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Summary Psychology of Happiness (FTR-FIMI223)
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A complete summary of all the articles from the course Psychology of Happiness given at the Radboud University!
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Psychology of Happiness Literature SummaryIndex
Week 1: introduction: where does happiness come from?....................................................................2
Brown & Rohrer – Easy as (Happiness) Pie? A critical evaluation of a popular model of the
determinants of well-being................................................................................................................2
Dunn, Gilbert & Wilson – If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it
right....................................................................................................................................................3
Lyubomirsky et al – Pursuing Happiness: The architecture of Sustainable Change............................4
Week 2: The social aspects of Happiness...............................................................................................7
Cohn et al – Civic Honesty around the globe......................................................................................7
Dunn, Aknin & Norton – Prosocial spending and happiness: Using money to benefit others pays off
............................................................................................................................................................7
Epley & Schroeder – Mistakenly Seeking Solitude..............................................................................8
Week 3: Sex and Happiness..................................................................................................................11
Blanchflower & Oswald – Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study......................................11
Muise, Schimmack & Impett – Sexual Frequency predicts greater well-being, but more is not
always better....................................................................................................................................11
Week 4: Happiness and Religion...........................................................................................................13
Graham & Haidt – Beyond beliefs: Religions bind individuals into moral communities...................13
Lim & Putnam – Religion, Social Networks and life Satisfaction.......................................................14
Week 5: Mindfulness............................................................................................................................16
Lindsay & Creswell – Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory.........16
Week 6: Happiness at work..................................................................................................................17
Deci, Olafsen & Ryan – Self-Determination Theory in Work Organizations: The state of a Science. 17
1
,Week 1: introduction: where does happiness come
from?
Brown & Rohrer – Easy as (Happiness) Pie? A critical
evaluation of a popular model of the determinants of
well-being
Lyubomirsky et al made a model which is called the “happiness pie” in which approximately 50% of
individual differences in happiness are due to genetic factors, 10% due to life circumstances and 40%
due to volitional activities. This paper re-examines the Lyubomirsky papers and talks about the
deficiencies found.
The positive psychology movement claims that people can control their own levels of happiness by
adopting a variety strategies like writing about positive experiencing or practicing meditation. One of
the most popular models about happiness is Lyubomirsky’s model which is known as the “happiness
pie”. According to the happiness pie there are three sources of variation which causes well-being.
Approximately 50% of individual differences in happiness are due to genetic factors (happiness set
point), 10% due to life circumstances and 40% due to volitional (intentional) activities. The happiness
pie attempts to explain “chronic happiness levels”, which is an experience that is more enduring than
momentary fluctuations in well-being.
There have been some researches which have written short critiques of the happiness pie but it
seems until now that no peer-reviewed articles have been published that discuss the origins and
validity of the happiness pie. So this is what happens in this article. This article sums up 3 critiques:
A. Between-subjects variance decomposition vs. individual-level potential for change
This means that a variance decomposition can only be interpreted in terms of variation
within a certain population (for example 10% of the between-subject variance can be
explained by life circumstances) and cannot be translated into individual-level variation (for
example 10% of a person’s variance in happiness can be explained by the person’s life
circumstances) unless it was explicitly established on the within-subject level. It seems that
Lyubomirsky et al were aware of this distinction. However, they were not consistent about
this throughout their article in terms of the language they used. Furthermore, even if
Lyubomirsky did talk about the within-subject level, they would still not necessarily imply
anything about the potential of possible volitional activities or interventions for two reasons:
1. The variance that can be explained by certain factors will necessarily be
constrained by the variability of these factors in the population. For example: imagine a
method was found which made people’s chronic happiness much higher. If almost everybody
in the population uses this method and becomes indeed happier, it would no longer explain
much variance in chronic happiness levels because it would have raised the level of the
whole population.
2. There is no evidence for the proposition that the activities that individuals choose
can actually explain the 40% of variance in well-being.
B. Does the “Happiness Pie” add up?
The equation of the happiness pie is only correct when all three factors are independent. But
it is very unlikely that the three factors (genes, circumstances and volitional activities) are
independent as they might interact with each other. Besides that, there is a lack of an error
term which cannot be true due to the vicissitudes (wisselvalligheden) of human subjects.
Thirdly there are potentially omitted determinants of happiness. This paper questions
2
, whether genetic factors, circumstances and volitional activities are the only three possible
causes of variance in well-being. This depends on what Lyubomirsky means with
“circumstances”. Does he also mean the human vicissitudes of life with this term? The name
of this cause of variance must actually be changed into “anything that is not circumstances
and set point, including volitional activities. The fourth and last element is that adding up
percentages of variance explained from different studies is questionable, which is done in the
Lyubomirsky study.
C. Re-examining the numerical estimates of the effect of genes and circumstances
The paper questions itself how much of the variance in chronic happiness levels can be
explained by genetic factors. Lyubomirsky derived their figure of 50% from combining the
results from three former studies. When taking these three studies into account, the paper
would come up with a percentage of 61%. The percentage of 50% is surrounded with
uncertainty and likely to be a lower bound. Secondly, the paper says that the origins of the
claim that only 10% of the variance in well-being is due to life circumstances is questionable
as well. Thirdly, the measures of well-being are specific to given populations and periods of
time. It is not clear if the numbers in Lyubomirsky’s study are still valid today.
Dunn, Gilbert & Wilson – If money doesn’t make you
happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right
According to scientists, the relationship between money and happiness is clear: money buys
happiness, but it buys less than most people think. Why doesn’t money bring us a lot of happiness?
Some believe that the answer to this question is that things that bring happiness aren’t for sale.
However, this is probably wrong as money allows people to live a better life. But, if money can buy
happiness, then why doesn’t it? This is because people don’t spend it right as most people do not
know what brings and sustains happiness.
When people make predictions about hedonic consequences of future events, they are said to be
making affective forecasts. Studies show that these affective forecasts are often wrong. Errors in
affective forecasting can be traced to two basic sources:
1. People’s mental simulations of future events are almost always imperfect; they don’t
anticipate the ease with which they will adapt to events and don’t fully understand the
factors in the adaptation and are unaware that mental simulations lack important details.
2. Context exerts strong effects on affective forecasts and on affective experiences but people
forget that the context in which they are making forecasts is not the context in which they
will be having their experience.
These two sources of error cause people to mispredict happiness.
In this literature, eight principles will be offered that are meant to remedy why people spend
money in ways which fail to maximize their happiness.
1. Buy experiences instead of things
2. Help others instead of yourself Research even shows that receiving a gift from a romantic
partner has a significant impact on the likelihood that the relationship will continue over the
long-term and leads to marriage. Giving things to friends and romantic partners produces
benefits for your mood. Giving things to charity will also benefit your mood and may even
facilitate the development of social relationships. Most people think that helping yourself will
make you happier than helping others. This is not true.
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