Felicia Huppert

The Science of Well-being

How much do we know about what makes people thrive and societies flourish? While a vast body of research has been dedicated to understanding social problems and psychological disorders, we know remarkably little about the positive aspects of living - about what makes our life happy and meaningful. Felicia Huppert takes us on a tour of her new book, The Science of Well-being, in which she and her co-writers search for the answers to these questions...

Understanding well-being requires an integrated

approach, one that embraces mind, body, society

and the environment. Taking a dynamic cross-disciplinary

approach, this book sets out to explore the most

promising routes to well-being, derived from the

latest research in psychology, biomedical science,

social science, economics and peace studies. Contributions

come from some of the world's leading researchers,

practitioners and policy advisors.

The book is divided into five sections. In Part

1: Evolution and Development, Randolph Nesse, founder

of the new field of Darwinian medicine, argues that

negative emotions such as fear and anger, which

had survival value during our evolutionary history,

may become maladaptive in modern society where the

threats are less immediate and less tangible. Positive

emotions appear to have evolved in response to opportunities

rather than threats, and they provide information

that our environment is benign and that our goals

and relationships are worth pursuing. Other chapters

in this section address the question of how it is

that individuals develop marked differences in their

level of emotional well-being. Neurobiologist Barry

Keverne points to the extraordinarily protracted

period of human brain development, with major brain

reorganization continuing until puberty and beyond,

as the key to understanding individual differences

in levels of happiness and emotional reactivity.

The early post-natal environment plays a crucial

role in determining later stress reactions as well

as mental capability (e.g. learning and memory),

but the evidence from animal research shows that

compensation for early adversity is possible if

advantageous circumstances prevail around puberty.

This life-course perspective is explored in two

further chapters by David Barker and by Sonia Lupien

& Natalie Wan which examine the well-being of

older adults. David Barker's seminal research in

Epidemiology shows that many of the diseases of

later life are strongly associated with birth weight,

a marker of foetal development. For example, babies

born at full-term but with low birth weight are

seven times more likely than large babies to develop

diabetes after age 65. The rate at which small babies

grow in the early years can also have substantial

effects on their health in later life. Lupien and

Wan focus on the concept of 'successful ageing',

and examine the factors earlier in life that predict

the maintenance of mental capabilities and psychological

well-being. A striking conclusion from a series

of experimental studies is that negative stereotypes

of ageing are associated with impaired learning

and memory, lack of confidence and an adverse physiological

response to stress, whereas positive attitudes towards

ageing are associated with enhanced performance,

confidence and stress resilience.

Part 2: Physiology and Neuroscience begins with

ground-breaking contribution from Richard Davidson

who shows that specific patterns of brain activation

are associated with different emotional states.

Individuals in positive emotional states (happiness,

contentment) or those whose typical emotional style

is positive, show greater activation in the left

frontal cortex than in the right. In contrast, individuals

in negative emotional states or those whose typical

emotional style tends to be negative, show greater

activation in the right frontal cortex than in the

left. Understanding the brain's emotional circuitry

has profound implications for treating emotional

disorders and for enhancing well-being.

The chapter by Stuart Biddle & Panteleimon

Ekkekakis examines the physiological and neurochemical

mechanisms that underlie the known benefits of physical

activity onour mental and social well-being, while

the chapter by Bernard Gesch provides a fascinating

evolutionary and historical account of the way in

which specific types of food enhance or impair our

well-being and behaviour. For instance, Gesch provides

an insight into why fish oils can be regarded as

'brain food'. In addition, a remarkable study of

young prisoners being given a comprehensive range

of dietary supplements shows dramatic improvements

in their social behaviour compared to a control

group who received only a normal prison diet.

In Part 3: Psychology of well-being, award-winning

researcher, Barbara Fredrickson, presents striking

evidence that positive emotions broaden and build

our mental capability and our coping resources.

In an elegant series of experiments, Fredrickson

uses video clips to induce positive, negative or

neutral mood states in her subjects and examines

the effect of different moods on attention and decision

making. The results show that when individuals are

in a positive emotional state, their focus of attention

is broader, and decision-making is more flexible

and creative than when they are in a negative or

neutral state. Similarly, people in positive moods

cope better in stressful situations and show a more

rapid physiological recovery from stress. Nick Baylis

explores how a person's relationship with reality,

such as the nature of their fantasies and daydreams,

affects the well-being of young adults. For instance,

while some forms of fantasy and daydreaming may

be associated with creative thinking and goal oriented

behaviour, and can improve one's real life, young

adults who engage in large amounts of purely escapist

fantasy often have undeveloped and unrewarding lives.

A chapter by the founder of the positive psychology

movement, Martin Seligman and his colleagues, advocates

"a balanced psychology" that focuses not

only on remediation of weakness or disorder, but

on building and nurturing our strengths and our

happiness. To Seligman, happiness is the combination

of pleasure, of being engaged in what we do, and

of feeling that our life has meaning. He suggests

a variety of mental exercises that can enhance each

of these components, leading to "a Full Life".

Preliminary data show that such exercises not only

increase happiness, but also buffer individuals

against distress. This theme is further elaborated

in neuropsychologist Felicia Huppert's chapter on

positive mental health. She discusses how our knowledge

may be utilized to improve mental health not only

in those who actively seek interventions, but in

the population as a whole. Epidemiological studies

show that individual levels of happiness are directly

related to the average levels of happiness in the

group or population, so Huppert argues that there

is a strong case for interventions at the population

level. For example, providing opportunities for

prospective parents as well as children and adolescents

to learn positive attitudes and coping skills, could

lead to major improvements in health and behavioural

outcomes later in life. Moreover, the evidence suggests

that improving average levels of mental health in

the population will have the direct result of reducing

the number of people with common mental disorders.

Therefore a positive mental health agenda represents

a win-win situation in which individuals can flourish

and society is the beneficiary.

A very different perspective on the psychology

of well-being is propounded in the chapter by Nobel

Laureate Daniel Kahneman and his colleague Jason

Riis. They highlight the difference between the

way in which we experience emotions and the way

in which we remember emotions, describing why it

is important to obtain measures of both, since these

can have very different effects on our health and

behaviour, and on how we make decisions.

Part 4 deals with Cultural perspectives. The chapter

by renowned educator and neuropsychologist Howard

Gardner, together with colleague Susan Verducci,

investigates the relationship between work and well-being.

They introduce the concept of 'Good Work', which

is both fulfilling to the individual and socially

desirable. In-depth interviews with practitioners

of good work reveal the qualities that foster it,

and suggest how more of us can participate in this

desirable activity. Robert Sternberg & Elena

Grigorenko review a wealth of material showing that

the way we define intelligence is strongly related

to cultural norms, while Antonella delle Fave &

Fausto Massimini explore the qualities of optimal

experience across diverse groups, including street

children in Nepal and disabled young adults. The

potential for the natural environment to be both

healing and uplifting is investigated by George

Burns in the final chapter of this section.

Part 5: Social and economic considerations, begins

with a comprehensive account of the important role

played by the social context, particularly 'social

capital' in our well-being and is written by two

renowned scholars in the field: Robert Putnam &

John Helliwell. Economist Robert Frank's lively

chapter challenges the widespread view that money

makes us happy. He shows that in groups or nations

where poverty is high, increasing money is associated

with increasing happiness, but once people or nations

reach a modest standard of living, increases in

income or wealth make very little difference to

our happiness. International peace negotiator, Johan

Galtung discusses well-being, peace and development

on a global scale.

The concluding chapter by Nic Marks and Hetan Shah

is an inspirational 'Well-Being Manifesto', which

poses and answers the question "What would

politics look like if promoting people's well-being

was one of government's main aims?". They make

specific, if sometimes controversial, proposals

for how to promote a flourishing society - one in

which people are happier, healthier, more productive,

entrepreneurial, creative and engaged.

- May 2006

About the Author

Felicia Huppert is Professor of Psychology at Cambridge, and Fellow of Darwin College. The above article describes the scope of Felicia's new book The Science of Wellbeing, which is published by Oxford University Press.