lecture 5 Happiness

Question 1

problems with measuring happiness by self-report

Answer 1

• subjective (difficult to standardize)
• comparative
• different cultural interpretations
• happiness in the moment differs from long-term well-being.

Question 2

two types of values

Answer 2

• ultimate values
• instrumental values

Question 3

ultimate values

Answer 3

things we want for their own sake like happiness or food. you enjoy or consume these things.

Question 4

instrumental values

Answer 4

things we want because they help us get other things like money. money itself does not bring joy, but what you can trade it for does.

Question 5

easterlin paradox

Answer 5

whithin a country richer people are happier and people in richer countries see to be happier on average. however, as countries get richer people don’t seem to become happier.
-> robustness of this phenomenon is still debated because of limited data and timespan.

foreshadowed by Karl Marx. you don’t become happier when everyone is better off, because in comparison you stay the same

Question 6

research outcomes on the Easterlin paradox

Answer 6

• most countries show positive relation between happiness and money.
• people in richer countries are happier
• countries that start low income and go up become happier, but rich countries as happy as wealth increases.
• there is evidence against the aspect that countries don’t get happier as their wealth increases

Question 7

measures of happiness

Answer 7

• evaluative well-being
• experienced emotional well-being

which method is better depends on what you are interested in.

Question 8

evaluative well-being

Answer 8

overall life satisfaction. retrospective, longer time scale. life as a whole: projecting in the future and thinking about the past. influenced by many factors
- biased/flawed memory
- meaning

Question 9

experienced emotional well-being

Answer 9

what is happening in the moment, experience. not on a broad scale. momentary, short time scale, influenced by fewer factors.

Question 10

aspects of happiness and the two measures

Answer 10

• evaluative well being: income and education
• experienced, emotional well-being: health, caregiving, loneliness, smoking

Question 11

Kahneman & Deaton (2010)

Answer 11

found that there are diminishing returns for positive affect, blue affect, stress and life satisfaction.
pinpointed the plateau point at $75000 annual income.

Question 12

follow up study on Kahneman & Deaton (2010)

Answer 12

found that life satisfaction did increase with money, but that there is no levelling on the log scale.
some explanations
- differences between groups: diminishing returns are stronger for very unhappy people and weaker for happy people. The first study had a lot of people that started happy
- satiation: happiness still increases with bigger amounts.

Question 13

affective forecasting

Answer 13

predicting emotional response to future (intensity and duration)
we underestimate our ability to adapt to big changes.

Question 14

impact bias

Answer 14

tendency to overestimate the impact of purchases or experiences on our happiness
- because we tend to exclude context.

Question 15

study on impact bias

Answer 15

found that people predict they will feel worse when losing 4 dollars than when gaining, but that in reality there is little difference in happiness when actually experiencing the gains or losses.

Question 16

affective forecasting for anticipatory pleasure

Answer 16

with gains anticipated it is nice to pay now and enjoy later, because you can look forward to it, and with this you stretch out the experience of enjoyment.
-> however because of ignoring the context we sometimes fail to anticipate the lasting impact of negative things.

Question 17

slower adaptation to experience versus things

Answer 17

• slower adaptation to experiences
• experiences are more variable, surprising
• experiences can be shared better with others
• experiences have stronger memories and anticipation

Question 18

things that influence happiness “other than money” (Di Telle & MacCulloch, 2008)

Answer 18

• life expectancy
• welfare state generosity
• leisure
• environmental protection
• safety
• employment
• social connection
• equality

Question 19

Bhutan gross national happiness

Answer 19

encompasses living standards, health, education, environment etc.
different way of looking at how a country is doing instead of money.
-> fundamental motives pyramid

Question 20

Buettner et al., (2020)

Answer 20

looked at ways to greater happiness on a policy and an individual level.
- look what works for whom (policy) at the top
- invest in friends and family (individual) at the top

Question 21

Folk & Dunn (2024)

Answer 21

researched how people can become happier by reviewing preregistered studies and found
- gratitude
- smiling
- focussing on positive/silver lining
- being social
- spending on others
- avoid comparison to better alternatives
- reduce unpleasant tasks (if high enough income)

Question 22

best determent that makes people happy

Answer 22

good social relationships
- people with more social contact are happier
- people who engage in social activities report being happier

Question 23

linking happiness to consumer behavior

Answer 23

consumer behavior can shape whether and how we bond with others.

Question 24

charitable giving?

Answer 24

spending money on others makes you happier than on yourself. doing good feels good when it satisfies core social motives

Question 25

core social motives

Answer 25

• relatedness
• competence
• autonomy

Question 26

Mogilner & Norton

Answer 26

study in which they primed people to either think about money or time. then monitered what people did in a cafe.
- people thinking about money tend to work
- people thinking about time socialised more.

Question 27

Roher et al., (2018)

Answer 27

socially engaged pursuit to happiness leads to increases in life satisfaction.