The pursuit of happiness can be misguided or make you sick.
It’s understandable why people would want to be happier. And in order to find happiness, numerous self-help books will tell you exactly what to do, how to do it, and how often to do something. But happiness can be an elusive goal.
Researchers have found that valuing happiness might be self-defeating, since the more you value happiness the more likely you might be to experience disappointment when you’re not happy (Mauss, Tamir, Anderson, & Savino, 2011). Essentially, people who highly value happiness may set standards for it that are hard to achieve, and when people cannot obtain the standards that they have set for themselves they are bound to be disappointed (Mauss et al., 2011). Thus, in the case of wanting happiness, these researchers conclude that people may feel worse off the more they want it, and that valuing or overvaluing happiness can possibly lead you to be less happy, even if happiness is within your reach.
Whether or not you think you should be happier may depend upon your subjective assessment of what happiness is for you. What defines happiness differs among people. For example, how you measure your own happiness in relation to the obstacles you presently face may be influenced by your culture and socioeconomic status. Being privileged may interfere with your happiness rather than protect it. If you grew up most often having your needs met because your family had money, status, or power it’s likely that your perception of your interpersonal influence and your ability to control your environment is much greater than a peer whose family had low socioeconomic status and therefore learned to adapt to circumstances (Cohen, 2009; Snibbe & Markus, 2005). When preferences are unavailable and the potential for disappointment is high, people of high socioeconomic status who have learned to value control and a sense of agency tend to be more upset than people from a culture of low socioeconomic status who value flexibility, integrity, and resilience (Cohen, 2009; Snibbe & Markus, 2005). Therefore, depending upon your perspective, not getting what you want may result in frustration and disappointment, or it can be an opportunity to employ your skills at adaptation.
Primarily in Western culture, emotions that are uplifting, such as joy, elation, amusement, or gladness, are considered to be positive and are associated with individual success, good health, and high self-esteem. Although Westerners may assume that all people should strive to experience more positive emotion in their lives, this may not be the case for other cultures, according to researchers Janxin Leu, Jennifer Wang, and Kelly Koo (2011). They point out that in many Asian cultural contexts happiness may be associated with negative social consequences, such as jealousy in others. The goal may be moderation of positive emotion, instead of maximization, in cultures informed by the Buddhist belief that pure pleasantness is impossible to attain or can lead to suffering. The researchers found that culture makes a difference in the role that positive emotions play in mental health, and that positive emotions may not be as positive for Asians as for European Americans.Therefore, emotion moderation through balancing positive and negative emotions may be a cultural goal in Asian contexts, but in Western contexts maximizing positive emotions may be a cultural goal.
