Worzels World - The Science of Happiness

 

The US Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to ‘the pursuit of happiness’ with no promise of anybody catching any. Nor is there instruction or clue on how to hunt that elusive critter. Here in New Zealand we have no such enshrined right to either pursuit or attainment. So if we want happiness there is no other choice but to find it for ourselves. I believe this is as good a method as any, and saves a lot of running about. Unlike Hochstetter’s frog, a new flag, or criminals at large there is no government funding for the pursuit of happiness. No grants are available.

Modern government, in all its forms, tends to generally discourage happiness. Do not give way to despair though, science has come to the rescue. No longer content to deal with microbes, atoms and Higgs boson particles, science has now entered the fray on the human happiness front.

While the study of depression and mental disorders has been going on for hundreds of years, the study of happiness is a much more recent phenomenon. There are now University courses in ‘positive psychology’ that specialise in the study of happiness.

It seems the homespun wisdom of yesteryear is disregarded in these days of knowledge and information. Grandma’s roast has given way to McDonald’s, the Edmonds Cookbook to Master Chef, and likewise the recipe for happiness, once told in poetry and verse, has now been studied into submission and can be reprinted as a scientific recipe.

After samples and statistics and much number crunching, they found there is a 50 percent genetic component determining your potential happiness. Some people, it seems, are just born happier. The choices people make account for 40 percent of a persons propensity to be happy, and wealth income and social status, the things that we are told will make us happy, comprise only the remaining 10 percent.

Science has discovered that there are optimal situations where happiness can thrive. From the bushmen of the Kalahari to a Japanese community on the Island of Okinawa, those that have enough to fulfil their basic needs, that enjoy social and economic equality and stability, live reasonably happily. After basic needs have been met more money does not translate into more happiness.

Researchers have found that those who see themselves as happy have many things in common. Most practice some or all of the following: Meditation and contemplation, regular physical activity, have interests outside of themselves, and sustain co-operative relationships with others. They spend time helping others and have a support network of family, friends and/or a close knit community.

I am a big fan of the scientific method but I am not sure whether to applaud these researchers’ efforts, or consign their findings to the It’s-a-waste-of-time-telling-us-what-we-already-knew file.

For millions of years before Newton discovered and quantified the laws of gravity, cavemen knew they could only jump so high, that falling over hurt, and that tumbling over a precipice into some deep dark abyss was to be avoided at all costs. So it is with happiness. Science has merely found that what makes people happy are the very things that wise men have advocated for thousands of years.

Some see life as an unearned gift, a remarkable and unlikely miracle for which we must be constantly and eternally grateful. In general these people are happy. Others see their existence as a curse, a vain and pointless grind of oppression and suffering, victims of a malign and uncaring universe. Weary travellers through a valley of death and despair, needless, I think to report, that these people are less happy.

These are extremes of course and I wouldn’t want to radicalise anyone. Most of us exist somewhere in the middle ground and many are undecided as to which view they subscribe to. Science though has now determined that higher levels of happiness lead to healthier more

productive lives. So for my part I have decided to be happy, even if it is in a grumpy curmudgeonly way.

So best wishes for catching whatever it is you are pursuing and I hope you had a happy Christmas – and have a happy new year.

n prof_worzel@hotmail.com

While the study of depression and mental disorders has been going on for hundreds of years, the study of happiness is a much more recent phenomenon. There are now University courses in ‘positive psychology’ that specialise in the study of happiness.