Wealth, Goals and Happiness

Wealth

As a group, millionaires are no more happy than people of average income.

Surveys of Forbes 400 richest individuals were found to exhibit only a tad bit more life satisfaction than people living at median income.

Source: Easterbrook, Gregg, The Progress Paradox (New York: Random House, 2003), p.168-170.

Winning the Lottery

Systemic study of 22 major lottery winners were found to revert to baseline levels of happiness

Source: Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002), p.48

The Hedonic Treadmill

New possessions give us a temporary boost in happiness, but then we acclimate to them, our expectations rise, and we seek the next possession to increase our happiness.

Source: Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002) p.49.

Goals and Achievement

Happiness is not attained through achievement of goals, but through their pursuit. Relief is sometimes felt when a goal is achieved, but rarely happiness, and it is fleeting

Sources: Tal David Ben-Shachar lecture notes on goal attainment from Psychology 1504 Positive Psychology, Harvard College, Fall 2004.

Self Concordant Goals

Have consistency with the individuals core values and developing interests

Freely chosen goals Want to vs. Have to Intrinsically important

Sources: Sheldon, Kennon M. and Elliot Andrew, Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well Being: The Self Concordant Model, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 76 No. 3, p. 484. Tal David Ben-Shachar lecture notes on goal attainment from Psychology 1504 Positive Psychology, Harvard College, Fall 2004.

Concordance Achievement
Goal concordance predicts level of effort over time Effort in turn predicts the likelihood of goal attainment

Source: Sheldon, Kennon M. and Elliot Andrew, Goal Striving, Need Satisfaction, and Longitudinal Well Being: The Self Concordant Model, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 76 No. 3, p. 484

Status (Social Relativity)

People become happier when they become wealthy relative to others, especially people who are similar, their reference group Silver medalists are found to be less happy than bronze medalists because they compare themselves to those who got gold rather than no medal.

Source: Layard, Richard Happiness (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005) p. 44.

Relative Income
Given a choice between living in a world where:

the average salary is $25k and yours is $50k

The majority of people choose to make $50k in a world where the average is $25k.

or one in which

the average is $200k and yours is $100k

Which would you choose?

Source: Layard, Richard Happiness (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005) p.41-42.

Relative Time Off

Would you rather have

2 weeks vacation when your peers get 1 week off

Only 20% of students surveyed prefer to have 2 weeks off while their peers get 1 week vacation.

or have

4 weeks off while your peers get 8 weeks?

Source: Layard, Richard Happiness (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005) p.47.

( Future ) Benefit (+) Meaningful

Rat-Race Quadrant
Lives for the future Focuses on destination only Mistakes relief for happiness No pain, no gain

Happiness Quadrant
Reconciles future and present Focuses on journey and destination

( Present )

Detriment ( - ) Pain

Benefit ( + ) Pleasure

Resignation Quadrant
Lives in the past Learned to be helpless Has given up on happiness

Hedonism Quadrant
Lives for the present Focuses on journey only Mistakes pleasure for happiness Seeks pleasure and avoids pain

Source: Tal David Ben-Shachar lecture notes on goal attainment from Psychology 1504 Positive Psychology, Harvard College, Fall 2004.

Detriment (-) Meaningless

Positive psychology on happiness: PERMA model

Humans seem happiest when they have: Pleasure (tasty foods, warm baths, good sex, etc.) Engagement (or flow, the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity) Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness) Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger) Accomplishments (having realized tangible selfcongruent goals).
Source: Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002),

Bibliography

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. The Evolving Self. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Good Business: Leadership, flow, and the making of meaning. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. If We Are So Rich, Why Arent We Happy? American Psychologist, October 1999. Frankl, Viktor E. Mans Search for Meaning. Gergen, Kenneth J. The Saturated Self, Basic Books, 1991. Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. Confidence. HBS Press, 2004. Lansing, A. Endurance: Shackletons Incredible Voyage . Carrol and Graf, 1999. Stevenson, Howard and Laura Nash. Just Enough. HBS Press, 2003.

Bibliography (cont)

Layard, Richard Happiness (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005) Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002) Easterbrook, Gregg, The Progress Paradox (New York: Random House, 2003) Schwartz, Barry, The Paradox of Choice (New York: Harper Collins, 2004) Cameron, Kim, Jane Dutton, and Robert Quinn, Positive Organizational Scholarship (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003) Bartolome, Fernando. The Work Alibi: When its harder to go home Harvard Business Review 1983, March.