Does Happiness lead to Success? – Part 4

The Association of Short Term And Long Term Happiness with Successful Behaviours?

There are robust findings between happiness and desirable life outcomes.

Happiness promotes successes in part because happy people have many adaptive characteristics. They are more likely to exhibit behaviours and thoughts that are similar to culturally valued success and thriving.

There are 6 categories of characteristics that co-occur with short term positive affect and happiness in the long term.

Positive Perception of Self and Others

Self Perception

Happy people are characterised by high personal competence, self esteem, optimism and a sense of personal mastery and control.

Life satisfaction is related to self esteem and optimism. Not surprising as optimism is a part of the self esteem construct. Happiness is related to satisfaction in all life domains. – family life, romantic relationships, friends, health, education, jobs, leisure activities, housing and transportation.

Higher levels of positive affect are associated with being less self critical, setting higher goals, and more self efficacy in tasks.

Perceptions, memories and judgement of others

Happy people have a more positive attitude toward others both those that they know and those they don’t know. Happy people judge friends, families and spouses more favourably and are less jealous of other people competing for their partners affections.

Sociability and Activity

Sociability and Extroversion

Happy individuals have outgoing extroverted personalities. They are warm, gregarious, interested in new things, affiliative, lively, active and energetic. Of the personality traits affiliation (the inclination to relate to other people – warm, cheerful pleasant, sociable, understanding, contented and affectionate.   In the hierarchy of needs outlined by Abraham Maslow, the need for affiliation (or “belongingness”) appears midway between the most basic physical needs and the highest-level need for self-actualisation.) had the highest correlation to happiness. In fact positive affect seems to be the glue that holds the various aspects of extroversion (ascendance, sociability, affiliation) together. Positive affect seems to be related to feeling sociable.

Extroversion and introversion are generally understood as a single continuum. So if you are high on one then you are low on the other. While extreme introverts and extroverts are a reality, most people fluctuate between the two poles throughout their lives.

Extroversion is the act, state, or habit of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside the self. Extroverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be sociable, enthusiastic, talkative, assertive and interested in seeking out excitement. They take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. Politics, teaching, sales, managing, and brokering are fields that favour extroversion. An extroverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. They tend to be energised when around other people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves.

Introversion is the state of or tendency toward being wholly or predominantly concerned with and interested in one’s own mental life. Introverts tend to be more reserved, less outgoing and less assertive in social situations but are also marked by a richer inner world. They are not necessarily loners but they tend to have smaller circles of friends and are less likely to thrive on making new social contacts. They are less likely to seek stimulation from others because their own thoughts and imagination are stimulating enough. They often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, drawing, playing musical instruments or using computers.  An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people, though they tend to enjoy interactions with close friends. They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate. Introverts can be overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement. The introvert tends to think thoroughly before verbalising their thoughts.

Introversion is not the same as shyness. Introverts choose solitary activities over social ones by preference, whereas shy people avoid social encounters out of fear.

Ambiversion: Most contemporary trait theories (e.g. The Big Five) measure levels of extroversion-introversion as part of a single, continuous dimension of personality, with some scores near one end, and others near the half-way mark.  Ambiversion is a term used to describe people who fall in the middle of the continuum and exhibit tendencies of both groups. An ambivert is normally comfortable with groups and enjoys social interaction, but also relishes time alone and away from the crowd.

Mental health and extroversion – introversion

Acknowledging that introversion and extroversion are normal variants of behaviour can help in your own self-acceptance and to understand others. For example, an extrovert can accept her introverted partner’s need for space, while an introvert can acknowledge his extroverted partner’s need for social interaction.

Extroverted people reported higher levels of personal happiness. The causality is not clear, however. Extroversion may lead to greater happiness, happier people may become more extroverted, or there may be some other factor such as genetics that affects both. Another factor is that introversion is generally regarded as less healthy in the Western culture. Other cultures, e.g. the Japanese culture prize introversion.

Introverts acknowledge their psychological needs and problems, more readily compared to extroverts who tend to be oblivious to them because they focus more on the external environment. On average, extroverts have a somewhat higher self-esteem than introverts.

Extroversion is perceived as socially desirable in modern-day societies, but it is not always an advantage. For example, extroverted youths are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviour, and while introversion is perceived as less socially desirable, it is strongly associated with positive traits such as intelligence and “giftedness.” Introverts tend to be more successful in academic environments, which extroverts may find boring.

Some careers such as computer programming may be more satisfying for an introverted temperament, while other areas such as sales may be more agreeable to the extroverted type.

Social Interaction, Activity, and Energy

Happy people report engaging in a greater frequency of activities, social interactions and group leisure activities. They have stronger social supports, attend club meetings and hold more organisational affiliations. Happy people are noted to be more energetic and active by family and friends. They are also more interested and informed than unhappy people.

Positive affect is related to feeling alert and active, being with friends and engaging in a variety of leisure activities. So get a good nights sleep, keep fit, eat healthy and do stuff with friends.

Enjoyment of Activities and Social Interactions

Happy people enjoy their leisure activities, social interactions, experience more flow, and are more satisfied with their activities in general than unhappy people.

If you are happy, you are more likely to have more pleasurable and successful social interactions. You will like the people you interact with more, enjoy conversations more finding they are pleasant, smooth and relaxed.

Global happiness is associated with intrinsically rewarding experiences i.e. activities you do for your own sake. Happy people perceive any activity even the routine daily activities as intrinsically motivating and therefore find reward in ordinary events.

Transient positive moods are associated with satisfying social interactions, and with Flow. In flow you experiencing feeling enraptured, in a different reality, lack self consciousness and lose the feeling of time passing.

Likeability and Cooperation

Likability

Most people like happy people more than unhappy people.

Happy people are judged as more physically attractive, more intelligent and competent, more friendly, warm and assertive, less selfish and more moral.

You are more likely to be rated as more socially skilled (articulate and well mannered), as a better at public speaker, self confident, assertive , as having more close friends, strong romantic relationships, and more family support.

Happy people are judged as those most likely to help others, and as more likeable.

Social interactions are rated as more enjoyable and as higher quality with happy people regardless of the mood of the raters.

Happy moods lead people to appear more appealing and inviting of possible interactions. People with high levels of Positive affect as revealed in photos, are judged as affiliative, generous, considerate, protective of those close to them, and having capacity for close relationships. They are also rated lower on negative affects such as fearfulness, irritability and hostility.

Negotiation and conflict resolution

Work groups with a high average positive affect were less likely to have conflict and more likely to cooperate. The experience of positive emotions in the work place is related to less conflict with colleagues.

Prosocial Behaviour

People with high happiness levels or high positive affect have a greater interest in helping people, a tendency to act in prosocial or cooperative ways ( enjoying sharing or helping others) and perform more specific altruistic, courteous or conscientious behaviours. They also report doing more altruistic acts in the recent past. Eg stopping to help a stranger.

Similar findings occur with transient moods. The day to day experience of positive affect is related to generosity. Time spent in a positive mood is associated with self reported altruism. Those with more intense positive feelings were more likely to be involved in community service activities.

Positive affect at work is associated with behaviours beyond the call of duty e.g. more helping of customers, more customer service, and more prosocial behaviour on the job.

Happy people are more inclined to be kind and charitable. If happy people are more altruistic, the more they will be liked, and will profit from future social interactions and have stronger and more supportive social networks.

Physical Well Being and Coping

Health Perceptions

Happy people report themselves as being healthier on global health, report higher levels of social and physical functioning and lower levels of pain. There are higher rates of compliance with treatments which is a predictor of  good health.

Interestingly, there are increased rates of visits to health centres for activity related injuries presumably as a consequence of active lifestyles pursued by happy people.

Extraverts also have more health visits for illness but this is probably due to a willingness to use services.

Healthy Behaviours

Happy people are more energetic, more involved in social, recreational, occupational and physical activities.

They are less likely to participate in harmful behaviours – smoking, unhealthy eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol. Psychoticism and neuroticism are relevant to the addictions but it is interesting to note that addicts have lower scores on extraversion. It is disinhibition that is more related to drug use, smoking, drinking alcohol, and promiscuous sex.

Short term positive emotions are associated with illness preventitiveness and health promotion behaviours. Recent happy moods are associated with less cigarette and alcohol use, and better sleep quality and quantity, higher levels of physical exercise which is associated with many positive health outcomes.

Immunity

Does happiness have a direct effect on health?

Psychological states impinge on physical health through the immune system.

We know that depression is associated with decreased lymphocyte production.

Humour has been associated with increased immunocompetence. A sense of self coherence is associated with enhanced natural killer (NK) cell activity and optimism is associated with lower levels of upper respiratory tract infection.

Coping

Positive affectivity is associated with more effective and more mature coping especially by active coping.

Optimism, sense of coherence, hope and hardiness are general traits that correlate with happiness and promote positive feelings in difficult circumstances.

Optimists attend to and remember potentially life threatening information and use humour and positive reframing rather than denial.

Both happy and unhappy peers experience similar types of positive and negative life events. Happy people tended to think about both types of events more favourably by seeing humour and didactic value in adverse events, and by emphasising improvements in their lives. Maintaining sensitivity to pleasurable opportunities in difficult times is adaptive.

Positive affect is a resource in coping and self regulation. Positive emotions undo the effects of negative emotion on cardiovascular function.

Those who use positive emotion words in disclosive writing during distressing times were more likely to benefit.