HUMAN HAPPINESS - ITS NATURE & ITS ATTAINMENT
VOLUME I: THE NATURE OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 5
THE HAPPY MOOD
All of us have experienced a happy mood. Thus, we all ought to be expert on how it feels to be happy.
But are we?
How well could you describe your happy moods? How well could you describe the feelings, the thoughts, the ways you behaved? According to the research, you'd probably not do well at all!
Most people find it difficult to describe what it's like to feel happy. It's like many of the most important aspects of being human: often we find it hardest to explain and understand the things that are the closest and most important to us. Things like love, consciousness, or grief are almost impossible to understand ourselves, much less describe to others. And of all these intimate experiences, happiness appears to be the most difficult of all.
It's mystifying! For something which is so critically important to us and so powerfully felt when it occurs, our knowledge and understanding of our own happiness is largely nil. We feel happiness, but we don't comprehend it!
Perhaps we're just too close to the problem...
To truly comprehend happiness we have to go beyond direct, personal experience and study it from the outside. This is exactly what Psychology has done.
It is a bit ironic that the science of Psychology has come into being to help explain from outside observation things which one would expect to be known to each of us from the inside. If our brain came equipped with a built-in "help" program, like most computers do, psychologists like myself and my colleagues would be out of a job! Unfortunately, the human brain just works on its own -- there is no "help" program we can access which explains its workings. Thus Psychology is faced with what sometimes seems an impossible task: understanding the what's going on inside the mind by studying it from the outside.
Happiness research is no different. We psychologists have been forced to use the same indirect methods as psychologists in all other fields use. We examine from the outside what happiness feels like on the inside. And the approach has proven enormously successful. While taking a few steps away from personal experience, happiness psychologists now have a pretty comprehensive view of the happy mood.
This Chapter, then, is dedicated to a description of a happy mood -- a description based completely on the research.
STUDYING HAPPY MOODS
The main problem facing psychologists studying the happy mood has been how to "capture" a happy mood in order to study it. In much the same way that a biologist goes to the field to gather specimens for intensive study back at the laboratory, the happiness researchers have had to develop ingenious techniques to help them stalk the happy mood.
The most basic method has simply been to ask people to describe happy moods they can recall. Taken either verbally (in face-to-face interviews), or in written form, these descriptions of happy moods have undergone extensive scientific and computer analysis. From this preliminary work, a basic understanding of the common elements of a happy mood has been developed (e.g., 81, 201).
Still, many psychologists have wanted to get even closer to happy moods as they actually happen, not as they are recalled later. One strategy in this direction has been to study people on a daily basis over long periods of time (often many months) observing their mood changes, and especially focusing on their happy moods (e.g. 132, 201). All kinds of observations have been made of people while they're in happy moods. Psychologists have observed happy individuals directly (60, 67, 68). They have been studied using video-tape ( ). They have been observed in the intimate light of counseling by clinical psychologists (50, 132 ), and they have been extensively studied by psychological tests and measurements taken in happy moods.
Today, happy moods are even being produced in the laboratory. Unlike the above methods, which involved waiting long periods for happy moods to naturally occur, several techniques are being used to induce a happy mood on the spot. With such techniques, researchers need not wait, they simply make a happy mood happen whenever they want to study it.
Films and videos (with pleasant, happy themes), are one way that is being used to produce happy moods (98, 146, 148, 149, 501). Other researchers employing positively worded tape-recorded to produce the same affect (151). Happy moods are also commonly induced by hypnotic suggestion ( ), and, of course, through the use of a wide variety of mood elevating drugs.
Finally, in the most dramatic of all techniques, happy moods are now being generated through electrical stimulation at their very source -- deep within the brain itself (19, 35, ).In what seems more like a current science fiction movie than real life, brain surgeons have discovered parts of the human brain that account for emotional sensations. In other words, recent discoveries reveal that there are specifically locatable centers of the brain that produce happiness. Technically speaking, these brain areas appear to be located in and around the limbic system and (to a lesser extent) the frontal lobes. When electrically stimulated, brain scientists find that happy feelings can be produced in there most naturally occurring and pure form! And because of their importance, we'll speak more about the brain's emotion centers in later chapters of this book.
For our present discussion, however, the most interesting finding regarding happy-mood research is: no matter what technique has been used to generate a happy mood, the results are practically identical! Whether induced through pleasant environmental manipulation, triggered by brain-stimulation, created under hypnosis, observed as they naturally occur, or analyzed from individual recollections the basic characteristics of this mental state appear the same. No matter what the technique used to create it, a happy mood is a happy mood.
So what's it like to feel happy?
FEELING HAPPY
The research has found that a happy mood is a rather complex psychological experience, yet fundamentally, happiness is nothing more that a pleasant feeling inside us. Indeed, if we want to simplify things drastically, a happy mood is one in which we feel happy.
So what does happiness feel like? Let's start with a verbal description...
The most common term psychologists use to describe this feeling is, naturally enough, is "happiness" itself. "Happiness" is also the most commonly used term that average people use when describing this feeling.
But "happiness" is just the beginning of the descriptions. The words "joy", "elation", and "ecstasy" are the next most frequently used to describe what people feel in happy moods (43, 44, 67, 81, 132, 200). People in happy moods are also often described as "cheerful" (35, 38, 39, 60), "highly content" (44, 132, 200), and "satisfied" (35).
Yet the list doesn't end there. Words like "merry," "jovial," "zestful," "glad," "pleased," "enthusiastic," and "gleeful" are also used to describe the way people feel when they're happy, as are words such as "rapture," "jubilation," "fulfillment," and "exhilaration" (132, 142, 200).
The verbal description of the happy feeling is limited only by language, and in every tongue there are dozens (if not hundreds) of words which could be used to express it. Thus it is no wonder the research reports such a variety of terms in its scientific observations.
However, although the language is rich with words to describe a happy mood, the there is something that all these words have in common: they all describe a mood which feels great!
In one of my first research studies on happiness, I had the chance to ask nearly a hundred people to describe what their happiest moods felt like (200). These descriptions were typical:
"At first I was overwhelmed with joy, joy beyond joy I had never hoped to attain."
"I thought to myself, I've never been happier."
"I was overcome with joy... It was thrilling."
This happy feeling we have been describing is all that is really necessary for a happy mood. The research description of happiness goes on in great detail in the following pages, but as we'll see, the only necessary and sufficient condition for a happy mood to occur is simply the feeling of happiness itself.
HAPPY MOODS CHANGE US DRAMATICALLY
Much more happens to most people in a happy mood than simply the experience of pleasant emotion. Psychologists have discovered that happy moods tend to bring about remarkable changes in our entire mental life.
One thing that changes is awareness. People become much more aware of their environment and of themselves in a happy mood. Another thing that changes is thinking patterns. In a happy mood a person's mental life becomes much more positive and profound. Finally, behavior patterns change. Happy moods seem to dramatically effect a person's behavior toward the environment and other people. Let's examine each of these unusual changes more closely.
AWARENESS CHANGES
In a happy mood people tend to become more aware of a variety of sensations and perceptions which normally go unnoticed.
To begin with, in happy moods people feel much better physically. Apparently, not just the emotions feel good in a happy mood, the body does too. In happy moods people often report experiencing a variety of pleasant physical sensations which, normally, are absent (144). Typically they report their body as feeling more pleasant and less painful than usual. Indeed, typical in the reports is a feeling of peak physical condition (38, 39, 132, 410). When people are in a happy mood, they experience their bodies as being far more energetic and healthy than at other times. This appears to be true even for those in actual ill health.
Healthy feelings are just one of the pleasant sensations in a happy mood. The body's senses also come alive! Vision, touch, hearing, and smell -- sensory awareness in general -- becomes more discriminative and more sensitive (81, 200, 410). In a happy mood our whole world becomes richer and more vibrant (81, 200):
"Everything I saw seemed more beautiful than I'd ever seen it."
"The world was beautiful for the first time in my life."
"I'd been there a thousand times before, but this time my house looked wonderful!"
Psychologists know that emotion creates subtle biochemical changes within the body and the brain -- and in this sense, emotions like happiness affect the body like a drug. It appears the "happiness drug" affects the body like a very mild psychedelic that pleasurably enhances the senses and the person's awareness of the environment.
More than just the sense comes alive in a happy mood, the body's energy does too. Happiness is often tied to a feeling of great physical arousal and excitement (60, 132, 144, 200). People often express a strong desire to be active (200):
"I felt like jumping up and telling the world of my happiness."
"I felt like shouting as loud as I could."
"All I wanted to do was go running through fields somewhere and laugh and cry...."
"I ran all the way to the ocean (about a mile) and ran up to my waist, scooping up the water and pouring it down my back, and then I ran up and down the beach till I was exhausted..."
People in happy moods become much more active and enthusiastically involved in their environment. In most happy moods people feel like engaging in "exciting" activities--they have a greater need for excitement and a lowered need for tranquillity (144, 200).
But there are exceptions. Many happy moods are typified with a feeling of ease, relaxation, and tranquility (35, 44, 60, 132, 200, 300).
"I was swept with a feeling of tranquillity... a peace like I never felt...."
"I must have sat there for an hour thinking about how happy I was..."
"I was completely at one with myself and full of peace."
It appears that there are two ways of experiencing a happy mood -- one way is extremely excited and aroused -- the other is tranquil and relaxed. The excited form of happiness is what most us us would probably call "elation," while the relaxed form of happiness is what we would think of as "contentment" (132). Of the two, however, it appears that the more "excited" form of happy moods is more common. In the research "excited" happy moods are reported almost three-to-one over "tranquil" ones (31, 144, 200).
The line between the two, however, may not be that clear. Many happy moods are reported which seem to combine both excitement and tranquillity simultaneously. Often individuals describe their happiest moods as being both "relaxed and excited" or as both "tranquil and energetic" at the same time (200)! Studies of factory workers show that happy moods were associated with "active involvement in work," yet the workers also felt "effortlessly relaxed" (60). Biofeedback research on alpha brain-waves also reports an "alert yet relaxed" condition occurring when the Alpha State is achieved. In my own research, it appears that around 45% of the people we've studied feel both "excitement" and "inner peace" in the happiest of moods (200):
"It was extremely exciting, and yet I felt a calmness within myself..."
"I thought I'd fall apart from nervousness, but when I began speaking, I've never felt so relaxed."
THINKING CHANGES
One of the most remarkable things psychologists have found in happy moods is that a person's thought patterns change dramatically.
This first of these changes is the kinds of thoughts which occur. When a happy mood strikes there is a remarkable change in the positive nature of the thoughts which come into our mind.
A happy mind is a mind filled with pleasant thoughts -- at a rate that is far above normal for the particular individual (132, 300). In happy moods people tend to come up with many more positive thoughts compared to negative (9, 18, 202). Memories too, are more pleasant than they normally are. The likelihood of happy recollections occurring when we're feeling happy is significantly increased in happy moods (9, 18, 43).
So pronounced is this mental change that one definition of happiness, often cited in the research, view happiness as "a state where our thinking is pleasant a good share of the time (410)."
Perceptual psychologists have long known that the kinds of thoughts we have in our mind, as well as our interpretation of events around us, are effected by the mood we're in. Evidence from happiness research reconfirms this idea. In a very happy mood, thinking patterns are greatly altered. Many thoughts occur that rarely happen at other times. For example, people feel that their life is full and abundant (81, 132, 200). They feel that everything about life and their role in it is more meaningful than usual (81, 200). They feel a special feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment -- that they have no further needs or aspirations that need fulfilling (81, 200). They often feel complete: non-striving, non-needing, and non-wishing (81). They tend to feel successful and functional in their work and activity (44, 130). They feel themselves to be much closer a part of their environment -- much more engaged with it (21, 132). They often feel they are receiving more love and esteem than usual from those around them (200).
In happy moods people tend to see things quite positively. In the moment, every aspect of life seems much more meaningful than it usually does. Especially in strong happy moods, thoughts take on a profound and significant quality. Special insights and observations often occur; perceptions of beauty and harmony abound;, and a wide variety of spiritual, philosophical,and transcendental experiences are frequently reported (81, 132, 200). (Abraham Maslow, for example, has written extensively of the comparisons between "peak-experiences" of happiness and the "mystic experiences" of religion, and views the two as being very closely related (81).)
In happy moods, everything "just seems to fit." Events are viewed as beautiful, harmonious, purposeful, perfect, and good. The emotional experience is often one of awe and wonder (81). Optimism soars (60, 63, 132, 201). Happiness, in other words, is what provides those "rose colored spectacles" through which we sometimes see the world. Below are some typical examples of the kinds of thoughts engendered by a highly happy mood (201).
Some thoughts might appear to be rather mundane to the outside observer, yet to the experiencer they are typically reported as a revelation:
"I realized I had a son."
"I discovered what friends were."
"I knew I was the best baseball player on the field."
Other typical thoughts are aesthetic:
"I felt poetic, and the world was beautiful..."
"It made me want to explore and examine everything, not just take them for granted."
One highly characteristic thought in a happy mood is a sense of freedom (24, 81, 200). People feel like they are more free that at other times--more an agent of free-will (24, 81).
"I felt like I had been released from prison and was thrilled with my new-found freedom."
"... I was uninhibited and in a state of naturalness I can't seem to find anymore."
On a basic level this freedom means freedom from negative things, like worries and problems. Often people express a great sense of relief occasioned by the ending of problems:
"My worries had vanished."
"I was very happy and relieved of worries."
"For the first time I forgot all my problems and simply enjoyed life."
"I felt completely relieved. It was the end of constant pressure."
"Carefree" is the word for this kind of thinking. That is why psychologists frequently describe happy moods as carefree, worry-free, relieved states (21, 81, 83, 132, 200).
Still other thoughts that typically occur in the happiest of moods are quite powerful and profound:
"We had perfection in a sense and we knew it."
"I felt like I fit into the scheme of the universe, part of the totality, like the totality, and incomplete harmony with it."
"I was part of something that was the truth, there was real meaning to life."
"I was filled with a security and assurance I had never known before."
"It was thrilling...(it) gave me sensation of flying, of power and control of circumstances, a confidence that nothing could go wrong."
"I knew that I would always remember this day because it was so completely different. It was like a dream-come-true."
Like a dream come true, indeed!
In a happy mood people like what they see, and that includes themselves. People not only evaluate their world and their life as much better than usual but they feel much better about their personhood too. When people feel happy, they typically feel more self-confident and have greatly increased self-esteem (100, 132, 200). In fact, this rise in self-regard is seen in one important study as the most characteristic feature of a happy mood (132). Clinical psychologists call it more "favorable self-concept" (132). Studies show that an individual's self-concept (their "real" self) rises in a happy mood to become closer to the person's self-ideal (their view of themselves of they were an "ideal" person) (100, 132). It is interesting to note that a person's "ideal-self" description stays about the same no matter what mood they're in; it is their feeling about how they relate to this "ideal" that changes with their mood (132).
One might wonder how distorted this heightened self- perception is in happy moods. Well, if anything, it is often felt as being closer to the person's true essence (as they believe it to be). People in happy moods feel much more natural and real. The feel like they are really "being themselves" for a change (200). In other words, it is not so much that their personality has changed, rather, they believe they are simply more able to bring their real, inner self to the surface.
Typical of this kind of positive self-view are these I've recorded:
"I felt as though no one could stop me from being me, and that was good. I felt so good, like I wanted to hug myself."
"I felt a complete satisfaction with what I am and what I can become."
A happy mood, therefore, changes one's mind. And the happier the mood, the more drastic these changes become. In a milder mood a person's thinking is very pleasant; in intensely happy moods the thinking becomes profound and transcendental (81, 132).
In happy moods we have a happier evaluation of everything. We like ourselves a lot better; we like our lives a lot better; and we like the whole universe a lot better. Everything in the moment looks great -- and even hopes for the future are characteristically high in optimism (60, 63, 132, 200). Simply put: happy moods and happy thoughts go together.
BEHAVIOR CHANGES
We've explored the happy mood from the inside where it originates, and we've seen how happy moods tend to change our inner awareness and thinking. When we turn to the outside, we find a similar, fascinating thing: in happy moods our behavior changes significantly.
One of the most characteristic things people do when they're happy is to become more social. People become more sociable, more friendly, and more loving than is typical of them (15, 35, 132, 200). They show a rise in social interaction and participation at such times (60, 67, 132, 501). They tend to be more socially receptive (132) and more socially cooperative (60). And two things nobody can miss: their behavior is characterized with smiling and laughter (19, 35), and they become much more talkative (15, 35, 132).
This rise in sociability is very typical, and it is directly opposite from the socially isolated, withdrawn behavior that has long been associated with the unhappy moods of normal individuals and depressed persons.
Increased sociability is also matched with a characteristic increase in spontaneity (37, 74, 81, 111, 132). When happy, people just let it all hang out| They're enthusiastic, talkative, and are more spontaneous in their conversation (15, 35, 67, 132); they even make more expansive movements and gestures when happy (67). Even on the "inkblot test" (the Rorschach) people in happy moods produce many more responses than would normally be expected (37, 111). It appears that when people feel happy, it's hard to hold anything inside.
A second general observation about a happy mood is the efficiency associated with it. Everything seems to work at an optimal level in a happy mood, The senses seem fresher and keener (81, 200, 174). Memory is improved and thinking abilities maximized (174); thought processes are fluent (132); thinking is clear (261, 262); and the person tends to be more decisive (67). In fact, studies of performance on selected association tests show performance in happy moods is usually better (but never worse) than performance in other moods (37, 43, 67, 111, 121). Even more importantly, the person in a happy mood tends to be more present-oriented (81, 202); the attention is tuned to the present and he or she is focused on what is happening in his immediate situation (44, 74, 81, 200). There is no increased tendency to turn inward or become introspective (132) neither are there regressions in thought (67). Rather, there is a close engagement with the world in a happy mood. People feel an intimate participation with their environment (21, 132). The happy mood creates a a sense of natural harmony and blending with the world -- altogether opposite from the alienation and separateness one experiences in unhappier, depressed states.
All these qualities make the happy mood one of peak mental functioning. Happy moods produce surprisingly high performance-levels on the job (60, 132, 200). Significant cognitive and intellectual progress are often reported (2, 81, 200). Achievement at a variety of tasks appears to be enhanced by a happy mood (38, 44, 130, 200). Furthermore, work itself is perceived to go much faster in a happy mood (60, 132), people enjoy their work more in a happy mood, and happy moods are especially facilitative in group assignments (142).
All in all, the data adds a lot of support for the old "whistle while you work" theory. Indeed, as we shall outline in a later chapter, the mass of research on "job satisfaction" has always shown that happy workers are productive workers. Happiness research has arrived at the same conclusion following a different path.
THE GOOD LIFE IS THE GOOD MOOD
By now it must be obvious that just about everything good you can think of happens in the happiest of moods. In a happy mood we feel good; we're unusually spontaneous and sociable; our self-esteem is high; our thinking is keen; we're wrapped up in the moment; our worries have vanished; we're at ease with ourselves and with others; we're may feel wonderfully relaxed, or we may be tingling with excitement (or possibly both at the same time); we're motivated, efficient, and productive; we enjoy what we're doing; we like most every aspect of our immediate world; and, everything in life seems meaningful, beautiful, and harmonious.
As one personality test summarizes, people in happy moods become more cheerful, joyous, sociable, responsive, energetic, talkative, humorous, rapid-in-movement, content, trustful, sympathetic, and open (132).
It is hard to imagine anything lacking in these descriptions. What other kind of experience could match the glorious peaks of emotional, mental, and social functioning inherent in the happy mood? Could a heaven be much better?
There is a school of philosophy named "Eaudonomionism." It is a belief that happiness is the highest of all goods. Eaudonomionism has been around for centuries in human thought and it finds expression in many of hedonic theories of motivation and learning in psychology which place the seeking of pleasant experience (and the avoidance of painful ones) as the most fundamental psychological and biological imperative. Now comes "the psychology of happiness" presented in this book, and it appears that it provides fresh confirmation for this ancient view.
Apparently, the "good life" is the good mood!
I have always felt strongly that happiness is the most important thing in life, and the more I research happiness the stronger my conviction has become. Why? I think it is o because happiness is such an all-inclusive phenomenon. Happiness entails all of the good experiences people seek from life -- and more often than not, many of these good things occur together in a happy mood.
If you ponder all the ways you might wish to live your life and had to pick among them, what would you choose?
You might choose to have a carefree life, free of worries. On the other hand, you might choose to experience a life of peak mental functioning and cognitive productivity. You might choose, just to have peace of mind. You might choose a life of thrilling excitement, or, perhaps, a life of warm family and social relationships. You might choose to have more profound religious feelings. Or, you might choose to see the world as beautiful and harmonious.
But it looks as if you don't have to choose, for in happy moods you are likely to feel many or all of these things. Almost 70% of the individuals I've studied experienced at least 4, or more, of these kinds of feelings in their very best moods (200). Happiness, in other words, is associated with all the good things we know. It appears to be the one crucial element that underlies all the very best moments people experience in life (200). The happy mood is the best experience life has to offer. (In later chapters we shall come to understand the strong biological and psychological reasons why this is the case.)
PERSONALITY FACTORS
The description given so far is of the "typical" happy mood as it occurs for the "average" person. However, when we get down to individual cases we have found there are slight differences from person to person in the way they experience happiness. In other words, different types of people experience happiness in different kinds of ways.
Psychologists are just beginning to examine such personality differences, but the findings thus far are quite intriguiging.
One study, for example, examined four different groups of people: a happy group, an unhappy group, a moody group, and a stable group. The "happy group" (those people who were happiest most of the time) experienced what the researchers called "zest" in their happy moods: an intense, energetic state of open, receptive social interest and active engagement with a satisfying world (132). A second group, the "unhappy group" (those that were the unhappiest), experienced their happy moods in "relief" -- a feeling of peace, minimal worry, quiet conscience -- an uncertain, temporary lull in a life full of struggles (132). Another group, the "moody group" (people whose emotions changed a lot) experienced their happy moods in "joy" -- wonderful seizures of elation, more characterized by involvement with fluent inner experiences that active involvement with the environment. A final group, the "stable group" (those whose emotions changed little) were described as "content" in their happy moods -- having energy, feelings of harmony with others, and inner tranquility.
Sex differences were also been found. Women, as an example, tended to experience their happy moods in much greater tranquility than did men (132).
This is an area which has yet to be extensively examined, but I have no doubt that as mood research continues more discriminations between groups and cultures will be revealed. Nevertheless, such distinctions appear to be a variation of the major theme we've already presented as typical for most of us.
THE CAUSES OF HAPPY MOODS
So far in this chapter we have been speaking of the things that occur when people are in happy moods. We have analyzed the sensations, the feelings, the thought-patterns, and the behavior that typically occur. But the question naturally arises, what causes a happy mood in the first place? Researchers who've studied happy moods from this vantage- point, have discovered a number of answers.
First, however, we should generally answer the question with this statement: virtually anything can cause a happy mood!
As we shall see later, an individual's learning and past experiences strong influence the kinds of situations will generate happiness. What makes us happy in other words, is highly individual. Therefore, anything has the potential, for some person somewhere, to produce a happy mood.
The specific things that make people happy vary tremendously. A particular song may make one person joyous while leaving another totally unmoved. A movie, a book, or a work of art may find one person exhilarated -- yet find another quite bored. Some may thrill at a butterfly collection, others at a rare coin collection, others at a Spring fashion collection, and others at the collection of unpaid accounts. The variety of specific causes is as varied as individual personality.
Nevertheless, on a general level there appear to be a number of common situations that seem to bring happy moods to the vast majority of people.
One major cause of a happy mood is felt progress or success in one's work or activities (38, 39, 44, 200, 318). In a similar vein, experiences involving personal growth, attainment, or self-realization often generate happy moods (2, 81). Sometimes, an important discovery or insight can spark a happy mood (2, 81, 200, 318). Another common cause is the solution to a problem or the termination of an unpleasant situation (200). Similarly, the participation in great events, mystic or religious revelations, intellectual breakthroughs, and so on, are often cited (2, 81, 200, 318). Special life events (the wedding day, graduation, the birth of a child, the big promotion, holidays, birthdays, vacations, etc.) create happy moods for most of us. And certainly, many good moods occur, as one would naturally expect, when life takes a surprisingly pleasant or lucky turn for the better (81, 147, 200). Yet something that gives pause for thought: rarely is "money" or "financial gain," ever mentioned as a significant cause of happy moods. (find ref...)
It not just the high-points in life that give rise to happy moods. Often, the happiest moods people experience are occasioned by seemingly insignificant events that take place in the most ordinary and common of situations (200). Even the most simple of pleasures (a hot bath, pleasant weather, a song on the radio, seeing one's children at play) are often reported as the cause of an strongly felt happy mood (2, 39). And among the the the most frequently mentioned of such simple pleasures which create happiness, are those that involve contact with nature (a walk on the beach, a mountain sunset, the quiet dawn in a forest, etc.) (2, 81).
By far, however, the most frequent situation giving rise to happy moods is a social one...
The majority of most people's happy moods are occasioned by situations involving love, friendship, and social interaction (2, 38, 39, 78, 79, 142, 200, 318). Day in and day out, pleasant social interaction creates more happy moods -- and by a significantly wide margin -- than anything else we do. Joking-around with the people at work; a talk with a good friend; the time at the end of the day with our family; going to a party; a phone call from a loved one; even a friendly greeting from a passerby -- these everyday, social events are the primary source of our happy moods. Indeed, studies of laughter and smiling (perhaps the most reliable, external indicators of instantaneous happy reaction) have found that such expressions are occasioned by social situations practically 98% of the time (133).
Indeed, if we were to count them up (and the researchers have), it would become clear rather quickly that the vast majority of one's happy moods are created in social situations. Certainly, one never forgets the happiness felt in the major successes, the big events, or the lucky changes in our life -- but, for most of us, these causes of happy moods strike pretty rarely compared to the almost daily occurrence of socially-induced happy moods.
And of all the social sources that create happy moods, nothing comes close to love and romance! The research confirms our common experience in this regard; some of most exhilarating and euphoric feelings of happiness are occasioned by love. "Falling in love" is one of the most deliriously happy experiences there is in life, and a love that lasts can produce a lifetime of warm and intimate happy moods for us. Indeed, the feeling of "love" itself, is, according to our definition, just another one of the many forms of happiness.
These are the causes of happy moods that generally apply to most people. However, some evidence shows that these general causes vary, depending on one's sex, social role, or age (82, 132). Women, for example, appear to have more happy moods in social and religious situations, while men have more happy moods in achievement-related situations. College students, as another special case, tend to have many more happy moods than other groups in the area of "cognitive experiences" (growth, intellectual achievement, high performance, etc.). These findings begin to bridge the gap between general causes of happy moods, common to all individuals, and the highly individualized causes that account for the infinitely diverse sources of happy moods found from individual to individual.
Thus far, we've been talking about outside causes of happy moods. We've seen that happy moods can be triggered from either the most grand or most mundane of events that might happen. But more than what happens to us on the outside, our moods are often determined by what happens to us on the inside...
Many happy moods are triggered by inside stimuli; mostly by what we think about. Our moods are frequently influenced by what happens to run through our mind.
Many times, a good mood happens because we recall something pleasant from the past (39). A pleasant mental observation or interpretation can have the same effect. Indeed, it has been well-established that the dreams we have at night, can have an effect on the type of mood we experience the following day.
Every thought or memory has an emotional feeling associated with it. Thus, what we dwell upon has a direct effect on our mood. If we consciously focus on the unhappy experiences from the past or present, our mood is dampened accordingly. A focus on positive circumstance, on the other hand, elevates one's mood.
However, it's not just our conscious thoughts that effect our mood. Often our mind may be preoccupied with problems and worries on a subconscious level. Our conscious mind may be focused on the immediate situation (our work, a conversation, the day's agenda, etc.), but behind the scenes -- perhaps completely out of our awareness -- are troublesome concerns that are dampening our mood. Such subconscious influences can be positive too. For example, our vacation is coming up in a few more weeks; and though we haven't thought about it all day, our subconscious mind is aware of it. Thus, even though the day has been rather ordinary, we've been in a great mood (yet we can't pinpoint why).
Another internal cause of happy moods is physically based. Medical research continues to reveal convincing evidence regarding the connection between mood and human physiology. Diet, exercise, hormonal balance, health-habits, bio-rhythms, vitamins, genetic make-up, metabolic rates, sex differences, and dozens of other factors have been shown to effect our daily mood. It's easy to recognize these physiological influences in our unhappier moods. A case of the flu, a restless night, a nagging backache, skipping breakfast -- things like this can negatively color our mood all day long. Happy moods may be similarly sparked when the body's rhythms peak at harmonious levels. In this sense, some of our happy moods may be completely biochemical (38, 39, 67).
Our thoughts, our dreams, our subconscious wanderings, our body's physiology, our physical health, and other subtle factors explain why many happy moods appear to have no suitable explanation to us. Often, they just seem to happen...
Estimates vary. One study found that as many as 50% of the happy moods studied had no obvious external cause (39), although other studies find much lower percentages. (In my own investigations, I find less than 2% of such moods occur for no obvious reason.) Whatever the actual figure, a certain percentage of happy moods have such subtle psychological or physical causes they may well seem to "just come out of the blue."
THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG
When we talk about the causes of happy moods, some interesting contradictions arise. You may have noticed them as you've been reading. For example, we've just cited evidence that social situations create many happy moods. But earlier we saw much evidence suggesting people become much more sociable because they're in a happy mood. So the question might occur: are people more sociable because they're in a happy mood, or are they in a happy mood because they are being more sociable?
This is just one of several questions along this line. For instance, are people more productive because they're happy, or are they happy because they're more productive? Does a person's thinking seem more important and profound because he's feeling happy, or is he feeling happy because an important or profound thought has occurred to him? Are peoples' memories pleasant because they are in a happy mood, or are they in a happy mood because pleasant memories just happen to be occurring? Do people have religious experiences because they're blissfully happy, or are they blissfully happy because they're having a religious experience?
We could probably ask a legitimate like this for everyone of the findings we've presented, and the fascinating thing is that in every case psychologists find evidence to support both sides of the question. Take our first question, the research shows both things: (a), people become more sociable in happy moods and (b), people have happy moods in sociable situations. Both processes happen -- it's not just one or the other. Apparently, there is no contradiction. The finding that happiness tends to produce sociable behavior is true, and the finding that sociable behavior tends to produce happiness is also true (147).
Happy moods, therefore, can be both cause and an effect. Happy moods cause good things to happen, and good things can cause happy moods to happen. Indeed, in actual practice, both processes often fuel one another. For example: you're feeling happy so you become more sociable, and as you become more sociable you begin feeling happier, this makes you feel even more sociable, and so on. It's an upward spiral where emotion and behavior feed each other.
CONCLUSION
This concludes the research picture of the happy mood.
Next we'll turn away from the discussion of "happiness, the feeling" and study "the happy person," the individual who is happy most of the time. However, even at this point, you already have some important previews into what these happy people are like from the material we've covered in this chapter. Interestingly, there are many similarities between the personality of the typically happy person and the personality we have seen emerge when an ordinary person is in a happy mood. We'll cover those, and many more, as we continue...