Thirty thousand people die in a cyclone, messaged my friend, and you're off to a happiness conference? You can see his point, though there's no real connection. But the thronging happiness delegates in Sydney last week would probably answer thus: you help the world best by first being happy yourself. Like the bit in the flight blurb that says, "Mothers of small children should don their own oxygen mask first, before assisting the child."
But how selfish is happiness, actually? And is it, as most conference speakers insisted, not just a basic human right but almost a duty?
For the Austrian psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl, happiness was only ever a by-product. "Don't aim at success," he advised, "… for success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue … as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself … Happiness must happen … You have to let it happen by not caring about it." Frankl spoke from experience. A four-year Auschwitz survivor, he noted that, even there, the most enduring were those most able to help others.
But for last week's conference, happiness was no byproduct, no don't-look-now kind of accident. Happiness was it; not just a product but the product. Everything else, it was argued, from love to wealth to brilliant career, we desire for the happiness so promised. Happiness alone do we desire in and of itself.
There's a sophistry here, of course, since it means even melancholics are really seeking the happiness sadness brings. It also makes happiness, as product, the ultimate easy sell, the one thing we all reliably want.
But a conference? Can a conference deliver happiness? Or was the Reverend Bill Crews right when declaring from the stage: "Don't worry about happiness. You lot should throw away your notes and just go out and do it."
Crews - notwithstanding the happy-clappy, back-slappy feel to the, uh, congregation -was the conference's token Christian. Most speakers were either Buddhists (like Tenzin Palmo, an East-Ender who spent 12 years in a high-altitude Himalayan cave and still craved more) or high-profile circuit-psychologists such as Martin Seligman, Stephen Post, Richard Davidson and Daniel Gilbert. Some, like B. Alan Wallace, were both.
All fastidiously avoided mentioning God, morality or the afterlife carrot. There was no trace of a suggestion you should act thus because it's right, or written, or expected and no sense of authority - except, of course, science.
It's as though some marketing genius somewhere has decided that this well-off secular-humanist baby-boomer audience - the market, if you will, for happiness - having been cured of all pressing fears except the fear of death, will comfortably swallow Eastern religion and Western science but never, never Western religion.
Yet the wildly dominant take-home message, from all persuasions and professions, was, if you'll pardon the term, Christian; that to be happy is to be good, and to be good is to be compassionate, loving and altruistic.
The difference is in the packaging. Where once the message could be forced home, now it has to be packaged to appeal to self. So speaker after speaker detailed the personal benefits of happiness: better health, longevity, acuity, earning-power and career, each effect repeatedly demonstrated by science.
Plus all the old Thatcherite shibboleths about hard-wiring for selfishness and genetic destiny are once again up for query. The implication, it will not have escaped your notice, is that happiness is something we can choose.
The Pennsylvania academic Dr Martin "I'm a pessimist and a depressive" Seligman is revered as the father of positive psychology. He scientised morality further still, postulating three categories of happiness: the Pleasant Life, the Engaged Life and the Meaningful Life.
The Pleasant Life runs on emotional pleasure, what Seligman calls "happyology". The Engaged Life means entangling your finest self with the world, what he calls "being one with the music". And the Meaningful Life means dedicating these same strengths to some greater cause.
Each happiness-type, he says, is measurable and buildable, but while there are "pleasure shortcuts" to happyology, there are no shortcuts to the Engaged or Meaningful Life. Which is a shame, because these kinds of happiness are not only more reliable and redemptive, but also lend meaning to ordinary base-level pleasure.
Seligman's Engaged and Meaningful Lives closely parallel theology's traditional distinction between the immanent and transcendent view of god; the god of good works and the god of mystic communion. But drop even a hint, a whiff of old school theology at such a conference and the best-willed happiness-seeker will stop clapping, hold her nose and run.
The market demands wisdom, to salve its remaining fear, but such wisdom must be either control-tested, dot-pointed and peer-reviewed, or couched in lyrical cave and water metaphors. It must also demonstrably benefit the self.
So, full-circle: if happiness requires altruism but is motivated by self-benefit, is it, or isn't it, selfish? TS Eliot's Thomas Beckett describes this as "the greatest treason, to do the right deed for the wrong reason." But the happiness push has a market to consider. Fine, it answers. Forget it. For each year of proven happiness your health premium will halve. That'll make ya happy.
--This spring, The Harris Poll® has asked Americans about nine areas in their lives that contribute to their overall happiness, and has created a National Happiness Index with the intention of tracking changes in happiness in the United States over time. This year's index stands at 35 (out of a possible 100).
Following are some of the findings of a Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive®. This survey was conceived and developed by Harris Interactive and was not commissioned by any organization. Harris Interactive worked closely with MBA students at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in developing the survey questions and in the analysis of the results.
Religion
People who describe themselves as “very religious” are among the happiest of people. Those who say they are “very religious” come in ten points higher than America as a whole on the Happiness Index (45% compared to 35% are considered “very happy”). In contrast, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who describe themselves as “not religious” were measured at that level of happiness.
A similar difference is noted among people who say they “pray or study religion at home” on a daily basis compared to less often. Over four in ten people (43%) who engage in “daily” prayer or religious study are very happy. In comparison, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who “never” pray or study religion at home have a comparable happiness level.
Ethics
Ethics also appears to affect happiness levels. Just under four in ten people (37%) who are “never or rarely pressured to act unethically” are very happy according to the Index. Only about one-quarter (26%) who are pressured to act unethically “all the time” or “often” are very happy according to the Index.
Age
Older people tend to be happier according to the Happiness Index. Less than one in three (29%) in the 18 to 24 age bracket are very happy according to the survey, compared to almost one-half (47%) of people age 65 and older. The survey results also show a clear trend in increasing happiness between those two age groups.
Other Findings
The various components of the Happiness Index also reveal some issues relevant to national politics and people's personal finances. While some of the findings from the happiness survey will be discussed in greater detail in The Harris Poll #47, to be released April 23, 2008, some highlights are:
Almost three-quarters (73%) of people say they feel their “voice is not heard in national decisions that affect (them).”
Almost four in ten Republicans (39%) are very happy compared to about one-third of Independents (34 percent) and Democrats (33%).
About two-thirds of Americans (65%) say they “frequently worry about (their) financial situation.”
More people without any credit card debt are very happy (38%) than people who have any amount of credit card debt (32%).
So What?
Although this data does not establish causal relationships among the various factors studied, it does raise some provocative possibilities. One possible explanation of the correlation between religion, ethics, and happiness, could be that people who struggle with personal relationships, financial pressures, and other stressful challenges feel more ethically pressured, more unhappy, and more disillusioned with religion. On the other hand, another plausible explanation is that people find relief and happiness in their religious faith despite such challenges and frustrations in life. It's also possible that people who practice their religion faithfully have a better developed ethical framework, feel more confident in unethical environments (or perhaps avoid unethical pressures altogether), and experience greater happiness as they live according to their convictions.
The trend of increasing happiness with age is also interesting. One explanation could be that younger people are more pressured with finances, time, and relationships. This might be due to a perceived or real need to establish their independence. Potentially satisfying relationships with family, friends, and God may suffer as a result. Another possibility might be changing expectations and perceptions with age, which would affect how older people assess their sources of unhappiness and happiness. Finally, maybe happiness does not really increase with age. Perhaps the age-related differences noted in the data are instead related to fundamental differences in each generation's attitudes, values, or environment. For example, maybe the circumstances in which younger people are currently being raised are fundamentally more stressful, less religious, and less ethical than for previous generations.
Methodology
This Harris Poll® was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. A full methodology and data tables will be made available at www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms.
CBNNews.com - New research shows spirituality is a major factor in children's overall happiness.
A study conducted by the University of British Columbia measured how a child's spirituality, and factors like temperament, affect the child's sense of well being.
"Our goal was to see whether there's a relation between spirituality and happiness," said Mark Holder, an associate professor of psychology and the study's co-author. "We knew going in that there was such a relation in adults, so we took multiple measures of spirituality and happiness in children."
Spirituality accounted for about five percent of happiness in adults, but a surprising 16.5 percent of happiness among children.
"From our perspective, it's a whopping big effect," Holder said. "I expected it to be much less. I thought their spirituality would be too immature to account for their well-being."
The study tested 315 children ages 9 to 12.
Next, researchers hope to survey children in a country where Christianity is not prominent and compare the results.
Money buys happiness if you spend it on someone else: study
Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008
OTTAWA - Money can't buy happiness, say the experts. But a Canadian psychologist says spending it can make us happier - as long as we spend it on someone else, not on ourselves.
Even giving away as little as $5 gives a measurable boost to our happiness for that day, says the study by Elizabeth Dunn's team at the University of British Columbia, and a colleague at the Harvard Business School.
She and her grad student, Lara Aknin, approached a small company in the Boston area. The boss was planning to give profit-sharing bonuses to employees, but the workers didn't yet know the details.
Then each employee got a cheque for between $3,000 and $8,000 (average $5,000). The psychologists waited a while, giving them time to spend the money.
Some bought motorcycles, some spent on vacations, on gifts, even a swing set for the kids.
"People who spent more of their bonus on others - either on gifts for others or on charitable donations - reported greater happiness," she says. (This is after taking into account how content they were to begin with.)
"In other words, people reaped greater happiness from the bonus if they spent it on others. Whereas spending it on themselves didn't really lead to any benefits," no matter how much money they received.
Lab studies on student volunteers backed up the same findings. (Students given free cash from $5 to $20 were told to spend it on themselves, or on others.)
And the findings held in a random survey of 630 Americans that asked about their level of happiness, their incomes, and how much money they tend to give to charity or spend on gifts.
The study team didn't distinguish between giving to strangers (through charity) and spending on others that the workers knew, such as relatives. A happy feeling that lasts for six to eight weeks, she notes, is a major effect. And the increase in the happiness of these workers showed up as very large.
"I know that it doesn't fit what most people would expect. We actually did a separate study... and found a significant majority of people felt they would be happier spending money on themselves" rather than on others, Ms. Dunn says.
And the religious side of this? That it's better to give than to receive, for instance?
"I'm not a very religious person," she confides. "But there are certain religions that really advocate giving, and religious people do tend to be happier. So perhaps one of the benefits of religion that previous research has documented lies in the tendency to advocate charitable giving."
She's not done yet. She wants to ask "exactly what is causing this effect? Is it that people start to feel better about themselves? Is it that relationships are strengthened? Is is that people are simply spending more time with others? We're just now investigating these studies."
Many physicians see a lot of patients who show illness, but only a few who express or portray sickness.
As expressed in a little booklet by Dr. Donald Dudley, for centuries, patient and physicians alike have attributed accidents or illnesses to bad luck or bad timing, or carelessness or an act of God.
Many of us see neighbors or close friends spend half their time running from doctor to doctor, week or month after month. Is their faith in hoping to find one doctor that is smarter than another rather than having faith in themselves and the doctor they have chosen?
Consider this startling fact. Again, and I extract from the same little booklet, medical records indicate 70 percent of those medical treatments and surgical procedures are administered to only 30 percent of us.
We all believe in something beneficial to our health or not beneficial to our health. As human beings we are incredibly complex with an endless stream of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs that must be satisfied.
It is impossible for us to go from one minute to the next wondering if what I do every minute is going to make me sick or well.
We may or may not realize it, but a deep-seated love for ourselves and everything around us including the bugs, the viruses, and other good or bad challenges, is what keeps our immune system strong and all of internal organs working in harmony.
Love and confidence within ourselves is the key.
The important part of this is that we all must express the love that is in us from time to time to maintain good physical and mental health.
There is another excellent little book that I have enjoyed and have thought of from time to time when treating patients over the past 50-plus years.
It expresses more meaning to me now than 40 years ago possibly because I am in contact with more patients closer to my age now than before.
Most of us have some ongoing illness but few of us are expressing a sickness. Just remember to get a good physical from a physician that will look beyond just the laboratory studies and will take time to look, examine and talk to you about your concerns.
Ask questions and understand that changes are taking place in your body.
What deficiencies or alterations that possibly have taken place over the past few years in your body could be corrected or supported without synthetic drugs?
This may require physical adjustments such as exercise, nutritional changes, weight changes, and a host of others, or it could be mental or emotional changes such as relationships with your family, husband or wife, neighbors, or whoever may need to be addressed.
Last, and possibly the most important, is your inner spiritual realm. Are you happy? Do you love yourself?
If not, this will all be reflected through physical functions particularly in areas where time and age have already influenced function.
Love and be happy with yourself. Know and understand weaknesses that are taking place with age.
Correct or support that which you can do or have done naturally and use crutches in the form of drugs to support that which is showing failure.
Just remember that there are no synthetic drugs used that don't have side effects.
You can not support one system in an artificial way without altering or influencing another system of the body. Talk to your doctor about your concerns.
IN the elegant foyer of The Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, 350 business leaders have gathered. Chief executives and managers from all the major corporations are there.
They have come as members of the Australian Institute of Management to hear advice on how to be more effective in business, but not from a sales guru. They're here to listen to one of the great thought leaders of our time; father of the positive psychology movement; Mr Happiness himself, author of the best-seller, Learned Optimism, Dr Martin Seligman PhD.
Seligman is selling the happiness message to our top corporations and he intends to return to Australia next year with a team to run in-house programs. "I teach the new prosperity," he tells me later.
"Not how to get rich, but how to stay prosperous in all aspects of life: work, home and body. We need to look at a gross wellbeing indicator, not Gross Domestic Product so we can get ahead without illness, depression, anxiety and fear stopping us in this new, positive paradigm."
Indeed, there has been a paradigm shift in corporate thinking since I last worked as a finance journalist in the "greed is good" 1980s and 90s.
Cairns says this is the new frontier - business with a spiritual edge. "I don't use the word spiritual. It is about transformation. To get the most out of your business and people, you have to work on yourself first. Buddhism has given me a profound sense of meaning and purpose."
Akehurst says: "I was an anxious over-achiever driven by anxiety, wanting targets to be met, and fear of failure. The change is that I have become mindful of the moment, I am only motivated by the positive, and have learned the value of authenticity and integrity. When you tell the truth to the people you work with, you save so much valuable time and money."
Rennie from McKinsey, a promoter and fan of both Seligman and Rinpoche, says: "When I tried to sell this type of thinking into the corporate market 10 years ago I was considered a heretic. Now it's mainstream."
Meanwhile, David White, a director of Port Jackson Partners who is organising the meditation event, says what's really being taught is "the science of the mind" and how to transform thinking to achieve quantifiable results.
International Business Week summed it up thus: "It may sound flaky but a growing number of companies are setting off on spiritual journeys ... in search of a soul as a way to foster creativity and motivate leaders." The list includes US corporate giants such as AT&T, Boeing and Xerox, not to mention the World Bank, where leaders sit in a semicircle once a week and "connect".
The crux of the new prosperity movement is happiness, not a superficial happiness but a deep, resounding contentment born of having abundance in all areas of life: work family and play.
As Seligman says, happiness doesn't come from pleasures alone, such as making money or having sex, but from adding a deep sense of meaning - what the Buddhists and yogis call bliss.
Property developer Bruno Grollo, of Rialto fame, understands this. "You work so you can gain security and material wealth, but money never made me happy. I made money but I never felt the way I did when I was 18 or 21, so I realised that money didn't matter. Transcendental meditation is the closest thing to the euphoria of youth I have discovered," he once confided to me.
With an international Happiness conference being held in Sydney in May, the medical statistics bear out the premise. Happy people live eight to 10 years longer and fight off illness at double the rate of others.
The Reserve Bank's Akehurst, admired for his leadership qualities, shuns the notion that working with concepts such as happiness and authenticity is the "soft and fuzzy" option. "This is hard-nosed business practice. It creates tough but fair leaders."
He says: "Authenticity is a beautiful, time-saving process. When you cover up, people know it's not true and trust is damaged. If you say something isn't working, everyone says that's bad, and gets on with fixing it. Otherwise it takes ages to get things sorted." Personal growth leads to efficiency.
It's two decades since I wrote my book The New Boy Network on the excesses of the 1980s. In some circles people joked that to be interviewed by me was the kiss of death, as those I had revered for their enthusiasm and determination seemed to go down like tenpins: Larry Adler, father of Rodney; textile king Abe Goldberg; Alan Bond; Christopher Skase; Adsteam's John Spalvins; Robert Holmes a Court and Coles Myer's Brian Quinn.
Many Asian visitors went with them, such as Thai confectionery mogul Jack Chia and Malaysia's Lee Ming Tee.
Why? I have thought a lot about it the past decades, myself having moved to Byron Bay to embrace wellness. I have observed that what drives you can drive you over the edge. My own journey echoed theirs. A workaholic, a believer that somehow external success would take away that nagging sense of fragility and unworthiness that so many of us feel, I soon discovered external success was like water to sand and resulted in burnout and bad decision-making. At the height of my own career, burnt out and suffering depression, I walked away.
Years later, having sat at the feet of people involved in personal growth: Buddhists, yoga teachers, wellness and longevity masters, I have unravelled the greatest mystery of all.
The answer to happiness is the ability to live now, comfortable in your own skin whatever the circumstance.
Greek poet C.P. Cavafy talks about not being so outcome-driven, not so eager to get to Ithaka, mythical home of Odysseus. Rather, he says, to be able to enjoy the journey itself on the high seas will teach us to appreciate the riches of Ithaka when we arrive. Seligman calls it being in the flow of life. The Buddhists call it absorption in the moment.
Others simply describe it as the pleasure of stroking your child's face or playing with the family dog. Whatever it is, those able to connect from the heart, rather than through ego alone, seem more able to achieve enduring success.
Indeed, coming back to Sydney to put into practice what I've learned, I have found a different corporate landscape. While some - such as the recent spate of overgeared entrepreneurs - are still suffering for their sins of hubris and being too driven, it's a rapidly changing world.
Funds management icon Brian Sherman is fighting for animal rights, our Prime Minister is fighting for home care for his son, and former Microsoft mogul Daniel Petre is taking time off to be with his wife and kids - all for the sake of joyfulness and meaning.
According to Gordon Cairns, words such as empower have replaced command and control, while abundance and prosperity have replaced wealth.
My new column, Business Life, is about the things that matter: business and life, work and play, passions and health, heart and soul - in balance. In a world in which happiness is the hottest new corporate commodity and health and success depend on it, it's no longer a dream to have it all. It's a necessity.
Teaching happiness: the classes in wellbeing that are helping our children
From Times Online February 18, 2008
Binge drinking, mental health issues, adolescent suicide: how can we solve the problems that beset so many children? The answer may lie with the new science of positive psychology
In a classroom in South Tyneside, a small group of 11-year-olds is considering the finer points of Stoic philosophy. The teacher, Mrs Carrahar, points helpfully at the blackboard. “Come on now, kids, remember your ABC: Adversity, Belief, Consequence. Sometimes how we feel about things depends on ... what? It begins with P ... Yes, Darren?” “Perspective, miss!” says a small child. “Very good, Darren!”
The class is the latest experiment in a new movement called “positive psychology”, which is slowly but surely revolutionising the way that education is approached in the English-speaking world. It is the brainchild of Martin Seligman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. If there is one figure responsible for the deluge of books, articles and TV programmes on happiness with which we have been inundated over the last five years, it is Seligman. So, when I meet him in a hotel suite in London, it is a relief to discover that he is not some moronically upbeat figure, like the self-help guru played by Patrick Swayze in Donnie Darko.
In fact, he tells me, “I was a slightly depressive grump for the first 40 years of my life”. After considering a career as a professional bridge player, then turning down a Fulbright scholarship in analytical philosophy at Oxford, he eventually became a psychologist and forged a distinguished name for himself studying “learned helplessness”, or how animals (and people) learn to give up in apparently hopeless situations.
While researching the phenomenon, Seligman was struck by something: some people, and even some animals, didn't give up even in highly adverse circumstances. He began to be interested in the opposite phenomenon, “learned optimism” - why some people possess unusual powers of resilience and self-control, and whether those powers can be taught or cultivated in others.
When, in 1998, he was elected president of the American Psychological Association, the largest body of psychologists in the world, he decided that he wanted to use his presidency to shift the discipline from its histor-ical focus on mental illness to a new focus on mental health and wellbeing.
He began to gather together his own and other people's research from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), as well as from neuropsychology, the social sciences and even economics, to try to find the secret to living well. His team discovered that about 50 per cent of our average happiness level is genetically conditioned. But the rest is conditioned by things under our control: both external factors, such as our job or social life, and inner factors, such as how we think and what values we have.
His team undertook a huge amount of life satisfaction surveys, to look at what really made people happy. They discovered that some external conditions were not as important as people commonly believed: changes in income, for example, played a marginal role in life satisfaction. Other external conditions played a much bigger role, such as having a rich social network or being married.
The team also identified the inner work that can improve your wellbeing. They incorporated many techniques from CBT that have been proved to help to overcome depression and anxiety disorders. They also tried out cognitive and pedagogic techniques from ancient philosophy and spirituality, such as the idea of character strengths from Aristotle, mindfulness from Buddhism and learning to challenge one's irrational beliefs from Stoicism, then tested these insights empirically, to see if they really worked. As Seligman says: “We took some ideas from ancient philosophy and married them to the new scientific study of happiness. Aristotle never had the benefit of the seven-point scale [used to measure life satisfaction].”
So, while positive psychology is in some ways a “new science”, and a new way of approaching education, in other ways it is a return to the norm for Western education, which for centuries, through the Roman Empire and beyond, taught young people philosophic techniques to manage their thoughts and emotions. Indeed, he may not know it, but the ABC model of emotions that Darren is learning on Tyneside comes directly from a Stoic philosopher called Epictetus, who suggested that “it is not events, but our beliefs about them, that cause us suffering”.
It has also been taught for the past two years at the £9,000-a-year Wellington College in Berkshire. There, a teacher called Ian Morris, who bears a striking resemblance to David Miliband, tries to guide his wealthy young pupils to a rounded sense of the good life. He says: “Most of them really seem to value the lessons. You occasionally get some mucking around. I sent one boy out for clowning around and he complained, ?I got thrown out of happiness classes for laughing', which I thought was pretty funny.” Harry, a polite 16-year-old whom I meet at a meditation workshop at Wellington, says the wellbeing classes have a decent reputation among the pupils. “We're a very sporty school, and Mr Morris appeals to that in the classes. For example, he teaches us a basic meditation technique which he says Sir Steve Redgrave used before big rowing races.”
Britain is, at the moment, doing badly in terms of helping its young to achieve wellbeing. The UK came bottom in a recent Unicef survey of life satisfaction among children in 21 developed countries. The Institute of Psychiatry announced last year that the number of children with emotional and behavioural problems in the UK has doubled in the past 25 years. The number of adolescent suicides has quadrupled.
To try to take the teaching of wellbeing forward, Layard organised a pilot scheme to teach “resilience” in 22 state schools in South Tyneside, Hertfordshire and Manchester. Last July about 100 teachers and local council officials spent ten days at the University of Pennsylvania, where they trained with some of the most famous psychologists in the world, including Seligman himself and Aaron Beck, the inventor of CBT. They came back enthused. “The ideas we learnt were so useful, even for our own lives,” says Diane Wood, assistant to the chief executive of South Tyneside council. “In ten days, our head of child services overcame his fear of flying, while I don't think I've argued with my teenage son once since I went on the course.”
They started to teach the subject in September to 4,000 kids ranging from 11 to 16. The classes include teaching cognitive techniques to some troubled adolescents who have dropped out of schools because of bullying or other problems. I sat in on one in South Tyneside. The teacher, Melissa, started by picking out entries from a “problem box”, into which the students had put anonymously written notes about problems they were facing.
One note that Melissa read out says: “I'm not sure I can take any more. I feel so stressed and bad all the time. It all started when I went to the new school.” The pupils then discussed the problem, empathising and asking what could be done to change things, both in terms of the person's inner beliefs and his or her external circumstances. One affable 16-year-old boy with tattoos on his arms, Geoff, said: “I lost a tenner the other day. I was stressed at first, then I figured, well, it could have been more.” The boy next to him laughed, “Yeah, but it wasn't your money, was it?” “Well, that too,” Geoff conceded with a smile.
The pilot scheme is intended to last three years, during which the children will be surveyed to check the effect of the classes on their wellbeing and emotional resilience, compared with groups who haven't been to the classes. The results so far have been good; council officials in Tyneside and Hertfordshire are already eager to roll out the subject to more schools.
Seligman tells me that nowhere else in the world have his ideas been so taken up by public policy as in the UK. “There's a real buzz here about the politics of wellbeing,” he says. He compares Britain's embrace of both positive psychology and CBT to the Renaissance government of Cosimo de' Medici in Florence, which used its wealth to help to translate and reintroduce ideas from ancient philosophy.
The Government's interest in CBT and positive psychology is, in large part, thanks to Lord Layard, who wrote an influential report in 2002, pointing out that the Government spent more money on incapacity benefits for the mentally ill than it did on unemployment benefits. Mental illness, he declared, was “the major social problem facing our country today”.
Positive psychology also seems to offer a way forward for education beyond the ethical relativism of the past 30 years when, in the words of Darrin McMahon, the author of The Pursuit of Happiness, “the only people teaching values in schools seem to be sports coaches”. The science of happiness is a way in which timeless values and philosophical techniques can be reintroduced into the classroom.
Even among the leaders of the wellbeing movement, there is disagreement over what the meaning or goal of life should be: Lord Layard thinks the goal of policy should be “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”. Seligman says: “There's too much emphasis on happiness, I think. I'm interested in the meaningful or virtuous life, what the Greeks called eudaimonia.”
As concepts of wellbeing are slowly introduced into the national curriculum, this pluralism of views needs to be displayed, not hidden away. Young people need to be given guidance in tried and tested ways of thinking and living, but they also need to understand that no two people (or prophets) ever fully agree on the meaning of life, and no amount of scientific data should ever stand in the way of them making up their own minds.
Unhappy Workers Often Turn to Spirituality for Direction
As job satisfaction rates continue to decline, many job seekers and workers are hoping to find their career calling through faith, according to a recently-released book by America's Career and Life Coach, Susan Britton Whitcomb.
Indianapolis, IN (PRWEB) February 20, 2008 -- Employee satisfaction has struck an all-time low, according to a survey released by the Conference Board, a New York-based private research group. After surveying 5,000 U.S. households, the Conference Board found that more than half of all respondents disliked their current job.
As a result of their unhappiness, many people turn to their spirituality to find guidance in their job search and careers. Susan Britton Whitcomb, author of The Christian's Career Journey and a career coach for more than 20 years, has seen first-hand how often people rely on faith to resolve their career dilemmas and fuel their success.
In her book, she discusses the significant role spirituality plays in a person's career journey and offers essential job search and success tips for finding one's calling in the workplace. The following are five of the 10 helpful tips she provides to help people make the smart career decisions that align with their faith:
1. Prepare to persevere. Exploring career options requires tenacity and time. During this phase, be open to new things--we don't know what we don't know.
2. Brainstorming is a team sport. Enlist the support of people who are miracle-minded, well-connected and strategic thinkers to help expand your career options.
3. Narrow it down. If you have a number of options that sound promising, begin to narrow them down to one or two preferred options to make your research more manageable. If you immediately identify a career track that looks promising at face value, proceed with the curiosity and objectivity of a detective.
4. Investigate with legwork. Take time to thoroughly research your preferred options. Your research will often turn up new ideas that will be an even better fit than you thought possible.
5. Connect with people face to face. Talk to at least three people familiar with your target field. Choose association representatives, veterans of the field, and even newbies. Suppliers, vendors, and customers can also give a helpful perspective. Members of your church or other faith-based organizations can be valuable contacts.
"With Americans logging between 100,000 and 125,000 hours in the marketplace during their careers, it's no wonder that a significant number of prayers are devoted to men and women's job search and career concerns," adds Whitcomb.
The Christian's Career Journey is available at all major bookstores and from the publisher (www.jist.com or 1.800.648.JIST). To speak with Susan Britton Whitcomb, contact Natalie Ostrom.
JIST, America's Career Publisher, is a division of EMC/Paradigm Publishing and is the leading publisher of job search, career, occupational information, life skills and character education books, workbooks, assessments, videos and software.
To give credit where credit is due, Stephen Post attributes his scholarly work on altruism and the widespread recognition it has garnered to a simple bit of advice from his Irish mother. Whenever he was bored or morose as a kid, she would tell him, "Stevie, why don't you go out and do something for someone," Post told an audience at Florida Southern College on Friday.
Post is professor of bioethics, philosophy and religion at the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University and the author of "Why Good Things Happen to Good People." He delivered the keynote lecture at the annual meeting of the Florida Center for Science and Religion at FSC, which was devoted to the topic "Angels and Devils: The Theory and Praxis of Good and Evil in Science and Religion."
In a lecture that was by turns intellectual, inspirational and humorous, Post marshalled a host of data from scientific studies to support his thesis that unselfish actions toward others have mental and physical health benefits. Or, as Post put it, "It's good to be good, and science says so."
Post cited one study in which a researcher followed people who had high indications of anger on a psychological profile test. Their mortality rate by age 50 was 20 percent. For those in the lowest quartile of indications of anger, the mortality rate was 2 percent, he said.
Post was tapped by British-American philanthropist Sir John Templeton several years ago to found the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which facilitates studies on the interface of science, health and love. Post devoted a good bit of his lecture to questions of happiness and love. The key to happiness, he said, lies in practicing altruistic virtues, such as helping others and practicing forgiveness. Noble purposes and actions yield more enjoyment of life, he said.
"I believe even in the deserts of life, if you plant a rose and stick with love, in the long run you're going to be better off and be blessed for your efforts," he said.
Responding to a question, Post said people should not pursue altruism just so they can be healthier.
"If you're getting into religion for self-benefit, that would be inauthentic. All science can give us is statistics, not promises. We 'do unto others' because they're deserving of it," he said.
Post called the late 20th-century "an intellectual hellhole" because of ideas that cast suspicion on notions of unselfishness. He mentioned existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre and biologist Richard Dawkins, author of "The Selfish Gene" and one of several recent writers who have written harsh critiques of belief in God. Attributing the moral category of selfishness to the biochemical process of reproduction was "ridiculous," he said.
"In our contemporary society, for a lot of people, the gene has taken the place of the soul. If you want to know your ultimate essence and destiny and nature, it's your genotype, baby. ... So don't get to be feeling too genuine about yourself," Post said, describing Dawkins' views.
Health and happiness are two of the universal goals of all people. Many philosophers, spiritual teachers, the world's major religions, including Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have prized gratitude as a spiritually beneficial emotional state. Now doctors and psychologists have joined in the chorus.
Medical research indicates that there is something you can do each day to be healthier and happier, and it will cost you nothing and take very little time. Be grateful. Dr Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, say their scientific study indicates that gratitude plays a significant role in a person's sense of well-being.
A Healthier Lifestyle
Grateful people: Those who embrace gratitude as a permanent trait rather than an occasional state of mind have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health.
Stress Buster
"Gratitude research suggests that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress," the researchers say.
Immune Booster
Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that the boosts the immune system. Dr Lisa Aspinwall, professor of psychology at the University of Utah, reported on some very interesting studies linking optimism to better immune function. In one, researchers compared the immune systems of healthy, first-year law students under stress. They found that students who were optimistic (based on survey responses) maintained higher numbers of healthy blood cells that protect the immune system, compared with their more pessimistic classmates.
Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients diagnosed with AIDS, as well as those preparing to undergo surgery, had better health outcomes when they maintained attitudes of optimism.
Heart Health
Clinical psychologist Blair Justice, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at the UT School of Public Health at Houston, states, "A growing body of research supports the notion that rediscovering a sense of abundance by thinking about those people and things we love lowers the risks of coronary events."
GRATITUDE STRATEGIES
Practise: Start each day by simply focusing on three to five things for which you can be grateful. This will increase your health and happiness. Everyone has something to be grateful for. Just being alive is a big one. Being able to breathe, or having enough money for lunch, or a roof over your head are all things we can be grateful that we have, but we often take these for granted.
Express your gratitude to someone else for an even stronger dose of health and happiness. Holding the thought of gratitude and expressing that gratitude to the friend will benefit both of you.
Record your gratitude. Some people have found even greater rewards from practising gratitude when they make a daily list of things they are grateful for in a 'gratitude journal'. This practice is made even more powerful when they find time to reread their gratitude lists.
Share your gratitude. Gratitude becomes infectious. Look for ways to share your blessings. It can express itself in simple ways like with a smile, a blessing, a prayer, a note or phone call. Just do it.
Thank you for reading this; I'm so grateful that you did.
A Personal Belief System Correlates with Happiness
January 23 2008
Work life Balance is examined in American Dream Project’s Dream Life Assessment. The survey indicates that in the area of spirituality, Americans stand strong by incorporating a personal belief system in their lives and thus becoming one step closer to work life balance.
Work life Balance brings forth the question, is a personal belief system important in today’s world? According to Will Marre, founder of American Dream Project and acclaimed speaker, it is—very. “Studies across 46 countries,” states Marre, “show that people who embrace spiritual beliefs and regularly attend some type of worship service are happier, more content, more optimistic, healthier and longer living than those who don’t. Believers simply have higher life satisfaction and work life balance than those who don’t have a spiritual belief system.”
For over 3 years the American Dream Project has been conducting an online survey and has accumulated over 10,000 participants to get clarity on how people rate themselves in work life balance, spirituality being a part of the focus.
The results of the survey are actually surprising in a world that seems more and more cynical and disillusioned every day. 41% of teens, 44% of single, and 44% of married participants say they experience a constant connection to a divine source of wisdom, love and peace, are primarily motivated by love, live to a high standard of personal morality, and are tolerant and open minded to new learning, ideas and truth.
Marre explains the importance of a belief system to work life balance stating, “Cynics would argue that belief in God is simply a placebo that creates an emotional feeling of well being. Believers would say that spiritual beliefs give you a sense of meaning, call you to a moral life and motivate you to be more loving because that is what God desires of us.” Furthermore, in The Magic of Forgiveness (2003) Dr. Tian Dayton states, “Whether your faith is in God, Higher Power or nature, some sort of spiritually organizing principles help to give moral structure, spiritual purpose and meaning to our lives. They also provide us with like-minded communities to belong to.”
“Whether as part of our beliefs we choose to believe in God or not,” states Marre, “having a core belief system gives our lives meaning and purpose and does indeed make us happier. It holds us accountable to something/someone more than ourselves and helps us achieve work life balance.”
As we approach year's end, your mailbox is filling up with fundraising appeals from various charities and causes, hoping to capitalize on your holiday cheer — or at least, your effort to avoid a bit of 2007 income taxes through deductible contributions.
It is a fact that givers are happier people than non-givers. According to the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey, a survey of 30,000 American households, people who gave money to charity in 2000 were 43% more likely than non-givers to say they were "very happy" about their lives.
Similarly, volunteers were 42% more likely to be very happy than non-volunteers. It didn't matter whether gifts of money and time went to churches or symphony orchestras — givers to all types of religious and secular causes were far happier than non-givers.
People who give also are less sad and depressed than non-givers. The University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics reveals that people who gave money away in 2001 were 34% less likely than non-givers to say that they had felt "so sad that nothing could cheer them up" in the past month. They were also 68% less likely to have felt "hopeless," and 24% less likely to have said that "everything was an effort."
The happiness difference between givers and non-givers is not due to differences in their personal characteristics, such as income or religion. Imagine two people who are identical in terms of income and faith — as well as age, education, politics, sex, and family circumstances — but one donates money and volunteers, while the other does not. The giver will be, on average, 11 percentage points more likely to be very happy than the non-giver.
Giving goes beyond formal gifts of money and time, of course. Much of the way we serve others is less formal, or with other resources of value in our lives. One particularly visceral kind of giving involves our blood, which a bit over 15% of Americans donate at least once each year. If anything, this kind of charity is even more strongly associated with happiness than traditional gifts.
Q&A WITH ...If happiness is a choice, then why doesn't everyone simply make that choice?
Robert A. Emmons answers that question in his new book, Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier. He suggests specific techniques for implementing a consistent lifestyle of gratitude. And it is a choice, but it takes practice, he adds.
After years of work on studying the subject scientifically, Dr. Emmons, a psychologist at the University of California, Davis, offers the findings he says demonstrate that gratitude can produce a healthier, happier lifestyle.
While some people may view happiness as merely a vague feeling, Dr. Emmons believes that one's perceptions can be manipulated to achieve contentment. He spoke recently with Special Contributor Anita Curtis by e-mail. Here are excerpts.
How does one look at gratitude as a science?
Science means that we apply scientific tools – observation and measurement – to the examination of, in this case, the feelings, perceptions and expressions of gratitude. It means that we replace armchair philosophy and moral rhetoric regarding gratitude with empirical observation of what gratitude is and the results of what it does in people's lives.
Were there findings that surprised you?
Yes, the physical health findings. That people keeping gratitude journals slept 1/2 hour more per evening, woke up more refreshed and exercised 33 percent more each week compared with persons who are not keeping these journals.
Is gratitude related to one's religious beliefs?
Gratitude is at the core of all the major religions. Virtually every religion emphasizes gratefulness or thanksgiving. It is part of the ethical foundations of world religions which state that people are morally obligated to give thanks to their God and to each other.
It's easy to be grateful for good things that come to us. How can we also be grateful in times of loss?
We realize that there is more to life than our losses, and gratitude for life gives us a realistic perspective by which to view our losses and not succumb to victimhood or despair. The ability to perceive the elements in one's life and even life itself as gifts would appear essential if we are to transform tragedies into opportunities.
How can negative emotions be replaced with positive ones? Is it really just a matter of choosing which to focus on?
This is true. For example, one simply cannot be relaxed and stressed at the same time, nor grateful and resentful at the same time. Relaxation drives out anxiousness and vice-versa. You have to gain control over your emotional destiny by choosing to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. But you just can't think happy thoughts or grateful thoughts, because emotions follow from particular thought patterns. So, perceiving life as a gift or things in one's life as gifts is the royal road to gratitude.
What do you consider the most important attribute or attitude one should develop to find joy and contentment in life?
I believe that gratitude is the best approach to life. When life is going well, it allows us to celebrate and magnify the goodness. When life is going badly, it provides a perspective by which we can view life in its entirety.
Could it be that the kids get it and the adults don't?
A long, long time ago, in a decade known as the "'60s," many young people who were not in college ROTC or the Young Republicans club had a visceral distrust of anyone over, oh, say ... 30.
These were ... are, the baby boomers, perhaps the most self-indulgent generation in the long, often futile, history of humankind [I yam what I yam. ...]
The boomers have been followed by generations mostly known by chromosomal letters: "X" and "Y"
Anyway, since the boomers had a visceral distrust of the generations that went before them and thought they had invented the world and thus deserved to dominate it ...
And since succeeding generations have had to find their own difficult niches outside the distortions of the Me Generation ...
You would think ...
That kids today ... kids today ... would be rebelling against an adult world that can produce a lot of wealth but can come up pretty short on things that really count.
Then again, you might have missed a recent news story about an MTV/Associated Press study of young people between the ages of 13-24 and what makes them happy.
And the reason you might have missed it? Well, look no further than yet another news story about yet another survey — on the reading habits of Americans ... which found one in four adults read no books at all during the past year.
Of course, if you're reading this you probably are not one of those folks for whom the act of picking up a book and getting lost, lost, lost in it is a lost, lost, lost art.
"Religious" works and popular fiction were the most popular choices according to the poll, with the Bible, the Good Book itself, the most widely read book.
I'll admit to checking out the Bible now and then, and I do read a lot, which led me to the questions asked by MTV on what, if anything, makes kids today happy.
The shocking, shocking answer to what made the most young people happy is ... spending time with their families.
Don't know for sure about generations X, Y, Z, but where I come from — when Visigoths walked the earth — happiness was getting as far away from my family as possible.
By age 13, I was firmly convinced my parents were not only uncool, but hopelessly lacking in any skills that I as an all-knowing teen might find useful or necessary.
Yeah, there was a rather significant level of what we today call "dysfunction" in my "family of origin" [another psycho-babble term popularized in the 'aughts], but still ...
Anyway, this AP/MTV survey also showed that white kids call themselves happier than blacks and Latinos; that many, especially females, feel themselves just totally and irrevocably stressed out — and, get this, that money is not something that makes them happy.
Maybe this is because of the mind-boggling prosperity that has inflicted this country over the past couple of decades, so kids just take it for granted.
Sex? Kids 13-17 showed a lot of wisdom in saying that being sexually active at that age leads to diminished happiness; while the 18-24s were cautious. Yes, sex can lead to momentary happiness, they said, but hardly provides much of a foundation for anything lasting.
Drugs and alcohol — more unhappy than happy.
School makes many respondents in the poll happy, and they also said they believe in the institution of marriage and want to have kids of their own. Significantly more kids from families whose parents have remained married reported waking up happy, compared to kids from divorced families.
Nearly half named their parents as their heroes and three-quarters said their relationship with their parents is what makes them happy.
Family, friends and God, that's who they want to be with.
Nearly half said religion and spirituality are important to them and more than half said they believe God influences what makes them happy. Being part of a religious group also was seen as happiness-inducing.
Of active believers in God, 80 percent said they are happy, compared to 60 percent of the young people who said faith is not important to them.
Perhaps the young people surveyed by MTV already have already learned the spirituality of happiness.
Maybe some have already learned where true joy resides.
This brought to mind a passage written some 1,950 years ago, by Paul of Tarsus, who perhaps was addressing a group of young people in the ancient Greek city of Phillipi.
Paul wrote:
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
"I can do everything through Him who gives me strength"
Want to comment on this column or other topics? Check out Don Miller's blog at http://www.santacruzlive.com/blogs/donmiller. Contact Don Miller at dmiller@santacruzsentinel.com.
Talkin' 'bout your g-g-g-generations:
Back in the day, Gen X-ers were known as '20-Somethings,' 'slackers' and 'Baby Busters' and turned away from anything smacking of Baby Boom self-indulgence or narcissism.
Of course, Gen X-ers are now parents and have their own disaffected youths to worry about ...
Generation Y.
'Why, why, why' they might cry, are we going to have to foot the bill for boomers when they start tapping Social Security? Y-ers, also known as 'millennials,' have birthdates between 1984-1993. Naturally, the kids born after 1993 are now being called Gen Z.
The people who mark such things say hallmarks of Y are apathy, childhood obesity, a predilection for pharmaceuticals and, oh yeah, an intimate, sometimes consuming, relationship with all things digital.
Kids Happy To Hang With Families: Survey Finds Teens’ Heroes Are Often Mom And Dad
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 — Time: 8:18:23 AM EST By Erin E. O’Neill
When it comes to their children, many adults probably think being able to drive the family car, hang out with friends at the mall and play the latest video games are the keys to happiness.
Little do they know that a large percentage of today’s youth would much rather spend time with mom and dad than listen to music, watch TV or, yes, even hang out with friends.
Kyle Newhart, 13, of Marietta thinks quality time with his family is very important but his dad, Rod, is pleasantly surprised by the results of a recent Associated Press/MTV survey that puts spending time with family at the top of the heap of things that make young folks happy.
Kyle Newhart does count video games among his favorite pastimes but he also enjoys playing board games with his dad and mom, Anita. Dinner together, reading and road trips are also important to their family dynamic, according to Anita Newhart.
The survey of 1,280 young people, ages 13 to 24, included an extensive list of questions ranging from “What one thing in life makes you most happy?” to “Who would you say are your heroes?”
The top answer when young people were asked what makes them happy was their families. When asked to name their heroes, Spider-Man, Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods couldn’t compete with mom, who squeaked by dad by a mere 8 percent. Together, parents fared better than anyone else, including Martin Luther King Jr. and George Bush, as influences on their kids’ lives.
The nationwide survey was conducted online from a random sampling of households with landline telephone numbers, both listed and unlisted, according to The Associated Press. Web access was provided to those who needed it by the company Knowledge Networks, which conducted the survey.
The results of the survey aren’t as surprising to some people, however.
Cathy Harper, coordinator for The Right Path, works with many area youth and says the survey shows what she knew all along.
“Family time is very important,” Harper said. “Kids really do want parents and adults involved in their lives.
“Everybody needs to feel supported, even as we get older,” she said.
Overall, the survey is positive. However, a little more disheartening are results showing white youth to be happier than blacks and Hispanics and that overall stress levels are up compared to a similar study conducted in 1996.
What stresses kids out? For 18 to 24-year-olds, the major stressor is finances. For teens, it’s school that is the greatest concern.
The Newharts made the decision to take their son out of school in the fourth grade and homeschool him to the end of the year. Beginning in the fifth grade, Kyle was enrolled in online classes, which he continues. They said school stress was a major factor in their decision and now he is much less stressed over school work.
When it comes to family finances, Rod Newhart believes full disclosure is the only way to let kids know what is going on.
“Kids are a lot smarter and more aware,” he said. “Not talking about (finances) is a detriment.”
Harper agrees.
“Kids worry about finances because they hear their parents talking about it,” she said. “Parents need to talk to their kids to make them feel less stressed.”
And while money doesn’t rank among the things that make kids happiest, it does play a major role when it comes to funding education and recreation.
“Money can’t provide happiness,” said Harper, “but it does provide opportunities.”
A lot of activities are available for area youth, regardless of their financial abilities, due in part to programs through The Right Path, Ely Chapman Education Foundation and the Marietta Family YMCA. Harper does caution against spreading yourself too thin.
“Don’t be in 500 things,” she said. “One or two activities is fine. Have good family time. Even if you have dinner at 9 o’clock at night, do it together.”
Spiritual fulfillment also seems to play a big role in determining happiness, with 62 percent of those polled saying they believe that a higher power has influence over the things that make them happy.
These figures are encouraging to Roger Rush, minister of the Church of Christ at Sixth and Washington streets in Marietta.
“The survey is right on. Kids will be happiest when we give ourselves. Time with family coupled with religion helps to keep families together,” he said. “We try to focus on that.”
Rush has seen many of his young parishioners grow into successful adults in his 22 years with the church and he attributes that to a strong family unit.
“Kids that come from families who spend time together, worship together — those kids are thriving,” he said.
In 1974, economist Richard Easterlin pointed out that beyond a certain point -- presumably when people's basic needs for food, shelter, public order and work are met -- greater wealth does not generate more national happiness. The America of 2007 is far richer than the America of 1977. Life expectancy is 78 years, up from 74 years. Our homes are bigger and crammed with more paraphernalia (microwave ovens, personal computers, flat-panel TVs). But happiness is stuck.
In 1977, 35.7 percent of Americans rated themselves "very happy," 53.2 percent "pretty happy" and 11 percent "not too happy," reports the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. In 2006, the figures are similar: 32.4 percent "very happy," 55.9 percent "pretty happy" and 11.7 percent "not too happy." Likewise, in most advanced countries, self-reported happiness has been flat for decades.
Hordes of scholars are asking why. Consider Cornell University economist Robert Frank's new book, "Falling Behind." He argues that rising affluence condemns us to self-defeating consumption contests. People want ever-bigger homes, because their friends have ever-bigger homes. But the extra pleasure of owning these grander homes is muted, because (yes) all our friends have them, too. Meanwhile, the added debt to buy the house may make us more anxious; and we may regret sacrificing some leisure -- working harder to buy the bigger home.
Greater individual wealth does not bring greater collective welfare. Moving farther out into suburbia for a bigger home increases traffic congestion and our commutes. Roads grow more clogged, pollution worsens. We engage in "behaviors that are smart for one, dumb for all," Frank writes.
Superficially, Frank seems convincing. The trouble is that he ignores history. The behavior he describes isn't new. A mobile society such as ours is inherently stressful. People rise and fall.
Americans have always been acquisitive and rank-conscious. In "Democracy in America" (1840), Alexis de Tocqueville observed: "Besides the good things which he possesses, [the American] every instant fancies a thousand others. . . . This thought fills him with anxiety, fear, and regret."
The psychology of prosperity -- striving, taking risks -- feeds on ambition and insecurity. Our system often seems an insane rat race. But over time, it has created huge gains in material well-being. Air conditioning may not have made people in the South and elsewhere happier. But it surely has made them more comfortable.
True, there's an economic disconnect today. Despite obvious prosperity, including 8 million new jobs since mid-2003, consumer confidence is subdued. But the explanation, I think, lies neither in Frank's elaborate theory nor in several popular culprits -- higher gasoline prices and the housing slump. Instead, I'd cite two underlying causes.
First, economic insecurity has increased. Companies are quicker to fire. Median job tenure for men age 45 to 54 dropped from about 13 years in 1983 to eight years in 2006, reports economist Rob Valletta of the San Francisco Fed. People have more cause to worry -- and they do.
Second, Americans compare the present with the immediate past. The economic boom of the late 1990s conditioned people to expect a blissful future. Clearly, that hasn't arrived. People are disappointed because reality doesn't match the promise.
Still, even the 1990s economic boom didn't produce a happiness boom; the survey figures barely budged. Nor has the growing income inequality since the 1970s produced an unhappiness boom. Between the richest and poorest Americans, happiness gaps have always been large. But income differences in the middle class involve modest or nonexistent differences in happiness. The old adage is true: Money can't buy happiness.
We ultimately get satisfaction from our relations with family and friends, the love we give or receive, the meaning we find in work, service, religion or hobbies. The strongest survey finding is that married people are happier than singles, particularly widowers and divorcees, says Tom Smith of the National Opinion Research Center. An estimated 42.5 percent of married couples say they are "very happy," compared with 18 percent of the divorced.
The popularity of happiness research suggests that economists and other social scientists think they can devise public policies to elevate the nation's feel-good quotient. This is an illusion. Happiness depends heavily on individual character and national culture. Some people will complain no matter how great their fortune; others will smile through the worst of times. In international comparisons, the United States ranks lower in happiness than some smaller nations (Denmark, Ireland, Sweden) but much higher than many large countries with paternalistic welfare states (France, Germany, Italy). Governments can provide health care. But they cannot outlaw despair or mandate euphoria.
It is novelists and philosophers, not social scientists, who provide a deeper understanding of happiness. For better or worse, there are limits to reengineering the human spirit.
The Washington Post summarized a new Pew Research Center survey that shows there are significant foundational shifts in Americans’ understanding of what constitutes marital happiness and success.
Children rank as the highest source of personal fulfillment for their parents but have dropped to one of the least-cited factors in a successful marriage, according to a national survey to be released today.
In a study that shows how separately marriage and children are viewed, Americans expressed great passion for their sons and daughters but clearly did not see them as the glue of their adult relationships.
On a list of nine contributors to success in marriage, children were trumped by faithfulness, a happy sexual relationship, household chore-sharing, economic factors such as adequate income and good housing, common religious beliefs, and shared tastes and interests, the nonprofit Pew Research Center found.
The article is very interesting and shows just how rapidly Americans are separating sex, marriage and children. As you might expect — along with a reader who passed along the story — there are some dramatic religious ghosts lurking inbetween the paragraphs of this story.
You’re probably not as nerdy as I am, by which I mean I like to read every survey, Supreme Court opinion and piece of legislation I can get my hands on. So you may not want to read the 91-page report [PDF] on which St. George wrote her story. But if you did, you would find that religious differences correlate with major differences of opinion recorded in the survey.
White evangelical Protestants and people of all faiths who attend religious services at least weekly hold more conservative viewpoints on pretty much the whole gamut of questions asked on the Pew survey. This is true across all age groups. For example, white evangelical Protestants are more likely than other religious groups to consider premarital sex morally wrong.
They are more likely to consider the rise in unmarried childbearing and cohabitation bad for society and more likely to agree that a child needs both a mother and father to be happy. They also are more likely to say legal marriage is very important when a couple plans to have children together or plans to spend the rest of their lives together. Further, white evangelical Protestants are more likely than white mainline Protestants to say that divorce should be avoided except in extreme circumstances and to consider it better for the children when parents remain married, though very unhappy with each other. In sum, white evangelical Protestants have a strong belief in the importance of marriage and strong moral prescriptions against premarital sex and childbearing outside of marriage.
The pattern is the same among those of any faith who attend religious services more frequently, compared with less frequent attendees.
Another interesting division in the survey was between white evangelicals and white mainline Protestants. Seventy-three percent of evangelicals consider it important for couples to legally marry compared with only 35 percent of white mainline Protestants, 43 percent of Roman Catholics and 20 percent of seculars. Of those who attend church more regularly, 69 percent say marriage is very important compared with 36 percent of the less religious and 27 percent of those who never or almost never attend church services.
The Pew report tried to paint a picture of people with traditional marriage views and, again not surprisingly, the religious angle appears:
Compared with other parents, they’re more likely to be white, well-educated and well-off economically. They also have a distinctive religious profile. They are more likely to be Catholic (32% vs. 21%) than other parents. They also are more observant; some 47% attend church weekly or more often compared with 38% of other parents. Politically, they’re more inclined to be Republican than other parents, and, ideologically, they’re more inclined to be conservative. A majority are happy with their lives — some 55% report being “very satisfied” with their lives overall, compared with just 40% of the rest of the population.
That last sentence is interesting. The headline for the Washington Post story is “To Be Happy In Marriage, Baby Carriage Not Required.” That headline may be eyecatching for the aging baby boomers who make up the paper’s audience, but I’m not sure it’s quite right.
Stories about surveys tend to have a very short shelf life, but perhaps other reports will look into some of the religious ghosts.
Posted: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 ARTICLES Wall Street Journal
It is vacation season once again, giving occasion for the usual homilies about how Europeans are having a much better and healthier time of it than we are when it comes to work. You've heard it a thousand times: Americans "live to work," while Europeans "work to live."
By almost every measure, Europeans do work less and relax more than Americans. According to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Americans work 25% more hours each year than the Norwegians or the Dutch. The average retirement age for European men is 60.5, and it's even lower for European women. Our vacations are pathetically short by comparison: The average U.S. worker takes 16 days of vacation each year, less than half that typically taken by the Germans (35 days), the French (37 days) or the Italians (42 days).
Why these differences? There are two standard explanations, neither of which casts Americans in a particularly good light. First, we are emotionally stunted. According to Time magazine, "In the puritanical version of Christianity that has always appealed to Americans, religion comes packaged with the stern message that hard work is good for the soul. Modern Europe has avoided so melancholy a lesson."
Obviously, there is a point beyond which work is excessive and lowers life quality. But within reasonable bounds, if happiness is our goal, the American formula of hard work appears to function pretty well. Second, we are under the yoke of hard-bitten capitalism. London's Daily Telegraph reports that the heavy U.S. work effort does not result from a special affinity Americans have for work; rather, it is because we are "terrified of losing [our] jobs" in a labor environment in which workers have few of the protections Europeans enjoy.
The truth is that most Americans don't feel particularly shackled. To begin with, an amazingly high percentage of us like our jobs. Among adults who worked 10 hours a week or more in 2002, the General Social Survey (GSS) found that 89% said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. Only 11% said they were not too satisfied or not at all satisfied.
Of course, some would argue this statistic must be hiding big differences between people with "good" jobs and those with "bad" jobs. Presidential candidate John Edwards, in an argument fit for the French, tells us that we are two nations: "One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward."
No doubt there is great job dissatisfaction among people with low incomes and little education--the folks working in factories and on farms; the people who sell you socks and serve you lunch--right? Wrong. There is no difference at all between those with above- and below-average incomes: nine in 10 are satisfied, as are people without college degrees. 87% of people who call themselves "working class" are satisfied.
But even if we are satisfied with our jobs, might we still be happier at the beach? Imagine asking people something like this: "If you were to get enough money to live as comfortably as you would like for the rest of your life, would you continue to work or would you stop working?"
Certainly a high percentage would answer in the affirmative? Wrong again: In 2002, the GSS found that number to be less than a third of all workers. And once again, there is no difference between those at different levels of income or education. 69% of working class folks say they would keep working even if they didn't have to.
For most Americans, work is a rock-solid source of life happiness. Happy people work more hours each week than unhappy people, and work more in their free time as well. Even more tellingly, people with more hours per day to relax outside their jobs are not any happier than those who have less non-work time. In short, the idea that our heavy workloads are lowering our happiness is twaddle.
Obviously, there is a point beyond which work is excessive and lowers life quality. But within reasonable bounds, if happiness is our goal, the American formula of hard work appears to function pretty well.
This may be one reason why Americans tend to score better than Europeans on most happiness surveys. For example, according to the 2002 International Social Survey Programme across 35 countries, 56% of Americans are "completely happy" or "very happy" with their lives, versus 44% of Danes (often cited in surveys as the happiest Europeans), 35% of the French and 31% of Germans. Those sweet five-week vacations and 35-hour workweeks don't seem to be stimulating all that much félicité. A good old-fashioned 50-hour week might be a better option.
Modestly paid clergy rank at top in job happiness.
By Barbara Rose Originally published May 2, 2007
The old saw "money can't buy happiness" apparently holds true when it comes to work.
Highly paid professionals such as doctors and lawyers didn't make the cut when researchers set out to find the most satisfied workers.
Clergy ranked tops in both job satisfaction and general happiness, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Physical therapists and firefighters were second- and third-ranked in job satisfaction, with more than three-quarters reporting being "very satisfied."
Other occupations in which more than 60 percent said they were very satisfied included teachers, painters and sculptors, psychologists and authors.
"The most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching and protecting others and creative pursuits," said Tom W. Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey, a poll supported by the National Science Foundation.
The worker satisfaction study, released last month, is based on data collected since 1988 on more than 27,500 randomly selected people.
For the most satisfied workers, intrinsic rewards are key, the study suggests.
Clergy ranked by far the most satisfied and the most generally happy of 198 occupations.
Eighty-seven percent of clergy said they were "very satisfied" with their work, compared with an average 47 percent for all workers. Sixty-seven percent reported being "very happy," compared with an average 33 percent for all workers.
Jackson Carroll, Williams professor emeritus of religion and society at Duke Divinity School, found similarly high satisfaction when he studied Protestant and Catholic clergy, despite relatively modest salaries and long hours.
"They look at their occupation as a calling," Carroll said. "A pastor does get called on to enter into some of the deepest moments of a person's life, celebrating a birth and sitting with people at times of illness or death. There's a lot of fulfillment."
Others in helping professions also describe their work as a calling. "I believe I was probably put on this earth to make someone's life a little easier, that's what I get out of my job," said Gina Kolk, an Oak Park, Ill., physical therapist who has practiced 23 years. "I love my job. I think it's because I see results very quickly. I see positive things happen to people very quickly. I get rewarded every day by what I do."
Satisfaction generally rises with social status, and higher status often goes hand in hand with higher pay, Smith said. An exception is doctors, a high-paying profession that ranked No. 1 in occupational prestige.
General practitioners earn more than twice as much as physical therapists, averaging $140,370 annually compared with $65,350, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet doctors scored lower in satisfaction and happiness.
Occupations with the least satisfied and happy workers tended to be low-skill manual and service jobs, Smith found.
Roofers, waiters and laborers ranked at the bottom in job satisfaction, with as few as one in five reporting they were very satisfied.
Bartenders, known for listening to other people's troubles, apparently need sympathetic ears: Only 26 percent said they were very satisfied.
