Pick n mix 2

Click here: pik n mix

 

Thinking further on this it seemed to me that both contentment and happiness are related to the operation of psychological mechanisms, and in particular to comparison and expectation.  Thus we see, when people achieve above what they expected and better than their peer group, then they are likely to express themselves as having been made happy by that achievement.  Once they become au fait with the environment at their new level however it becomes apparent to them that others have achieved more and better.  In a sense it's like the big fish in a small pond effect. 

We see this with Lottery winners; those who remain in the same locality and socialize within the same milieu maintain much higher levels of happiness than before their win.  Alternatively those  winners who buy large country mansions, join expensive Golf Clubs and begin to hanker for the Royal Enclosure at Ascot find themselves progressively more unhappy and discontent and tend to believe that winning has ruined their lives. 

A similar effect pertains when children achieve good GCSE results compared to their classmates and their own anxious expectations.  Their first reaction is ecstatic tears of joy as we see on TV every year when Results are published.  By the time they've completed their first term studying for A Levels at VI Form College they are likely to be discontented with those same results which previously made them overjoyed because their new peer group has the same as them or better.

 

I have in the past believed that when a society is on a downward economic spiral then everyone experiences lower levels of contentment.  I expected that seeing poverty and suffering around them coupled with fears about job security would make people more anxious and generally less happy. 

Not so it would seem. 

In reading around this issue of happiness etc I came across some research undertaken in the US which throws my previous thinking on this out of kilter. This research shows that each percentage point increase in the local unemployment rate was associated with an increase in the average levels of well-being experienced by both those in and those out of work.  One explanation for this seemingly jarring finding is that when we observe our peers suffering we lower our own standards and thus perceive ourselves to be better off in hard times.  When things are difficult then we become more grateful for small mercies; a job, no matter how dulling and low paid is a job and having any job is better than none.

 

Other recent research in the UK this time also found that higher rates of regional unemployment increased the happiness of the unemployed.   Seeking an explanation for this drove me back to the words of my Mother - who was also known as the Queen of Cliches - misery loves company.