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Day 4 - Happiness

CNS 5037 NEUROPHILOSOPHY

Review from Last Class:The Emotional Brain & Suffering• The Triune Brain

Review from Last Class:The Emotional Brain & Suffering

Limbic System (subcortical)

• Thalamus:

• sensory switchboard to cortex;

• Hypothalamus:

• Regulates emotional behaviors and motives (e.g., sex, hunger, rage, hormone release)

• Hippocampus:

• Critical for memory formation.

• Amygdala:

• Determines if stimuli should be approached or feared

Review from Last Class:The Emotional Brain & SufferingThe Fear System (Panksepp)

Nirvana & Brain Hemispheres

• Without the left hemisphere, no judgments, no conditioned narrative to perpetuate negative stories.

• Without the left hemisphere no separate story of “me” and “you” or “us” and them”

• But, without the left hemisphere no language, math, learned skills, fine perception, appreciation for differences, decisions may be difficult. Difficulty expressing positive emotions.

• Oddly enough, in most cases, damage to the left hemisphere makes negative emotions more prominent. Why?

Neurotransmitters & Happiness

• Dopamine is central to the operation of the reward system

• Serotonin is involved in mood regulation; high levels associated with pleasurable feelings, happiness.

Group Discussion:The Pursuit of Happiness• In groups of 3-4, circle up and create the following list…

• What makes you happy? You may want to reflect on your behavior this past week and see what you’ve done in the pursuit of making yourself happier?

The Psychology of Happiness

Everyday Decisions

Reflect on people’s behavior and the choices they make everyday. What do they believe will make them happy?

The Psychology of HappinessEveryday Decisions

Q: Reflect on people’s behavior and the choices they make everyday. What do they believe will make them happy?

A: –1) Something we get. Something we accomplish. The behavior

of other people.

–2) In general: changing the condition of our lives. (Changing something outside of ourselves.)

Q: Is happiness a choice or something that happens to us? Based on how we behave, what would the answer be?

But let’s take a closer look…

Psychologist Martin Seligman, Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky

H = S + C + V

S = genetic set point

C = circumstances/conditions of living

V = voluntary activity

50%10%40%

Your thoughts. Your choices and actions.

Questions: Thinking About HappinessWhat does Hanson recommend we do to make ourselves happier?

• Take in the Good• Soaking in the positive to making ourselves more prone to positive perspectives.

• Cool Down the Fires• Learning how to deactivate the over-activity of PNS.

• Exercise Intentions and the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)• PFC makes plans & shapes (guide/inhibit) our emotions, the ACC steadies our attention,

monitors our plans, and helps integrate thinking and feeling (at the center of our deliberate, reasoned motivations).

• ACC is the first mate of the PFC’s Captain.

• Exercise our muscle for conscious, wholesome intentions.

• Develop Equanimity• Not reacting to your reactions. Mental calmness.

• Rather than riding the waves of neural activity, you become an observer of them.

Questions: Thinking About Happiness

Therefore, based on the readings, what is happiness?

What is Happiness?• Positive Psychology:

• Having experiences of good feelings that outweigh the experience of unpleasant feelings, plus a sense of satisfaction (gratification) with life as a whole.

• Sonja Lyubomirsky’s definition of happiness:

• Experience of joy, contentment, positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile

But let’s take a closer look…

Psychologist Martin Seligman, Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky

H = S + C + V

S = genetic set point

C = circumstances/conditions of living

V = voluntary activity

50%10%40%

Your thoughts. Your choices and actions.

The Psychology of HappinessC - Conditions of Living

E.g: Study of 22 Lottery Winners

Happiness

Time

• Fulfillment of desires only give short-term happiness.

• Story of Ruth from Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago

• How do we explain this? • Circumstances changed, but the

mind did not experience long lasting change.

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

Have you noticed? We have a Happiness Thermostat!

Example:Paraplegic Study• 1 week• 1 year

How might we explain this?

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

Still don’t believe “C” is only 10%?

Example #1: Native or Indigenous People

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of LivingStill don’t believe “C” is only 10%?

Example #2: Victor Frankl – Jewish Psychiatrist – “Man’s Search for Meaning”

How was Victor Frankl using his brain?

The Psychology of HappinessC - Conditions of Living

A word about meaning…

• Frankl: We are motivated by a will to meaning.

• Lottery winners after 5 years?

• Without meaning (purpose, sense of direction): – cults, gangs, depression, hollow pursuits (e.g. $)

• What might this mean about the pursuing of things?

• Lot’s of times, we desire things because of what they mean: • possibility, acceptance, glamour, fame, etc..

The Psychology of HappinessC - Conditions of Living

But “C” it feels so right…Let’s think back to winning the lottery (or getting anything you want)

•Here happiness is about feeling good. •Actually it’s often about us thinking it will make us

feel good.

•Here is a problem: • According to Psychologist Daniel Gilbert’s research, we

are not good at predicting our future emotional states.

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

Doesn’t mean pleasure is bad. Just that it doesn’t last.• But best if spread out.

• Why? Addiction = Hedonic Treadmill

– Sensory Adaptation

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

The brain not designed for happiness. It’s designed for survival.

Feeling satisfied.

Feel good about ourselves.

Feel content with our lives.

Feel secure.

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

Example of Unexpected Happiness: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

What points in a persons day did they feel happiest?:

When we they were active and in FLOW.

The psychology of happiness• Meaning of the Mundane – Think of something that you either find

mundane, or something that you simply do not look forward to doing during your day. (For later)

The Psychology of Happiness

C - Conditions of Living

What does this mean for human happiness?

Not just about (1) Feeling Good and the (2) Absence of Unpleasant Feeling.

(3) Satisfaction: Gratification/Psychological Enjoyment

So which conditions of living have the most benefit? (worksheet)

The Psychology of HappinessC - Conditions of Living

Summary:

1. What we crave in the first place we like because of meaning and how we think it will make us feel.

2. Our happiness thermostat brings us back to baseline.

3. Conditions of Living: Only 10% of our happiness:

– Wealth: not a great affect.

– Social bonds with friends and family: a large affect.