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

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СКАЧАТЬ these are mostly long-term. By playing, the individual acquires valuable skills and experiences, and develops their physical, social and mental skills. Play is about building foundations for the future. We shall return to play later.

      As well as being good for parents and good for children, happiness is good for organisations and for society as a whole. On average, happy employees perform better at their jobs, have lower levels of absenteeism, and are less likely to quit than unhappy employees. Studies have found that happy workers are typically more satisfied with their jobs, more productive and more persistent. They aim for higher goals and earn more money. In fact, the general level of personal happiness among employees is a better predictor of good performance and low staff turnover than how satisfied they specifically feel about their jobs. In the long term, happiness is a stronger motivator than money.

      The clear implication of all this is that any enlightened organisation should regard improving the happiness of its employees as a legitimate and important business objective. Organisations could seek to do this in various ways – for example, by enabling individuals to maintain a better work-life balance, developing their skills, making them feel valued, and helping them to maintain good physical and mental health. The dreary reality is that few organisations think in this way. Happiness receives no mention in most companies’ strategic plans or annual objectives.

      Outside school or the workplace, happiness continues to work its spell in myriad ways. If, like most people, you believe that being popular and having lots of friends is an indicator of success, then happiness is what you should be chasing, both for yourself and your children. One of the most consistent characteristics of happy people is that they get on well with others. Research confirms that happy people are generally more sociable, more empathetic, more cooperative, more generous, more energetic and more competent in their dealings with others. Happiness and sociability go hand in hand. One of the recurring themes in this book is that personal relationships are of central importance to happiness.

      Research has also shown that we have a higher quantity and quality of social interactions when we are happy. For instance, experiments have demonstrated that people become measurably more sociable and outgoing when they are put in a good mood (by showing them an amusing film, for example). Happy people find social encounters more satisfying, they adopt a less cautious social style, and they are more inclined to be cooperative and generous. What is more, this link between sociability and happiness works both ways: sociable people become happier and happy people become more sociable, creating a virtuous circle. On the flip side, unhappiness can erode social relationships. Individuals suffering from low mood or mild depression are apt to behave in ways that elicit negative responses, which in turn adds to their unhappiness.

      The mutually reinforcing connection between unhappiness and social isolation is illustrated by Moaning Myrtle, the doleful ghost in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Myrtle, who haunts the girls’ toilets in Hogwarts School, has turned her social isolation into a self-reinforcing state by indulging in extremes of self-pity. Myrtle is glum because everyone avoids her, and everyone avoids her because she is glum. In her rare social encounters, Myrtle instantly assumes the worst and accuses her interlocutor of making fun of her. Without provocation she moans about people calling her rude names behind her back. Being down in the dumps can result in a downward spiral.

Happiness is good for your health

      Another compelling reason for paying more systematic attention to our own happiness and our children’s happiness is that happy people are physically healthier and live longer. Being happy is seriously good for your health.

      Abundant scientific evidence shows that happy people live longer than unhappy people, other things being equal. This correlation between happiness and longevity was illustrated by the ‘nun study’, in which scientists analysed handwritten autobiographies written many years earlier by a group of very elderly Catholic nuns. The results showed that those individuals who had expressed the most positive emotions when they were in their early twenties were significantly more likely to be alive six decades later. The nuns whose youthful writings had revealed the sunniest outlook lived several years longer on average.

      The most extreme and obvious manifestation of the link between happiness and lifespan is suicide, which one writer described as the sincerest form of criticism that a life can receive. The suicide rate among young people in the UK has increased markedly over the past 20–30 years, especially among males. Indeed, suicide is now the most common cause of death among young men, accounting for more than a fifth of all deaths in males aged 15–24. And as you would expect, unhappy people are statistically much more likely than happy people to kill themselves, other things being equal. One large investigation in Finland, for example, found that very unhappy people were seven times more likely to commit suicide over the following 20 years than those who rated themselves as very happy.

      For every person who actually commits suicide there are many more who think about doing it. In fact, cases of harbouring suicidal thoughts outnumber actual suicides by around 400 to 1. The largest survey of its kind in the UK found that 1 in every 25 men and women had contemplated suicide at some point during the preceding year. In another demonstration of how crucial personal relationships are to happiness, the same study found that people were much less likely to have considered suicide if they were married or cohabiting, or if they felt they had good social support from friends and relatives.

      More generally, low mood and depression remain serious and widespread problems. A few years ago a large study discovered that one out of every six adults in Britain was suffering from some form of depression or anxiety (so-called neurotic disorders).¹ Mental health problems of this sort account for a third of all days lost from work in the UK due to ill health, and a fifth of all visits to GPs. Depression can produce serious impairments in social and physical functioning that are as disabling as many physical illnesses. The World Health Organization has estimated that by the year 2020 depression will be the second biggest cause of disability in the world, after cardiovascular disease. Depression is not just an adult problem either. On the contrary, it is surprisingly prevalent and underdiagnosed among children, in whom the symptoms can be hard to spot. A major study found that 4 per cent of 5–15-year-olds in Britain were suffering from an emotional disorder involving anxiety or depression.

      So, being happy can make a big difference to your chances of survival, especially if you are a young man who might otherwise be at risk of committing suicide. However, a longer life is not the only dividend – happy people also enjoy better physical health while they are alive. Numerous studies have found that happy people typically score better than unhappy people both in terms of how they perceive their own health (‘subjective health’) and how their health is judged by doctors (‘objective health’). For example, happy people tend to have lower blood pressure. Some recent research, which tracked more than 22,000 Finnish twins over an 11-year period, found that those who were dissatisfied with their life were much more likely to be unable to work in later years because of mental or physical health problems.

      One way in which happiness promotes physical health is by providing a buffer against stress. Several of the key building blocks of happiness, including personal relationships, optimism, wisdom and humour, help to protect us from the stressful effects of adversity. Happy people, with the support of friends and family, are able to take more knocks. Happiness assists health in other ways as well. There is good evidence, for example, that happy people tend to have healthier lifestyles. Among other things, they are statistically less likely than unhappy people to smoke, abuse alcohol, eat badly or be physically inactive. This probably has something to do with their personal relationships.

      The fact that happiness promotes physical health should come as no surprise, given what scientists know about the intimate links between mental and emotional states and physical health. СКАЧАТЬ