Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Well-Being, Quality of Life, and the Naïve Pursuit of Happiness

  • Published:
Topoi Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The pursuit of happiness is a long-enshrined tradition that has recently become the cornerstone of the American Positive Psychology movement. However, “happiness” is an over-worked and ambiguous word, which, it is argued, should be restricted and only used as the label for a brief emotional state that typically lasts a few seconds or minutes. The corollary proposal for positive psychology is that optimism is a preferable stance over pessimism or realism. Examples are presented both from psychology and economics that illustrate the dangers of optimism, and in which better outcomes can occur with a pessimistic stance. A more sophisticated approach is then presented in which, in relation to well-being and quality of life, neither optimism nor pessimism is seen as inherently better than the other, but, rather, in which psychological flexibility may contribute optimally to health and well-being.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Breakwell GM (2007) The psychology of risk. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Chaiken S, Trope Y (eds) (1999) Dual-process theories in social psychology. Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Christie H, Smith SJ, Munro M (2008) The emotional economy of housing. Environ Plann 40:2296–2312

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corbetta M, Shulman GL (2002) Control of goal-directed and stimulus-driven attention in the brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 3:201–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finucane ML, Alhakami AS, Slovic P, Johnson SM (2000) The affect heuristic in judgments of risk and benefits. J Behav Decis Making 13:1–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischhoff B, Gonzalez RM, Lerner JS (2005) Evolving judgments of terror tasks: foresight, hindsight, and emotion. J Exp Psychol-Appl 11:124–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner D (2008) Risk: the science and politics of fear. Virgin Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Genesove D, Mayer C (2001) Loss-aversion and seller behavior: evidence from the housing market. Q J Econ 116:1233–1260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hazlett A, Molden DC, Sackett AM (2011) Hoping for the best or preparing for the worst? Regulatory focus and preferences for optimism and pessimism in predicting personal outcomes. Soc Cognit 29:74–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson-Laird PN (2006) How We Reason. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Kagan J (2012) Psychology’s ghosts: the crisis in the profession and the way back. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman D (2011) Thinking fast and slow. Allen Lane, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Kasperson RE, Renn O, Slovic P, Brown H, Emel J, Goble R et al (1988) The social amplification of risk: a conceptual framework. Risk Anal 8:177–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner S, Keltner D (2000) Beyond valence: toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgment and choice. Cognit Emot 14:473–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palgi Y, Shrira A, Ben-Ezra M, Cohen-Fridel S, Bodner E (2011) The relationship between daily optimism, daily pessimism, and affect differ in young and old age. Pers Indiv Differ 50:1294–1299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podoshen J (2009) Distressing events and future purchase decisions: Jewish consumers and the Holocaust. J Consum Mark 26:263–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power MJ (2012) Adieu to god: why psychology leads to atheism. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Power MJ (2013) Happiness—and other delusions. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester

  • Power MJ, Dalgleish T (2008) Cognition and emotion: from order to disorder, 2nd edn. Psychology Press, Hove

    Google Scholar 

  • Seligman MEP (1998) Learned optimism: how to change your mind and your life. Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Shafir E, Diamond P, Tversky A (1997) Money illusion. Q J Econ 112:341–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sloman SA (2002) Two systems of reasoning. In: Gilovich T, Griffin D, Kahneman D (eds) Heuristics and biases: the psychology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Slovic P, Finucane M, Peters E, MacGregor DG (2002) The affect heuristic. In: Gilovich T, Griffin D, Kahneman D (eds) Heuristics and biases: the psychology of intuitive judgment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Storr A (1988) Churchill’s black dog, Kafka’s mice, and other phenomena of the human mind. Grove Weidenfeld, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeelenberg M (1999) Anticipated regret, expected feedback and behavioural decision making. J Behav Decis Making 12:93–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Psychology, Medical School, University of Edinburgh, Teviot Place, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG, UK

    Mick Power

Authors
  1. Mick Power
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mick Power.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Power, M. Well-Being, Quality of Life, and the Naïve Pursuit of Happiness. Topoi 32, 145–152 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9163-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9163-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation