Happiness Formula

Group 2: Madison Van De Hey, Blake Antal, Josh

Minardi, Lucas Smith, Jack Denby

The Happiness Formula

- The Happiness Formula is a basic formula that
distinguishes between momentary and enduring happiness
by calculating our enduring level of happiness
- Momentary = easily increased by simple uplifts (food,
jokes, new stuff)
- Enduring = Long term lasting happiness that is a
combination of your life circumstances.

The Formula
H=S+C+V
-

H = Enduring level of happiness

S = Set range of happiness
C = Circumstances of your life
V = Factors under your voluntary control

Set Range (S)

- This is the range of happiness we inherit
- Our personal set range of positive and
negative emotion.
- This includes our barriers to becoming a
happier person (includes the Hedonic
treadmill)

Circumstances (C)
- These are the external circumstance
influencing happiness.
- Change happiness for the better, but can be
impractical/expensive to change.
- Money, marriage, social life, health, religion,
race, age, and gender are all circumstances
surrounding your enduring level of happiness.

Factors Under your Control (V)

- These are all the internal circumstances that we can do
something about.
- By changing these we can increase our level of
happiness.
- ex: Marriage (robust effect), Living in a wealthy
democracy (strong effect), acquiring a rich social network
(robust effect), and get religion (moderate effect)

Overall Happiness
What affects
happiness?

negative emotion

religion
marriage

health
money
age

social life

What doesnt?

The Hedonic Treadmill

The Hedonic Treadmill causes you to rapidly adapt to good things by
taking them for granted. As you accumulate more possessions and
accomplishments your expectations for your life rise. Meaning that by
becoming happier a person actually expects that level of happiness to
increase. Being that a constant increase in happiness is all but
impossible you inevitably revert to your prior level of happiness before
all the success. Hence the treadmill, its a cycle, as you get happier,
your expectation rises. But the treadmill works both ways, as a person
gets more disappointed their expectations lower which can lead to a
happier life if conditions improve.

Facts
In less than 3 months, major events such as being fired or promoted
lose their impact on happiness levels
Wealth has a surprisingly low correlation to happiness levels
Recent changes in pay predict job satisfaction but average levels of
pay do not
Physical attractiveness doesnt really affect happiness either
Objective physical health, perhaps the most important of all resources,
is barely correlated with happiness.

Importance of Satisfaction with the past

- All feeling about the past is driven by
thinking and interpretation
- Childhood events are over-emphasized;
major childhood trauma has only a barely
detectable impact on adult personality
- No justification for blaming adult woes on
childhood events

Importance of Satisfaction with the past

(cont.)
- Believes dwelling on anger produces more
symptoms; emotions left to themselves will
dissipate
- Insufficient appreciation/savoring of good
events & overemphasis on bad ones in past
undermines serenity, contentment, and
satisfaction

What is Gratitude?
- Amplifies the savoring and appreciation of
past good events
- Buffers us from stress, enables us to feel less
envy, anger, resentment and regret
- Leads to positive emotions such as joy and
contentment
- Gratitude exercises

Quiz Questions
1) What percentage of people report going through
depression in their lives?
2) Is winning the lottery likely to increase your happiness
in the long term?
3) In the Happiness Formula, what does the S stand for?
4) What is an example of a life Circumstance that affects
your overall level of happiness?
5) Name two reasons money is not necessarily a good
indicator of happiness

Quiz Questions Continued

6) Would a person with a missing limb on their body likely be
less happy than a person with perfect health, or not? Why?
7) What happens to a persons expectations of happiness when
the have great success?
8) Does wealth have a large correlation with level of happiness?
9) What is Seligmans stance on expressing emotion such as
anger?
10) What does Seligman believe expressing gratitude can help
prevent?