The Hedonistic Adaptation Model: Or How To Stay Happy Once You Get Happy
In a paper titled: The Challenge of Staying Happier: Testing the Hedonic Adaptation Prevention (HAP) Model the authors Kennon M. Sheldon of the University of Missouri and Sonja Lyubomirsky of University of California, Riverside describe a psychological model that tries to explain why happiness (and unhappiness) tend not to last and what to do to maintain happiness once it strikes.
They start by describing their Happiness Adaptation (HA) model. The HA model tries to explain the observation that after an event suddenly raises (or lowers) overall Well Being (WB)--a measure of happiness--WB generally returns to its prior level. In other words: once we get happy, we tend not to stay happy. As an extreme example, a study in 1978 found that "lottery winners were no happier up to 18 months after winning than those who had experienced no windfall." Similarly "boosts in citizens’ average incomes in many nations have not been accompanied by increases in average well-being." Similar results are found when people suffer large drops in well-being that are later regained, although in some cases (unemployment) the changes may be persistent.
Why does happiness decline after a good thing has happened, even when the good thing has not gone away? The model offers two answers: first, happiness is affected by aspirations, and aspirations rise over time. When someone gets a promotion they are initially happy, but after a while their aspirations rise; they become dissatisfied the the current job and aspire to the next on. Second, the positive emotions that accompany a change decline over time: the good thing is no less good, but people don't appreciate it as much.
So how do you stay happy? The authors suggest it's by controlling increased aspirations and by more deliberately appreciating the positive change. "To appreciate something is to savor it, to feel grateful for it, to recognize that one might never have gotten it, or might lose it."
Somewhere recently (and I'll make a new post and update this if I found the source) I read that one can increase appreciation of what one has by actively and deliberately thinking about all the circumstances that might have led to not having it, how one's life would be worsened by not having it.
That's pretty real to me. When some people think about dying or illness they get depressed. In my case the result is just the opposite. At sixty-eight my death grows nearer and nearer (which is true for everyone, so maybe I should say dying in the next few years becomes ever more likely), and that makes my life today ever more lovely; disease or infirmity has increased probability and that makes me ever more appreciate my good health. And not much time goes by between the times that I think "Wow! Isn't it cool to be alive right now."
The authors conclude: "Perhaps when one pursues happiness too single-mindedly, one fails to notice and take advantage of what one already has. In other words, striving for ever greater happiness may set one on a hedonic treadmill to nowhere."
The moral of the story: don't just count your blessings. Appreciate them. Linger over them. Savor them. Think about how fortunate you are to have them. Think about what life would be like without them. Enjoy!
They start by describing their Happiness Adaptation (HA) model. The HA model tries to explain the observation that after an event suddenly raises (or lowers) overall Well Being (WB)--a measure of happiness--WB generally returns to its prior level. In other words: once we get happy, we tend not to stay happy. As an extreme example, a study in 1978 found that "lottery winners were no happier up to 18 months after winning than those who had experienced no windfall." Similarly "boosts in citizens’ average incomes in many nations have not been accompanied by increases in average well-being." Similar results are found when people suffer large drops in well-being that are later regained, although in some cases (unemployment) the changes may be persistent.
Why does happiness decline after a good thing has happened, even when the good thing has not gone away? The model offers two answers: first, happiness is affected by aspirations, and aspirations rise over time. When someone gets a promotion they are initially happy, but after a while their aspirations rise; they become dissatisfied the the current job and aspire to the next on. Second, the positive emotions that accompany a change decline over time: the good thing is no less good, but people don't appreciate it as much.
So how do you stay happy? The authors suggest it's by controlling increased aspirations and by more deliberately appreciating the positive change. "To appreciate something is to savor it, to feel grateful for it, to recognize that one might never have gotten it, or might lose it."
Somewhere recently (and I'll make a new post and update this if I found the source) I read that one can increase appreciation of what one has by actively and deliberately thinking about all the circumstances that might have led to not having it, how one's life would be worsened by not having it.
That's pretty real to me. When some people think about dying or illness they get depressed. In my case the result is just the opposite. At sixty-eight my death grows nearer and nearer (which is true for everyone, so maybe I should say dying in the next few years becomes ever more likely), and that makes my life today ever more lovely; disease or infirmity has increased probability and that makes me ever more appreciate my good health. And not much time goes by between the times that I think "Wow! Isn't it cool to be alive right now."
The authors conclude: "Perhaps when one pursues happiness too single-mindedly, one fails to notice and take advantage of what one already has. In other words, striving for ever greater happiness may set one on a hedonic treadmill to nowhere."
The moral of the story: don't just count your blessings. Appreciate them. Linger over them. Savor them. Think about how fortunate you are to have them. Think about what life would be like without them. Enjoy!
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