Lecture 20: Happiness Flashcards
Abraham Maslow: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
psychological theory that outlines a five-tier model of human needs, often represented as a pyramid.
According to Maslow, people are motivated by different kinds of needs, and they must fulfill lower-level needs before moving on to higher-level ones.
This hierarchy explains how individuals prioritize their needs, from basic survival to self-actualization and personal fulfillment.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: Why are the categories ordered in the way that they are and in a pyramid?
- The order of their importance to us
- The order in which they come to mind/we experience them: start from the bottom of the pyramid, and in order to experience the next upper level, you need to satisfy the levels below it first (cannot experience the upper levels without taking care of the lower levels first)
–> Ie. need self-esteem and physiological needs satisfied to understand the brain
what is the order of the pyramid starting from bottom and going to the top
bottom
physiological needs
safety
love/belonging
self esteem
self actualization
top
physiological needs
basic needs
These are the most fundamental and essential needs for human survival. Without these needs being met, the body cannot function properly, and no other needs can be addressed.
Examples: Food, water, air, shelter, sleep, warmth, and other biological requirements for survival.
Safety Needs
security needs
Once physiological needs are met, individuals focus on their need for safety and security. This includes both physical safety and the stability of their environment.
Examples: Personal security, financial security, health and well-being, safety from accidents or illness, and a predictable environment.
love and belonging needs
social needs
After safety needs are satisfied, people seek out relationships, social connections, and a sense of belonging. Humans are inherently social beings, and emotional connections with others are essential.
Examples: Friendships, family, romantic relationships, social groups, community involvement, and feeling accepted by others.
self esteem needs
Esteem needs involve the desire for self-respect, recognition, and accomplishment. Once individuals have met their social needs, they seek to build their self-esteem and gain respect from others.
Examples: Confidence, respect from others, a sense of achievement, recognition, status, and independence. These needs are associated with self-worth and feeling valued by others.
self actualization needs
This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy, representing the desire to realize one’s fullest potential and become the best version of oneself. Self-actualization is about personal growth, creativity, and pursuing meaningful goals.
Examples: Achieving personal goals, seeking personal growth, pursuing passions, creativity, problem-solving, and striving for self-improvement and fulfillment.
considered a growth need (unlike the other four which are deficiency needs) –> lead to personal development and fulfillment, even if they are not fully met; Self-Actualization is not necessarily something everyone fully reaches, as it is a continuous process of becoming the best version of oneself.
what are 2 real life examples given for maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- barkley marathons
- hawaii false missile alert and porn
explain the barkley marathon example of maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Barkley Marathons: one of the most infamous and challenging ultramarathons and is known for its brutal difficulty and low completion rate
Lazarus Lake: “after so many days on the road, you know you have a job and a family, but that’s more like something you read about once in a book. The real is what’s in front of you, and you break down your life into “What am I going to drink? Where will I find something to eat? Where will I take a shit? Where am I going to sleep? And that’s really all that matters”
Shows that in such harsh environment, the mind narrows to the the immediate and necessary tasks → the mind is focused on physiological needs and no longer worries about the upper 4 levels because even the lowest level is extremely hard to satisfy in this marathon
Explain the hawaii false missile attack alert and porn usage example of maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Jan 2018, Hawaii experiences a false missile alert that caused widespread panic across the state and led many people to believe that they were about to face a life-threatening attack
An interesting observation was that the porn website traffic in Hawaii experienced a significant drop during the time of the missile alert because people were focused on survival and safety (the lowest level of the pyramid)
After the false alarm was cleared, the data showed a spike in porn usage later on, showing that people returned to seeking out forms on entertainment and distraction
consumption adequacy definition
whether individuals have enough resources to meet their basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing, and access to healthcare
explain the Life Satisfaction, Self-Determination, and Consumption Adequacy at the Bottom of the Pyramid (Kelly Martin and Ronald Paul Hill) study
sampled 77,646 people and includes 51 of the world’s poorest countries
There is a well known relationship that the more autonomy people have (aka political freedom), the higher their life satisfaction is
→ The question the study asks: Does the connection between autonomy and life satisfaction depend on if your basic needs are met?
results: answer to the question above
Yes (Basic Needs Are Met):
When consumption adequacy is achieved, autonomy plays a significant role in enhancing life satisfaction. People with enough resources to meet their basic needs can focus on higher-order desires, like personal freedom, self-expression, and social participation. Autonomy acts as a multiplier for satisfaction once survival is secure.
No (Basic Needs Are Not Met):
For those living in conditions of consumption inadequacy, autonomy becomes less relevant in determining life satisfaction. When basic survival is at stake, individuals may prioritize fulfilling immediate needs (e.g., food, shelter) over the ability to make independent decisions. In these contexts, life satisfaction is more strongly tied to resource availability than to political or personal freedom.
–> Martin and Hill’s study highlights the conditional relationship between autonomy and life satisfaction, emphasizing that basic needs must be met first. Autonomy and political freedoms are important but have limited impact on life satisfaction when survival is uncertain
–> results in line with maslow’s hierarchy of needs: when basic needs are not met (aka consumption adequacy is not met), autonomy does not really impact overall life satisfaction since autonomy is higher up on the pyramid (cannot reach this level without satisfying the lowest level)
autonomy definition
Refers to a sense of self-determination or control over one’s life: political freedom, the ability to make personal choices, and freedom from external coercion
in more developed countries, autonomy is closely tied to higher levels of life satisfaction as people value their ability to make decisions that shape their lives
life satisfaction definition
A measure of how individuals perceive the overall quality of their life in relation to their goals, desires, and expectation
Affective forecasting
comparing what you THINK will make you happy vs what ACTUALLY makes you happy
describe the bar graph from the Life Satisfaction, Self-Determination, and Consumption Adequacy at the Bottom of the Pyramid (Kelly Martin and Ronald Paul Hill) study
adequate:
low autonomy: ~1.0
high autonomy: ~2.2
inadequate:
low autonomy: ~0.4
high autonomy: ~0.5
–> shows that the impact of autonomy is much less when there is inadequate consumption adequacy
what are 3 real life examples that demonstrate affective forecasting?
- winning the lottery vs paralysis
- terminally ill
- people on death row
explain the winning the lottery vs spinal cord injury example of affective forecasting
asked a lottery winner vs someone who suffered from a spinal cord injury their happiness a year later from the two incidences
their levels of happiness are virtually the same, with the paralysis group actually being even slightly higher (real data from the bar graph)
explain the terminally ill blog posts example of affective forecasting (“Dying is Unexpectedly Positive” Paper)
The researchers collected data on the blog posts of terminally ill patients (compared the blog posts of actually terminally ill patients to the blog posts of healthy people who are trying to imagine what it would be like)
non-patient forecast: “Sometimes the flood of emotions becomes almost unbearable. Sitting here thinking about how ALS is robbing me of my voice, my breath, my stride and my dignity, it is tempting to retreat inside and isolate myself from family and friends who love me. Why burden them with what I am becoming? Why make a difficult future for me even worse for them?”
Real blog post: “Surrounded here by so much love and care I feel I am ready for the next step. I have no regrets at all – I have had a full life, touched and been touched by such wonderful family and friends. So if there is to be a final lesson for me it is that love is the ultimate gift — love and honesty. I am so grateful for the messages of support I have received from readers of this blog”
–> findings: There is more positivity and less negativity than expected in actual blog posts of terminally ill patients
- People who are not terminally ill thought one in that position would feel much sadder and less happy, however that is not the case and the blog posts from actual terminally ill patients were both more positive and less negative than expected
what was a “critic” of the terminally ill blog post example of affective forecasting?
some people thought that the reason that these terminally ill patients can be more positive than expected is because they are heavily supported by loved ones (aka maybe this is only the case for people/patients who are strongly supported and surrounded by friends and families)
explain the death row inmates example of affective forecasting
to test whether the results from the terminally ill blog post example was really just because those people were more supported, researchers conducted another study with death row innates (who are less supported)
findings: However, the same pattern holds for death row inmates
In their last words before they die, they say a lot more positive things than negative things
describe the bar graphs for blog posts of terminally ill patients and the last words of death row inmates
blog posts of terminally ill patients
positive sentiment:
patients’ post higher than non-patients’ forecasts
negative sentiment:
patients’ posts less than non-patients’ forecasts
last words of death row inmates
positive sentiment:
inmates’ last words higher than non-inmates’ forecast
negative sentiment:
inmates’ last words lower than non-inmates’ forecasts
–> the same pattern shown in both bar graphs, but the difference between the predicted and actual is larger for the terminally ill patients blog posts than that for death row inmates
impact bias
Impact Bias: the tendency to overestimate the difference of alternatives
–> We OVERESTIMATE how much things will really affect us (positively AND negatively) when really neither of them affects us as much as we think → most things in our life don’t affect our overall happiness as much as we think
This makes sense if we think about the past, but maybe not for the future (when we think about something that happened in the past that used to be a big deal, it is not really that impactful anymore)
