Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change - Lyubomirsky et al. - 2005 - Article

Pursuing happiness is an important goal for many people. Is this an aspect of Western self-centeredness and comfort, without any impact on psychological adjustment and adaptation? Following the empirical evidence, this is not the case. Happiness has a lot of positive effects on several domains of life, amongst other things larger social rewards, superior work outcomes and higher income, besides also more energy and flow. Further, happy people report greater self-regulatory, self-control and coping abilities, and also are more ‘other-centered’. Because of this, it seems a worthy goal to enhance people’s happiness. However, existing literature is pessimistic about this, the question raises if it is even possible to obtain sustainable increases in happiness.

Historical sources of pessimism

There are three considerations that illustrate this pessimism. The first is the idea of a genetically determined set point for happiness. This idea is based on heritability studies. It seems true that every individual has a certain level of happiness to which they keep returning. A second consideration, related to the first, is about personality traits. These traits have a long-term stability over time. Neuroticism and extraversion are the most closely related to well-being. Because of this relation, it is likely that people maintain the same level of happiness over time. The third source comes from the concept of the hedonic treadmill. This states that increases in happiness are temporary, because humans quickly adapt to new circumstances. There is no relation between wealth and happiness. This together suggest that trying to be more happy, is futile, it would be better to just accept the level of happiness.

Present sources of optimism

There are four sources of optimism to be mentioned. First, some evidence shows useful ways to increase happiness. For example practicing gratitude, forgiveness and thoughtful self-reflection seem to help. Second, motivational and attitudinal factors are linked to well-being. Examples are respectively pursuing intrinsic life goals and the tendency to be optimistic about one’s life situation. Third, happiness comes through time, older people are happier than younger people. According to Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory and Sheldon and Kasser, older people learn to select goals that increase positive emotions, which increases their well-being. Fourth, genes effect happiness indirectly, they can be influenced by experiences and environments. So, the effects of genes can be limited by choosing the right situations.

Model of happiness

The main question of this article is: Through what mechanisms, if any, can a chronic happiness level higher than the set point be achieved and sustained? The integrative model of happiness is described to answer this question.

Defining happiness

Happiness or subjective well-being is defined in terms of frequent positive affect, high life satisfaction and infrequent negative affect. This is a subjective definition, based on self-report. However, this doesn’t mean that it is unrelated to more objective variables.

Chronic happiness level

In this article happiness is about the happiness over a certain period in life. It is easier to alter the ‘average’ happiness of a particular period than altering the level of happiness at a certain day or moment. There are three types of factors that affect the chronic happiness level: the set point, life circumstances and intentional activity.

Happiness set point

The chronic happiness level of a person is for approximately 50% determined by the set point. This point is defined as the central or expected value within the person’s set range and is genetically determined. The set point is fixed, so it can’t be influenced or controlled. It is also stable over time. The set point likely reflects hardly changeable intrapersonal, temperamental and affective personality traits. Trying to increase happiness won’t work while focusing on the immutable set point.

Circumstances

Also circumstantial factors play a role in the chronic happiness level, it explains around 10% of the happiness level. These circumstantial factors are stable facts of a person’s life and include national, geographical and cultural factors, life status variables, demographic factors and life events.

Circumstantial changes can cause an increase in happiness, but it will not last long, it gives a temporary boost in happiness. So no sustainable increase in happiness can be achieved by changing the circumstances.

Intentional activity

Intentional activity, which explains 40% of the happiness level, is the wide variety of things that humans do and think, chosen to engage. This activity asks some amount of effort to enact. This is the distinction between circumstances and intentional activity, circumstances happen and activities are ways to act on these circumstances.

There are three types of intentional activity that can influence well-being. Behavioral, cognitive and volitional activity. Adopting new behaviors, such as exercising to be kind to others, can boost people’s happiness for a long time. Altering cognitive attitudes, such as reframing situations in a more positive light, also has positive effects on happiness. The third type, volitional activity, such as striving for important personal goals, can enhance well-being.

Specific Advantages of Intentional Activity

Intentional activity is episodic, therefore people adapt less easily to new activities than new circumstances. The timing of an activity is important for the impact of the activity, also the length between two boosting activities is important for the efficacy. So, people should search the optimal timing for an activity. Intentional activity can be varied. This helps to reduce adaptation to the activity and it can keep its efficacy. Intentional activity can also directly counteract adaptation. For all these reasons, intentional activity seems to be the best way to increase sustainable happiness.

Implementing Happiness-Increasing Strategies

How can one use intentional activity to increase happiness? In chronological order one has to choose a certain activity, one has to ask how this activity may be initiated and how it can be maintained over time. The issue of person-strategy fit, the meaning and nature of effort, the definition and role of habits and the impact of short-term versus long-term considerations will be discussed.

Choosing an Activity: The Role of Person–Activity Fit

According to the general ‘matching’ hypothesis, people have their own strategies that work best for them. The conceptualization of the fit of an activity can happen in many different ways, basic needs, core values and other individual-difference characteristics have to be taken into account. Also the operationalization can happen in a variety of ways, one example is self-report. Besides, some kinds of activities are probably beneficial to anyone, because these reflect universal psychological needs.

Role of Effort

Two kinds of effect are required to engage in an activity: initiating the activity and maintain it. Initiating such an activity requires self-discipline and willpower. This self-regulatory will is like a muscle with limited capacity and must be used wise. Some people develop a stronger muscle than others and amongst other things it is therefore important to select activities that fit one’s personality. If there’s an activity that generates sustained happiness change, one must keep performing the activity over the long term. Often, this isn’t difficult, because the activity will probably be self-reinforcing and self-sustaining, especially if one varies what he or she does. According to the self-determination theory, the most important thing is whether one is able to find meaning and value in an activity. By means of this reasoning, even non-enjoyable activities can have positive effects on chronic happiness in the long term.

Role of Habitual Activity

Making a habit out of deciding to initiate an activity is not problematic, but making a habit out of how the activity is implemented is. When this happens, adaptation probably occurs, because the flow of experiences produced by such a habit is likely to remain constant. One should search the optimal timing and variety when practicing an activity.

Extensions and Further Questions

Besides this model of sustainable changes in happiness, extensions and further questions remain. What are the key ingredients of particular activities that lead a person to a higher level of well-being? Happiness increases come from bottom-up and top-down theories. Bottom-up theories suggest that people make judgments about well-being with reference to emotions associated with recent experiences. But what about when people say they are happy despite having had recent negative emotional experiences? Top-down theories can account for this. These theories postulate that well-being judgments are determined by attitudinal or meaning-based factors. So, intentional activity can lead to new well-being via aggregation of positive experiences and a sense of meaning and purpose.

Preliminary Data: Happiness Interventions

There are a few happiness intervention studies conducted before. Consistent with our model, it is earlier found that certain strategies work better than others, that person-strategy fit has a moderating effect on the effectiveness of a strategy, that well-being increases when a goal is attained, and that intentional activity can increase happiness. The timing of intentional activity is critical. The fit of the activity to the person is also an important factor. Being kind, a behavioral intervention, can increase happiness, partially because it helps satisfying the need for relatedness. A cognitive intervention, grateful thinking, promotes the enjoying of positive experiences and it counteracts adaptation.

In a study, students who regularly expressed gratitude, showed increases in well-being, but these increases only showed up when students performed the activity only once a week. In the future, it is important that sustainability and potential moderators are also tested. The recommendations suggested by our model, are that people who want to increase their happiness should find new activities that fit their interests and values. They should also make a habit out of initiating the activity and varying their focus and timing at the same time. Another advice is to avoid basing happiness on circumstances or objects, because people will tend to adapt to such stable factors. It remains the case that only life changes involving intentional activity can lead to sustainable changes in happiness.

Conclusion

If pursuing happiness is meaningful and important, it is crucial to find out how it can be realized. Can people succeed in increasing happiness, to what extend and in which way? It is time for the issue of sustainable well-being to be given the scientific attention that it deserves.