Book Summaries
Myth 24: Happiness is Determined Mostly by Our External Circumstances (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
In the book *The Happiness Myth*, Hecht observes that each generation had its prescriptions for ultimate happiness. Some of these included bizarre aphrodisiacs like Spanish fly, chocolate, and green M & M candies.
In the book The Happiness Myth, Hecht observes that each generation had its prescriptions for ultimate happiness. Some of these included bizarre aphrodisiacs like Spanish fly, chocolate, and green M & M candies. But things are no less silly today, arguably, with things like feng shui, aromatherapy, and mood enhancing crystals.
The old trope is that to find happiness, you must find the equation somewhere. And usually this equation involves money, a beautiful house, a great job, and many pleasurable events. On Amazon, there are many books such as Money and Happiness: A Guide to Living the Good Life, Eric Tyson’s (2006) Mind over Money: Your Path to Wealth and Happiness, and M. P. Dunleavy’s (2007) Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the Life You Want.
But it might be that the answer is very simple, happiness is about your perception of life as much as it is about your life itself.
Research by Kahneman showed that major job benefits were only loosely correlated with happiness, while sleep quality and predisposition to depression were good predictors.
Other research supports the hedonic treadmill idea.
Just as we quickly adjust our walking or running speed to match a treadmill’s speed (if we don’t, we’ll end up face first on the ground), our moods adjust quickly to most life circumstances. The hedonic treadmill hypothesis dovetails with research demonstrating that ratings of happiness are much more similar within pairs of identical twins, who are genetically identical, than within pairs of fraternal twins, who share only 50% of their genes on average (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996).
This suggests that our genetic makeup is a large determinant of our happiness, that we are each born with a happiness baseline, which we bounce up and down in response to life events.
More evidence for this comes from people who have experienced extremely positive or negative life events.
Source: 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior, Scott O. Lilienfeld
If you are interested in reading books about unmasking human nature, consider reading The Dichotomy of the Self, a book that explores the great psychoanalytic and philosophical ideas of our time, and what they can reveal to us about the nature of the self.
YARPP List
Related posts:
- Myth 9: Old Age is Typically Associated with Increased Dissatisfaction and Senility (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
- Myth 10: When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages (50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology)
- Chapter 7: Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis (The Discovery of the Unconscious)
- Chapter 8: Alfred Adler and Individual Psychology (The Discovery of the Unconscious)
Keep Reading
Related Articles
Book Summaries
Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain Summary (8/10)
*Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain* by Kosslyn and Smith is a textbook used in cognitive psychology. It covers the topics of perception, attention, language, memory and thinking. The book does a good job of covering the basics of each topic, but does not go into much depth.
Book Summaries
Neil Gershenfeld (What to think about machines that think)
Neil Gershenfeld offers a perspective on the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). He highlights the extremes in arguments about AI, which he sees as a sign of the evolving nature of the debate.
Book Summaries
“The Quieter You Become, The More You Are Able To Hear” – Meaning
In our cacophonous modern world, where the constant din of digital notifications, urban noise, and internal mental chatter creates an almost impenetrable wall of sound, the profound wisdom embedded in the statement “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear” offers bot
Book Summaries
A Summary of How to Become an Original Writer in Three Days (Ludwig Borne)
> Borne recommended shutting oneself away for three days with a supply of paper, to write, “without falsehood and without hypocrisy,” about every topic that comes to mind. Borne’s idea was that men are stifled by the burden of conventional ideas, and that they do not dare to think for themselves.