Kyla Miller: A Writing Portfolio

Flexible Theories

 

There are numerous angles psychologists have taken to tackle the “set point” theory. Some have argued that people adapt to their life circumstances differently, especially in regards to negative life events like divorce or a death in the family. Others have decided to focus on the positive side of happiness change by studying people who have taken positive actions in their day to day life to increase their happiness. Let’s get the worst out of the way first—the negative side of happiness flexibility research.

 

Some People Just Can’t Bounce Back

 

The set point theory is interesting because it doesn’t account for individual differences. When Dr. Lucas conduced this study, he criticized just that. He says that the set point theory doesn’t account for negative life circumstances to the degree that it should. He starts out by discussing hedonic adaptation, which refers to the process where people are known to return to a “set point” of happiness regardless of a change in life circumstance. He also looks at the dominant models of subjective well-being, which suggest that people can adapt to the majority of life events and that well-being and happiness fluctuate around a genetically determined set point that won’t readily change. After he discusses those in detail, he disproves them through a large-scale panel study. This study was able to show that, although inborn factors matter slightly and some adaptation can occur, this is not always the NORM. His results showed that major negative life events such as divorce, death of spouse, unemployment, and disability are all associated with lasting changes in subjective well-being. His studies concluded that individual differences in adaptation are substantial, and therefore, he argues that happiness levels CAN fluctuate over time towards the negative scale because not everyone can adapt to major negative events that may occur throughout their lifetime (Lucas, 2014).

 

Well, that’s rather depressing. People always say that you’ll bounce back, things will get better, etc. But will they? Dr. Lucas doesn’t seem to think so.

 

Now, for a more positive outlook on the flexibility of happiness, let’s examine the research of Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, who are interested in the ways that happiness can be increased and then sustained from taking positive actions over a period of time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if somebody told you that taking specific actions can increase and sustain your long term happiness? Well, Sheldon & Lyubomirsky are telling you just that. In their study they discuss two separate types of happiness change—circumstantial and action based. Their study found that people who positively changed their actions for a sustained period of time, in turn, found their happiness increased in the short term and long term as well, regardless of life circumstances. For those who experienced circumstantial change (got married, received a raise, got sick etc) experienced temporary increases or decreases in happiness; however, this was not sustained over a long period of time. These findings were the product of three separate studies, which were constantly being modified to create the most accurate results. The final study (study 3), successfully proved that changes in your actions, not your circumstances, are what make a big difference in long-term happiness. This was found in the majority of participants in the study (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006).

 

So essentially what they’re saying is that we should forget circumstantial change. After all, we don’t truly have much control over those anyways. What we should be focusing our energy on is change through our daily actions, which can really have an affect on our overall happiness. Just how much change remains a debate, as does the entire topic of happiness. Let’s take a look now at some conflicting studies that run the risk of making this topic even more complicated than it already is. But if we’re going to tackle it, we need to look at EVERYTHING. Not just the studies that prove one theory over another with certainty. 

 

A Little Bit of Both?