Science of happiness

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Science of happiness
By Marnell Jameson, LA Times
Though many people think happiness is elusive, scientists have actually pinned it down and know how to get it.
I would be happier if I made more money, found the perfect mate, lost 10 pounds or moved to a new house. Happiness is genetic. You can’t change how happy you are any more than you can change how tall you are. Answers: False, false and false. If recent scientific research on happiness, and there has been quite a bit, has proved anything, it’s that happiness is not a goal. It’s a process. Although our tendency to be happy or not is partly inborn, it’s also partly within our control. And, perhaps more surprising, happiness brings success, not the other way around. Though many people think happiness is elusive, scientists have actually pinned it down and know how to get it. For years, many in the field of psychology saw the science of happiness as an oxymoron. “We got no respect,” says Ed Diener, University of Illinois, who began studying happiness in 1981. “Critics said you couldn’t study happiness because you couldn’t measure it.” In the mid-1990s, he and a few other researchers started to prove the naysayers wrong. As a result, Americans now have an abundance of consumer books, academic articles, journals and associations to help them find happiness. Christine Cardone, executive editor of psychology books for Wiley-Blackwell, whose titles include Diener’s forthcoming book, points to 2000 as the tipping point: Happiness science began to flood society with new, positive ways of thinking. That year, Martin Seligman, then-president of the American Psychological Assosiation, started the positive psychology movement, which focuses on what makes people mentally healthy. That concept got out to the media, spawning more interest and research. Meanwhile, neuroscientists were discovering better ways to measure what’s going on in the brain. Among the major findings of the last decade is that the pursuit of happiness is a worthy cause, Diener says. “Happiness doesn’t just feel good. It’s good for you and for society. Happy people are more successful, have better relationships, are healthier and live longer.” And if that doesn’t make you happy, here’s more happy news: Around the world, happiness is on the rise. The fact that happiness and our understanding of it are on the rise bode well. “In the future, more people will understand the nature of happiness and its process,” says Dan Baker, who founded the life enhancement programme at Canyon Ranch in Tucson and is the author of What Happy Women Know. “They will understand that they have to take an active role if they want it.” Apparently, more people around the world are getting that message. “It’s true,” Seligman says. “We’re happier. And more happiness in the world is a great thing.”