Making Happy People: The nature of happiness and its origins in childhood. Paul Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ that pay is more often a cause of dissatisfaction than satisfaction. Individuals who regard themselves as poorly paid relative to others soon become disgruntled, whereas better pay does surprisingly little to boost satisfaction. People who are highly successful at work typically report enjoying their job for its own sake, not because it is well paid.

      The strength of the correlation between job satisfaction and overall happiness varies between different cultures. Among Americans of European origin, job satisfaction is closely linked to overall happiness and to satisfaction with other spheres of life, including satisfaction with marriage, finances, family and health. But the link between job satisfaction and overall happiness is found to be weaker among African-Americans and Asian-Americans. In some cultures and ethnic groups, individuals appear to derive more of their happiness from other areas of life such as their family; jobs are regarded more as a source of income and therefore make a smaller contribution to overall happiness. In highly individualistic societies like the USA, self-worth and happiness derive more from personal achievements and less from being part of a group.

      For the same reasons that work provides many ingredients of happiness, unemployment is a powerful cause of unhappiness. Large bodies of evidence confirm that unemployed people are generally much less happy and much less healthy, both mentally and physically, than people with jobs. On average, they experience more depression, more anxiety, lower self-esteem and greater unhappiness than people in employment, even those with low-paid jobs.

      The consequences of unemployment extend far beyond the purely financial. In most cases, the psychological, emotional and social effects are much greater. Even in countries where the unemployed receive generous state benefits, they are still very unhappy. Making up for lost wages softens the blow, but only slightly. Unemployment can be particularly damaging for those who have the furthest to fall, notably the middle-aged, the highly educated, and those living in areas of low unemployment where their change in status is more apparent. Unemployment even reduces the happiness of those who remain in work, because it heightens their anxiety that they too might lose their job. Any government that truly wants to promote national happiness should give a high priority to minimising unemployment.

      6. A sense of control

      Another common characteristic of happy people is feeling they have some control over their lives, rather than being passive victims of chance or at the mercy of others. Conversely, a belief that you are helpless and unable to affect what is happening to you, or that your daily life is largely governed by random events beyond your control, is often associated with unhappiness and depression.

      Happy people tend to feel more empowered and more in control of their lives than unhappy people. They are also more likely to feel they have the skills, knowledge and motivation to exert that control – a sense that psychologists refer to as self-efficacy. Research shows that young people who report feeling high self-efficacy are happier on average. Education obviously has a major role to play in developing self-efficacy and a sense of control.

      7. A sense of purpose and meaning

      A life that is meaningful and has some purpose to it is more likely to be a happy life. Someone who is swept along by the tide may still be reasonably happy, but someone who knows where they want to go, and why, will probably be happier. Studies have confirmed that people who regard their life as meaningful tend to be happier and more satisfied, other things being equal. Their health benefits too: Japanese researchers have discovered that elderly people who have a strong sense that their lives are meaningful (a concept known in Japanese as ikigai) live significantly longer on average than those whose lives lack meaning.

      A sense of purpose and meaning can come from many different sources, including family life, career, study, creative activities, politics, religion or voluntary work. Many parents derive a considerable sense of purpose and meaning from parenthood. What these pursuits all have in common is providing long-term goals. According to research, individuals whose daily efforts relate directly to achieving their longer-term goals tend to be happier than those whose strivings are unrelated to their life goals.

      Personal goals give a sense of meaning and purpose to the grind of daily life. But they must be realistic and attainable. Having goals or aspirations that exceed what can realistically be achieved is a recipe for unhappiness. When children are young, their parents and teachers usually set their goals for them, and getting the balance right can be tricky. Children need to be stretched so that they can learn and develop, but if the bar is set too high they will experience mostly failure, and their motivation and self-esteem may wilt. If on the other hand the bar is set too low, children may not be sufficiently stimulated and therefore fail to realise their potential. You can only set the bar at the right height if you know the child’s individual capabilities and limitations.

       8. Resilience

      To remain happy, we must be able to cope with a certain amount of upset and stress. Even the most fortunate individuals experience some setbacks, disappointments and problems, no matter how comfortable their circumstances. And of course stress is not something that affects only adults: children and young people also encounter potential sources of stress in their lives, including relationship problems with friends or family, high-stakes exams, and anxieties about their own attractiveness. Like adults, they need to have effective methods for coping.

      The capacity to maintain or restore well-being in the face of adversity is referred to by psychologists as resilience, or hardiness. The evidence confirms, unsurprisingly, that resilient individuals are usually happier than those who are more easily cast down by life’s inevitable upsets. Individuals who display high levels of resilience are typically found to have supportive personal relationships, persistence, motivation, an ability to plan ahead, and practical knowledge. Resilience is actually a common characteristic of children, prompting one developmental psychologist to call it ‘ordinary magic’. Even for children growing up in deprived or difficult circumstances, there is nothing inevitable about future problems. Many of them will cope.

       9. Self-esteem

      If you are a happy person, the chances are you will feel reasonably good about yourself as well as your life. You will have good self-esteem, to use the jargon. Self-esteem, which has become a somewhat overused term in recent years, is usually defined as how you judge your own worth or value as a person, both rationally and emotionally. The media and self-help books abound with glowing references to its magical powers.

      Individuals with high self-esteem are generally found to be happier, healthier and better adjusted than those with low self-esteem. On average, they have better social relationships, cope better with illness and other problems, and are less likely to suffer from anxiety or depression. Studies have found that children who have high self-esteem are statistically less likely to be unemployed when they become adults; they also earn more on average and are less likely to commit crimes. Low self-esteem, on the other hand, can impair social relationships. If you are not happy about yourself, you will probably find it harder to be happy about your relationships with other people as well. Low self-esteem is also associated with a range of other problems including drug and alcohol abuse. Children with low self-esteem are at greater risk of becoming problem drinkers later in life.

      Self-esteem is about liking yourself. This makes self-esteem different from satisfaction – which is about how you evaluate your life – and different from overall happiness. In principle, you could have reasonably high self-esteem yet still be dissatisfied with your life and generally unhappy, perhaps because of how you have been treated by other people. Having loads of self-esteem will not prevent you from being a miserable curmudgeon or a vicious swine.² That said, self-esteem СКАЧАТЬ