Are we a happier society?
By Mark Hunter, from Community Care - 16/04/2008
Defining happiness has exercised the greatest minds for the past 3,000 years. From Socrates' "happiness is unrepentant pleasure" and Bertrand Russell's "the secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible" to Ken Dodd's "happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess".
But more recently happiness has become a political issue. Conservative leader David Cameron has launched a "happiness agenda" in which he argues that the population's general well-being is just as important as its gross domestic product. The government even has its own "happiness tsar" in Lord Layard, one of the economic architects of New Labour and the author of 'Happiness: Lessons from a New Science'. Layard argues that wealth alone cannot create happiness and that we need to be prompted and educated in how to become happier. Which fits in rather neatly with Layard's previous projects, the 'New Deal and Welfare to Work' schemes - whereby the long-term unemployed are 'prompted and educated' into work.
Last month, Birmingham Council became the first local authority in the country to put Layard's happiness theory into practice by placing it on the school curriculum. All 440 Birmingham schools have been told to make well-being as much a priority as English or Maths and pupils will be required to attend "emotional barometer" sessions to encourage them to express their feelings.
But are we really so miserable that we need lessons in how to be happy?
There is evidence that our happiness peaked in the 1970s and may now be on the wane. Government figures show people's satisfaction with their standard of living had dropped between 1973 and 2006. And in a recent BBC survey only 36% of those polled claimed to be "very happy" compared with 52% of people surveyed in 1957 - despite the fact that standards of living are now much higher than in the 1950s.
Have we got "affluenza?"
Psychologist Oliver James attributes unhappiness to our inability to keep pace with our material wealth - a condition he has termed "affluenza". Bombarded by advertising, aspirational marketing and celebrity culture we find ourselves "in an obsessive, envious, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses state of mind that increases our vulnerability to emotional disorders, and is responsible for rising levels of depression, addiction, violence and anxiety", he says. In short, the more we have, the more we want - and the unhappier we become.
Dr Martin Seligman, author of "Authentic Happiness", argues that happiness consists of three elements: a "set range" that is pre-determined by your genetic make-up, your actual life circumstances, and your "voluntary control" - which describes the internal changes that individuals can make to improve their happiness.
Broadly speaking, Seligman suggests that happiness is primarily the responsibility of the individual. External factors such as health, wealth and social pressures are either too difficult to change, or have very little effect on happiness anyway. This may come as something of a surprise to those who attribute their unhappiness to their dead end jobs, poor housing, unfulfilling relationships and faltering health. The social workers whose job it is to help these disenfranchised people - including pensioners - might also be expected to raise a quizzical eyebrow.
Dr Iain Ferguson, a senior lecturer in social science at Stirling University, commented: "The conclusion of a lot of the happiness literature is that money doesn't make you happy. Well that's fine if you are a professor or a member of the House of Lords, but by playing down the effect of poverty and inequality it ignores the reality of the way that many people live their lives."
Certainly while money can't buy you happiness it doesn't do any harm either. Recent surveys have shown that those most happy with their lives were those in relatively well-paid professions (doctors, solicitors, teachers and police officers), and least satisfied were labourers, state pensioners and the unemployed.
One key influence on our happiness, claims Ferguson, is the way that our work affects our state of mind. He says: "The way that people work has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. There has been a growth of managerialism, of working to budgets and targets and this has changed the way people feel about their jobs. Many people feel they are not working to the aims and values that brought them into the job in the first place - such as nurses or social workers - and as a result people are becoming unhappier."
He also points out that key to people's happiness is the strength of the social network they have around them, and this is an area where the social work profession could have a far greater influence on people's happiness than any amount of happiness theory delivered from the powers that be.
It would also explain why many lonely and isolated older people become depressed.
Your views? email jayne.warren@maturetimes.co.uk
Edited article reproduced by kind permission from Community Care Magazine. For more information visit the website linked below.