Social+Aspects+of+Happiness

= Social Aspects of Happiness =



__Introduction__
"Social aspects" of happiness refers to the division of happiness research that is centered around any type of social group: friends, family, volunteer groups, sports teams, and any activity that involves working with or communicating with others. This page, which focuses on social aspects of happiness, examines how levels of happiness change as social activities are participated in. Studies have frequently shown that people who participate in social activities are happier, and surrounding oneself with people who are happy increases personal happiness exponentially. The following information includes research studies, statistics, and other information on the effect of social activities on happiness.

__Temperament__
Professor Randy Larsen of Washington University in St. Louis defies the traditional approach to psychological studies. Instead of studying what's //wrong// with humans, he focuses his attention on the positive side of human nature. From his research, Larsen identified two key aspects of a person's temperament that are pivotal to their happiness level: extroversion and neuroticism. The more extroverted a person is, the happier they are, and conversely, the more neurotic a person is, the less likely they are to find enjoyment in positive experiences. Larsen corroborated these results in an experiment: a group of people were individually exposed to positive stimuli (compliments, funny movies, cartoons) and negative stimuli (sad movies and negative feedback). The extroverts had noticeably higher responsive levels of happiness when shown positive stimuli, and neurotics were affected more by the negative stimuli. In another experiment, subjects were shown a word written in a certain color and were asked to identify the color. Outgoing types took longer to name the color of positive words (love, joy, summer). Larsen says this is because they were too busy enjoying the feeling the word provoked. In perfect antithesis, neurotics were delayed in their color identification for the negative words (cockroach, hatred, vomit) because they hold on to distress. In conclusion, Larsen figures that due to extrovert's extensive social lives and outgoing nature, they are inherently happier people. 1

__Happiness in Groups__
From 1983 to 2003, James H. Fowler and Nicholas A. Christakis, professors at UC San Diego and Harvard University respectively, conducted a study in which they charted the emotions of 4,739 people to discover how other people's happiness influences one's happiness. They discovered that there are three primary processes which the association between individuals' happiness and the way in which they cluster in a group can be attributed to.
 * Induction- "happiness in one person causes the happiness of others"
 * Homophily- "happy individuals choose one another as friends and become connected"
 * Confounding- "connected individuals jointly experience contemporaneous exposures (such as an economic downturn or living in the same neighborhood"

Being part of one social group or another has been authentically proven to increase your happiness. In this same study of nearly 5,000 individuals, Fowler and Christakis concluded that happiness //is// contagious...and it can travel from one person to another, an ongoing process within social networks. he researchers came to several startling conclusions when evaluating the happiness contagion: they found that an individual who had a happy friend living within one mile of them had their happiness increase by 25%. Having a happy neighbor increased happiness by 34%. Another set of findings was obtained by looking at the closeness of the actual friendships and evaluating their varying effects on individual happiness.

The study looked at three "degrees" of friendships in order to gather these findings. First degree relationships are defined as a direct relation between the individual and a friend (such as the person and their best friend). Second-degree relationships are defined as relationships between two people that do not directly cooperate with one another, such as an individual and their brother's friend. A third-degree relationship is defined as a friendship or relationship that is between two people who do not often spend time together and do not personally know one another, such as an individual and their brother's friend's friend. In the study, first-degree relationships were shown to increase a person's happiness by 15% if the first-degree friend was happy. In second-degree relationships, happiness increased by 10% if that person was happy. Happiness was increased by 6% if a third-degree contact was happy. So, is happiness really contagious? The answer is yes! Your happiness levels could be affecting someone that you've had next to no contact with in your life.

As this study has shown, happiness in all people depends on the happiness of the people they surround themselves with. This is also easily seen in social networking sites like Facebook. The same researchers that conducted the study on the happiness contagion in social groups also explored the effects of the contagion on the Facebook social networking site. What they found was astounding; taking note of whether a Facebook user smiled in their profile picture led the researchers to correlations between those individuals and their Facebook friends. They found that users who smiled in their profile pictures had larger online social networks of Facebook friends who also smiled in their profile pictures. Those individuals who did not smile in their pictures were significantly more likely to have a Facebook social network that was made up of friends who also were not smiling in their pictures. Fowler and Christakis were able to attribute this to the idea of the happiness contagion and the theory that happiness attracts itself. 2

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__Prolonging Life Through Friendship__
Recent studies have proven that happiness might even increase the years that a person lives. Especially among the elderly, researchers have been conducting studies on how well people age and how they feel about themselves and others as they get older. The research has shown time and time again that the elderly are more likely to feel happy when they are involved in social activities, such as spending time with family members, participating in group activities with a church or organization, or doing a service for someone else in need. A social network can be a valuable asset to the daily life of an elderly person; studies have shown that the happier a person is, the more potential they have for living longer and living life to a fuller extent than someone who is lonely, angry, or depressed on a daily basis. In those who are nearing the final stage of their lives, this increase or stabilization of happiness is invaluable to getting the most out of life. Getting involved in an organization and communing with other people (young or old) can have a significant positive impact on the elderly person's physical and emotional well-being. Spending quality social time can increase feelings of connectedness and will to live. 3

__Social Science__
At some point in the 2000's, a D. Kahneman conducted a study on 1000 working women in Texas. The study asked the women to describe their feelings throughout the day and their company at the time. Kahneman then divided the women's company into groups and gave them a average happiness rating. This table is shown below. As demonstrated by this study, people are happiest around their friends and family, followed by people who have similar occupations. These results follow the three ways happiness can move throughout a group in the happiness in groups section above. 4

__Talk Deeply, Be Happy?__
In 2010, Matthias Mehl, a psychologist professor at the University of Arizona published a study documenting the effects that one's conversations can have on one's happiness. His study involved a total of 79 college students who agreed to wear a microphone which captured thirty second sound bites of conversations every 12.5 minutes for four days. After collecting this information, Mehl divided the conversations whose topics were substantive, small talk, and neither. Substantive topics include the state of the world and the meaning of life, while small talk includes conversations about the weather or gossip. Upon analysis of his data, Mehl discovered that the topic of one's conversations has a direct impact on the happiness of that individual. The happiest individual in the study engaged in substantive conversations 45.9% time and spent only 21.8% of the time involved in meaningless small talk. Compared to the unhappiest individual, the happiest spent twice the amount of time in meaningful discussion and one-third the amount of time in small talk. Eventally, Dr. Mehl would like to conduct another, larger study as a follow up to this one. 5

1 [] 2 [] 3 Today's Research on Aging 4 Happiness - Has Social Science A Clue 5 []