9(3):449. Siahpush, M, Spittal M, Singh GJ. (2008). “Happiness and life satisfaction prospectively predict self-rated health, physical health, and the presence of limiting, long-term health conditions,”American Journal of Health Promotion, 23(1). Moskowitz, J.T. (2003). “Positive affect predicts lower risk of AIDS mortality,”Psychosomatic Medicine, 65:620-626. Danner, D., Snowdon, D. and Friesen, W. (2001). “Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings in the nun study,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80:804-813.

Happiness is relatively stable • One year after winning the lottery or becoming quadriplegic, people’s happiness level return to where they were before the drastic change of circumstance (Happiness Set Point; genetically influenced but not fixed) Brickman, P.; Coates, D.; and Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). “Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36:917-27. • There are some things that seem to permanently increase happiness levels • People are generally pretty bad at predicting what will make them happy

Estimates of contributors to happiness and where we can influence happiness levels

Life circumstances • Country • Level of national income • Comparative income • Job security • Meaningful work/life • Age

Genetic/temperament factors • Set point for happiness • Explanatory style • Depression tendencies

Haidt’s Formula H = S + C + V H = your general happiness level S = your happiness set point C = your life conditions V = your voluntary activities Haidt, Jonathon. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis. NY: Basic.

Happiness is challenging "The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.” –Benjamin Franklin

Problems with deliberately pursuing happiness • We are bad at predicting what will make us happy • We overestimate the negative effects of bad stuff • We overestimate the lasting happiness/satisfaction that will result from good stuff • Our preferences change • Habituation/the hedonic treadmill

The Hedonic Treadmill "When we have an experience -- hearing a particular sonata, making love with a particular person, watching the sun set from a particular window of a particular room–on successive occasions, we quickly begin to adapt to it, and the experience yields less pleasure each time. Psychologists call this habituation, economists call it declining marginal utility, and the rest of us call it marriage" (p. 130). From Dan Gilbert’s Stumbling On Happiness

The Paradox of Happiness:Happiness eludes us when we try to get or create it directly “The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.” –Eric Hoffer “If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.” –Edith Wharton

Trying to be happy or monitoring your happiness blocks happiness People were told to monitor their happiness or try to be more happy while listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. People who merely listened to it reported more happiness afterward than people who were monitoring their happiness or trying to be happy while listening. Schooler, J., Ariely, D. and Lowenstein, G. (2003). “The pursuit of happiness can be self-defeating,” in Brocas and Carillo (Eds.) The Psychology of Economic Decisions, Vol. 1, pp. 41-70. NY: Oxford University Press.

But all is not lost; one can increase happiness (but not directly) Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. –Aldous Huxley

Does money make us happy? “Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty.” –Leo Rosten

Looking for joy in all the wrong places A study by Tim Kasser at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, found that young adults who focus on money, image and fame tend to be more depressed, have less enthusiasm for life and suffer more physical symptoms such as headaches and sore throats than others (The High Price of Materialism, MIT Press, 2002).

Money and happiness • Americans who earn $50,000/year are much happier, in general, than those who earn $10,000/year • But those who earn $5 million/year are not substantially happier than those who earn $100,000 • People who live in poor countries are less happy than those who live in moderately wealthy countries; but those who live in moderately wealthy countries are not much happier than those who live in very wealthy countries. Source: Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard, Penguin, 2005.

Four Keys to Unlock Happiness S.O.A.P. • Social Connections • Optimism • Appreciation (Gratitude) • Purpose (greater than oneself)

S.O.A.P.Social ConnectionsandHappiness

Social connections and happiness Countless studies document the link between society and psyche: people who have close friends and confidants, friendly neighbors, and supportive co-workers are less likely to experience sadness, loneliness, low self-esteem, and problems with eating and sleeping. The single most common finding from a half century's research on the correlates of life satisfaction, not only in the United States but around the world, is that happiness is best predicted by the breadth and depth of one's social connections. Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 332)

Relationships “By far the greatest predictor of happiness in the literature is intimate relationships.” – Sonja Lyubomirsky, researcher at UC-Riverside, author of The How of Happiness

Connection can help reduce PTSD • Being with someone else during an earthquake is protective against PTSD Armenian, H. et. Al. (2000). “Loss as a determinant of PTSD in a cohort of adult survivors of the 1998 earthquake in Armenia: Implications for policy,”Acta Psychiatr. Scand., 102(1):58-64. • Post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers in group treatment recovered at a significantly higher rate (88.3%) than those in individual treatment (31.3%) Beck, J. et.al. (2009).“Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Initial Randomized Pilot Study,”Behavior Therapy, 40(1):82-92.

Positive social talk matters • The amount and type of parental talk to infants varied between disadvantaged families and those who had higher incomes and education • Disadvantaged parents generally talked less than advantaged (10 million words vs. 80 million words) • Disadvantaged parents directed more “discouragements” (no; shut up; stop) to their kids (200,000 vs. 80,000 “encouragements” [chit chat; positive comments; gossip; joking; running commentary; praise]) • Advantaged parents had a reversal of this ratio (500,000 encouragements to 80,000 discouragements) • It turns out that these differences have profound and hard to reverse effects on intellectual and academic achievement (vocabulary growth and standardized intellectual achievement tests measured at ages 3 and 9) Hart, B. and Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company

Catching Happiness: Putting Positive Psychology into Practice