Week 2- Science of Happiness Notes

 Section 1: Happiness and Social Connection 

VIDEO: SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND HAPPINESS 

  • Research shows that happy people have “rich and satisfying” relationships. 
  • Having more friends can predict subjective well-being. 
  • “Flow” term by Csikszentmihalyi (one of the things that can foster the most happiness is talking with friends) 
  • Greater socialization is associated with happiness. 
  • Engaging in meaningful social interactions is repeatedly reported as one of the things that make people the happiest. 
  • People who are lonely show hyper inflammation in their bodies have worsened immune responses, and difficulty sleeping. 
  • Social pain activates the same regions of the brain that react after physical pain. 

ESSAY: “SCRATCH A HAPPY ADULT, FIND A SOCIALLY CONENCTED CHILDHOOD” BY LAURA KLEIN 

  • Research traces happiness back to childhood 
  • Findings from New Zealand research study showed that children who succeeded in school and had good social connections were happier as adults than children who felt alienated in friendships and did not do well academically.  
  • Ages 15-18 having greater social connections was more impactful on happiness than success in school. 
  • Evidence showed that academic success can foster social connectedness, leading to greater happiness. 
  • Importance of nurturing children’s social skills and not just the academic successes.  

Section 2: Why do Social Connections Foster Happiness? 

VIDEO: WHY ARE WE WIRED TO CONNECT? 

“Tracing the evolution of our ultra- sociality"- 

  • Hunter-gathers 
  • Archeology (rise of cooking, art, patterns of cooperation) 
  • Primate Predecessors (chimpanzees, apes, etc.) Basic behavioral tendencies. 

“Dimensions of our ultra-sociality"- 

  • Caretaking (in our DNA) 
  • Flattened hierarchies (sharing of resources, sense that we are similar, and we have relationships) 
  • Conflict and reconciliation (we have evolved capacities to make peace) 
  • Coordination as a species (yawning, laughing, movement) 
  • Fragile monogamy (we try to maintain relationships and partnerships to maintain offspring wellbeing 

“Losing our ultra-sociality"- 

  • The decline of marriage success. 
  • Rise of loneliness 
  • Losing meaningful relationships, friendships, partnerships 

VIDEO: EARLY LIFE EXPERIENCE AND SOCIAL CONNECTION 

  • John Bowlby’s studies on human connection in relation to happiness- 3 systems that help us attach in families: 

  1. Reproductive system (Emotions and behaviors regarding sex) 
  2. Attachment system (Love and devotion) 
  3. Caregiving system (touch, vocalization, eye and skin contact) 

  • Working models- deep feelings/ intuition of trust that are always with you. 

  • Each individual has their own sense of attachment style: 

  1. Secure (loving, warm, trusting) (“I find it easy to be around others, I do not worry about being abandoned or letting others get close to me”) 
  2. Anxious (intrusive, worried, more likely to experience loss of a parent, abuse, or divorce) (“I often worry that my other partner doesn’t love me”) 
  3. Avoidant (dismissive, cruel) (“I am somewhat uncomfortable being close or depending on anyone”) 
  • Securely attached people report greater life satisfaction and are more likely to succeed in relationships. They have greater amounts of positive emotion and are more optimistic. 
  • Anxiously attached people are more prone to depression, anxiety, drug use, and eating disorders. 

VIDEO: ATTACHMENT, HAPPINESS, AND THE BRAIN 

  • “Attachment the experience of developing a secure attachment base shapes your care nurturance circuitry in such a way that you're better able to manufacture utilize and respond to oxytocin” 
  • When anxiously attached people experience negative feedback (example: a frowning face on a test) they have exaggerated responses in the amygdala (section of the brain that signals distress) 
  • Avoidantly attached people experience less of a positive response from positive feedback (example: smiling face) than the average person or a securely attached person 

ESSAY: CAN WE OVERCOME INSECURE ATTACHMENT? 

  • Experiencing secure relationships can help to alleviate some of the negative consequences on one's happiness due to a history of insecure attachment 
  • Highly committed partners can help to diminish the tendencies of an insecure attached person 

Section 3: We’re Built to Connect 

VIDEO: HOW WE’RE WIRED TO CONNECT 

  • Evolution has shaped us to connect. 
  • Oxytocin- “the caregiving circuitry in the brain”  
  • Vagus nerve- motivates affiliation, in the nervous system. 
  • Reward circuitry in the brain motivates us for social connection. 

 

VIDEO: THE VAGUS NERVE AND HAPPINESS 

  • The Vagus nerve is interconnected with oxytocin networks. 
  • Linked to stronger immune system response. 
  • Regulates inflammation response to disease. 
  • Begins at top of the spinal cord- helps one to nod their head, orient gaze, and vocalize. 
  • Coordinates interaction between breathing and heart rate. 
  • In the spleen and liver, helps control digestive processes. 
  • Research shows that images of suffering activate the Vagus nerve as well as inspiring stories. 
  • Increased compassion = stronger Vagus nerve response 
  • Increased feelings of pride = weaker Vagus nerve response 
  • Provides common humanity. 
  • Creating a strong Vagal profile: can be cultivated through meditation and exercise. 
  • Positive effects of strong Vagal Profile: stronger peer relationships, better social skill, better social support, more likely to be compassion. 

VIDEO: THE SCIENCE OF OXYTOCIN 

  • The sequence of nine amino acids move through your brain and bloodstream to affect target organs in the body. 
  • Research shows that people experiencing increased levels of oxytocin are more likely to be more generous and trusting in others. 
  • General Caregiving behavior increase with increased levels. 
  • High levels of oxytocin reduce stress hormone levels. 
  • High levels decrease cardiovascular responses to stress. 
  • High levels lower amygdala response to heightened emotion. 
  • Studies show fathers with increased levels of oxytocin transfer to their offspring. 
  • Oxytocin is a promoter of positive relationships and friendships. 
  • Natural oxytocin levels relate to secure attachment behaviors between parents and offspring and feelings of romantic love within relationships and greater generosity to strangers. 

VIDEO: THE SCIENCE OF TOUCH 

  • The west- “the touch-deprived culture” 
  • Babies in orphanages were dying at rates of 75% with all the correct resources for life until caretakers were told to hold the babies daily. 
  • When you touch somebody, you activate the frontal cortex (the site of “reward and compassion” in the brain). 
  • Social functions of touch: give a feeling of reward, reinforces reciprocity, signals safety and trust, soothes, calms cardiovascular stress, leads to oxytocin release. 
  • Touch therapies: a touch of premature babies increases weight by 47%, touching in Alzheimer's patients can lower rates of depression, makes students twice as likely to speak out in class. 

 

VIDEO: THE VOICE: A PRIMAL WAY WE CONNECT 

  • Evolutionarily, we became more able to vocalize. 
  • Complex physical system of how we speak (brain signals, lungs, airflow, sound) 
  • The ears are most sensitive to frequencies of human speech. 
  • One tool of social connection = vocal bursts (little sounds that prove to be important in social connection and how we communicate) 
  • We can communicate powerful emotions from short vocal bursts. 

Section 4: Romantic relationships, Family, and Friendships 

VIDEO: RELATIONSHIPS, MARRIAGE, AND HAPPINESS 

  • Humans want to have a pair bond, 85%- 90% of people will enter some form of a long-term partnership in their lifetime. 
  • The meaning of partnership has changed over time. 
  • Science of love and desire- are there two different passions? (Love and romance vs. Reproduction) 
  • Result: there are core reasons why people enter partnerships. By showing gestures of love oxytocin is released. Not so much for sexual gestures.  

  • What makes for a happy relationship?  

  1. Demographic perspective: looking at what correlates in satisfaction of relationships. 
  2. Money and age are beneficial factors in marriage. 
  3. Personality finding: anxious people are likely to have less successful marriages 
  4. Dynamic Interaction style perspective: Experiment performed that concluded that 4 behaviors in combination with each other can predict 92% likelihood of a couple's separation: 

“Four Horseman of the Apocalypse” 

  1. Contempt: looking down on a partner. 
  2. Criticism: one is more inclined to criticize that agree. 
  3. Stonewalling: Avoiding important conversation. 
  4. Defensiveness: critical response or taking feedback.

  • Keys to avoiding the relationship “apocalypse”: 

  1. Humor: laughter, tell jokes, nicknames, etc. (deescalates) 
  2. Gratitude: appreciation exercises 
  3. Forgiveness: letting go of grudges 
  4. Disclosure: accepting emotional moments, relying on one another. 

VIDEO: PARENTING AND HAPPINESS 

  • Studies show that happiness declines with the birth of each child. 
  • Other studies show that people who have larger families reach greater happiness at the mid-point of their life. 
  • Sonya Lubermersky concludes through her meta-analysis that parents are happier than nonparents. 
  • Studies show that happiness increases in a ‘U” shape. Boosting when they have a child but ultimately returning to the previous level before children. 
  • 2014 meta-analysis showed that only parents who planned on becoming parents were happier than nonparents. 
  • Parents experience more daily joy but also more daily stress. 

 

ARTICLE: WHAT MAKES A HAPPY PARENT 

  • Characteristics of parents that impact happiness: 

  1. Age- Middle age/ older parents tend to be happier than their childless peers. Parents under 25 are often less happy as parents. 
  2. Gender- Fatherhood is associated in studies with greater well-being while motherhood is more mixed, not leaning one way or another. 
  3. Parenting- style: “child-centric” intensive parenting shows parents receive greater amounts of positive emotion daily. 
  4. Emotional Bonds- greater bonds = increased happiness 

  • What characteristics of a child might influence their parents’ happiness? 

  1. Temperament 
  2. Disability 
  3. Drug abuse 
  4. Illness 
  5. Child’s Age 

  • What about a family’s situation and context are linked to a parent’s happiness? 

  1. Social Support 
  2. Employment 
  3. Socioeconomic Status 
  4. Marital Status/ child custody 
  5. Family structure 

VIDEO: FRIENDSHIPS AND HAPPINESS 

  • Humans have an instinct to develop networks of friendships. 
  • We build up our place in a community through alliances. 
  • Theory by Shelley Taylor: Tendencies towards friendship in turn boost oxytocin and help to alleviate stress. 
  • Friendships matter practically and in terms of emotional support. 
  • A good measure of happiness and physical health can often be the quality of friendships we have. 
  • Social supports a measure that detects how supported people feel they are by people around them. 

  • “There is a special person around when I am in need.” 

  • “I can talk about my problems with my friends.” 

  • “I can count on my friends when things go wrong.” 

  • Tight connections to friends are great detections of happiness and good health profiles. 
  • Benefits of strong social support: 

  • Lower levels of stress/ cortisol 

  • Support from other ins stressful situations lowers cortisol.  

 

VIDEO: NEW FRIENDSHIPS AND HAPPINESS 

  • It is good for your health to have nonprejudice attitudes in terms of friendship. Being prejudice increases stress and negatively impact health. One is more physiologically calm when eliminating prejudice. 
  • How can we act more egalitarian? 
  • Exposure to other racial/ religious/ … groups. 
  • Study findings: people develop friendships across group boundaries relatively easily though stress levels remain high during beginning periods. 
  • Bottom line: it is good for one's happiness to reach out across group boundaries. 

Section 5: The Science of Empathy 

VIDEO: EMPATHY AND HAPPINESS 

  • Defining Empathy: 

  1. Being moved/ having a physical response in the presence of others. 
  2. Fellow feeling 
  3. Emotion contagion 
  4. Simulation 
  5. Imitation and mirroring 
  • We begin adopting mechanizations for mirroring at the infant stage of life. We are equipped with biological mechanisms at this age. 
  • As we age slowly stop mimicking the facial expressions of others. 
  • Our mechanisms of mimicking help us to learn and understand what people are doing and feeling. 
  • Watching someone experience an emotion (example: fear) can elicit the same response in the observer. 

  • An experiment in which a monkey was watching a teacher show them something- The monkey’s motor and premotor neurons fired just as they were doing the action, while only observing. 

  • Example: mirror neurons in a yoga class through observation. 

  • Two types of Empathy: 

  1. Affective empathy- mentally simulates and feels others' emotional states. 
  2. Cognitive empathy- understanding other people's emotional states, take their perspective/ put yourself in their shoes (theory of mind). 
  • Empathic concern vs. Empathic distress 
  • Concern- helping behavior, better emotion regulation. 
  • Does empathy make you happier? 
  • In short, yes.  
  • Makes you better at sharing joy, achievement, and pleasure. 
  • Group achievement activates greater levels of dopamine. 
  • Makes you closer to others, strengthens social connections. 
  • Increases likelihood of others empathizing with you. 

ESSAY: THE EVOLUTION OF EMPATHY 

  • Science suggests that we both learn empathy from caregivers and teachers and that it is a biological sense to be sensitive to social input. 
  • Empathy is natural to us, when someone lacks empathy it stands out to the average person. 
  • Self- interest, and empathy do not conflict or interrupt each other. 
  • We are seeing increasing evidence regarding empathy in animals. 
  • Northwestern University study- monkeys refusing to harm other monkeys for personal gain after a period. Empathizing when seeing others in pain. 
  • Research showing Apes have an appreciation for others' emotions and it affects their brain patterns. 
  • “The old remains present in the new”: evolutionary view. 
  • Mirror neurons, “monkey see, monkey do”. 
  • Empathy is a “hard-wired response” that comes naturally to us, we fine-tune empathy like a skill throughout life and its experiences. 
  • The “biological leash”- our biology constricts us to only stray so far from who we are as humans. 
  • Empathy as a weapon against xenophobia 
  • As a tribal species, we often get in our own way of utilizing empathy for common goals like universal human rights. 
  • Our “moral rules” give us a pathway to utilize our “empathetic tendencies.” 

ARTICLE: SIX HABITS OF HIGHLY EMPATHEIC PEOPLE 

  • Empathy helps to increase the quality of one's overall life by cultivating happiness. 
  • Humans as homo empathic- we are wired for social cooperation and empathy. 
  • Neuroscientists identifying 10 circuits “empathy circuit.” 
  • If damaged can be in the way of us recognizing other’s emotions. 
  • We are primed in the first two years of life for a connection to another human being, this largely fosters our levels of natural empathy. 

  • Habits that cultivate greater levels of empathy: 

  • 1- People who are highly empathetic are curious about strangers. As we become interested in other people outside our circle, we identify with them more. 

  • 2- Discovering commonalities and rooting out prejudice. Erasing labels and finding common ground 

  • 3- Experimental Empathy: Try out another person’s life. 

  • 4- Listen and open your mind. Creating space for meaningful, honest conversation. 

  • 5- Inspiring social change- empathy is a fundamental tool in movements. 

  • 6- Develop a greater imagination- empathizing for not just the suffering, but your memories, complicated relationships, and yourself. 

 

 

  • References:
  • Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., Founding Faculty Director, Greater Good Science Center, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Berkeley Social Interaction Laboratory, UC Berkeley
      Emiliana Simon-Thomas, Ph.D., Science Director, Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley


 

 

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