Sean GlassMAPP 600Final Paper

The "Human-Well-Being" systemWell-being through cruise-control, Flourishing through Gain

We, homo-sapians, are temporal beings. For that matter, all life as we know itinhabits space-time in a way where we live with our senses and our thoughts flowing forwardin time. We don't experience anything in a static fashion. We might more appropriately becalled human-changings, rather than human-beings, as everything about us is constantlychanging with time. From cell apoptosis and genesis to food processing to the changing patterns on our retina, to the signals that each of our senses send across the nerves of our nervous system, everything about us is in a constant state of change. To date, the theories of happiness have been expressed through static images. Marty Seligman has put forward thethree pillars of happiness model (Seligman M. E., 2004), while Jonathan Haidt puts forth a"Happiness Hypothesis" with the idea that "happiness comes from between." (Haidt, 2006) Ihave written that I believe that happiness comes from connectedness (Glass, 2008). I believethat this is true, but believe that the model isn't complete because it doesn't take into accountthat the human system is constantly changing and constantly adapting to changing inputs andoutputs. I propose that a linear control system rather than a static model will lead to greater understanding of what well-being and flourishing are, and how we can help individuals andgroups achieve significant lasting well-being and increased flourishing over time. Positiveemotions, engagement and achievement, meaning, and positive relationships are all importantcomponents of well-being and pathways to increased flourishing. In the following pages, Iwill discuss my "Human-Well-Being" system, including my thoughts on how it fits with what

we have learned about well-being and flourishing, and how it might apply to the four areaswe studied in MAPP 600 this semester.In many ways, the human system is designed to work like linear control systems suchas cruise control. With cruise control, the car's speed is regulated to within a certain range.As you drive, the system looks at the input of current speed, the set point speed and thenreacts with appropriate action. If you're going up a hill and thus have slowed down, theaccelerator is applied. Likewise, going downhill your speed increases, and the systemresponds by applying the break.Cruise control is a simple example of a control system. Control systems are " adevice or set of devices to manage, command, direct or regulate the behavior of other devicesor systems." (Control System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2008) Control systems,such as the one illustrated below are designed to keep the system stable using feedback loops.

(Control System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 2008)

We can see how the human being can be viewed as a control system. There areinputs, outputs, and feedback of some of the outputs back into the inputs. The system ismeant to keep us in a functioning range. We can see the system at work through adaptationto changes (Kahneman, 2000), management of nutrients through the cycle of hunger andeating, and even that the approach - withdraw assessments and their interaction with our cognitive system are constantly working to keep us safe (Haidt, 2006). The idea of human-

being as control system fits nicely with why we see evidence of a hedonic treadmill and ahappiness, well-being, or life satisfaction set-point. Here's an illustration of my human-beingas control system.In the system there are soma and sensory inputs, feedback loop inputs, and system outputs.Outputs can feedback in as inputs, and also affect internal and external system statuses. Akey idea in control systems is that there can be a component called gain. In linear controlsystems, gain is "a proportional value that shows the relationship between the magnitude of the input to the magnitude of the output signal at steady state." (Control Systems/Gain -