Psychology of Happiness

PSY802

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HAPPINESS
Happiness is understood as the positive emotions we have in regards to the pleasurable activities
we take part in through our daily lives.

Pleasure, comfort, gratitude, hope, and inspiration are examples of positive emotions that
increase our happiness and move us to flourish. In scientific literature, happiness is referred to as
hedonia (Ryan & Deci, 2001), the presence of positive emotions and the absence of negative
emotions.

The Scientific Research on Happiness at Work

There’s been a ton of research on the effects of happiness in the workplace. Much of this is
driven by companies who want to find a way to improve productivity, attract new talent, and get
a dose of good publicity, all at the same time. After all, who wouldn’t want to do business with
and/or work for a company full of happy employees?

Although the jury is still out on exactly how happy employees “should” be for maximum
productivity, efficiency, and health, we have learned a few things about the effects of a happy
workforce:

People who are happy with their jobs are less likely to leave their jobs, less likely to be absent,
and less likely to engage in counterproductive behaviors at work.

People who are happy with their jobs are more likely to engage in behavior that contributes to a
happy and productive organization, more likely to be physically healthy, and more likely to be
mentally healthy.

Happiness and job performance are related—and the relationship likely works in both directions
(e.g., happy people do a better job and people who do a good job are more likely to be happy).

To sum up the findings we have so far, it’s easy to see that happiness at work does matter – for
individuals, for teams, and for organizations overall. We don’t have all the answers about exactly
how the relationship between happiness and productivity works, but we know that there is a
relationship there.

FACTS RELATED TO HAPPINESS AND BEING HAPPY

1. Happiness is linked to lower heart rate and blood pressure, as well as healthier heart rate
variability.
2. Happiness can also act as a barrier between you and germs – happier people are less
likely to get sick.
3. People who are happier enjoy greater protection against stress and release less of the
stress hormone cortisol.
 4. Happy people tend to experience fewer aches and pains, including dizziness, muscle
strain, and heartburn.
5. Happiness acts as a protective factor against disease and disability (in general, of course).
6. Those who are happiest tend to live significantly longer than those who are not.

A Study Showing How Acts of Kindness Make us Happier

Feeling stressed after a long day of work? Treat yourself to a bubble bath. Feeling blue?
Treat yourself to a decadent dessert. Feeling frustrated after an argument with a friend?
Skip your workout and have an extra scoop of ice cream.

The message is clear: If you want to feel happy, you should focus on your own wishes
and desires. Yet this is not the advice that many people grew up hearing. Indeed, most of
the world’s religions (and grandmothers everywhere) have long suggested that people
should focus on others first and themselves second.
Psychologists refer to such behavior as prosocial behavior and many recent studies have
shown that when people have a prosocial focus, doing kind acts for others, their own
happiness increases.

A Take-Home Message
Happiness is the overall subjective experience of our positive emotions. There are many factors
which influence our happiness, and ongoing research continues to uncover what makes us
happiest.

This global pursuit of happiness has resulted in measures such as the World Happiness Report,
while the World Happiness Database is working to collaborate and consolidate the existing
happiness pursuits of different nations.

The human brain is wired for happiness and positive connections with others. It is actually
possible to experience and learn happiness despite what has been genetically hardwired.

In a world where the focus on happiness is growing and the mirror is turning back towards
ourselves, the happiness of the world relies on the happiness within each one of us and how we
act, share, and voice the importance of happiness for everyone.
Define ‘Flow’ and how other positive emotions -‘Resilience and Hope’ are
helping you to cope with present challenges of life?

ANSWER

FLOW
“A state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the
experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer
sake of doing it.”  

– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

In flow, we are in control of our psychic energy and everything we do add order to
consciousness. Following a flow experience, our self becomes more complex than that it had
been before, due to two broad psychological processes – differentiation and integration. The self
becomes differentiated as the person after a flow experience feels more capable and skilled.
Flow leads to integration because thoughts, intentions, feelings and the senses are focused on the
same goal. After a flow episode, one feels more together than before, not only internally but also
with respect to other people and the world in general. Differentiation promotes individuality
while integration facilitates connections and security.

The Characteristics of Flow:

1. Complete concentration on the task

2. Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback
3. The experience is intrinsically rewarding
4. Effortlessness and ease
5. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination
6. There is a feeling of control over the task.

The Benefits of Flow

Flow appears to come with many benefits. It makes sense that people who engage in it have
feelings of success, pride, and accomplishment—all of which encourage more learning and
development. An activity done in flow is pegged as enjoyable or even ecstatic, though the joy
isn't at the fore during the task because the person is too busy feeling immersed in the
experience.

Flow is also a tool for better emotion regulation. When a person is in a state of flow, there is little
need for doubts or anxieties about oneself or the world in general; even the uncertainties of life
fall away. Through the process of flow, a person chooses to focus on a task and gain a sense of
autonomy over time, body, and mind.
And because it’s a dynamic state, one has to constantly adjust the skill, challenge, and
complexity required for the activity. With practice and intention, anyone could achieve the
feeling of flow.

EFFECT OF FLOW

Positive experiences

Enhancing the time spent in flow makes our lives more happy and successful. Flow experiences
are predicted to lead to positive affect as well as to better performance. For example, delinquent
behavior was reduced in adolescents after two years of enhancing flow through activities.

Positive affect and life satisfaction

Flow is an innately positive experience; it is known to "produce intense feelings of enjoyment".

An experience that is so enjoyable should lead to positive affect and happiness in the long run.
Also, Csikszentmihályi stated that happiness is derived from personal development and growth –
and flow situations permit the experience of personal development.

Csiksentmihayli's Research

One of the pioneers of the research on flow is Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
also one of the founders of positive psychology. Csikszentmihalyi began his research on flow by
studying artists and creative types (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). He noted that the act of creating
seemed at times more important than the finished work itself and he was fascinated by what he
called the “flow” state, in which the person is completely immersed in an activity with intense
focus and creative engagement. He set his life’s work to scientifically identify the different
elements involved in achieving such a state.

Csikszentmihalyi’s work has identified six factors of flow:

 Intense and focused concentration on the present moment

 Merging of action and awareness
 A loss of reflective self-consciousness
 A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
 A distortion of temporal experience
 Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic
experience

Several studies found that flow experiences and positive affect go hand in hand, and that
challenges and skills above the individual's average foster positive affect. However, the causal
processes underlying those relationships remains unclear at present.

Performance and learning

Flow experiences imply a growth principle. When one is in a flow state, they are working to
master the activity at hand. To maintain that flow state, one must seek increasingly greater
challenges. Attempting these new, difficult challenges stretches one's skills. One emerges from
such a flow experience with a bit of personal growth and great "feelings of competence and
efficacy".

Employees’ experience of flow on the job has often been described as spontaneous and difficult
to predict, however, Ceja & Navarro discovered that a balance of enjoyment, interest, and
absorption can increase flow, and subsequently employee flourishing, at work (2012). This work
has been influential for companies and organizations who wish to increase employee
productivity, creativity, and well-being.

Flow has also been studied in secondary education, and researchers discovered that teachers who
experience more flow are more adept at applying personal and organizational resources.
Personal resources can be thought of as a sense of competency in one’s work, and organizational
resources include a supportive work environment and clear professional goals. Increasing
educator’s goals and feelings of self- efficacy at work could lead to enriched learning
environments for students, making flow an exciting subject of study for psychologists and
educators alike.

"The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive,
relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body
or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish
something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus
something we make happen." Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

How to find and apply flow in our lives

Happiness is not a fixed state, but consists in how we choose to invest our mental energies. The
most rewarding investments of that energy lie in tasks that represent a healthy level of personal
enjoyment, challenge and difficulty. When we focus all of our attention on clear goals within
these sorts of tasks, our energy literally 'flows' in the direction of that goal.

The resulting oneness we feel when immersed in these activities can be described as flow state.
Regular occurrence of flow state in our lives is key to our overall levels of life satisfaction and
happiness.
 “Life doesn't get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and
more resilient.”

RESILIENCE
Resilience is the ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis
status quickly. Resilience exists when the person uses "mental processes and behaviors in
promoting personal assets and protecting self from the potential negative effects of stressors"

In simpler terms, psychological resilience exists in people who develop psychological and

behavioral capabilities that allow them to remain calm during crises/chaos and to move on from
the incident without long-term negative consequences.

Characteristics of Resilient People:

1. They are able to detect the cause of their problems
2. They know how to handle their emotions
3. They keep calm in stressful situations
4. They are realistic
5. They trust themselves
6. They are empathetic
7. They are able to motivate themselves
8. They don’t ask why, they ask how

Resilience does not eliminate stress or erase life's difficulties. People who possess this
resilience don’t see life through rose-colored lenses. They understand that setbacks happen
and that sometimes life is hard and painful. They still experience the emotional pain, grief,
and sense of loss that comes after a tragedy, but their mental outlook allows them to work
through such feelings and recover. Instead, resilience gives people the strength to tackle
problems head-on, overcome adversity, and move on with their lives.

Resilience is an important ability and something that you can get better at with time. Start by
practicing some resilience-building skills in your daily life. Developing a positive outlook,
having a strong support system, and taking active steps to make things better can go a long way
toward becoming more resilient in the face of life's challenges.

Resilience is important for several reasons; it enables us to develop mechanisms for protection
against experiences which could be overwhelming, it helps us to maintain balance in our lives
during difficult or stressful periods, and can also protect us from the development of some
mental health difficulties and issues.
Benefits of becoming more resilient are listed below:

 Improved learning and academic achievement.

 Lower absences from work or study due to sickness.
 Reduced use of risk-taking behavior such as excessive drinking, smoking or
use of drugs.
 Increased involvement in community or family activities.
 A lower rate of mortality and increased physical health.

How can we develop more resilience?

Make some lifestyle changes - practice being more straight-forward and assertive with others.

Look after your physical health - get a good night’s sleep, and develop better sleeping patterns.

Be less hard on yourself - find time to praise yourself for your achievements and reward yourself
for what you have accomplished.

What Creates Resilience

Psychologists have identified some of the factors that appear to make a person more resilient,
such as a positive attitude, optimism, the ability to regulate emotions, and the ability to see
failure as a form of helpful feedback.

Optimism, for instance, has been shown to help blunt the impact of stress on the mind and body
in the wake of disturbing experiences. That gives people access to their own cognitive resources,
enabling cool-headed analysis of what might have gone wrong and consideration of behavioral
paths that might be more productive.

How to Build Resilience

Getting through pain and disappointment without letting them become overwhelming isn’t
necessarily easy for anyone. But researchers have begun to uncover what more resilient people
do to emotionally and mentally carry on after the death of a loved one, a job loss, chronic or
acute illness, or another setback. What they’ve learned may help others become more resilient
themselves.

Strategies for becoming more resilient

Healthy habits—getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising—can reduce stress, which
may, in turn, boost resilience. Similarly, being sure to nurture close relationships can help an
individual find support when trouble arises. Regularly thinking about morals and actively living
according to one’s values  have been linked to higher resilience.

Character Strengths and Resilience

Strengths such as gratitude, kindness, hope, and bravery have been shown to act as protective
factors against life’s adversities, helping us adapt positively and cope with difficulties such as
physical and mental illness.

Empirical research in this area shows evidence that some character strengths can also be
significant predictors of resilience, with particular correlations between emotional, intellectual,
and restraint-related strengths and the former.

In this study, hope, bravery, and zest had the most extensive relationship with positive adaptation
in the face of challenge. This led the authors Martínez-Martí and Ruch to speculate that
processes such as determination, social connectedness, emotional regulation, and more were at
play.

Resilience and Positive Emotions

Most people think of happiness whenever positive psychology is mentioned, so are happiness
and resilience related? A 2009 study by Cohn and colleagues suggests that they may well be. To
be specific, happiness is a positive emotion.

According to the Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions, happiness is one emotion that
helps us become more explorative and adaptable in our thoughts and behaviors – we create
enduring resources that help us live well. These results correspond with other evidence that
positive emotions can facilitate resource growth and findings that link psychological resilience
with physical health, psychological well-being, and positive affect

A Take-Home Message
Resilience is something we can all develop, whether we want to grow as individuals, as a family,
or as a society more broadly. If you’re interested in developing your psychological resilience, our
Realizing Resilience masterclass uses science-based tools and techniques to help you understand
the concept better and cultivate more “bounce-back.”
 HOPE
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with
respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions
include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation.

Hope helps us remain committed to our goals and motivated to take action towards achieving.
Hope gives people a reason to continue fighting and believing that their current circumstances
will improve, despite the unpredictable nature of human existence.

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with
respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions
include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation.”

According to Snyder’s Hope Theory (Snyder, 1991), hopefulness is a life-sustaining human

strength comprised of three distinct but related components:

1. Goals Thinking – the clear conceptualization of valuable goals.

2. Pathways Thinking – the capacity to develop specific strategies to reach those goals.
3. Agency Thinking – the ability to initiate and sustain the motivation for using those
strategies.

Characteristics of hope:
1. “Lights a candle” instead of “cursing the darkness.”
2. Opens doors where despair closes them
3. Looks for the good in people instead of harping on the worst in them.
4. Discovers what can be done instead of grumbling about what cannot be done.
5. Draws its power from a deep trust in God and the basic goodness of mankind.
6. Regards problems, small or large, as opportunities.

Well, life is difficult. There are many obstacles. Having goals is not enough. One has to keep
getting closer to those goals, amidst all the inevitable twists and turns of life. Hope allows people
to approach problems with a mindset and strategy-set suitable to success, thereby increasing the
chances they will actually accomplish their goals.

Hope is not just a feel-good emotion, but a dynamic cognitive motivational system. Under this
conceptualization of hope, emotions follow cognitions, not the other way round. Hope-related
cognitions are important. Hope leads to learning goals, which are conducive to growth and
improvement. People with learning goals are actively engaged in their learning, constantly
planning strategies to meet their goals, and monitoring their progress to stay on track. A bulk of
research shows that learning goals are positively related to success across a wide swatch of
human life—from academic achievement to sports to arts to science to business.

hose lacking hope, on the other hand, tend to adopt mastery goals. People with mastery goals
choose easy tasks that don’t offer a challenge or opportunity for growth. When they fail, they
quit. People with mastery goals act helpless, and feel a lack of control over their environment.
They don’t believe in their capacity to obtain the kind of future they want. They have no hope.

HOPE AND PSYCHOLOGY

When people feel hopeful, they tend to face fewer mental health concerns. Conversely, people
experiencing despair are often more likely to be challenged by depression, anxiety, panic attacks,
and other problems. Depression in particular can contribute to feelings of despair and
hopelessness.

Hopelessness can also affect physical health. People who are not optimistic about their health or
about their medical treatment are more likely to remain sick, more likely to report high levels of
pain, and less likely to see an improvement in their overall health. Some mental health
practitioners, aware of the role hope plays, encourage people in therapy to work on thinking
positively about life developments and finding things to be hopeful about. Many mental health
professionals hold hope to be an indispensable key to happiness and believe people cannot be
happy without hope.

Positive Psychology of Hope

Hope in psychology is an overall perception that goals can be attained with beliefs and efforts.
To hope means to have the agency and the pathways to go after the desired goals.

Psychology sees hope in terms of positive future expectations. However, the nature of hope
varies from person to person. Hope is not static but evolves as circumstances change, and
individuals rework their expectations.

Hope Experiment: A Scientific Ice-Bucket Challenge

The late professor Christopher Peterson, author of A Primer In Positive Psychology, once wrote
about an interesting experiment on how hope increases our tolerance to pain in a popular post:

In an interesting experiment, Carla Berg, Rick Snyder, and Nancy Hamilton (2008) used guided
imagery in what they called a Hope Induction. For about 15 minutes, research participants were
asked to think of an important goal and to imagine how they might achieve it.

A comparison condition asked participants to read a home organization book for 15 minutes. All
participants were then asked to immerse their non-dominant hand in a bucket of ice water for as
long as they could (up to five minutes). This is a standard measure of pain tolerance, and it is
painful but not harmful.

Participants receiving the brief hope induction kept their hand immersed for about 150 seconds,
whereas those in the comparison condition kept their hand immersed for about 90 seconds.

The experiment found high-hope participants tolerated the pain almost twice as longer as low-
hope persons.
We discovered a clear pattern of psychological changes for quarantined persons. Anxious
depression levels significantly increased as quarantine starts, but gradually diminished as it
progresses. However, anxious depression levels resurged after a 14-day quarantine. It was found
that quarantine has a negative impact on the mental health of quarantined and unquarantined
people. Whilst quarantine is deemed necessary, proper interventions such as emotion
management should be introduced to mitigate its adverse psychological impacts.

Many psychological problems and important consequences in terms of mental health including
stress, anxiety, depression, frustration, uncertainty during COVID-19 outbreak emerged
progressively.

Other studies reported a higher prevalence of subjects with psychological symptoms, emotional
disturbance, depression, stress, mood alterations and irritability, insomnia, post-traumatic stress
symptoms, anger and emotional exhaustion among those who have been quarantined.

The picture summarized the most relevant psychological reactions in the general population
related to COVID-19 infection

psychological reactions to COVID-19 infection

Aspecific and uncontrolled fears related to infection

This is commonly one of the most frequent psychological reaction to pandemics.
Several existing studies demonstrated that those who have been exposed to the risk
of infection may develop pervasive fears about their health, worries to infect others
and fear infecting family members.

Pervasive anxiety

Social isolation related to restrictions and lockdown measures are linked to feelings
of uncertainty for the future, fear of new and unknown infective agents resulting in
abnormally increased anxiety.

Frustration and boredom

Distress, boredom, social isolation and frustration are directly related to

confinement, abnormally reduced social/physical contact with others, and loss of
usual habits.

Disabling loneliness

The final effect of social isolation is pervasive loneliness and boredom, which have
potential dramatic effects on both physical and mental individual well-being.
Pervasive loneliness may be significantly associated with increased depression and
suicidal behavior.

Risk factors

Alexithymia
The risk of related quarantine distress may be also due to the presence of alexithymic traits
which may reduce psychological resilience in some subgroups of individuals. Alexithymia
may be literally defined as ‘no words for mood’ and was initially identified to describe
cognitive and affective features in patients with psychosomatic disorders.

Inadequate supplies

Importantly, feelings of frustration and incertainty tend to occur even in relation with
inadequate basic supplies (e.g. food, water, clothes etc.) during the quarantine period which
is a major source of worries, and anxiety/anger even after 4–6 months from quarantine.

Inadequate information
 Existing evidence suggest that the poor or inadequate information from public health
authorities may be a significant stressor because it provides inappropriate guidelines
concerning call for actions or leads to confusion about the purpose of quarantine or the
importance of measures needed to interrupt the pandemic spread.

Protective factors

Resilience

Psychological resilience may be generally defined as the ability to support or

retrieve psychological well-being during or after addressing stressful disabling
conditions. Although the interconnectedness increased dramatically over the past
decades, similarly the vulnerability of billions of individuals across the world to
existing or novel pathogens tragically increased without a corresponding
enhancement in coping abilities. Historically, different indices have been adopted
to measure resilience and individual ability to react to social, economic and
political threats, including public health emergencies. Unfortunately, being less
resilient to social threats, such as pandemics, may enhance the risk of developing
psychiatric conditions. Notably, a general message of hope and social protection
given by healthcare regulatory authorities and scientists not only about the risk of
being infected but even about the existence of containment measurements that may
be implemented in the hospitals and in the community as a whole may enhance
resilience and individual abilities to successfully react to social threats.