1. Is satisfaction with your life the same as thinking it's going well?
2. Does rating your life satisfaction provide reliably objective insight into your degree of happiness?
3. In what sense do "most people actually have good lives"?
4. Can the science of happiness tell us which groups tend to be happier?
5. What (verbally-expressed, non-numerical) ratio of positive over negative emotional states does happiness probably require?
6. What percentage of American college students said they'd considered suicide?
Discussion Questions (please add yours):
- Are you having wonderful life, like Wittgenstein allegedly said he did? 34
- Today, right now, where would you rate your life on a 1-10 scale? What do you think that rating says about your satisfaction and your happiness? How much has it, or will it, fluctuate in the days, weeks, and years to come?
- Do you have a good life? What will they say about you at your funeral? Will you be gratified if your children have a life comparable to yours?
- Could you be happy in Maldonia? 42 In general, are you more or less happy than the people around you?
- Do you agree with Mill's statement? 46
- Which face on the chart is yours today? 47
- Is it "impossible that 94% of Americans are happy"? 50
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Old Podcast
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"Brad's Status" on Fresh Air - a new film on status anxiety and the pursuit of elusive happiness.
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How do you Measure Happiness? The Top Questionnaires
Measuring happiness is at least as difficult as catching rare and elusive butterflies. What kind of net should we use? At the Pursuit of Happiness project, we try to collect and analyze the most scientific studies on happiness and subjective well-being (SWB). The question is, how does one evaluate what the most “scientific” studies are? Naturally, randomized and controlled studies are more reliable. These kinds of studies often require an enormous amount of effort and funding, and many studies that claim to do this are flawed in various ways.
One more major challenge to reliability is how these studies measure the happiness or SWB of their subjects. The following is a list of the most widely used and respected questionnaires. As you can see, we can discover some major differences in how they approach the issue, which reflect different definitions and perceptions of happiness.
Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle and Hill)
Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper)
Satisfaction with Life Scale (Deiner, Emmons, Larsen and Griffin)
Panas Scale (Watson, Clark, Tellegen)
And this is Todd Kashdan’s thoughtful critique of the above scales:
The assessment of subjective well-being (issues raised by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire)
We should mention a recent measurement of Subjective Well Being created by the OECD, as part of their very sophisticated and broad ranging survey, theBetter Life Initiative. This initiative is fascinating and includes some eye-popping graphics. To see their detailed report on SWB and the questions they used to measure it, please refer to the end note.
The strong point of both the Panas Scale and the OECD Subjective Well Being scale is that they measure both positive and negative affect, which, as one might expect, have a clear inverse correlation.
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/measuring-happiness/
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And speaking of Buddhists, Robert Wright's audacioiusly-titled Why Buddhism is True tackles the western secular version as a philosophy of happiness.
Discussion Question:
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think Ernest Hemingway said that "happiness in *intelligent* people" (emphasis mine) was the rarest thing he knew? Are intelligent people more likely to be predisposed to unhappiness? If so, why? And what kind of unhappiness--unsatisfied, unattuned, or something else?
What Hemmingway was referring to when he said this was that intelligent people have so aware of the things going on in the world, i.e. world hunger, poverty, slave trading, etc., as well as what's going on in the lives of people around them, i.e. wage slavery, racism, sexism, etc., that it's nearly impossible to wake up every day and want to be a part of a system that is so cruel and unjust. I don't believe that intelligent people are predisposed toward unhappiness. Considering all of the examples I listed above, being attuned with them, endorsing them, and openly engaging in them would be counterintuitive, and reaching a state of genuine happiness would be rather difficult.
DeleteThe author makes the point of stating that sometimes life satisfaction responses are skewed positively because the line distinguishing happiness from unhappiness is not especially clear, especially due to the inconsistent perceptions of what entails a "happy" person.
DeleteI think Hemingway's comment then also alludes to the concept that perhaps the more intelligent one is (or believes oneself to be), the more commonly one will dissect what "happiness" means and whether or not one has achieved such a thing.
Intelligent people are also predisposed to prospects of grand accomplishments, which is a heavy burden that such people did not necessarily ask for. The additional stress on an already active mind can lead to a great number of feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment at things which would not have been otherwise disappointing.
Quiz Question:
ReplyDeleteHow many people in the U.S. "feel sufficiently isolated for it to be a major source of unhappiness in their lives"?
DQ: Is it "impossible that 94% of Americans are happy"?
ReplyDeleteA: Impossible is a strong word but I think it is adequate for what Haybron is trying to convey. The data simply doesn't coincide. It is illogical to suppose that a society can at once have a vast majority of happiness as well as mental illness, much of which requires medication. Furthermore, Americans tend to seek a more temporal happiness--happiness that comes from possessions, a career, or a romantic relationship. Given that these types of happiness rarely meet the expectations set upon them by the person seeking the happiness and, if they are met, are short-lived, it is, mathematically speaking, far more probable that most Americans are spending their lives between these moments of happiness rather than jumping from one to the next.
19.632 million would be the approximate total of the 6% of the population that is estimated not to qualify as "happy." This is no small number. I don't think it is impossible that most people think themselves happy. I do, however, believe it is impossible that 94% of the population would agree on what happiness means, and therefore the question must be more specific to mean anything.
DeleteQuiz Question? (Your own perspective)
ReplyDeleteWould you say Ludwig Witgenstein was actually a happy man?
"the freest person in the world is the one that's satisfied with what they have." After spending years on death row, in prison.
Quiz Question: (T/F) Wittgenstein's sister, Vienna, was among the 3 Wittgenstein siblings to commit suicide.
ReplyDeleteDQ: Why did people claim to live satisfied lives when they experienced their spouses dying or becoming unemployed?
To answer question 3, I do think I have a good life. Of course that can be debated by many, but by my subjective standards, I would say yes it is good. I eat, I drink, I study and I sleep. There is no war around me. The violence in my community is kept to a minimum because of good law enforcement. I do not have to worry much. This life is more than satisfying and makes me more than happy. At my funeral, maybe they'll say that I was simple, or content. Maybe they'll say I was a fool who lacked ambition. But in all honesty, I could not ask for anything more than I have right now. And if my future children were to live the life I have lived, then I would be grateful.
ReplyDeleteI would rate my life a 7 out of 10. I would say that I am very satisfied. I feel like satisfaction is kind of equal to happiness even though I know some people would disagree. As for the coming years I do not know. Life has its ups and downs and I can only hope for the best.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Today, right now, where would you rate your life on a 1-10 scale? What do you think that rating says about your satisfaction and your happiness? How much has it, or will it, fluctuate in the days, weeks, and years to come?
ReplyDeleteA: i would rate my life on a scale of 8, because i still didn't reach my goal yet. my life rating doesn't effect my happiness rate, i still have many more things to do in my life, but that doesn't mean that i lack happiness. they are two separate things. usually people lack happiness when they don't meet their expectations in life, and how long this lack of happiness takes depend on the personality of the person.
Amir Sondi,
I should transcribe my anecdote from yesterday's class.
ReplyDeleteI was out in the forest behind my parents' house in Old Hickory and looked at the house and realized something. The house has a lot of history, having been built by a mafioso who hid bodies in there and had several owners, at one point being a swinger's club. And now it was owned by a couple of retired Air Force captains who just wanted a nice, out-of-the-way place to raise their cats.
But from the forest, none of this mattered. It was just a house, a collection of parts arranged into an aesthetically pleasing form.
Potential Discussion Question: Do you think that you have a pretty good grasp about what you might consider, subjectively and strictly for yourself, a good, fulfilling, satisfactory life? If so, do you feel as though you are consistently working towards achieving these in/for yourself?
ReplyDeleteTo answer this question I think that I have a satisfactory life and as long as you feel as though you are getting closer to your goals then you can feel happy as long as your goals aren't self restricting in the sense that they are un achievable
DeleteI think that one of my satisfactions comes in the form of redefining for myself what satisfaction is. I believe, just as there is short term and long term memory, there is short term and long term happiness. To work on one is to assist the other, so they are linked, but not the same.
DeleteLately, I have been actively taking steps to ensure positive opportunities are available to me in my future. I call this "planting seeds." I think that whether I have paved the way for me to be happy/content in the present or not, the only way to ensure happiness in the future is to work toward it.
"Are you happy now?" is perhaps less of my focus than "Will you be happy with your life in the forseeable future?" It's just my personal preference to be able to answer affirmatively to both.
DQ... I wonder why Haybron left out the aspect of the social pressure to be happy as a reason for inflating answers on self-reports. I feel like when people take self- questionnares (myself included), on a sub conscious level there is a want for not only the researchers to think you have happy life but also you want yourself to be happy. you want others to think you're happy. In the case of Wittginstein, i think he was satisfied with himself, not happy. but I think he was content with it and he wanted others to think he was content, not miserable.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective when answering questionnaires, it is difficult for one to be honest with oneself and say they are unhappy. If one can honestly say they are unhappy, then the shame associated with being unhappy won't affect them. I think as an American we are ashamed of being anything other than happy.
DeleteDQ: Today, right now, where would you rate your life on a 1-10 scale? What do you think that rating says about your satisfaction and your happiness? How much has it, or will it, fluctuate in the days, weeks, and years to come?
ReplyDeleteA: I would rate my life as a 6/10. I am about to graduate this semester, which leaves a hopeful idea that I will get into graduate school next fall and eventually graduate there as well and become an occupational therapist. IF I achieve this after all the stress, I would say I would have a score of 8/10.. maybe if I was in a happy and healthy marriage then bump the score to 9/10. However, I can't help but to think it would be possible to have a 10/10 life satisfaction when you will always strive for more/ better or when your stressors cloud your vision.
DQ :Could you be happy in Maldonia? 42 In general, are you more or less happy than the people around you?
A: I think anyone has the possiblity of being happy or sad anywhere. So yes I could be happy in Maldonia. Generally I would say I am more anxious then the people around me. I wouldn't want to qualify stress as being sad like Haybron does, I think it has its own category . So I guess my answer could qualify as less happy than those around me.
DQ: Which face on the chart is yours today? 47
A: I would say I was the 27% valued smiley face, third from the left. I had some good moments in the day catching up with friends but at the end of the day was aware of my deeper stress, responsibilities and emotions.
Possible quiz questions"
1)People call life satisfaction a ________ ________ ?
2)What is a hedonic good?
Possible Discussion Questions:
1) pg.37 States that someone may view their lives as satisfactory because of how low they have the bar set, do you believe this is the case in most individuals? Is this the case for yourself?
2) Why has it become normalized in society to measure depression and anxiety but not happiness? (pg. 43-44)
DQ:
ReplyDelete1. No! Though Wittgenstein did want people to think he had had a wonderful life, and his life may have been better then some, he probably was not happy. I am not having a wonderful life as Wittgenstein had, but I would consider myself happy.
2. 8. Things are going well for me, but I hope to further improve them in the time to come. I am happy the majority of the day, for the majority of days, and do my best to bounce back from the disappointments that arise. My life satisfaction has steadily raised as I have aged and I hope it continues to do so.
3. Yes, I hope so, and Yes! The things that I have overcome, even when they have sucked and left me extremely unhappy at the time, have given me a better understand of myself, my capabilities, and my potential. I hope my kids do not have to experience the same situations I have, but I hope they have the same sense of personal responsibility and potential that I feel like these experiences have given me,
4. Probably, I'm sure it is an environmental factor within the country that leads to the anxiety within the people, and I am sure that is extremely difficult to escape from emotionally. Yes, I may be happier, but it might just be more satisfaction with my situation as opposed to happiness. Because shit could get a lot worse.
5. Yes, these 'few and transitory pains' give a perspective on life and personal happiness that can not be experienced if everything is always pleasant. You cannot appreciate the summer until winter has passed.
6. 27%. It is good today.
7. Probably. I think most people are confused by 'happiness' and 'well, it sucks but it could be worse'.
Possible DQ's:
ReplyDelete1. Based on this reading, do you think most people view life satisfaction as 'not miserable'?
2. Why do you think people view 'hedonic' as the equivalence of 'life satisfaction'?
3. What are values that influence your personal 'life satisfaction' levels?
4. Why do you think it is so difficult to achieve a quantitative understanding of happiness?
5. Do you think culture or personality influence happiness more? Why?
6. Why do you think most Americans say they are happy when depression, anxiety, and insomnia findings are rising within the population?
7. Do you think you fall for the 'positivity bias' about your own happiness?
8. What do you think about the statement 'happiness is pleasure that outweighs pain'?Do you agree or disagree?
9. Do you agree with Hemingway statement that happiness can not be found in intelligent people? Do you think 'ignorance is bliss' is true? Why or why not?
10. Why does the author think that measuring life satisfaction has a 'bit of whimsy' involved?
Possible question:
ReplyDeleteWhy might people overstate their happiness?
I think people would overstate their happiness to get away form the pity and the looks of others. No one wants people to look at them like they are inferior because of something they could possibly control *inserts shrugging emoji*. Another reason is that, one we said in class, someone else's situation is always worse, there is always someone who has it worse and some people might think to appreciate what they have even if they are not fully happy with it.
DeleteIn my experience, it's usually the other way way around: they overstate how bad things are. Maybe that is a side product from hanging out with grumpy Poly Sci students.
DeleteExtra question for chapter 3:
ReplyDelete1) Who fired shotgun at two sheriff’s deputies?
2) What year did that shooting occurred?
3) Where did Moreese Bickham sentenced?
4) How old was Bickham when he was released from prison?
5) How did Bickham felt towards deputies when he was release from prison?
6) How many years did Bickham spend on death row?
7) What was his response?
8) Which people are considered to be the most satisfied?
9) What did Egyptians say about their happiness?
10) What percentage of responder did claim that they are happy during the research?
11) What did Wittgenstein say about his life?
12) Was Wittgenstein satisfied with his life?
13) Where did he designed house for his sister? At what country?
Extra Questions for Chapters 3-4 1) Who did Bickham say is the freest person in the world?
ReplyDelete2) Who is sometimes referred to as the most important philosopher in the 20th century?
3) What measures can be used to track happiness?
4) In a 2007 Gallup survey, what percentage of Americans that made over $75,000 that year reported being "not too happy'?
Is it "impossible that 94% of Americans are happy"?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say impossible but 94% of Americans probably deem their life "good enough" and set that as the bar for their happiness. Depending on the decade, social/political climate, and life situation of the citizen, their 'true' happiness could vary. Most people also do not want to label themselves as 'unhappy' and get stuck in a title that is seen as concerning to the judgement of others.
Extra Quiz Questions:
ReplyDelete1. In the study of 9th and 10th grade students in the American South, what percentage engaged in self injury or self mutilation?
2. How pervasive is loneliness in American culture? What percent of Americans reported feeling sad the previous day?
DQ: If 12% of the American population has depression or some sort of anxiety, why do surveys suggest that 93% of the population is happy?
ReplyDeleteIf a multitude of students(college and high school) have contemplated suicide or have partaken in self-harm, is it possible that as a nation, we must redefine happiness and satisfaction?
extra qujiz question(s)
ReplyDeleteis happiness the key to life?
An interesting discussion sprung up in my white collar crime class yesterday. We were discussing the concept of elite deviance and sociologist C. Wright Mills assertion that America is governed by a power elite and that we, the masses, are “unorganized, exploited and generally uninterested.” I gave as an example a married guy, with a decent job he drives to and from to every day while listening to the local classic rock station, goes to church every Sunday, and has a kid he is constantly taking to soccer practice. I meant for us to discuss his general un-interestedness and how it relates to his engagement with social and political issues, not happiness. But one student popped up and said that “he’s probably satisfied with his life and a happy guy.” From across the room came a challenge that “he can’t really be happy just to be satisfied or content; to be happy he had to be striving to be better.” (Holy Cow, I thought; what a coincidence. All of a sudden we’re talking about Life Satisfaction theory and well-being, and those are subjects for my MTSU class tomorrow. My students do not know that I am an actual college student studying happiness, so the happiness discussion came from them; I just guided it. Battle lines were drawn and full blown discussion of satisfaction versus well-being eschewed. At the end, the satisfaction crowd was unmoved, but did agree that focusing some on well-being would/could increase happiness.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Question: What will they say about you at your funeral?
ReplyDeleteA number of years ago I attended the funeral of my wife’s uncle, who was a very successful business man, and a wonderful person whom I admired very much. You’re generally spoken well of at your funeral, and I’ve been to many where this is fully justified, but for some reason this particular funeral made a lasting impression on me. It seems that uncle Hubert was seen by most everyone as a “good man” in every respect. The “what-will-they-say-about-me-at-my-funeral” factor became important to me. It was around this time that I quit being a lawyer and entered the business world. For really the first time, I was given responsibilities and decision-making authority where if I failed, I would lose my job, or at least me limited in my success. With authority and responsibility came accountability. I remember that I affirmatively decided that my guiding principle would be to do the right thing (based on principles) to the best of my abilities and to accept responsibility if a decision turned out to be a bad one. Those two things, acting on principles and accepting responsibility for failure as well as success, worked out very well for me in business and government and life in general. Thinking about what people will say about me at my funeral had a tangible benefit to my sense of self-worth, and thus my happiness.
Do you think, then, that a society which does not openly mourn, discuss, or display death comfortably will contain less satisfied inhabitants?
DeleteIt is my experience that funerals have put things into perspective for me as well. They are always earth-shaking in ways I don't expect.
Proposed Discussion Question: What words would you use is you eliminated “happy” or “happiness” from your discussion of this concept? Do you think that might lead to a better understanding of the concept of happiness?
ReplyDeleteI would use the word Fulfilled because I can't think of a time where I was not fulfilled and happy simultaneously, and I do agree that thinking of other words or feelings associated with happiness helps one to find real answers to happiness for them.
DeleteThat was me ^^
DeleteExtra Question:
ReplyDeleteHaybron mentioned two types of global judgement on why life satisfaction should be so loosely related to the sense of how our lives are going. What were these judgements?
more Extra question:
DeleteOn any given day, what percent of Americans reported having felt sad 'a lot of the day yesterday'?
Is being stressed a major cause of unhappiness?
I think stress can be a major cause but I would say that stress is a very general term to identify things that could make someone unhappy such as relationship stress or educational stress.
Deletehttps://ourworldindata.org/happiness-and-life-satisfaction
ReplyDeleteThis URL shares a map of the world and the statistics of those nations on happiness and life satisfaction. These results are slightly different than the 2007 Gallup survey in the book.
I'm surprised by how consistently happy the people of Saudi Arabia are in this chart.
DeleteThe life satisfaction philosphy really resonated with me. We've touched on the idea (albiet briefly) in class that happiness is too high of a standard and contentment is a more achievable standard. I tend to lean this way regarding my personal philosophy.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that we have little to no direct agency when it comes to our emotions. Consider yourself when you see a headline that evokes outrage. The emotion just pops up without you having to force it. Sometimes that intital knee-jerk response just happens even if we try to restrain our emotions. What we can control is our response to the emotion--e.g. continuing the previous example, you can write a rational letter to the editor or call those who disagree with you racist jerks... we can control how we channel that outrage but not wheter or not we feel it the first place.
Therefore, if happiness is an emotional state, then I would argue that we do not have direct agency over whether we're happy. We can facilitate the process by exposing ourselves to different sensory experiences that typically stimulate us to be happy. E.g. eat your favorite food, read your favorite book, or watch your favorite movie. We can create situations where we become happy, but we cannot create the emotion in of itself.
This is how I see the life satisfaction philosophy come into play. We cannot create or control the circumstances that influence our emotions, but we can control how we resond to life's craziness. If one could adopt a "come hell or highwater, life is good" mentality we can maintain a peace of mind that would facilitate happiness regardless of the crap that comes your way.
Is unhappiness lack of happiness? Or something more active and equally as emotional?
DeleteDo your specific actions determine unhappiness just as you believe they determine happiness?
I would say unhappiness is the lack of happiness but anything more active would be more of an emotion i.e. anger or sadness.
DeleteRegarding unhappiness, my intial thought that it is more akin to an emotion in of itself. It tends to crop up (in my sexperience) when I feel as though I lack something or have failed at something. There are time when I have just zoned out--but my sisters tell me that's a guy thing... IDK. Again, certain actions I take will evoke unhappiness but I cannot control whether or not I feel that way, but I can choose how I will respond or how I expose myself to those thoughts/activities.
DeleteIs it possible to not be satisfied with your life but also to be happy about your life?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, yes. Being satisfied with one's life creates a state of mind where we are more likely to be happy.
DeleteIs America's Need To Act/Be Happy Hurting Us?
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 4 of our reading, the author spends a great deal of time debunking the idea that America is as happy as it claims to be. At one point he points to some statistics on affluent American children to make his case. Statistics such as: "more than half (of 15,000 American college students surveyed) said they'd contemplated killing themselves" and "22 per cent (of affluent suburban 10th grade girls) had clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety" are enough to keep any parent up at night.And, yet 94 per cent of Americans surveyed claimed to be happy. But, why do we really claim to be, or need to be so happy? And, can our need for happiness be causing some of our depression and anxiety.
An article that I recently read addresses just this issue. The author is a British woman who moved to America for her husbands job. She talks quite a bit about how our compulsive need for happiness is far different than the cynicism of Britain. She mentions how often she notices, as a newcomer to this country, the topic of happiness being addressed or sold in everything from TV commercials to simple supermarket conversations. However, one excerpt from the article hit a nerve. She states: "...the more I absorb the idea that there's a glittering happy ever after out there for the taking, the more I start to overthink the whole thing, compulsively monitoring how I am feeling...the whole process starts to become painfully, comically neurotic...the goal is so elusive and hard to define, it's impossible to pinpoint when it's even been reached - a recipe for anxiety." (vox.com)
Is she correct? Is our need to pursue happiness making us miserable? Could our hyper-focus on happiness be making our children depressed? Is the pressure to appear, or be, happy why so many young adults feel they can not ask for help? I wonder.
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2016/10/4/13093380/happiness-america-ruth-whippman