1、1Positive PsychologyTal Ben-Shahar2Preface We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all diff erent and yet the same. Anne Frank I first taught a positive psychology seminar at Harvard in ?.Eight students signed up; two dropped out. In class each week,we explored what I believed t
2、o be the question of questions: how can we help ourselves and othersindividuals, communities, and societybecome happier? We read academic journal articles, tested ideas, shared personal stories, experienced frustration as well as delight, and, by the end of the year, emerged with a clearer understan
3、ding of what psychology can teach us about leading happier, more fulfi lling lives.h e following year the class went public, in a manner of speaking. My mentor Philip Stone, who first introduced me to the field and was also the fi rst professor to teach positive psychology at Harvard, encouraged me
4、to off er a lecture course on the topic.h ree hundred eighty students signed up. In their year-end evaluations,more than ? percent noted that “the course improves the Copyright ? 2007 by Tal Ben-Shahar. Click here for terms of use. viii ? Preface quality of ones life.” h e next time I off ered the c
5、ourse, ? students enrolled, making it the largest class at the university. William James, who over a century ago founded American psychology, kept me on track by reminding me to remain practical and seek “truths cash-value in experiential terms.” h e cash-value that I primarily sought for the studen
6、ts was not in hard currency or the currency of success and accolades but rather in what Ive come to call the ultimate currency, the end toward which all other ends lead: happiness. h is was not merely a class on the theory of “the good life.” Students, beyond reading articles and learning about the
7、research in the fi eld, were asked to apply the material. h ey wrote papers in which they grappled with their fears and reflected on their strengths, set ambitious goals for the week and for the coming 3decade; they were encouraged to take risks and find their stretch zone (the healthy median betwee
8、n their comfort and panic zones). Personally, I was not always able to fi nd that healthy median. As a shy introvert, I felt fairly comfortable the fi rst time I taught the class with six students. Lecturing in front of close to four hundred students the following year, however, was certainly a stre
9、tch for me. When the class more than doubled in the third year, I was fi rmly in the panic zoneespecially once students parents, a handful of grandparents, and then the media startedto show up. Since the day that the Harvard Crimson and then the Boston Globe reported on the popularity of the class,
10、the deluge of questions hasnt stopped. People are sensinghave been sensing for a whilethat we are in the midst of some sort of revolution, and they are not sure why. How can you explain the demand for positive psychology at Harvard and on other college campuses? Why this growing interest in the stud
11、y of happiness, in elementary and high schools, as well as among the adult population? Is it because people are more depressed today? Is it something about a twenty first-century education or our Western way of life? In fact, the study of happiness is unique neither to our hemisphere nor to our post
12、modern age. People everywhere, and always, have sought the key to happiness. Plato institutionalized the study of the good life in his Academy, while his star student, Aristotle, opened the competing Lyceum to promote his own take on fl ourishing. More than a century earlier, and on another continen
13、t, Confucius walked from village to village to share his prescription for fulfi llment. No great religion or comprehensive philosophical system is indiff erent to the question of happiness, whether in this world or in the afterlife. More recently, self-help gurus have occupied large parts of booksto
14、res and conference centers around the worldfrom 4India to Indiana, from Jerusalem to Jeddah. But while interest in, and study of, the good life transcends time and place, there are some unique aspects in our age that help explain the high demand for positive psychology. In the United States, rates o
15、f depression are ten times higher today than they were in the ?s, and the average age for the onset of depression is fourteen and a half compared to twenty-nine and a half in ?. A study conducted in American colleges tells us that nearly ? percent of students were “so depressed that they had diffi c
16、ulty functioning.” Other countries are following in the footsteps of the United States. In ?, ? percent in Britain said that they were very happy, compared to ? percent in ?despite the fact that the British have tripled their wealth over the last half century. With the rapid growth in the Chinese ec
17、onomy comes a rapid growth in the number of adults and children who experience anxiety and depression. According to the Chinese Health Ministry, “h e mental health status of our countrys children and youths is indeed worrying.” x ? Preface While levels of material prosperity are on the rise, so are
18、levels of depression. Even though our generationin most Western countries as well as in an increasing number of places in the Eastis wealthier than previous generations, we are not happier for it. A leading scholar in the fi eld of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, asks a simple question
19、 with a complex answer: “If we are so rich, why arent we happy?” As long as people believed that their basic material needs had to be met in order for them to lead a fulfilling life, it was easy to explain away unhappiness. But now, with the basic needs of many having been met, there is no longer a
20、ready-made justification for discontent. More and more people are looking to resolve the paradoxthat money seems to have bought us unhappinessand they are turning to positive psychology for help. Positive 5Psychology? Psychologygenerally referred to as “the scientific study of optimal human function
21、ing”?was officially launched as a field of study in by Martin Seligman, president of the American Psychological Association. Until that year, the study of happiness of enhancing the quality of our liveshad largely been dominated by pop psychology. In the multitude of self-help seminars and books, th
22、ere is much fun and charisma, and yet many (though far from all) offer little substance. He promise five easy steps to happiness, the three secrets of success, and four ways to find your perfect lover. Here are usually empty promises, and over the years, people have become cynical about self-help. O
23、n the other side we have academe, with writing and research that are substantive but that do not find their way into most households. As I see it, the role of positive psychology is to bridge the Why Pos Positive pxiivory tower and Main Street, the rigor of academe and the fun of the self-help movem
24、ent. h at, too, is the purpose of this book. Many self-help books over promise and under deliver, because few of them are subjected to the test of the scientific method. In contrast, ideas that have appeared in academic journals and have passed the academic process from conception to publication usu
25、ally have much more substance. While their authors are generally less grandiose, making fewer promises to fewer readers, these authors also tend to deliver on their promises. And yet, because positive psychology bridges the ivory tower and Main Street, advice given by positive psychologistswhether i
26、n book form, in lectures, or on a websitecan sometimes sound like the advice that self-help gurus offer. It is simple and accessible like pop psychology isbut it is simple and accessible in a radically different way. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes remarked, “I would not give a fig for t
27、he simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my 6life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Holmes was interested in the simplicity that comes after searching and researching, deep reflection, and laborious testingnot in baseless platitudes and off -the-cuff assertions.
28、Positive psychologistsby delving into the depth of a phenomenon emerge on the other side of complexity with accessible ideas and practical theories, as well as simple techniques and tips that work. His is no easy feat. Foreshadowing Holmes, Leonardo ad Vinci pointed out that “simplicity is the ultim
29、ate sophistication.” Concerned with distilling the essence of the good life, positive psychologists, alongside other social scientists and philosophers, have spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to reach the simplicity on the other side of complexity. H ire ideas, some of which I describ
30、e in this book, can help you lead a happier, more fulfilled life. I know they canthey have done so for me. xii ? Preface Using This Book h is book is intended to help you understand the nature of happiness; more than that, it is intended to help you become happier. But merely reading this book (or a
31、ny other book for that matter) is unlikely to make that happen. I do not believe that there are shortcuts to meaningful change, and if this book is to have a real impact on your life, you have to treat it as a workbook. H e work has to comprise both reflection and action. Effortlessly glossing over
32、the text is not enough; deep reflection is necessary. Toward that end, throughout the book, there are breaks in the text labeled “Time-In” (as opposed to “Time- Out”). H re is intended to provide you with an opportunity, a reminder, to stop for a few minutes, to reflect on what you have just read, t
33、o look inside yourself. Without the breaks, without taking a time-in, most of the material in this book will likely remain abstract for youand thus be soon forgotten. In addition to the Time-Ins throughout the text, at the end of each chapter there are 7longer exercises intended to elicit reflection
34、 and actionto help you take the material to a deeper level. Some of the exercises will probably resonate with you more than others will; for example, keeping a journal may be easier for you than meditating. Start by doing the exercises that feel most natural to you, and, as they begin to help, gradu
35、ally expand your repertoire by doing others. However, if any exercise in the book does not make you feel good, simply dont do it and move on to the next one. h e exercises are all based on what I have found to be the best interventions that psychologists have to offerand the more time you invest in
36、doing them, the more likely you are to benefit from the book. H e book is divided into three sections. In Part? Chapters ? Through? I discuss what happiness is and the essential compo- Th nents of a happy life; in the second part, Chapters ? through ?, I focus on putting these ideas into practice in
37、 education, in the workplace, and in relationships; the final part comprises seven meditations in which I offer some thoughts on the nature of happiness and on its place in our lives. In Chapter? I begin by recounting the experience that launched my search for a better life. In the following chapter
38、, I argue that happiness arises neither from simply satisfying immediate desires nor from the infinite delay of satisfaction. Our usual models for happinessthe hedonist who lives only for pleasure in the moment and the rat racer who postpones gratification for the purpose of attaining some future go
39、aldo not work for most people, because they ignore our basic need for a sense of both present and future benefit. In Chapter ?, I demonstrate why, in order to be happy, we need to find both meaning and pleasureto have both a sense of purpose and the experience of positive emotions. In Chapter? I sug
40、gest that happiness, not money or prestige, should be regarded as the ultimate currencythe currency by which we 8take measure of our lives. I consider the relationship between material wealth and happiness and ask why so many people are in danger of emotional bankruptcy despite unprecedented levels
41、of material wealth. Chapter ? ties the ideas presented in this book to the existing psychological literature on goal setting. In Chapter ?, I begin to apply the theory and ask why most students dislike school. I then examine ways in which educators parents and teacherscan help students to be both ha
42、ppy and successful. I introduce two radically different approaches toward the process of learning: the drowning model and the lovemaking model. Chapter ? Questions the prevalent assumption that a trade-off between an intrinsic sense of fulfillment and extrinsic success at work is inevitable. I discu
43、ss the process by which we can xiv ? Preface identify work that we find meaningful and pleasurable and that we are good at. In Chapter ?, I look at one of the most significant elements of a happy life: relationships. I talk about what it really means to love and be loved unconditionally, why this ki
44、nd of love is essential for a happy relationship, and how it can contribute to the experience of pleasure and meaning in other areas of our lives. In the First Meditation of the final part of the book, I discuss the relationship between happiness, self-interest, and benevolence. In the Second Medita
45、tion I introduce the idea of happiness boosters brief activities that provide both meaning and pleasure, and that can have an effect on our overall levels of well-being. In the third Meditation, I challenge the idea that our level of happiness is predetermined by our genetic makeup or early experien
46、ces and that it cannot be changed. H e Fourth Meditation identifies ways of overcoming some of the psychological barriersthose internal limitations that we impose upon ourselves and that stand in the way of living a fulfilling life. H e Fifth Meditation provides a thought experiment that offers a 9p
47、oint from which we can reflect upon, and find some answers to, the question of questions. H e Sixth Meditation considers how our attempt to fit more and more activities into less and less time may be impeding the possibility of leading happier lives. H e final meditation is dedicated to the happines
48、s revolution. I believe that if enough people recognize the true nature of happiness as the ultimate currency, we will witness society-wide abundance not only of happiness but also of goodness. ? xv ? Acknowledgments I wrote this book with much help from friends, students, and teachers. When I first
49、 asked Kim Cooper for help with an early draft of this book, I expected a few minor recommendations before I could send it off to publishers. It was not to be. h e hundreds of hours we subsequently spent working together on this bookarguing, discussing, sharing, laughinghave made writing this book the labor of happiness. My special thanks to Shawn Anchor, Warren Bennie, Johan Berman, Aletha Camille Bertelsen, Nathaniel Branden, Sandra Cha, I-Jin Chew, Leemore Dafny, Margot and Udi Eiran, Liat and Shai Feinberg, Da
