Happiness
What motivates
people? This is a critical question for “the story” and how bands became tribes
which led to civilization.
Key
Factors
1) 1) Survive!
2) 2) Thrive!
- Something one is good at
3) 3) The
ability and freedom to be able to do #2 (autonomy
or freedom)
4) 4) Relationships
where one is appreciated/loved can love
This all suggests a community, especially #3.
Maslow (1943) initially stated that individuals must satisfy lower level deficit needs before progressing on to meet higher level growth needs. However, he later clarified that satisfaction of a needs is not an “all-or-none” phenomenon, admitting that his earlier statements may have given “the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100 percent before the next need emerges” (1987, p. 69). When a deficit need has been more or less satisfied it will go away. Our activities move toward the next set of needs.
The original hierarchy of needs 5 stage model:
Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others.
Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us, and so on.
1. Physiological needs these are biological requirement for human survival eg. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep. If these needs are not satisfied the human body cannot function optimally. Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.
2.Safety needs order, perdictability and control in their lives. police financial security medical care.
3. Love and belongingness needs - after physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. Belongingness, refers to a human emotional need for interpersonal relationships, affiliating, connectedness, and being part of a group.
4.Esteem needs self worth accomplishments, respect.
5. Self-actualization needs are the highest level in Maslow's hierarchy, and refer to the realization of a person's potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. Maslow (1943) describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.
https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
Even
in prehistoric environments stories that appealed to these needs likely had a
potent grip. Clearly items 1,2.3 and even 4 were appealed in early societies to
today. The cultural norms established helped realize even the 5th
item.
Looked at
another way but with similar criteria, it has been suggested that there are
several factors that contribute toward happiness. This is an ”equation for
happiness,” suggested by psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman:
H = S + C
+ V
H = Happiness
S = Set range (genetics: about 50%)
C = Circumstances (8-15%)
V = Voluntary Control (past, present,
future)
This
looks very scientific, and is actually based on research findings, but it can
be explained quite simply:
Set
range/genetics. There is
some evidence to support that people are born with a certain “set-point” of
happiness, which is determined by our genes. This is supposed to change only
slightly, if at all, as we get older. Our genetic predisposition to happiness
contributes around 50% to our level of happiness.
So if something dramatic happens—for example, you win the lottery or break up
with your boyfriend or girlfriend—within a year or so (depending on the
situation), your happiness level will return to its set point.
Circumstances. There’s also some evidence to suggest that
the circumstance we live in influence our level of happiness. You don’t always
have a lot of control over your circumstances—for example, we can’t all live in
mansions and drive new cars. Evidence suggests, however, that this accounts for
only about 8% to 15% of our happiness, which really isn’t that much.
Voluntary
control. This
third factor is the most important factor in the equation, because you can
control it, and in the process control your happiness. It includes all aspects
of your life over which you have a relatively high degree of control, including
your thoughts and actions. This includes the way you choose to think about and
act on the past, present, and future, and seems to have a significant impact on
how happy you are—it could be up to 42%!
§ Past. When thinking about
the past, people who are happier pay attention to what was good about the past,
rather than focusing on the unhappy times. They are grateful, forgiving, and
don’t believe that the past will determine what happens in the future. For more
information on gratitude, for the past, check out the Gratitude, forgiveness
and their influence on your happiness fact sheet.
§ Future. When it comes to
thinking about the future, happy people are flexibly optimistic. What this
means is that they are optimistic (in a realistic sense) about how their future
is going to be, but if it doesn’t turn out that way, they know it’s not going
to be the end of the world either.
§ Present. The way you think
about and act in the present is also essential in determining how happy you
are. This might include actions like taking pleasure in life and your
surroundings, building and being in meaningful relationships, and the way we
react to things in life, good and bad.
https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/martin-seligman-psychology/?gclid=CjwKCAiA0KmPBhBqEiwAJqKK4_SCXYCkk_SBDOoC5rg0C8kE3jChmWnenXYwgNc2BTQKAFbKCtMjjxoCqNUQAvD_BwE
In Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, "happy families are all
alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This suggests that to be successful in a
marriage, one must 1) have sexual attraction, 2) agreement on money,
child-rearing, religion, relationship with in-laws, etc. a failure in any one
area can doom with the relationship.
There are 2 ways to be rich - 1) earn more or 2) be happy with
less.
Most
folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be. Lincoln http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html
Key
to Happiness: Toleration
If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter.
This is a derivative of
Age Is an Issue of Mind Over
Matter. If You Don’t Mind, It Doesn’t Matter
Mark
Twain? Jack Benny? Satchel Paige? Muhammad Ali? Unknown gerontology researcher?
http://quoteinvestigator.com/
Jung
answered the happiness question with:
1. Good
physical and mental health.
2. Good personal and intimate relationships, such as those of marriage, the
family, and friendships.
3. The faculty for perceiving beauty in art and nature.
4. Reasonable standards of living and satisfactory work.
5. A philosophic or religious point of view capable of coping successfully with
the vicissitudes of life.”
Viktor Frankl said something similar about the pursuit of
happiness:
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue,
and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication
to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a
person other than oneself.
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.” – Cesare Pavese
http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2010/11/5-basic-factors-for-happiness-according-to-carl-jung/
In the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
https://www.monticello.org/declaration/?ef_id=CjwKCAiA0KmPBhBqEiwAJqKK40tM53M5fc-VfQtXSyLtBx-jEEM_qVUJDnImv3LmV78OLDgdaoRrjRoCMwoQAvD_BwE:G:s&gclid=CjwKCAiA0KmPBhBqEiwAJqKK40tM53M5fc-VfQtXSyLtBx-jEEM_qVUJDnImv3LmV78OLDgdaoRrjRoCMwoQAvD_BwE
Most
likely the “Happiness” of the Declaration was based on the concept of
Eudaimonia.
Plato himself but believed by modern scholars to have been
written by his immediate followers in the Academy, provides the following definition of the word eudaimonia: "The good composed of all goods; an ability
which suffices for living well; perfection in respect of virtue; resources
sufficient for a living creature."
…and the less
subjective "human flourishing" is often preferred as a translation.
as Aristotle points out, saying that eudaimon life is a life
which is objectively desirable, and means living well, is not saying very much.
Everyone wants to be eudaimon; and everyone agrees that being eudaimon is
related to faring well and to an individual's well-being. The really difficult
question is to specify just what sort of activities enable one to live well.
Aristotle presents various popular conceptions of the best life for human
beings. The candidates that he mentions are a (1) life of pleasure, (2) a life
of political activity, and (3) a philosophical life.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia
“Our story” is
central to culture the identification of individuals to a group. It is also how
leaders can manipulate people for good or evil.
Further consideration: Study of Happiness
WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017 Editors: John Helliwell, Richard Layard, and Jeffrey Sachs Associate Editors: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Haifang Huang and Shun Wang
This report lays out that generousity is important to one's happiness. ©
Noah Sillimann Photo
