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The Psychology of
Happiness in the
Modern World

A Social Psychological
Approach

James B. Allen, PhD

Copyright © 2018 Springer Publishing Company, LLC

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Allen, James B. (Psychologist), author.

Title: The psychology of happiness in the modern world : a social psychological approach / James B. Allen, PhD.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York : Springer Publishing Company, LLC, [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017006316 | ISBN 9780826132826 (hardcopy : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780826132833 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Happiness. | Social psychology.
Classification: LCC BF575.H27 A444 2017 | DDC 152.4/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006316

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This book is dedicated to my wife, Deb Howe-Allen, and to the memory of my mother,
Cynthia Barden Allen.
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Share The Psychology of Happiness in the Modern World: A Social Psychological Approach

1 Studying Happiness 1

2 Evolution 27
3 Personality 49

4 Joy and Positive Emotions 83

5 Social Relationships 119

6 Money 151

7 Materialism 193

8 Work 229

9 Religion 261

10 Health 299

11 Enhancing Happiness 335

Index 365
PREFACE

This book tells the story of the scientific study of what makes us feel happy, content,
joyous, and satisfied with our lives. It is an inherently engaging and captivating story of
how the social environment, our personal choices, and our shared human evolutionary
heritage shape our happiness. By social environment I mean not only the friends, fam-
ily, acquaintances, and coworkers who surround us, but also the cultural and economic
forces that help shape our lives. These forces are a major focus of the book. By personal
choices I mean positive psychology’s important focus on “character strengths” and the
ways in which we interpret the events around us.
The book considers how economic factors such as unemployment, income inequality,
economic growth, and social welfare policies impact happiness. Relatedly, it explores
how economic systems are associated with distinct cultural values that importantly affect
happiness. Taking a close look at the capitalistic economic system and its accompanying
values of individualism, competition, and material wealth, we discover that these val-
ues, coupled with widespread advertising of consumer products, have important impli-
cations for happiness.
Social and cultural environments are related to happiness in other ways as well. For
instance, culture affects how happiness and physical health are related. Furthermore,
the relationship between religious faith and happiness is strongly influenced by cultural
attitudes toward religion, as well as by societal levels of material wealth. Our work envi-
ronment also affects our happiness; hence, cultural values regarding the importance
of work matter. In addition, work stress can interfere with family life, and this has impor-
tant implications for happiness. Thus, the book examines how workplace and govern-
mental policies interact with work-to-family interference to raise or lower happiness. We
discover the importance of more immediate social environments by examining marriage,
parenthood, and friendships.
Along the way we grapple with important questions. Some of these connect directly
with economics. Will I be happier if I make more money? How does advertising affect
children’s well-being? Does the presence of a social safety net such as unemployment
insurance affect the happiness of everyone, including those with jobs? Others concern
our personal social relationships. Will I be happier if I get married? How will parent-
hood affect my happiness? How important is it to have friends at work?
It is fascinating to learn that a large part of our happiness is within our own control.
Sure, our inborn personalities matter, and humans’ ability to find happiness seems to
have been partially shaped by evolution. But these effects are not the end of the story.
To a large extent, happiness is all in our heads, because the way we interpret the events in
x Preface

our lives has a tremendous impact on our happiness. For instance, avoiding social com-
parisons, seeking out positive experiences and emotions, and feeling gratitude and opti-
mism can enhance our happiness and feeling of satisfaction with our lives. All of these
are largely within our own control.
The book examines other fundamental questions that flow from this insight. For
instance, psychologists have long thought that happiness was resistant to change—that
the happiness we have now is likely the happiness we will have in the future. This is
not completely true. Happiness can change, for better or worse. This prompts the ques-
tion, “How can we go about improving our own personal happiness?”
The insight that happiness can change leads to other questions. Can we predict what
is going to make us happier? Do people know what actions to pursue to increase their
happiness? Or do the actions that seem right lead to dead ends of unhappiness? And
perhaps most importantly, can happiness be directly sought and vigorously pursued?
Can we find happiness by actively seeking it out? Or is it true, as many have argued,
that any direct pursuit of happiness is doomed to fail—that happiness slips away from
us if we self-consciously try to obtain it? That instead of actively seeking “happiness” we
should seek out various “virtues” that will indirectly make us happier? This book pro-
vides some answers to these questions.
The book also tells a story of scientific progress. It is thoroughly grounded in the sci-
entific literature, providing empirically verified answers to some of the preceding ques-
tions, as well as answers to questions about how happiness can be increased. Readers
get a sense not only of the facts of the field, but also of the scientific processes by which
these facts were obtained and some understanding of the boundaries between what we
do and do not currently know about happiness.

INTENDED AUDIENCE
This book is intended as a primary text for students in undergraduate courses in happiness
or positive psychology with minimal background in psychology, statistics, and research
methods. Technical terms are defined and research methodologies and statistical results
are described using straightforward, nontechnical language. Students with a basic grasp
of introductory psychology should find the book accessible and understandable.
The book can also be used as a supplementary text for courses in social, introduc-
tory, or health psychology or psychology of adjustment. It delves deeply enough into
the theory, methods, and implications of the results to provide more advanced students
with a springboard for understanding the empirical literature. I invite these students to
read the book to get an understanding of the important issues, and then broaden and
deepen their understanding through further reading of the studies cited in each chapter.

UNIQUE FEATURES
Coverage of Socio-Structural Issues
An important and unique feature is the book’s emphasis on what we know about the
conditions that affect our happiness and well-being. For example, the book delves deeply
 Preface xi

into areas such as consumer culture, unemployment, income inequality, social welfare
systems, cultural understandings of work, and work interference with family and national
and corporate policy, exploring how these relate to happiness. This gives students a
stronger sense of what they can do directly to increase their own happiness. No other text
covers these socio-structural topics in any depth, and many seem to completely ignore
them. However, any full discussion of the psychology of human happiness should include
these factors.
Humans are social creatures, and the “social” extends beyond the immediate circle
of people with whom we directly interact. Therefore, students are shortchanged if they
do not have the chance to learn about the connections between economics, culture, and
happiness. They are shortchanged not only on an intellectual level, but also in terms of
their ability to be fully informed and aware citizens, because citizens need to know the
relationship between economic growth and happiness, and all the complications that
come with it. They also need to know something about whether unemployment “scars”
individuals such that their happiness does not fully recover even when they are reem-
ployed at a similar level of pay. This book addresses these questions and others like them.

Comprehensive Coverage of the Field

The book balances coverage of both socio-structural issues and the more individualistic
concerns of positive psychology. There is a chapter on personality, and other chapters
address individual differences and happiness. The book examines how positive emo-
tions can build happiness, and the importance of how we construe or interpret events.
There is also extensive coverage of positive psychology interventions that can improve
individuals’ happiness.
Evolution has gained a prominent position among psychological theories, offering
important insights about happiness. It suggests not only that there are limits to human
happiness, but also that happiness can be enhanced by pursuing behaviors associated
with our ancestors’ survival and reproductive success. The suggestions offered by
evolution are sometimes quite different from those offered by other perspectives, and
students need to grapple with this evolutionary perspective to gain a full understanding
of the field. For these reasons, the book includes a chapter exploring evolution and
happiness.
More direct emphasis is placed on the ways we can increase happiness than in other
texts. In addition to empirically verified positive psychology interventions, the book
explores possible systemic changes that might increase happiness for society as a whole.
These changes, such as reconsidering tax and social welfare policies, are also strongly
empirically based. The book also acknowledges and discusses some of the political ram-
ifications involved.

The Science of the Psychology of Happiness

The book emphasizes the science of the psychology of happiness. I have tried to weave
into the text a story that includes not just the facts, but also how those facts are obtained
and how to make theoretical sense out of them, which are two critically important
xii Preface

components of any science. I think this makes the story more interesting and helps fur-
ther student learning. There is nothing less intellectually fulfilling than simply reading a
litany of facts. Facts are only minimally helpful unless we also know why they are impor-
tant, how they relate to other things we know, and how sure we are that they are true.
I think the fact of money’s relationship to happiness becomes more interesting, easier
to remember, and more useful when we know that much of the research is necessarily
correlational, and therefore that causality must be carefully considered. Knowing how
causality is evaluated helps us understand why some results are more important than
others. Having more detailed information about what a “small” relationship means is
also helpful. And understanding some detail about the argument that money does not
matter much once a minimum wealth threshold is passed is also essential. This book
investigates these matters.
This necessitates giving more detail about specific studies than is typical for under-
graduate texts. I describe research methodologies and discuss whether causal attribu-
tions are appropriate; discuss the results of many of the studies; and invite students to
interpret tables and graphs from primary source articles. Mediated and moderated rela-
tionships are also discussed. I guide students through the results by pointing toward
important findings and explaining how they should be interpreted.

Accessible Science for Introductory Students

Although the science of the field is emphasized, the book is accessible to introductory
students. It assumes students have only basic knowledge of introductory psychology,
and no knowledge of research methods or statistics beyond what they learned in their
introductory course. When technical issues arise, such as when describing mediated rela-
tionships, I discuss them on a broad conceptual level without descending into technical
specifics. Concepts are clearly defined when first introduced.
The very material of the book sparks intrinsic interest and makes the book accessi-
ble. Topics such as the nature of happiness, the importance of joy, the role of money in
producing happiness, marriage and children and happiness, whether happy people are
successful, whether career success leads to happiness, whether and how happiness can
change, whether it can be directly pursued, and so on, naturally invite students into the
book.

LEARNING TOOLS AND INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES

The use of a conversational style in this book is deliberate, to aid student learning. I
wrote as if a student were sitting in my office with me, and I were simply and informally
(but accurately) telling the story of what we know about the science of happiness. Intro-
ductory and summary paragraphs bracket not just the opening and close of each chap-
ter, but also main topics within it. Gentle repetition facilitates learning, and summarizing
important points by recapping major sections helps keep track of larger themes while
moving through the chapter. This aids thematic thinking, helping to place important
details in context so they are easier to remember and understand.
 Preface xiii

Nearly everything about the subject matter relates to students’ own lives and con-
cerns, and these connections are made clear. The central questions of the book, relating
to money, marriage, career success, religious faith, and positive experiences, are posed
in practical terms with which students can identify. This sparking of intrinsic interest
is perhaps the most powerful learning tool of all.
Instructor’s resources are available to qualified adopters. These materials include sam-
ple syllabi and information about potential ways to organize the course; lecture-build-
ing tips, including potential lecture topics and outlines; and suggestions for out-of-class
writing assignments. Discussion questions provided for each chapter can be used to
spark students’ thinking and conversations about the material, serve as starters for class-
room discussions and homework assignments, or build potential test questions.
Readings, videos, websites, and real-world examples of topics supplement each chap-
ter. All are designed to help students become more involved with the material and think
actively about what they read, since active thinking, rather than passive listening or read-
ing, is the key to learning. Suggestions for small group, in-class activities include a mix
of short lecture ideas, short videos, small group activities and discussions, and whole
class discussions. PowerPoint slides are provided for each chapter.
I hope that the suggestions in the manual will be a launching pad that inspires instruc-
tors to build on these ideas. I am confident that instructors will find that teaching a course
on happiness is a gratifying and rewarding experience. For more information on the
instructor resources, qualified adopters should contact [email protected].

James B. Allen, PhD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank numerous people for their help while I was writing this book.
Certainly the team at Springer Publishing Company, particularly Mindy Chen and Debra
Riegert, deserve medals for their patience with me. My students at SUNY Geneseo,
including those in my Psychology of Happiness class and the members of my research
team, were tremendously helpful as I was writing.
I also want to thank the two people who taught me the most about how to think
clearly: my father, Zeke Allen, and my graduate school advisor, Doug Kenrick. And
I thank my brothers, Andy and Pat, for teaching me the most about how to laugh. No
one is as much fun as the two of them. Finally, I thank my wife, Deb, and my two chil-
dren, Paul and Claire, for their unwavering support and love. They bring me the most
happiness.