Juan Moisés De La Serna - Psychology Of Happiness

But not everyone is able to feel happiness in the same way. To experience it, the person must have an adequate emotional development. If the limbic system suffers atrophy, the person’s life will become “discolored”, not only emotionally but also in all areas.

Likewise, people with high levels of alexithymia have difficulties to feel and express happiness. They show problems in their social relationships and when making decisions, because they are unable to know how their own body feels or which are the feelings of others. This makes the person socially “incompetent”, since people around will handle themselves through emotional keys that they are unable to “see” or process properly, appearing cold and distant.

This kind of people has a correct functioning of their limbic system. What happens is that they don’t learn to “value” it or they simply “discard” their emotional world by considering it “weakness” or something useless.

The decision making process of people with alexithymia is most likely to be logical, cold and calculated. They make decisions that are scarcely taken, bearing in mind what is convenient for all, based on pros and cons, where the column that adds up becomes the optimal decision, without giving improvisation a chance.

For them, it is the same to read a recipe for cooking something, than to read a book of law or a romantic novel, since their experience will be the same. They have evident personality traits framed within type D: hyperactive, self-demanding and with low self-esteem.

But these people are far from “living without emotions” as one might think. They suffer from a “disconnection” between their internal emotional world and it’s external expression. Therefore, the body becomes the vehicle through which emotions go out, producing their somatization.

They show a greater probability of becoming psychosomatically ill, with the appearance of ulcerative colitis, peptic ulcers, and vascular disorders such as hypertension or ischemic heart disease, as well as mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.

All of this is due to their incapacity to allow emotions to get out by other means, such as using words, writing or simply “breaking into tears”.

A study conducted by the Banaras Hindu University (India), whose results were published in a scientific journal named S.I.S. Journal of Projective Psychology and Mental Health, analyzes the relationship between health and alexithymia.

They studied a hundred and fifty adults to evaluate alexithymia levels, mental health and experiences of positive and negative emotions.

The results indicate that high levels of alexithymia are related to a greater probability of becoming ill with psychological disorders. This is explained in part by the component of anhedonia present in alexithymia itself. With this element, positive experience of emotions is lost, thus favoring more negative experiences.

People with high levels of alexithymia are exposed to suffer greater physical health problems with the appearance of ulcers and other psychosomatic disorders. Additionally they are more likely to suffer from psychological problems. This is due to and inadequate development of E.I. (Emotional Intelligence).

As indicated by the results of the study, it is foreseeable for these people to have difficulties in achieving adequate levels of happiness, despite attaining many of their life goals. These are the people who, despite having everything, are unable to be happy about it.

In this section, the different variables and elements that facilitate the state of happiness will be explained, knowing that there are many associated benefits both for the mood and for social relationships.

Before that, we must clarify that happiness is an abstract concept. It has become something that people are continually searching for, a goal for today´s society. But unlike what we may think, there is neither a single definition nor a clear way to achieve a state of happiness.

This means that there are many unanswered questions on the matter, like how it is produced, how it is maintained and if the state can be recovered when it is lost?

That is why constant research is carried out in an attempt to verify which variables have an influence in the state of happiness, or otherwise expressed, which are the elements that determine the greatest happiness?

The research carried out by the University of Western Carolina in the US tried to give an answer to that question. The results were published in a scientific journal named Europe’s Journal of Psychology.

One hundred nine adults between 19 and 61 years of age participated in the study. Sixty-six were women. The survey was done through the Internet, and the ones polled received money for their participation.

All of them answered to three standardized questionnaires. One on the affective style called Affective Style Questionnaire, another one on the humor style called the Humor Style Questionnaire and the last one, the Subjective Happiness Scale, evaluated the participant’s level of happiness.

The affective style gives an account of how the person relates emotionally with others, either with trust or distrust, in a generous or sullen way…

The humor style is related to how the person “undertakes life”, with humor, seriousness, or seeing everything through a dark lens…

The subjective happiness scale is the measurement one gives to the feeling of happiness in one’s life.

The results indicate a relationship between the affective style and the humor style, and a positive relationship between the above two with the subjective level of happiness.

Therefore, cultivating any of these elements, the affective style or the humor style is enough to increase positively the subjective happiness level that participants and people in general have.

These results, on the other hand, are foreseeable, having in mind that in individual cases the positive relationship between the humor style and happiness had already been observed. This means that if a person is happy and funny, it will be easier for him or her and others to show a better state in general, which becomes happiness.

As indicated so far, happiness is a construct related to many external and internal variables. But to what extent does it depend on a person’s self-esteem level?

It has to be considered that self-esteem is also a construct that is shaped gradually from infancy, through positive and negative experiences. It indicates how we see ourselves, that is, our self-reflection, regardless of internal and external reality.

People with high self-esteem believe themselves as capable of achieving the goals they set. They are constant and fight for what they want. When they find inconveniences, they consider them as “trials” or “teachings” in life that have to be accepted and then move forward.

People with low self-esteem feel inferior to others, unable to do the same things as the rest and even unable to seek and achieve their own goals, showing great dependence on the opinions other people have about them. They have little tolerance to frustration. Even the smallest “bump in the road” becomes an insuperable slab, which only reinforces the idea of uselessness.

Although these are extreme examples, everybody has a better or worse self-esteem. Depending on that, we relate in one way or another with other people, weather it is at work or in our personal life.

Even though self-esteem conforms to experience, it can change over time. We can have a positive or defeatist attitude toward the same event, feeling that we have a “winning streak” or a “bad streak”. But, is self-esteem directly related to happiness?

This is what a research made from the Office for the Student with Disability and the Center for Student Counseling in the University of Nagoya tried to find out. The research was done together with the Center of Experimental Investigation in Social Sciences, the Department of Behavioral Sciences and the School of Literature Graduates of the University of Hokkaido (Japan). The results were published by a scientific journal named Frontiers in Psychology.