Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 
Module 45 
Promoting Health and Wellness 
497
• Men and women generally are made happy by the same sorts of activities—but not 
always. Most of the time, adult men and women achieve the same level of 
happiness from the same things, such as hanging out with friends. But there 
are some differences: For example, women get less pleasure from being with 
their parents than men. The explanation? For women, time spent with their 
parents more closely resembles work, such as helping them cook or pay the 
bills. For men, it’s more likely to involve recreational activities, such as 
watching a football game with their fathers. The result is that men report 
being slightly happier than women (Kreuger, 2007).
• Happy people like to be around other people. They tend to be extroverted and have 
a supportive network of close relationships. (Also see Applying Psychology in 
the 21 st Century. )
Perhaps most important, most people are at least moderately happy most of 
the time. In both national and international surveys, people living in a wide variety 
of circumstances report being happy. Furthermore, life-altering events that one 
might expect would produce long-term spikes in happiness, such as winning the 
lottery, probably won’t make you much happier than you already are, as we discuss 
next.
 DOES MONEY BUY HAPPINESS? 
If you were to win the lottery, would you be happier? 
Probably not. At least that’s the implication of health psychologists’ research 
on subjective well-being. That research shows that although winning the lottery 
brings an initial surge in happiness, winners’ level of happiness a year later seems 
to return to what it was before they won. The converse phenomenon occurs for 
people who have had serious injuries in accidents: Despite an initial decline in 
happiness, in most cases victims return to their prior levels of happiness after the 
passage of time (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002; Nissle & Bschor, 2002; Spinella & 
Lester, 2006). 
Why is the level of subjective well-being so stable? One explanation is that peo-
ple have a general set point for happiness, a marker that establishes the tone for one’s 
life. Although specifi c events may temporarily elevate or depress one’s mood (a sur-
prise promotion or a job loss, for example), ultimately people return to their general 
level of happiness. 
Although it is not certain how people’s happiness set points are initially estab-
lished, some evidence suggests that the set point is determined at least in part by 
genetic factors. Specifi cally, identical twins who grow up in widely different circum-
stances turn out to have very similar levels of happiness (Kahneman, Diener, & 
Schwarz, 1998; Diener, Lucas, & Scollon, 2006; Weiss, Bates, & Luciano, 2008). 
Most people’s well-being set point is relatively high. For example, some 30% of 
people in the United States rate themselves as “very happy,” and only one in ten 
rates himself or herself as “not too happy.” Most people declare themselves to be 
“pretty happy.” Such feelings are graphically confi rmed by people who are asked to 
place themselves on the measure of happiness illustrated in Figure 2 . The scale 
clearly illustrates that most people view their lives quite positively. 
Similar results are found when people are asked to compare themselves with 
others. For example, when asked, “Who of the following people do you think is the 
happiest?” survey respondents answered “Oprah Winfrey” (23%), “Bill Gates” (7%), 
“the Pope” (12%), and “yourself” (49%), with 6% saying they didn’t know (Black & 
McCafferty, 1998). 
Few differences exist between members of different demographic groups. Men 
and women report being equally happy, and African Americans are only slightly less 
likely than European Americans to rate themselves as “very happy.” Furthermore, 
happiness is hardly unique to U.S. culture. Even countries that are not economically