Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill Deiner,

¶ … Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill

Deiner, Lucas and Scollon (2006) note that the hedonic treadmill theory states that negative and postiive events in a person's life affects his or her happiness; however, people then revert back to a hedonic neutrality. This theory leads to the conclusion that an individual's and a society's efforts to increase happiness are pointless, as the effect is only temporary. Deiner, Lucas and Scollon's research revise this theory with five important modifications. These modifications have significant impact on psychologists and policy makers whose goals are to decrease human misery.

The revisions Deiner, Lucas and Scollon (2006) suggest implementing with the hedonic treadmill theory include the fact that individuals do not have hedonically neutral set points. Instead, the researchers insist that most people are happy most of the time. People also have different set points, which is partially affected by their individual temperament. In fact, the authors surmise that a single person may have several happiness set points, and that these can move in different directions. One of their most important modifications is that a person's well-being set point can change, depending on the conditions. Lastly, individuals react differently to life events, where some change their set point in response and others not change at all, in reaction to the event.

Despite these changes, Deiner, Lucas and Scollon (2006) insist that this theory is still important to psychologists. They surmise that it may explain why many factors only have a small effect on happiness in an individual. With these revisions, interventions made to increase happiness can be effective and can be targeted at not only the individual level, but also the organizational and societal level as well.

Pursing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change:

Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schikade (2005) note that "the pursuit of happiness is an important goal for many people. However, surprisingly little scientific research has focused on the question of how happiness can be increased and then sustained" (p. 111). Despite the pessimism the authors correlate to the theories of hedonic adaptation and genetic determinism, they cite recent research that indicated increases in happiness can be permanently made. To this end, Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schikade surmise there are three primary factors that affect a person's happiness level.

An individual's genetically predetermined happiness set point is on of the three major factors in chronic happiness for an individual, as noted by Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schikade (2005). These set points are unique to each individual, and are affected by the person's innate personality characteristics. Those who are extraverts often will be socially more engaging, enthusiastic, and self-confident. In contrast, those who are more neurotic are more likely to be more worried, ruminate more and prone to more guilt, according to the authors. These natural tendencies result in differing predetermined happiness set points.