Module 3 - The Good Life

Happiness and the Good Life
By Marc P. Gellynck, MD
Department of Biology, Ateneo de Manila University
By many measures, these times may be the best to be alive.
Humans live longer today than they ever have. A boy born in 1841 can expect to live up to 40 years. A
boy born in 2011 may expect to live until he is 79. Advances in the health sciences have allowed us to live
longer. Antibiotics have controlled killer diseases like Tuberculosis and vaccines prevent many of the fatal
diseases of childhood. Vaccines have even eliminated a major scourge of humanity- smallpox. This is
certainly remarkable.
Humans today can also go farther than they ever have. The development of trains, the automobile, ships,
and airplanes have allowed us to go to places that our ancestors could only imagine. The most powerful
Kings of olden times couldn’t hope to travel to the places where modern humans with a bit of money, a
budget airline, and Airbnb can easily visit. In the year 2016 alone, the tourism industry was estimated to be
worth 7.6 trillion dollars worldwide, and accounted for about 10% of the world’s gross domestic product.
In terms of connecting to others, humans also never had it this good. Long distance communications
used to be by post, and depending on distance, could take between days to months. With the invention of
the telegram and telephone, long distance communications became instantaneous, only limited by
infrastructure and cost. Today we are continuously, wirelessly connected-- not just via text but even by
video calls-- and at prices that most everyone can afford.
Lastly, consider hunger. It is true that there are still too many people who are hungry. But it cannot be
denied that because of advances in agriculture and food technology, many parts of the world have an
overabundance of cheap food. It has come to the point that some governments are considering the
regulation of caloric intake! Tell that to our ancient ancestors who needed to walk for kilometers in search
of a good meal and they would think we were crazy.
All of the above paint a wonderful picture of human life flourishing because of science and technology.
Yet it also cannot be denied that not all is well.
For instance, while we continue to live longer, the rate of suicide is rising in many places around the
world. The New York Times reports that suicide in the USA, arguably the wealthiest and most
technologically advanced country on Earth, rose to a 30 year high in 2016 (Tavernise, 2016).
And while we can now travel to many different places, and our cars, trains and planes allow us to grab
opportunities far away from home, this lifestyle is causing problems too. A study by the British Statistics
office, for example, has found that long commutes to work cause negative feelings and depression (Office
of National Statistics, 2014). A study in Germany found that a father's length of time commuting is
correlated to problems in the mental health of his children (Li, 2015).
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Version: August 2018
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Communications technology which gives us great convenience, entertainment, and safety has its
drawbacks as well. A huge study has shown that the more a person uses Facebook, the more likely a
person would experience negative mental states (Kross et al, 2013). And most ironic of all, while
technology allowed us to increase our connectedness, a survey of American households showed that
compared to 1985, Americans had one third less people with whom they could talk to. This showed
increased social isolation and loneliness (McPherson et al, 2008). One possible reason cited by the authors
was that the modern means of communications allowed for many connections, but not deep ones.
These show us that the power given to us by science and technology seem to be a double-edged sword. It
is thus important to reflect on how we use this power and to what end. To answer this better, we need to
determine what a good life is, and how, at the very least, to try to achieve it.
The Ends We Seek

Science and Technology has empowered humanity in so many ways. We can do so much that our
ancestors could never have imagined. But just because we can do something does not mean we should do
it. With such great power we must evaluate the ends we seek to achieve.
Different people have different goals. Some people pursue wealth. Their lives revolve around earning
money and accumulating goods. Some people seek power. Their lives revolve around trying to be the
person that controls as much resources and as many people as possible. Some people may seek fame--
they may strive to enter show business. If they can’t, there is always social media where they post the
most outrageous things to get the most likes and clicks. Others pursue love, and their lives would revolve
around finding that right someone to spend ‘forever’ with.
More likely than not, most people have more than one goal or end they would like to achieve. This makes
us ask the question: with so many possible ends to seek, what would be the most important one? What
would be the ultimate end we should strive to achieve?
Happiness
Many philosophers would say that the ultimate end would be happiness. It is easy to understand why.
If one asks a person why he does something, a reason can usually easily be given. You can ask a person:
why do you diet? The person can reply: because I want to lose weight. To this, a follow up question can
be asked: why do you want to lose weight? The answer could be: because I want to be slim. Yet another
question can be asked: why do you want to be slim? And another answer would be given: because I want
someone to like me.
The questions and answers can go on for quite a while. But there is a good chance that the last answer to
which no further questions can be asked is this: I am doing this because it makes me happy. Once a
person answers this, it becomes the final answer. We need no further justification. It's a good in itself.
This is why philosophers like Aristotle consider happiness as the ultimate end—the telos of human life. If
one is happy, then one seeks nothing else. If you still seek something, then you are not completely happy.
That happiness is the ultimate end is not really controversial. What is often debated is what happiness
exactly is, and what can be done to make ourselves happy.
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Hedonia
What should we think when we consider the question of happiness? A good starting point is pleasure-
feeling good. When we are happy we experience pleasure. Pleasurable experiences are those which make
us feel good and those experiences which we want to repeat.
We can also consider pain. When we are happy, we do NOT experience pain. The experience of pain or
displeasure are experiences or sensations which are negative and those which we avoid.
Thus, one way to look at a happy life would be a life that is pleasurable and a life that avoids pain or
displeasure. Another way of saying it is this: a happy life is a life which has more positive experiences than
negative experiences. Philosophers and researchers would consider this to be the HEDONIC view of
happiness. Many thinkers of the past subscribe to this view. These include people like Sigmund Freud
who is known for his ‘pleasure principle.’
Biologically, there is a physical basis for the pleasure or the displeasure we feel. Some studies in the past
have tried to see how the brain reacts to positive or negative stimuli. Other studies tried to elicit the
reaction by direct stimulation of the brain instead. Both types of studies have shown us that positive and
negative experiences, pain and pleasure, and seeking and avoidance have a physical basis in our brains.
For instance, studies have shown that we experience pleasure through the mesocorticolimbic circuitry of
our brains (Berridge, 2015). They show that diverse types of pleasure—from food, art, to sexual pleasure-
- increase the activity in this general circuitry of the brain as measured by instruments that track brain
activity like the functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Machine (fMRI). Simply put, if we are given an
ice cream and we enjoy it, these parts of the brain light up when viewed through the fMRI.
Even earlier than these neuroimaging studies on humans, Peter Olds (1956) attached electrodes on the
pleasure centers of the rat brain. When the animal pressed a certain button, this area would get stimulated
through the attached electrodes. The study found that the animals would press this same button again and
again, even if these rats were hungry and another button would give them food. It seemed that these
animals choose pleasure over food. Perhaps humans react to pleasure in a similar way and thus we have
addiction.
Pain, on the other hand, is experienced physically trough specialized pain receptors in the body called
nociceptors. Stimulation of these receptors transmits the impulses through the spinal cord, and eventually to
the brain where it is processed. Stimulation of the amygdala, a part of the anterior brain, leads to rage and
the desire to run away (Heath, 1955; Marchand, 2008). These suggest that the brain has specific regions to
deal with unpleasant stimuli that require avoidance or the initiation of the fight or flight response.
On reflection, it is easy to understand why our brains evolved these pleasure and pain centers which
motivate us to seek more (pleasure) or make us avoid and run (pain/displeasure).
From an evolutionary point of view, pleasurable things are likely to be good for our survival. Sugary
drinks, for example, have been getting a bad press lately. But people like these drinks because they
provide pleasure. Our brains in turn consider these drinks to be pleasurable because they give us sugar,
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our bodies’ preferred energy source. Without sugar, we will die—and no one wants that. So, we love
sweet things and we seek it. And while too much available food and sugar would make it unhealthy these
days, for our genes inherited from our ancestors struggling with famine during the ice age, sugar is
good—very good!
Pain may be an even more important tool for our survival. Painful things are bad for our survival, so we
learn to avoid them. Consider the typical textbook example of a spinal reflex—that of a person stepping
on a nail and then jerking the foot away. Because we experience pain when we step on a nail, we tend to
avoid it. If we didn’t (because we felt no pain), then our feet will be repeatedly injured by nails and other
sharp objects on the ground. And while with modern medicine the tiny wound a nail causes isn’t such a
big deal, to our ancestors, such an injury could be fatal. Bacteria—like Clostridium tetani-- could enter
through it, cause infection (tetanus), and then death. Or perhaps, being injured, a wounded foot would
make one the slowest in the group, making you the likely lunch of a pursuing predator. As the joke says:
when chased by a bear, you do not need to outrun it. You just need to outrun at least one friend.
Pleasure and pain does not necessarily have to be physical. Pleasure, for example, is felt when we are in
the presence of friends. Thus, we seek friendship and companionship. Just like the physical pleasures, this
has been good for survival. Having companions meant a higher chance of success in the search for food.
On the other hand, we feel bad when we are in conflict with others-- like when we break a promise. This
‘feeling bad,’ though a negative emotion, is also important as it motivates us to try and make amends and
repair broken relationships. If we did not feel bad, we would keep on breaking promises. Others would
then consider us unreliable and we would lose friends. If this happened to our ancient ancestors, losing
companions might have been a death sentence. It is harder to survive when alone. So, it is good to feel
bad—at least at the appropriate times.
Human Pleasures
According to the hedonic view, a happy life should have more pleasure than displeasure. The term
‘hedonic’ may lead some people to think that such a life is one of abandon to pleasures of the flesh.
Hedonism conjures images of nightly, alcohol fueled parties that last until morning. This shouldn’t be the
case.
Many things in life give pleasure to the body and many of these are ‘wholesome.’ These include things like
a massage after a tiring day, good food when one is hungry, wine when we want to loosen up, and a cool
swim on a hot humid day.
Other pleasures happen in the mind or through our emotions. We find pleasure in looking at beautiful
works of art, a beautiful face, or for many people, in looking at their children asleep.
Some pleasures may happen both in the mind and the body. The touch of a loved one or a lover, be it a
simple touch or of the erotic kind, is experienced both as a pleasure in the mind and a pleasure of the
body. When a stranger holds your hand, it is just a weird sensation. But the exact same type of touch
from a loved one brings much joy.
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Some pleasures are experienced through doing things we like in an exceptionally good way. During these
activities, we experience pleasure in getting fully engrossed in the activity, doing it expertly, feeling
‘pumped’, and being at our best. This is called ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009) Examples of flow would be
a painter who loses track of time as he paints a landscape, a lawyer who passionately argues his case
before a judge, a comedian who brings his audience to stitches of laughter, or even a doctor who on
seeing a constellation of signs and symptoms immediately knows what the diagnosis of a baffling case is.
All these are pleasures. They are positive experiences. And for many, a life filled with these experiences
would be enough to consider life to be a happy one.
The Problem with the Hedonic View

Evaluating common human experience, however, we see that there are limitations to the hedonic view.
Consider a wealthy man who lives a life of leisure. He has a big house and many luxury cars. He dines at
the finest restaurants and parties nightly in the coolest clubs. Because of his wealth, people may try to
please him and offer him praise. After a night of partying, you ask him: “Are you happy?”
It is entirely possible that he would say “No.” He may say, for example, that he owns a lot of things, but
that he feels there is something missing, or that his life is incomplete. He is searching for something
more, but he cannot find it.
Many of us have seen this in some form of another. We console this type of person and we tell them—
“you’re so lucky! Look at what you have!” But it doesn’t work. It seems then that pleasure—even a
continuous stream of pleasurable experiences is not enough for a satisfying life.
Furthermore, there is this problem of what is called the “hedonic treadmill” or “hedonic adaptation”
(Fredrick, 1999). Simply, this theory states that we humans have a set point of happiness to which we
return after ups and downs. Essentially therefore, we search for happiness, find some of it, increase our
happiness, adapt to this new situation, and return to our previous level of happiness. It is like we are
walking on a treadmill: we keep on walking but we stay on the same place.
For example, we may feel bored about our life in general. So we buy a sports car. At first this makes us
really happy. We take the car on a trip, test its acceleration on a highway, and polish it as it is parked in
our garage. Maybe we even secretly kiss it goodnight. After a while, however, this gets old. The car has
become just like any car. And while we may still consider it an excellent purchase, the thrill is gone. We
are now back to where we were before and are as happy or bored as we were before we bought the car.
With the hedonic treadmill, it seems that human life is condemned to a perpetual cycle of recurring
dissatisfaction. But this also does not seem to jive with experience. After all, there would always be people
who would say they are satisfied with their life.
Also, another major limitation of the hedonic view is this: if happiness is the greatest good, and happiness
is simply a life of pleasure, then why do people routinely sacrifice pleasure for something ‘else?’
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Consider a young man with a free afternoon. He can stay home, relax in a couch, get a dose of soft
drinks, and entertain himself with a nice movie. This is pleasure. Yet instead of doing this, the young man
goes out of the house, jogs a couple of kilometers, then hits the gym. He is exhausted. His muscles ache.
He is thirsty. This is pain. Yet when you ask him how he is, he would say, ‘I was happy with my work
out.’
It seems then that happiness is not just about pleasure. For this young man, it was also about becoming
strong or staying healthy. Even though he felt the pain in his muscles and joints, he felt happy because he
was making himself better. He was developing his potential.
This is another type of happiness.
Eudaimonia
Another view of happiness is the Eudaimonic view. While the hedonic view considers happiness in terms
of living a life of pleasure and avoiding pain, the Eudaimonic View, according to Huta (2014), include
“states and pursuits associated with using and developing the best in oneself, in accordance with one’s
true self and one’s deeper principles.” Life, thus, is happy if one develops oneself, accepts who he or she
is, and lives according to one’s values.
Going back to our previous example of the young man, we see how he can be happy in the Eudaimonic
sense. Even though his jogging and gym caused him quite some pain, he is satisfied because he developed
himself physically and lived what we presume to be his value—that of keeping healthy and being strong.
By this definition, we can immediately see that choosing Eudaimonic happiness may on occasion make it
difficult to find hedonic happiness concomitantly. Finding pleasure may mean sleeping early, but the
value we put on education forces us to stay up late to study for an exam. We may feel exhausted the next
day but are nonetheless satisfied knowing we learned (developed ourselves) and lived our values (that of
putting a premium on education).
The idea of Eudaimonia is not new, and no one is better known for espousing the Eudaimonic view of
happiness than Aristotle. He discussed his views on happiness in the Nicomachean Ethics where he
described the good life as a life lived doing virtuous activity. According to him, a happy life is a life lived
excellently doing the activity that he considered to be most uniquely human—contemplation.
Other philosophers and scientists also offer differing views on what Eudaimonic happiness is. Ryff (1989)
took previous perspectives on the causes of human happiness and integrated them into a psychological
test designed to measure Psychological Well-Being. The test measured six dimensions of happiness. These
are the following followed by a very brief description of each:
a. Self- acceptance- measures one’s attitude towards oneself. The more positive, the
happier.
b. Positive relations with others- measures how good one’s relationship is with others.
The more positive the relationship with others, the happier.
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c. Autonomy- measures self-determination and independence. The more autonomous a
person is, the happier
d. Environmental Mastery- measures the ability to control the environment and

environmental contexts to suit one’s needs. The higher the level the happier.
e. Purpose in life- measures a person’s sense of directedness and presence of life goals.
The higher, the happier.
f. Personal Growth- measures a person’s feelings of personal development. The more

the growth, the happier.
Research has found that people who score high in this Psychological Well-Being scale also scored high in
other measures of happiness and life satisfaction--- including traditional measures of hedonic happiness
like measures of positive and negative affect. Those who scored high on the test also scored low in
measures of depression. This suggests that this Psychological Well Being scale is a valid measure of
wellbeing.
The Problem with Eudaimonia

Eudaimonic happiness is commonly assessed as life satisfaction. For example, if one is asked if he is
satisfied with life, a person considers Eudaimonic measures. The answer would most likely be something
like: “I finished school, I have a good job, my kids are healthy. So yes, I am happy.” It is unlikely that
hedonic measures are considered. It is unlikely for a person to answer: “yes I am happy with life because
every day I drink good wine and get a massage before I sleep.”
The problem with life satisfaction is that being satisfied may not necessarily lead to a life filled with happy
emotions.
Consider a poor woman raising five children on her own. She may be living her values by raising her
children well no matter the circumstance. She may be developing as a person due to the skills she must
develop to survive. But she is always half hungry, and she has to wear worn and painful shoes. When you
ask her if she is satisfied, she might answer yes. She may even feel heroic. But being always hungry, it is
hard to see how this could be a happy life.
There is also the problem of subjectivity. A person may be living his values, but these values and how he
lives these may be unacceptable to others. Consider again a rich and powerful man who values making
money. In the process of doing so he has developed himself. However, he is miserly and counts every
penny. It is not beyond him to take advantage of others just to make an extra buck. When asked if he is
satisfied with his life, he might survey his vast portfolio of belongings and say, yes, I am. Subjectively he is
happy. But can he really be considered to have lived a full and happy life when half of the world ridicules
him behind his back? Surely there must be some objective parameters by which to judge how a life should
be. Indeed, many authors list these down
All these are some problems when treating happiness as purely Eudaimonic.
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Should we try to be happy?
This seems to be an odd question. Happiness after all is said to be the ultimate end. Perhaps a sarcastic
answer to this is, ‘why not?’ A better question may be: does happiness lead to improvements in other
aspects of life?
The short answer to this is yes.
Studies have shown that happiness has many beneficial effects. Happy people have been found to be
more successful in many domains of life including health, income, work performance, and relationships
(Lyubomyrski et al, 2005). Of course, this may be due to the methodology in research where successful
people are asked if they were happy. They probably would say yes, and thus the result. However, there is
evidence that happiness also makes people successful. IT is a two way street.
Physically, happy people have been found to have a higher vagal tone. The vagus nerve is a nerve from
the brain that regulates many body functions (Kok et al, 2013). A heightened vagal tone leads to a slower
heart rate and lower blood pressure. This may mean that happy people are less prone to develop heart
disease.
A very interesting study evaluated the impact of happiness on longevity by looking at the health histories
of a group of nuns in the United States (Danner et. al, 2001). In this study, the researchers read the
autobiographies written by novice nuns when they entered the convent and evaluated the content of these
autobiographies to try to glean the author’s disposition towards happiness.
Since these nuns lived similar lifestyles in the convent, they were the ideal population for assessing the
impact of happiness on longevity as it eliminated many lifestyle factors that could have impacted life
expectancy. For example, being part of a single congregation, it was reasonable to expect that these nuns
had the same access to health care, diet, and general living conditions.
The results were surprising. Nuns who showed the happiest disposition when they entered the convent
lived almost 10 years longer than those who showed the opposite. So it's not just diet, exercise and health
care that makes humans live longer. It may also be happiness.
How Happy is the World?

So far we have seen differing views on happiness. Considering these views, other good questions to ask
may be the following:: How happy is the world? How happy are the different countries in the world? Can
this even be measured?
For the last question, the answer is yes. Scientists use different questionnaires to determine how happy or
satisfied a person is. These questionnaires (which we will not discuss in detail) measure ‘subjective’
wellbeing. If we administer these questionnaires to a good sample of the population of a country and put
the data together, then we can have an idea of how happy a country is. If we get this data from all the
countries, then we can estimate the happiness of the world and determine which country is the happiest.
The World Happiness Report is one such endeavor at measuring world happiness (Helliwell et al, 2018).
To determine the happiness of different countries, the World Happiness Report utilized a tool called the
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Cantril ladder. In using the Cantril ladder, respondents are asked to imagine their best possible life, which
correspond to a 10, and their worst possible life which corresponds to a zero. They are then asked to
determine where in the range of 0-10 their life currently stands. Using the answers of the representative
samples in different countries, the World Happiness Report gives us an idea of happiness around the
world. When using the Cantril ladder, no difference was observed if the question was stated as how
‘happy are you with your life’ or how ‘satisfied are you with your life.’
The figure below shows world happiness in 2018.
Figure 1: World happiness levels (Helliwell et al, 2018)
We see here that world happiness is right about the middle, with a mean score of 5.264. This is not the
whole story, however. If we look further, we will see that happiness is not equally distributed around the
world. Consider the three graphs below comparing happiness in North America, Australia, and New
Zealand (Figure 2) and South Asia (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Happiness in North America, Australia and New Zealand; Figure 3: Happiness in South Asia (Helliwell et
al, 2018).
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We see here that according to the surveys done, people in North America (USA and Canada) are
considerably happier than people in South Asia. A good question to ask is why. Without reading further
on the World Happiness Report, the most obvious difference between these two regions would likely be
wealth. North America is very wealthy while South Asia is poor.
On further analysis, however, the World Happiness Report states that six factors generally account for
three quarters of the differences in the happiness of countries. These are:
1. GDP in terms of Purchasing Power Parity-- this is essentially wealth.

2. Healthy Life Expectancy- measured by the World Health Organization, this measures how long
people in a country can expect to live healthy lives..
3. Social Support- this is measured by the response of people to the question: “If you were in
trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them,
or not?”
4. Freedom to do life choices- this is measured by the response of people to the question: “Are you
satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?”
5. Generosity- which is measured by the response of people to the question: “Have you donated
money to a charity in the past month?”
6. Corruption- which is measured by the response of the people to the question: “Is corruption
widespread throughout the government or not?” and “Is corruption widespread within
businesses or not?”
By these measures, we see that a happy country is wealthy, is healthy, is where people have good social
support, is where people are free to pursue their personal goals, is where people are generous, and is
where corruption in society is low.
Aside from these factors, the World Happiness Report also tell us that another factor that impacts a
country’s happiness is ‘happiness inequality.’ We can see this in the standard deviation measure of
happiness. Essentially, it tells us if there is a big gap within the country between the happy and the
unhappy. The bigger this gap, then the unhappier a country is.
The happiest countries in the world for 2018 are given below:
Figure 4: Top 10 Happiest Countries in the world (Helliwell et al, 2018)
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These countries are all developed, wealthy, and enjoy high living standards and long life expectancies. It is
important to point out that these countries may not necessarily be the richest. For example, the USA,
arguably the wealthiest country in the world, is absent in the top ten.
The Philippines is ranked 71 as shown below.
Figure 5: The Philippines in the World Happiness Report (Helliwell et al, 2018)
Considering the factors influencing ‘Happiness,’ and looking at our country more closely, it shouldn’t be
too much of a surprise that the country known for being happy in the face of disasters would rank a mere
71st (or roughly midway). The fact is, we have a long way to go when it comes to economic wealth,
health, and the other factors that influence happiness. Perhaps future governments should consider
addressing these other factors that influence happiness and not concentrate purely on economic issues.
What Can I Do to be Happy?
Studies have shown that certain things lead to a happier life. Let us first begin with something that is
frequently thought to cause happiness, but which according to studies is not really THAT important:
Money.
1. Money - having money is good. Money ensures that you have the basic necessities and
a certain degree of freedom. In the world happiness report, for example, it was found
that the Gross Domestic Product per capita was a strong predictor of life satisfaction
together with several others. This suggests that money plays a role in a person’s
happiness; however, studies also show that at a certain point, more money no longer
adds to a person’s happiness. In the United States, this level of income is 75,000 USD
(Kahneman, 2010). Earning more money above this adds very little happiness to an
individual. This suggests that earning money should not be the sole determinant of our
actions.
2. Generosity - studies have found that giving is intuitive in humans. The faster we have
to decide on whether to give or not, the more likely it is we give—and the more we
reflected, the less we tended to give. The default in our genes, therefore, seem to be to
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give (Rand et al, 2012). In the World Happiness Report, another major factor that
predicted a country’s happiness was generosity—the more generous a people was, the
happier their nation is. A study by Dunn et al (2008) show that people who use their
money on others are happier than those who spend it on themselves. Another study
showed that children who gave at a cost to themselves were happier than those who
gave at no cost to themselves (Aknin et al, 2012). These studies show that one method
to increase our happiness would be to give more.
3. Use resources on experiences not on material possessions- the vast majority of people
have limited disposable income so it is important to figure out how to use it well. Carter
and Gilovich (2010) showed that people who purchase experiences are happier than
those who buy material possessions. So given the choice of spending a weekend in the
beach or buying a brand new flat screen TV, go for the beach.
4. Prioritizing Happiness - it is ironic that valuing happiness and actively seeking it may
lead to greater unhappiness (Mauss et al, 2011). Perhaps by seeking happiness, we set our
expectations too high and are thus usually disappointed. One strategy to increase
happiness according to Catalino et. al (2014) would be to prioritize happiness instead. In
‘prioritizing happiness’ a person plans his day and activities in such a way that there
would be ample opportunities for the person to do things that make him or her happy. If
jogging makes one happy, for example, a person should plan his day so that at least there
is 30 minutes free for a quick run.
5. Altruisim and caring for someone else- studies have found that caregivers who are
overwhelmed experience negative health effects. However, those who care for others
and are not overwhelmed experience greater longevity. Similarly, people who exhibit
altruistic behavior are happier, healthier and live longer. If we want to be happy then, we
should care for others and help (Brown et al, 2009).
6. Forgive - it is natural that people fight. After such a disagreement, a person may either
forgive or hold a grudge. An unforgiving attitude has been shown to generate negative
emotions and experience elevations in heart rate and blood pressure. Forgiveness, on the
other hand, lessens the stress response (Witvliet, 2001). If you want a happier life,
forgive.
7. Gratitude - a study by Emmons and McCullogh (2003) showed that people who were
tasked to have an outlook of gratitude had a higher level of wellbeing than others. This
suggests that an attitude of ‘counting blessings’ help in increasing levels of happiness. Be
grateful.
8. Decisions that promote living a life that considers the different components of
Psychological Well Being- we can live our lives mindfully and act in ways to promote
personal development, autonomy, environmental mastery, finding a purpose, developing
self-acceptance and improving personal relationships. This, of course, is easier said than
done. However, we can all be at least mindful of the decisions we make and give
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ourselves a chance to be happy. For example, if we are rich enough and we are given an
opportunity to take a job with an even higher salary OR a job that gives greater
autonomy, maybe we can choose the one that allows autonomy. After all, we are now
aware that at a certain point, more money does not add much happiness. But greater
autonomy could.
Conclusion
Happiness can be the ultimate end that everyone seeks. Some think happiness is all about pleasure and
avoiding pain (hedonic), while others think happiness is about living a life of excellence and virtue
(Eudaimonic). It is likely that both are important to live a truly happy life. While some studies show that
actively seeking happiness may backfire and that we have a set point of happiness to which we return
(hedonic treadmill), studies have also shown that there are things that can be done to increase our
happiness and our level of wellbeing. As much as we can, we should use the resources at our disposal to
achieve happiness as happiness makes us live longer and better.
Page 13 of 16
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Module 3 - The Good Life

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Module 3 - The Good Life

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Happiness and the Good Life

By many measures, these times may be the best to be alive.

The Ends We Seek

The Problem with the Hedonic View

This is another type of happiness.

d. Environmental Mastery- measures the ability to control the environment and

f. Personal Growth- measures a person’s feelings of personal development. The more

The Problem with Eudaimonia

The short answer to this is yes.

How Happy is the World?

The figure below shows world happiness in 2018.

Figure 1: World happiness levels (Helliwell et al, 2018)

1. GDP in terms of Purchasing Power Parity-- this is essentially wealth.

Figure 4: Top 10 Happiest Countries in the world (Helliwell et al, 2018)

The Philippines is ranked 71 as shown below.

What Can I Do to be Happy?

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