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)
does money buy happiness? describe the relationship between money and happiness
As shown from the graph… yes money does buy happiness
However, at a certain point/wealth, gaining more money above that threshold does not affect happiness as much anymore:
what is a possible explanation that at a certain point/wealth, gaining more money above that threshold does not affect happiness as much anymore? (aka why is there is slight decline at the end of the graph?)
Dip in graph at the end indicates how rich people are friends with rich people and compare their money so they feel less happy (feel worse and not the best)
→ positional concerns may also explain the plateau of happiness and money relationship after a certain point is reached: since a lot of the happiness from money comes from comparison/relativity, the richer you get, the richer your circle becomes and if everyone around you is making more than you, you might not be as happy
what are misconceptions about the relationship between money and happiness?
- People also think it is a constantly positive/increasing relationship between money and happiness, but it plateaus after a certain point
- Money makes you happy but people think money makes you MORE happy than reality (because we spend money on the wrong things)
“If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right” paper: why does money not make us as happy as we expect it to? and 4 suggestions on how to effectively “buy happiness?”
Money makes you happy but people think money makes you MORE happy than reality –> this is because we spend money on the wrong things
has the thinking of these are the recommendations of how to ACTUALLY buy happiness with money
prefer experiences over things
Spend money on other people
Many small joys > a few big ones
Avoid comparison shopping against others
explain “The relative relativity of material and experiential purchases” paper/study
it is better to buy experiences over things to increase happiness
- it is easy to predict the opposite: you still have the thing vs the experience/memory fades over time → would expect to be happier with the thing in the long run, HOWEVER this is FALSE
The actual results: people are happier with the experiences in the long run
describe the graph shows experiential vs material satisfaction initially vs currently
initial:
experiential: a bit less than 6.1
material: 6
current:
experiential: ~6.25
material: a bit less than 5.8
–> shows that in the long run, experiences increase in satisfaction and materialistic things decrease in satisfaction
Why do experiences make you happier than things? ____ vs _____
→ Maximizing (material things) vs Satisficing (experiences)
maximizing definition and example
trying to get the best thing/option all the time
You buy the latest iPhone and feel satisfied—until the next model is released, leaving you feeling outdated or regretful
Satisficing definition
Focuses on finding the first option that meets your needs or expectation (aka satisfies)
You go on a trip to a national park and enjoy the scenery, regardless of whether it’s the “best” park in the country.
positional concerns definition and relationship to things
Positional concerns: how good something is RELATIVE to other things
–> Things are subject to positional concerns whereas experiences are not really
Ie. (A) Your yearly income is $100,000; others earn $50,000
(B) Your yearly income is $150,000; others earn $300,000
→ a lot of people choose (A)
Ie. (A) You have 2 weeks of vacation; others have 1 week
(B) You have 3 weeks of vacation; others have 6 weeks
→ a lot of people choose (B) in this setting instead
which experiences actually make us happier –> What would you do if you won the lottery? study and results
When asked a lot of people, many just say “they will do nothing” and that they will just relax and chill
Question: will relaxing and taking it easy actually make people happy?
→ Answer this question using experience sampling : in this case, an iphone app will randomly buzz you and ask you what you are doing in this exact moment and how happy you are right now
Can then plot the data and see what people say and how happy they are doing those things
results: Sex had the highest happiness
“Rest” or chilling actually had the least happiness out of all the activities (doing nothing is the least fun thing to do, even though this result wouldn’t be expected)
experience sampling definition
a research technique used in psychology and social sciences to collect data on individuals’ thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and experiences in real-time, within their natural environments
describe the bar graph for the What would you do if you won the lottery? study: working, TV, talking, exercise, sex, rest
highest happiness
sex
exercise
talking
TV
working
rest
lowest happiness
–> contrary to what people BELIEVED would make them the happiest (rest) turned out to be the activity that made them the LEAST happy (example of the discrepancy between what people believe they want vs what they actually want)
- Apparently, doing “nothing” is worst and makes you the least happy compared to even work
rest compared to working → actually lower rated for happiness than working which is the complete opposite of what we would expect
sex was the activity with the highest level of happiness
explain the quote “A wondering mind is an unhappy mind” and the paper’s explanation for this
A reason for this: your mind tends to wonder when you do nothing and tends to wonder towards negative thoughts and things that bother you
however, this result actually makes sense if you think about rest in terms of the hierarchy of needs: you are not satisfying any levels on the pyramid so makes sense that you aren’t really that happy with just resting and doing nothing
Happiness is something you ____
Happiness is something you DO
describe the inconsistency surrounding the relationship between money and happiness
people OVERESTIMATE the impact that money has on well being/happiness
describe the first study on a national sample of respondents from across the income spectrum both to report their own happiness and predict the happiness of others at different levels of income (include graph description)
studied how people predicted the relationship between happiness and money for OTHER people
hypothesis: participants would correctly associate high income with higher happiness but overestimate the strength of this relationship
- respondents accurately predicted happiness for higher income levels (>$90k)
- respondents UNDERESTIMATED happiness lower income levels (<55k)
the graph shows that the predicted happiness for lower income is much less than the actual happiness (left end of graph) but the predicted happiness for higher income is similar to the actual happiness
However, there is a diminishing return ono happiness beyond a certain income THRESHOLD –> the graph on the very right end shows that the predicted happiness is higher than the actual happiness
describe the second study that asked respondents to predict how happy they thought they would be given different levels of household income to directly measure people’s beliefs about the impact of money on their own happiness (graph description too)
studied how people predicted the relationship between money and happiness for THEMSELVES
(will people overestimate the relationship between money and their OWN happiness the same way they overestimated the relationship for OTHERS)
respondents predicted that income would have a SIMILAR impact on their OWN happiness as on other’s happiness
similar to study 1 where people were pretty accurate with predicting happiness for higher income but still UNDERESTIMATED happiness for lower incomes (people with lower incomes are happier than people predicted)
the graph shows that people predicted the same relationship for others and for themselves very similarly and in both cases, they underestimate the actual happiness for lower incomes (the actual happiness for lower incomes is higher than the predicted happiness for themselves and for others)
the right end of the graph also showed diminishing returns on happiness after a certain threshold
explain the phenomenon of diminishing returns on happiness and a reason why this happens
after a certain threshold, money doesn’t make a huge difference to happiness and after this point, the predicted happiness is higher than the actual happiness
–> Arnold S.’s quote: “Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have 50 million, but I was just as happy when I had 48 million dollars”
a reason behind this is that when you have a lot of money, your circle (the people around you) most likely have even more money than you, so you compare yourself with them which decreases your happiness
explain why Arnold Schwarzenegger said “Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have 50 million, but I was just as happy when I had 48 million dollars”
this is only true because he has passed the threshold and is now in diminishing returns on happiness
what are two reasons that the HW reading gave for why people wrongly believe that there is a tighter association between money and happiness than the actual happiness data justifies
- People believe that increases in income are associated with increases in happiness
- People believe that decreases in income are associated with decreases in happiness
