HOW DO GENES AFFECT HAPPINESS William Robinson

VARIABLES Independent Variable Genes/Genetics Dependent Variable Happiness

WHAT FIELD IS THIS IN? Psychology, here happiness is being studied and that falls under psychology as it involves processes in the brain and the way we think and feel.

IMPORTANCE To Me, Personally I am interested in what makes people happy. Also I enjoy being happy so anything I learn that can make me happier is important to me. To Scholars, Who study Such Things Scholars are interested in this because for most of history psychologists looked mostly at what made people sad. This is important to them because they can make more people happier. They can also use the idea of a genetic set point, when they are treating patients

IMPORTANCE To Society If it’s known what makes people happy then in general more people will be happier. To a Specific Profession/Career This would be important for therapists as they can use it to not only understand why their clients are unhappy, but can also use this knowledge to make them happier.

METHODS The first method to test the hypothesis of a natural set point for happiness was to measure what happened after something good happened, to do this they took a group of people who had just one the lottery and measured their happiness over time, and compared them to a control group. The next method was to study how a bad event impacted happiness levels long term, they did this by studying a group of people who had lost control of one or more body parts (they were paraplegic) and study their happiness levels for a period of time after the accident.

FINDINGS & SIGNIFICANCE After looking at the results of the two studies they found that over the long term the lottery winners did not stay much happier than the control group. They also found that 8 months after the accident the paraplegics were back to the level of happiness they were before the accident. These results mean that the idea of a natural “happiness set point” is probably true. This set point is overall a good thing as it means that when something bad happens, we will recover, for example, after the tsunami that hit japan there were many pictures filled with smiling Japanese people, they had recovered from the shock and unhappiness.

LESSON People are very resilient creatures, and no matter what curveballs get thrown at them, they always find a way to recover. “This too shall pass” meaning that all states of happiness and sadness are temporary and we should not take either for granted, and enjoy the happiness while we are happy.

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