Pursuit of studying happiness
College students report higher happiness on average in comparison to others, according to Carol Graham, a senior fellow, and Charles Robin, chair at the Brookings Institution and author of Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires.
The lecture explored what affects happiness levels globally. Graham explained how finances, environment, relationships and health factor into how happy individuals are.
There is a positive relationship between income level and happiness, said Ph. D. and UNLV Associate Dean Christ Heavey, but after reaching an upper-middle class income around $ 75,000, there is no significant increase in happiness.
"More and more money doesn't buy you more and more happiness, but being destitute is terrible for happiness and well-being," Graham said. "Everywhere we studied … wealthier people, on average, are happier than poor people."
Income improves living standards and offers people freedom, but once income reaches higher levels, there is not a big difference. Instead, it tends to add more burdens, such as the pressures of celebrity or the worry of losing money, according to Heavey.
"Money does matter. Having enough means is just as important to people's well-being," Graham said.
Graham also said that income is only a fraction of what influences happiness, as the environment — where an individual lives and works — can also dictate how content an individual is, as individuals tend to compare themselves to those surrounding them.
"One of the things psychologists used to talk of is a society in which there are no social standings, but there are no such places. It is part of our nature to compare ourselves to those around us," Heavey said.
Graham explained that although obesity and poverty negatively influence happiness, location can either increase or decrease contentment as well.
"If you are obese and work at Wal-Mart, there is not much of an effect on happiness, whereas if you were obese and worked on Wall Street," Graham said.
According to Graham, crime and feeling victimized is also dictated by where an individual is.
In areas where there is less criminal activity, a victim of a crime is often more devastated because they feel personally attacked, whereas in an area where crimes happen more frequently people feel less devastated because they think of it as being a victim of chance, Heavey said.
Relationships are also important in influencing an individual's happiness. Those individuals involved in intimate relationships described themselves as happier than others. Single individuals were moderately happy in comparison, whereas divorced people were the least happy, according to Heavey.
Heavey said that stress, which can cause unhappiness, also negatively affects health. He used a Type A personality, a more aggressive individual, as an example of people whose daily stress can increase heart attacks.
Health and happiness are intertwined, explained Graham, citing that older people are happier, but also that happier people live longer.
Contact Camalot Todd at camalot.todd.ry@gmail.com
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