Cynic
Well-Known Member
I classify happiness in two ways. First, is the biological perspective , where happiness (or preferably pleasure), is a reward system that is conducive to survival. Along with this reward system, we have multiple "drives" like hunger, love, or acceptance. Generally, a person is happy when all these needs are met.
Second is the psychosocial perspective, which does not focus happiness on the biological but on the social and individual scale.
I have been in the process of developing a hypothesis from this aspect, hopefully I can do some actual research to prove/disprove my hypothesis' when I am a postgraduate. The short version:
My thesis, put simply, is that when people are searching for happiness, they are subconsciously searching for contentment with their self image (I believe this especially applies to western cultures and societies, as they are naturally competitive and individualistic). Society and culture builds our self image. The building of our self image is a constant process. During this process we gather both positive and negative attributions that are imposed on us by ourselves and others.
Imagine a Social “High Bar”, standards most valued by reference groups, standards that we use to judge ourselves. Reference groups consist of our own spouse, friends, coworkers, religions and society as a whole. It is those groups we associate ourselves with, as part of our identity/self image. A reference group can be anything, even a gang (I propose that this can drive deviant behavior).
For example, our society as a whole places images of what is acceptable and desirable through the mass media (i.e. being thin is being beautiful, you must be wealthy and successful, etc). Note that Anorexia, is unique to western societies, and unheard of in many cultures.
example "high bar":
Being Rich - High Education - Nice Car - Big House - Trophy Spouse
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We acquire negative attributes individually and socially through upward comparison.
Upward comparisons help create a negative attribution if we don’t meet the social “high bar”, the standards by which we judge ourselves.
Examples would be,
"I'm alone"
"I’m fat"
"I’m poor"
"I’m unattractive"
"I’m incompetent"
"My neighbor has a better car than me"
When something negative is said about us
These become a source of discontent and worry driven by an inborn need of love and acceptance--it becomes a drive towards certain goals (emplaced by reference groups) in which we struggle to equalize this discontent, which becomes a means to an end (the end being contentment with the self).
I believe that people who are truly happy learn to fully accept themselves for who they are, no matter what other people think, or say, or do. They don’t have a negative self image, as they don't impose negative attributions upon themselves, or allow others to do so. They don’t need people or things to make them happy, since they are content to begin with.
And that concludes some of my thoughts on happiness...
