WEBVTT 00:14.130 --> 00:17.430 This lecture will be a some slightly shorter lecture than 00:17.428 --> 00:19.438 usual. What I first want to do is 00:19.443 --> 00:22.833 finish off the discussion of clinical psychology from last 00:22.825 --> 00:26.505 lecture and then have a little brief discussion about some very 00:26.505 --> 00:28.815 interesting research on happiness. 00:28.820 --> 00:32.220 We talked--we ended last lecture with a discussion of 00:32.223 --> 00:36.223 some early--some of the history of treating mental illness and 00:36.217 --> 00:38.767 we saw that it was rather gruesome, 00:38.770 --> 00:41.070 unsuccessful, and arbitrary. 00:41.070 --> 00:43.380 For the most part, we do better now, 00:43.377 --> 00:45.877 and Dr. Nolen-Hoeksema reviewed some of 00:45.882 --> 00:49.642 the therapies with focus on therapies for depression. 00:49.640 --> 00:54.020 The textbook talks in detail about therapies for different 00:54.019 --> 00:56.549 disorders including schizophrenia, 00:56.554 --> 00:59.094 anxiety disorders, and so on. 00:59.090 --> 01:02.430 The question which everyone is interested in is, 01:02.427 --> 01:03.987 "Does therapy work?" 01:03.990 --> 01:08.430 And this proves to be surprisingly difficult to tell. 01:08.430 --> 01:13.320 Part of the problem is if you ask people who go into therapy, 01:13.322 --> 01:16.342 "Did you get better after therapy?" 01:16.340 --> 01:20.220 for the most part they'll tell you that they did but the 01:20.216 --> 01:24.226 problem is this could be a statistical byproduct of what's 01:24.232 --> 01:26.772 called "regression to the mean." 01:26.770 --> 01:29.630 So, the idea looks like this. 01:29.629 --> 01:33.699 This line plots how you feel from great through okay to awful 01:33.696 --> 01:37.626 and it goes up and down and in fact in everyday life you're 01:37.626 --> 01:40.876 going to--some days are going to be average, 01:40.879 --> 01:43.479 some days will be better than average, some days worse than 01:43.481 --> 01:45.721 average. You could plot your semester. 01:45.720 --> 01:47.480 You could do a plot every morning when you wake up or 01:47.483 --> 01:48.673 every night before you go to bed. 01:48.670 --> 01:52.820 You could put yourself on a graph and it'll come out to some 01:52.821 --> 01:54.441 sort of wiggly thing. 01:54.440 --> 01:57.640 Statistically, if something is above average 01:57.644 --> 02:01.824 or below average it's going to trend towards average just 02:01.817 --> 02:05.317 because that's a statistical inevitability. 02:05.320 --> 02:07.240 When do people go to therapy? 02:07.239 --> 02:10.249 Well, they go to therapy when they're feeling really crappy. 02:10.250 --> 02:13.550 They go to therapy when they're feeling unusually bad. 02:13.550 --> 02:16.540 Even if therapy then has no effect at all, 02:16.542 --> 02:20.482 if it's true that people's moods tend to go up and down 02:20.483 --> 02:25.153 after you feel really bad you'll probably improve rather than get 02:25.154 --> 02:28.114 worse. And so this could happen--the 02:28.110 --> 02:32.490 normal flow could happen just even if therapy has no effect at 02:32.487 --> 02:34.457 all. And so, simply getting better 02:34.460 --> 02:36.540 after therapy doesn't tell you anything. 02:36.539 --> 02:40.709 On the worst day of your life you could do naked jumping jacks 02:40.707 --> 02:43.847 on the roof of your college for ten minutes. 02:43.849 --> 02:47.109 I guarantee you your next day would probably be better. 02:47.110 --> 02:50.120 That doesn't mean naked jumping jacks are helping you. 02:50.120 --> 02:52.810 Rather, it just means that the day after the worst day of your 02:52.809 --> 02:55.409 life usually is not as bad as the worst day of your life. 02:55.410 --> 02:58.590 It can get worse, but usually it just trends to 02:58.588 --> 03:01.548 average. What you've got to do then is 03:01.552 --> 03:05.782 you have to take people at the same point who would get 03:05.783 --> 03:10.483 treatment and compare them to people who do not get treatment 03:10.484 --> 03:13.544 or what we call a "control group." 03:13.540 --> 03:15.440 And this is an example of this. 03:15.439 --> 03:18.339 So, this is for people who are depressed. 03:18.340 --> 03:19.890 This is statistically equal. 03:19.890 --> 03:21.470 They start off pre-therapy. 03:21.470 --> 03:26.070 They all go for therapy but because in this example there's 03:26.071 --> 03:29.841 a limited number of therapists, some of them are put on a 03:29.841 --> 03:31.731 waiting list and others get a therapist. 03:31.730 --> 03:33.990 It's arbitrary. It's random, 03:33.994 --> 03:36.694 which is--which--making it a very good experiment. 03:36.690 --> 03:39.580 And in this example, you could see those who 03:39.579 --> 03:42.669 received cognitive training were better off. 03:42.669 --> 03:46.229 They had lower depression scores than those that received 03:46.228 --> 03:47.498 no therapy at all. 03:47.500 --> 03:51.150 In general, in fact, we could make some general 03:51.148 --> 03:53.368 conclusions about therapy. 03:53.370 --> 03:57.000 Therapy by and large works. 03:57.000 --> 04:00.420 People in treatment do better than those who are not in 04:00.415 --> 04:04.265 treatment and that's not merely because they choose to go into 04:04.274 --> 04:08.034 treatment. Rather, it's people who are in 04:08.025 --> 04:11.555 desperate straits who seek out help. 04:11.560 --> 04:15.510 Those who get help are likely to be better off than those that 04:15.509 --> 04:18.749 don't get help. Therapy for the most part works. 04:18.750 --> 04:24.710 We can't cure a lot of things but we can often make them 04:24.705 --> 04:27.345 better. Different sorts of therapy 04:27.353 --> 04:30.193 works best for different problems, and again, 04:30.186 --> 04:33.466 depression proves to be an illustrative example. 04:33.470 --> 04:36.800 If you have everyday unipolar depression, that is, 04:36.797 --> 04:40.867 you feel very sad and you show other symptoms associated with 04:40.871 --> 04:43.951 depression, an excellent treatment for you 04:43.954 --> 04:48.294 is some combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and possibly 04:48.288 --> 04:51.108 antidepressant medications like SSRIs. 04:51.110 --> 04:55.350 If you have bipolar depression, the cognitive behavioral 04:55.347 --> 04:59.427 therapy is useless but medication is your best bet and 04:59.431 --> 05:02.591 so on for all of the other disorders. 05:02.589 --> 05:07.699 Each disorder has some sort of optimal mode of treatment. 05:07.699 --> 05:10.849 If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, cognitive behavioral 05:10.846 --> 05:12.176 therapy can be of help. 05:12.180 --> 05:15.450 If you're a schizophrenic it's probably not going to be of much 05:15.451 --> 05:18.261 help at all. And so, different disorders go 05:18.255 --> 05:21.005 best with different sorts of therapies. 05:21.009 --> 05:26.139 Finally, some therapists do better than others. 05:26.139 --> 05:28.299 So, for reasons that nobody fully understands, 05:28.302 --> 05:31.232 there are good therapists and then there are better therapists 05:31.234 --> 05:32.824 and there are bad therapists. 05:32.819 --> 05:37.199 And there's great individual differences in the efficacy of 05:37.197 --> 05:39.157 an individual therapist. 05:39.160 --> 05:44.460 Finally, putting aside then the difference in therapies and the 05:44.455 --> 05:49.145 difference in therapists, does it make sense to say that 05:49.152 --> 05:51.802 therapy, in general, works? 05:51.800 --> 05:53.900 And the answer is "yes." 05:53.899 --> 05:57.169 And this is in large part because of what clinical 05:57.171 --> 06:00.511 psychologists describe as "nonspecific factors." 06:00.509 --> 06:04.399 And what this just is a term meaning properties that all 06:04.396 --> 06:08.566 therapies, or virtually all therapies, share and I've listed 06:08.565 --> 06:10.045 two of them here. 06:10.050 --> 06:11.820 One of them is "support." 06:11.819 --> 06:15.669 No matter what sort of therapy you're getting involved in, 06:15.670 --> 06:18.980 be it a psychoanalyst or a behavior therapist or a 06:18.980 --> 06:22.700 cognitive therapist or a psychiatrist who prescribes you 06:22.695 --> 06:26.405 medication or someone who makes you go through different 06:26.410 --> 06:31.090 exercises or keeps a journal, you have some sense of support, 06:31.091 --> 06:33.841 some acceptance, empathy, encouragement, 06:33.835 --> 06:37.035 guidance. You have a human touch. 06:37.040 --> 06:40.340 You have somebody who for at least some of the day really 06:40.339 --> 06:44.049 cares about you and wants you to be better and that could make a 06:44.051 --> 06:49.131 huge difference. Also you have hope. 06:49.129 --> 06:54.369 Typically, there's an enthusiasm behind therapy. 06:54.370 --> 06:57.680 There's a sense that this might really make me get better and 06:57.676 --> 06:59.326 that hope could be powerful. 06:59.329 --> 07:02.859 Sometimes this is viewed under the rubric of a placebo effect, 07:02.855 --> 07:05.855 which is that maybe the benefits you get from therapy 07:05.861 --> 07:09.161 aren't due to anything in particular the therapist does to 07:09.156 --> 07:12.386 you but rather to the belief that things are going to get 07:12.392 --> 07:15.142 better, something is being done that 07:15.141 --> 07:18.281 will help you. And this belief can be a 07:18.276 --> 07:20.576 self-fulfilling prophecy. 07:20.579 --> 07:24.929 "Placebo effect" is often used sort of in a dismissive way, 07:24.930 --> 07:29.210 "Oh, it's just a placebo," but placebos can be powerful 07:29.206 --> 07:34.096 and even if it's useless from a real point--from a psychological 07:34.104 --> 07:37.614 theory point of view, even if the therapist runs 07:37.606 --> 07:41.376 around and dances while you – I have dancing on my mind now 07:41.381 --> 07:44.781 – while you sit in the chair and watch him dance; 07:44.779 --> 07:48.149 if you believe the dancing is going to make you better, 07:48.145 --> 07:49.325 it may well help. 07:49.330 --> 07:51.430 Okay. That's all I'm going to say 07:51.427 --> 07:56.437 about therapy. Any questions about therapy? 07:56.440 --> 08:09.570 Yes. Student: [inaudible] 08:09.570 --> 08:28.300 Professor Paul Bloom: Fair enough. 08:28.300 --> 08:32.420 The question is the assumption of regression to the mean seems 08:32.424 --> 08:36.214 sort of arbitrary because it depends what the mean is. 08:36.210 --> 08:39.090 Always after the fact you can apply an average to it and say, 08:39.086 --> 08:41.006 "Look. This is the average," but how 08:41.007 --> 08:42.277 do you know beforehand? 08:42.280 --> 08:44.570 It's a good point. 08:44.570 --> 08:49.070 When you talk about regression to the mean, it adopts certain 08:49.070 --> 08:52.100 assumptions. The assumption is there really 08:52.096 --> 08:56.176 is an average throughout much of your life and things go up and 08:56.181 --> 09:00.201 down within that average and for the most part that's true for 09:00.200 --> 09:01.650 things like mood. 09:01.649 --> 09:04.539 For most of us, we have an average mood and we 09:04.539 --> 09:06.979 have bad days and we have good days. 09:06.980 --> 09:10.510 It's always possible that you have a bad day and then from 09:10.505 --> 09:14.145 there on in it's just going to go down and down and down but 09:14.154 --> 09:18.054 statistically the best bet is if you have a bad day you're going 09:18.050 --> 09:20.030 to go back up to the mean. 09:20.029 --> 09:25.729 It's--in some way you don't even have to see it from a 09:25.730 --> 09:28.420 clinical point of view. 09:28.420 --> 09:30.620 You could map it out yourself. 09:30.620 --> 09:34.850 Map out your moods and the days where you're most depressed 09:34.849 --> 09:37.839 sooner or later you're likely to go up. 09:37.840 --> 09:43.060 Similarly, on the happiest day of your life odds are the next 09:43.063 --> 09:48.293 day you're going to go down and there's nothing magical about 09:48.286 --> 09:50.716 this. This is just because under the 09:50.724 --> 09:53.814 assumption that there really is an average in--built into 09:53.812 --> 09:56.062 one--each of us. If human behavior was 09:56.059 --> 09:59.259 arbitrary, it would be like a random walk but it's not. 09:59.259 --> 10:02.759 We seem to have sort of set points and aspects of us that we 10:02.761 --> 10:06.201 fall back to that make the idea of a mean a psychologically 10:06.203 --> 10:07.393 plausible claim. 10:07.390 --> 10:12.320 10:12.320 --> 10:16.620 Yes. Student: [inaudible] 10:16.617 --> 10:22.067 Professor Paul Bloom: That's a good question. 10:22.070 --> 10:25.120 Yes. In that study it's a perfectly 10:25.117 --> 10:28.477 good hypothesis that the sort of anxiety of being told, 10:28.479 --> 10:30.719 "I see you've come here for help. 10:30.720 --> 10:32.210 We can't give it to you. 10:32.210 --> 10:35.620 Congratulations. You're a control group" 10:35.617 --> 10:38.057 [laughs] causes anxiety. 10:38.059 --> 10:41.569 In other studies the control group doesn't know they are the 10:41.568 --> 10:44.208 control group. So sometimes you can do an 10:44.210 --> 10:47.070 intervention where you say, "Congratulations, 10:47.070 --> 10:50.840 everybody in Intro Psych who did very low on the depression 10:50.840 --> 10:53.370 inventory," which many of you filled out, 10:53.373 --> 10:55.333 "We're going to do something to you." 10:55.330 --> 10:57.980 And then the rest of the people don't even know that they 10:57.979 --> 10:59.019 haven't been chosen. 10:59.020 --> 11:00.220 So, you're right. 11:00.220 --> 11:01.990 It's a perfectly good point. 11:01.990 --> 11:05.190 Knowing you're not chosen could have a deleterious effect and 11:05.185 --> 11:08.165 the way to respond to that is you have other studies that 11:08.168 --> 11:09.818 don't use that same method. 11:09.820 --> 11:16.810 11:16.810 --> 11:23.810 Okay. I want to end with happiness 11:23.813 --> 11:28.453 and it's a strange thing to talk about in psychology. 11:28.450 --> 11:32.480 Most of psychology focuses on human misery, 11:32.475 --> 11:35.345 most of clinical psychology. 11:35.350 --> 11:38.780 There is the psychology we spoke about through most of the 11:38.775 --> 11:42.015 semester on vision and language and social behavior, 11:42.019 --> 11:45.849 but typically when people think about interventions what they 11:45.848 --> 11:49.608 think about is people having problems and then we figure out 11:49.613 --> 11:51.403 how to make them better. 11:51.399 --> 11:54.139 They are schizophrenic, they are depressed or anxious, 11:54.137 --> 11:56.097 they are just not making it in life, 11:56.100 --> 12:00.350 and psychologists try to figure out how to make things improve. 12:00.350 --> 12:03.200 And in fact, a lot of the information I gave 12:03.200 --> 12:06.710 you at the beginning of the lecture last class where I 12:06.714 --> 12:10.764 reviewed all of the disorders is in this wonderful book called 12:10.759 --> 12:13.559 DSM-IV, The Diagnostic and Statistical 12:13.559 --> 12:16.869 Manual of Mental Disorders. If you ever really want to 12:16.865 --> 12:19.995 get--If you really [laughs] want to diagnose people and 12:19.996 --> 12:23.356 come to have a belief in your own mental instability, 12:23.360 --> 12:26.170 browsing through that book is a treat. 12:26.169 --> 12:31.029 Everything that can go wrong in mental life from Aspergers 12:31.033 --> 12:36.153 syndrome to fetishes to paranoid schizophrenia is all in that 12:36.152 --> 12:40.842 wonderful book and--but a lot of psychologists have been 12:40.844 --> 12:46.224 disturbed by the focus of our field on taking bad people, 12:46.220 --> 12:48.500 people who are broken, people who are sad, 12:48.497 --> 12:50.327 and bringing them up to normal. 12:50.330 --> 12:55.140 And they've started to ask can psychology give us any insight 12:55.137 --> 12:58.407 into human flourishing, how to take people who 12:58.408 --> 13:02.038 are--who--how to study people who are psychological successes, 13:02.039 --> 13:06.219 how to take people who are psychologically okay and make 13:06.216 --> 13:09.506 them better. And this is the movement known 13:09.513 --> 13:11.453 as "positive psychology." 13:11.450 --> 13:15.290 And it has its own handbook now, The Handbook of Positive 13:15.287 --> 13:18.537 Psychology, listing psychological strengths, 13:18.539 --> 13:22.699 listing virtues, ways--what psychology tells us 13:22.697 --> 13:25.767 about how we can be at our best. 13:25.769 --> 13:30.739 Some of this work in positive psychology is, 13:30.737 --> 13:33.507 in my mind, real crap. 13:33.509 --> 13:37.969 A lot of it is some combination of new age banalities by people 13:37.969 --> 13:41.779 who are striving to get more grant funds and end up on 13:41.781 --> 13:43.581 Time magazine. 13:43.580 --> 13:46.390 On the other hand--and so, some of it is really bad. 13:46.389 --> 13:50.269 You could imagine this attracts every self-help huckster you 13:50.268 --> 13:52.498 could imagine. On the other hand, 13:52.496 --> 13:56.026 a lot of this work is quite neat, quite interesting and 13:56.027 --> 13:58.927 quite promising. And what I want to do is tell 13:58.930 --> 14:02.250 you what I think is the most interesting research from this 14:02.250 --> 14:04.140 movement concerning happiness. 14:04.139 --> 14:07.209 Now, there are a lot of good books on this and I'm going to 14:07.214 --> 14:09.714 recommend books, which I haven't been doing much 14:09.705 --> 14:12.645 in this class. Marty Seligman is the pioneer 14:12.652 --> 14:16.982 of positive psychology and he's written an excellent book called 14:16.982 --> 14:20.832 Authentic Happiness. Jonathan Haidt is a brilliant 14:20.830 --> 14:24.890 young scholar who's done--also done a lot of work on disgust 14:24.885 --> 14:28.315 and morality. He did the "sex with dead 14:28.320 --> 14:31.370 chicken study" we discussed earlier. 14:31.370 --> 14:34.490 This is one of my favorite books by – Happiness by 14:34.492 --> 14:37.452 Nettle, because it's smart, it's beautifully written and 14:37.453 --> 14:38.803 it's extremely short. 14:38.799 --> 14:41.839 And Dan Gilbert's book, Stumbling on Happiness, 14:41.835 --> 14:45.215 is a very, very funny book and very smart book and is now on 14:45.215 --> 14:47.845 The New York Times bestseller list. 14:47.850 --> 14:51.110 So, there's no shortage of books on happiness. 14:51.110 --> 14:55.380 So, the starting point is--And a lot of research on happiness 14:55.380 --> 14:58.940 starts with a basic question: How happy are you? 14:58.940 --> 15:04.550 And we're psychologists so tell us on a scale of one to ten 15:04.546 --> 15:08.796 where five is average, ten is super-duper. 15:08.799 --> 15:11.629 The most common answers, interestingly enough, 15:11.628 --> 15:13.958 are high. They're seven or eight. 15:13.960 --> 15:17.830 How many people in this room would give themselves a seven or 15:17.830 --> 15:19.300 an eight? Okay. 15:19.300 --> 15:20.790 How many a nine or a ten? 15:20.790 --> 15:25.310 All right. How many a ten? 15:25.309 --> 15:27.409 Good, good, maxed out on happiness. 15:27.409 --> 15:32.259 It turns out that most people think that they're pretty happy. 15:32.259 --> 15:34.379 There's a Lake Wobegon effect with happiness. 15:34.379 --> 15:35.649 Most people think they're very happy. 15:35.649 --> 15:38.459 In fact, most people think they're happier than most 15:38.457 --> 15:40.657 people, which shouldn't really happen. 15:40.659 --> 15:45.959 This question, "How happy are you from one to 15:45.957 --> 15:48.967 ten?" has been asked all over the 15:48.967 --> 15:51.757 world. So--and it turns out there are 15:51.762 --> 15:55.412 slight differences depending on how old you are. 15:55.409 --> 16:00.309 There are slight differences depending on your place within a 16:00.314 --> 16:03.424 country, California versus New York. 16:03.419 --> 16:06.279 There are slight, subtle differences between men 16:06.276 --> 16:09.676 and women at different points, somewhat paradoxically. 16:09.679 --> 16:14.229 Although women are more vulnerable to depression than 16:14.225 --> 16:19.465 men, still on average women are slightly happier than men. 16:19.470 --> 16:22.430 The country-by-country data is quite interesting. 16:22.429 --> 16:24.699 In one study they looked at forty-two countries. 16:24.700 --> 16:27.640 The happiest--well, let me see. 16:27.639 --> 16:30.109 The happiest people on earth--well, first, 16:30.106 --> 16:33.346 no country believed they were unhappy, the people in no 16:33.353 --> 16:35.823 country of these forty-two countries. 16:35.820 --> 16:38.600 I mean, you're thinking there are some really bad countries to 16:38.595 --> 16:41.135 live in and I don't know if they were tested but of these 16:41.144 --> 16:43.924 forty-two everybody seemed--said they were above average. 16:43.920 --> 16:45.450 The happiest people on earth? 16:45.450 --> 16:48.990 The Swiss. [laughter] 16:48.991 --> 16:51.591 They think--they're just like--they're just so happy. 16:51.590 --> 16:55.140 I was talking to people about this last night and they 16:55.137 --> 16:56.607 suggested chocolate. 16:56.610 --> 16:59.240 [laughter] The saddest people on this--on 16:59.243 --> 17:03.113 the sample? The sad Bulgarians. 17:03.110 --> 17:06.070 [laughter] You are wondering what about 17:06.074 --> 17:09.554 Americans. Americans are actually pretty 17:09.550 --> 17:13.770 happy, 7.71. We are a happy country full of 17:13.765 --> 17:17.065 happy people. Now, I'm going to talk about a 17:17.069 --> 17:20.809 lot of research that's based on the data you get when you ask 17:20.809 --> 17:24.299 people how happy they are from a scale of one to ten. 17:24.299 --> 17:29.789 But I'm going to be honest and tell you there are reasons to be 17:29.793 --> 17:32.543 cautious about these numbers. 17:32.539 --> 17:37.079 And the reasons come from a couple of experiments. 17:37.079 --> 17:40.589 In one experiment they asked people inside a psychology 17:40.592 --> 17:43.782 department where there was a photocopy machine. 17:43.779 --> 17:46.219 They went up to people--the people were going up to the 17:46.215 --> 17:49.005 photocopy machine to make copies and when they were done making 17:49.012 --> 17:51.842 copies they asked them, "How happy are you with your 17:51.836 --> 17:54.516 entire life?" There were two groups. 17:54.519 --> 17:57.459 Group A, they put a dime on top of the photocopy machine so 17:57.461 --> 18:00.201 people walked over there, "I'm going to [inaudible]. 18:00.200 --> 18:02.110 Oh, a dime. Well." 18:02.110 --> 18:06.370 The other group, no dime. 18:06.369 --> 18:09.949 It turned out that when asked "How good is your whole life?" 18:09.950 --> 18:13.010 [laughter] group A reported [laughter] 18:13.011 --> 18:17.811 greater life satisfaction overall in their entire lives. 18:17.809 --> 18:22.089 Another study asked people how happy you are with your whole 18:22.088 --> 18:25.998 life on sunny days like today and people said they were 18:26.004 --> 18:29.054 happier on sunny days than rainy days. 18:29.049 --> 18:33.419 What's interesting is you could make this effect go away if you 18:33.424 --> 18:36.604 ask immediately before "How's the weather?" 18:36.599 --> 18:38.429 These were done by phone interviews. 18:38.430 --> 18:42.820 And logically, what seems to go on is that if 18:42.824 --> 18:47.404 you're asked how's the weather, you're "Oh, it's really sunny 18:47.404 --> 18:49.974 outside," and then when people are asked "How happy are you 18:49.972 --> 18:51.082 with your whole life?" 18:51.080 --> 18:52.780 people then say, "Oh, okay. 18:52.779 --> 18:56.619 I'm going to take into account the sunny-ness when I give my 18:56.623 --> 19:00.683 answer. Okay. 19:00.680 --> 19:02.070 So, what is happiness? 19:02.069 --> 19:06.329 What are people rating when they're answering these sort of 19:06.328 --> 19:09.198 questions? And this is an extraordinarily 19:09.199 --> 19:13.309 difficult question and one could devote a seminar to discussing 19:13.312 --> 19:15.382 it, but one simple answer from an 19:15.375 --> 19:18.645 evolutionary point of view is that happiness--forget about 19:18.649 --> 19:19.969 "what is happiness?" 19:19.970 --> 19:21.670 Ask "what's happiness for?" 19:21.670 --> 19:23.840 just like we've asked what language is for, 19:23.837 --> 19:26.777 or what laughter is for, or what hunger or lust is for. 19:26.780 --> 19:28.090 What's happiness for? 19:28.089 --> 19:32.019 And one answer is happiness is a goal state that we've evolved 19:32.017 --> 19:34.257 to pursue. It's a signal that our needs 19:34.258 --> 19:35.358 have been satisfied. 19:35.359 --> 19:39.299 Happiness is the carrot we're running towards that makes us 19:39.301 --> 19:41.001 take care of our lives. 19:41.000 --> 19:42.570 We want to be happy. 19:42.570 --> 19:45.260 An example of this is food. 19:45.259 --> 19:48.629 You're not very happy if you're starving. 19:48.630 --> 19:51.310 You want to be satiated, you want to be satisfied, 19:51.311 --> 19:53.611 so you seek out food to fill your belly. 19:53.609 --> 19:56.309 Once you've done it, you're happy. 19:56.309 --> 20:01.549 Steven Pinker summarizes the keys to happiness in a nicely 20:01.549 --> 20:05.689 evocative passage: "We are happier when we are 20:05.686 --> 20:08.066 healthy, well-fed, comfortable, 20:08.071 --> 20:09.881 safe, prosperous, knowledgeable, 20:09.877 --> 20:12.787 respected, non-celibate, in love." 20:12.789 --> 20:17.069 How many people here have got all of those right now? 20:17.070 --> 20:20.010 Oh, come on. [laughter] Some people. 20:20.009 --> 20:21.979 Oddly enough, the person who said he was a 20:21.982 --> 20:23.812 ten didn't--does not raise his hand. 20:23.810 --> 20:26.120 Okay. [laughter] 20:26.116 --> 20:29.436 So this is- And this makes out--you get all your needs 20:29.435 --> 20:32.125 satisfied, your belly is full, 20:32.128 --> 20:36.578 people love you, you're getting sex regularly, 20:36.577 --> 20:39.347 you're smart, you're rich, 20:39.345 --> 20:43.485 you're happy, but as Pinker points out it's 20:43.493 --> 20:47.343 not that simple. Here's the problem. 20:47.340 --> 20:50.870 20:50.869 --> 20:56.349 You, Americans in this century, you are now healthier, 20:56.345 --> 21:02.225 better fed and so on than just about anyone in history but 21:02.233 --> 21:04.613 you're not happier. 21:04.610 --> 21:06.170 That's the puzzle. 21:06.170 --> 21:09.380 In particular, these studies asking about 21:09.379 --> 21:12.989 happiness have been around for a long time. 21:12.990 --> 21:17.460 People in the 1950s did not make as much money, 21:17.457 --> 21:21.727 did not eat as well, did not live as long, 21:21.730 --> 21:24.930 suffered from more diseases, were more vulnerable in a 21:24.930 --> 21:28.860 hundred different ways, yet they were--are as happy as 21:28.860 --> 21:31.260 you are now. You are as happy as your 21:31.256 --> 21:34.506 parents were and they were as happy as your grandparents. 21:34.509 --> 21:41.629 Moreover, in poor countries people don't have the shelter, 21:41.631 --> 21:45.631 the knowledge, the protection, 21:45.630 --> 21:48.050 the safety, yet, for the most part, 21:48.046 --> 21:52.096 there's not a huge effect on how rich a country is and--on 21:52.098 --> 21:54.158 how happy the people are. 21:54.160 --> 21:57.470 Furthermore, there are great individual 21:57.466 --> 22:02.506 differences in happiness among people whose basic needs are 22:02.513 --> 22:04.593 met. For the most part, 22:04.587 --> 22:08.717 everybody in this room is fed and sheltered and safe. 22:08.720 --> 22:11.750 Some of you are prosperous, some of you are knowledgeable, 22:11.745 --> 22:14.365 a couple non-celibate, and-- [laughter] 22:14.369 --> 22:18.759 but even among that group you vary in your happiness, 22:18.755 --> 22:21.365 and that's kind of a puzzle. 22:21.369 --> 22:25.409 And to explain the puzzle we need to talk about a few 22:25.406 --> 22:30.526 surprising facts about happiness and I'll present three of them. 22:30.529 --> 22:36.599 The first is happiness doesn't change as much as you think. 22:36.599 --> 22:40.129 In particular, happiness is not as sensitive 22:40.129 --> 22:44.889 to what happens--your happiness is not as sensitive to what 22:44.890 --> 22:49.570 happens in your environment as you might think it is. 22:49.570 --> 22:54.470 22:54.470 --> 22:58.420 Part of the reason for this is that there appears to be a 22:58.419 --> 23:01.169 strong heritable basis for happiness. 23:01.170 --> 23:04.540 So, just as we talked about the domains of personality and 23:04.537 --> 23:06.547 intelligence, there is some genetic 23:06.546 --> 23:09.286 determination, not entirely but some, 23:09.289 --> 23:10.969 in how happy you are. 23:10.970 --> 23:15.510 And some people talk in terms of a genetically determined set 23:15.505 --> 23:18.965 point. So, you have a sort of natural 23:18.969 --> 23:22.019 happiness level, maybe a range. 23:22.019 --> 23:25.709 To put it in extreme form, some people are genetically 23:25.706 --> 23:30.016 predisposed to be pretty sour, others to be pretty cheerful. 23:30.020 --> 23:33.270 23:33.270 --> 23:35.430 Well, that can't be it. 23:35.430 --> 23:38.440 Identical twins are very similar in their happiness but, 23:38.441 --> 23:41.231 as with everything else we've discussed, they're not 23:41.233 --> 23:43.723 identical. What about life events? 23:43.720 --> 23:45.910 Wouldn't life events change your happiness? 23:45.910 --> 23:48.930 And here we're entering one of the great discoveries of 23:48.933 --> 23:50.113 happiness research. 23:50.110 --> 23:52.480 Think for a moment. 23:52.480 --> 23:55.080 What's the worst thing that could happen to you? 23:55.079 --> 24:04.469 And then ask how much would it change your happiness. 24:04.470 --> 24:05.780 Now, think for a moment. 24:05.779 --> 24:08.599 What's the best thing that could happen to you? 24:08.599 --> 24:14.239 And ask how much would it change your happiness. 24:14.240 --> 24:20.690 And the research in happiness suggests that your gut feelings 24:20.691 --> 24:22.951 are probably wrong. 24:22.950 --> 24:24.800 And here's a couple of case studies. 24:24.799 --> 24:29.119 For many people a very bad thing that could happen to you 24:29.123 --> 24:33.373 is to be paralyzed from the neck down in an accident. 24:33.369 --> 24:36.479 It turns out obviously, common sense, 24:36.478 --> 24:41.138 that when this happens it makes people very unhappy. 24:41.140 --> 24:45.750 It makes them depressed, they think their life is over, 24:45.751 --> 24:49.851 they feel terribly sad, but not for that long. 24:49.849 --> 24:54.919 After about a year after being paralyzed from the neck down, 24:54.917 --> 24:59.987 people's happiness comes back up pretty much to where it was 24:59.985 --> 25:02.935 before, suggesting that there's a 25:02.941 --> 25:06.321 temporary effect but not a permanent one. 25:06.319 --> 25:09.199 Many people believe that winning many, 25:09.204 --> 25:13.884 many millions of dollars in the lottery will make you happier 25:13.882 --> 25:16.512 and it does. When you open up that winning 25:16.506 --> 25:18.636 ticket and you say, "I won one hundred million 25:18.643 --> 25:20.213 dollars," you say, "Woo, hoo!" 25:20.210 --> 25:22.080 You are honest to God very happy. 25:22.079 --> 25:25.819 You'd say, "Hell, I'm a 10.5, I am very happy." 25:25.819 --> 25:29.909 A year later you are not as happy. 25:29.910 --> 25:32.520 In fact, lottery winning may be a terrible case where 25:32.519 --> 25:35.279 people--where it goes the reverse of what you expect. 25:35.279 --> 25:38.059 What happens when you win a lot of money is it often wrenches 25:38.055 --> 25:41.305 you away from your family, your work and your friends and 25:41.311 --> 25:45.101 leads you to depression and sadness but even mundane events 25:45.103 --> 25:49.093 that would make you happy--that you think would make you happy 25:49.090 --> 25:50.660 don't seem to last. 25:50.660 --> 25:55.490 In some research by Dan Gilbert and others, they've asked young 25:55.494 --> 25:59.554 assistant professors who are coming up for tenure, 25:59.549 --> 26:02.579 and tenure in a university system is a good thing to get 26:02.575 --> 26:05.045 because it gives you lifetime job security, 26:05.049 --> 26:09.299 "How happy would you feel if you got tenure? 26:09.299 --> 26:11.979 How happy would you feel if you didn't get tenure?" 26:11.980 --> 26:16.770 Prior to the last election, they asked people "How happy 26:16.773 --> 26:20.263 would you be if it was President Bush? 26:20.259 --> 26:23.339 How happy would you be if it was President Kerry?" 26:23.339 --> 26:27.839 And it turns out people radically overestimated the 26:27.839 --> 26:30.179 effects of these things. 26:30.180 --> 26:34.020 Having your favorite candidate win is not such a big deal. 26:34.019 --> 26:36.689 Having your favorite candidate lose is not such a big deal 26:36.688 --> 26:38.388 either. Getting tenure or not getting 26:38.393 --> 26:40.123 tenure are really big when it happens. 26:40.119 --> 26:43.809 Six months later and a year later your happiness doesn't 26:43.805 --> 26:45.275 seem to be affected. 26:45.279 --> 26:48.259 The purchase of consumer goods, an Xbox 360, 26:48.257 --> 26:51.857 a nice flat screen TV, those sorts of things make you 26:51.857 --> 26:56.077 very happy when you open up the package and set it up but this 26:56.081 --> 26:58.921 happiness fades almost immediately. 26:58.920 --> 27:00.770 The moral of--A lot of people are shaking their heads. 27:00.769 --> 27:06.409 It's true, not for me but--the moral of a lot of this work is 27:06.409 --> 27:11.769 we think these things will have big permanent and profound 27:11.766 --> 27:16.556 effects but they need not and they often don't. 27:16.560 --> 27:20.230 Why not? Why do we overestimate their 27:20.225 --> 27:22.875 happiness? And the technical term for 27:22.882 --> 27:26.002 this, by the way, is "affective forecasting." 27:26.000 --> 27:29.960 Again, this is Dan Gilbert's work and the idea is we are bad 27:29.958 --> 27:31.768 at affective forecasting. 27:31.769 --> 27:35.479 That is, we are bad at predicting how happy or sad we 27:35.482 --> 27:39.482 will be in the future based on what's happening to us. 27:39.480 --> 27:43.420 Why? Well, a couple of reasons. 27:43.420 --> 27:46.360 One thing is there's often a failure to appreciate the 27:46.362 --> 27:48.752 day-to-day irrelevance of certain events. 27:48.750 --> 27:53.380 So prior to the election--the election's happening tomorrow 27:53.381 --> 27:56.821 and I ask somebody who's a diehard Democrat, 27:56.815 --> 27:59.765 "How would you feel if Bush won?" 27:59.769 --> 28:01.669 and the person said, "I'll be miserable. 28:01.670 --> 28:04.660 It'll be a miserable four years afterwards." 28:04.660 --> 28:08.500 But what often isn't appreciated here is that whether 28:08.497 --> 28:12.847 or not Bush wins will make you sad or happy after it happens 28:12.851 --> 28:16.541 but for the most of your day-to-day life you aren't 28:16.540 --> 28:19.640 thinking about who the president is. 28:19.640 --> 28:24.520 I'd be very happy if I won a huge prize and I'd be "Whoa, 28:24.522 --> 28:28.072 a huge prize," the Nobel prize, a Guggenheim, 28:28.070 --> 28:31.060 a MacArthur ‘Genius' or I get them all in the same day. 28:31.060 --> 28:32.900 [laughter] "What a day. 28:32.900 --> 28:34.850 I am really happy." 28:34.849 --> 28:38.619 But then a month later I'm there and I've still got my 28:38.620 --> 28:42.820 regular insomnia and there's nothing on TV and the plumber's 28:42.817 --> 28:47.007 not coming and my kids don't respect me and I can't--and the 28:47.014 --> 28:50.484 fact that "Yeah, but I won the prize," it 28:50.481 --> 28:53.321 doesn't matter. A lot of the things in life 28:53.319 --> 28:56.749 that'll make you really--that you think will make you really 28:56.750 --> 28:59.250 happy don't have this day-to-day effect. 28:59.250 --> 29:04.040 Also, there is the logic of the set point. 29:04.039 --> 29:07.229 And this comes to a terrible word: We adapt. 29:07.230 --> 29:12.280 Right now I'm a guy without a Nobel prize. 29:12.280 --> 29:13.780 I'm kind of used to it. 29:13.779 --> 29:17.089 If I got a Nobel prize I'd be a guy with a Nobel prize. 29:17.089 --> 29:21.039 I'd be happy but then I'd kind of get used to that too. 29:21.039 --> 29:22.949 And if I got a second one, "whoa, two!" 29:22.950 --> 29:25.960 but then I'd just get used to that too. 29:25.960 --> 29:27.490 You get used to things. 29:27.490 --> 29:29.620 You get used to bad things. 29:29.619 --> 29:32.719 Now, I don't want to overstate this. 29:32.720 --> 29:35.090 There are some very interesting exceptions. 29:35.089 --> 29:43.549 So for instance, we don't get used to noise. 29:43.549 --> 29:47.409 A lot of research suggests that if your environment is noisy, 29:47.411 --> 29:51.021 they're doing construction around you, you can't get used 29:51.016 --> 29:53.536 to it. Your happiness drops and it 29:53.544 --> 29:55.084 doesn't come back up. 29:55.079 --> 29:59.149 Your system cannot habituate to continued noise. 29:59.150 --> 30:04.140 We adapt to good things, winning the lottery, 30:04.139 --> 30:09.469 winning a prize, getting an "A " in a course. 30:09.470 --> 30:13.620 We adapt, we get used to it, also with some surprising 30:13.621 --> 30:16.281 exceptions. One of the big--one of the 30:16.284 --> 30:19.834 other surprises from happiness research is the effects of 30:19.827 --> 30:22.987 cosmetic surgery like breast enhancement and breast 30:22.991 --> 30:26.491 reduction. One of the big surprises is it 30:26.491 --> 30:30.661 makes people happier and then they stay happier. 30:30.660 --> 30:35.480 And one explanation for this is how we look is very important. 30:35.480 --> 30:38.130 It's very important for how other people see us and how we 30:38.133 --> 30:39.953 see ourselves, and you never get used to 30:39.949 --> 30:41.299 looking in a certain way. 30:41.299 --> 30:44.829 So, if you look better it just makes you happier all the time. 30:44.829 --> 30:49.679 So, there are these exceptions but putting aside the 30:49.676 --> 30:54.996 exceptions, the problem of adaptation is sometimes called 30:54.998 --> 31:00.888 "the hedonic treadmill" and the idea is hedonic for happy. 31:00.890 --> 31:05.840 You keep on running but no matter how fast you run you stay 31:05.838 --> 31:08.908 where you are, you get used to it. 31:08.910 --> 31:12.040 Habituation is like you put--you step into a very hot 31:12.042 --> 31:13.852 bath but you get used to it. 31:13.849 --> 31:15.469 If it's a cold bath you get used to it. 31:15.470 --> 31:18.100 A difficult environment, an easy environment, 31:18.103 --> 31:19.363 you get used to it. 31:19.359 --> 31:23.079 The story is often illustrated--It's often 31:23.083 --> 31:28.443 illustrated with a story from the Bible in Ecclesiastes of a 31:28.442 --> 31:31.532 king and this king had it all. 31:31.529 --> 31:34.399 He had gardens, parks, vineyards, 31:34.404 --> 31:39.524 castles, slaves and concubines and they were both male and 31:39.523 --> 31:41.503 female concubines. 31:41.500 --> 31:43.970 [laughter] So, he had everything, 31:43.971 --> 31:48.531 right, but it didn't make him happy and here's what he says: 31:48.529 --> 31:52.189 "I hated life. All this vanity and a chasing 31:52.191 --> 31:56.971 after wind and there is nothing to be gained under the sun." 31:56.970 --> 32:00.800 Now, in these books I talked about at the beginning these 32:00.801 --> 32:05.181 authors give advice on how to deal with the hedonic treadmill. 32:05.180 --> 32:09.590 How do you deal with the fact that everything you aspire to, 32:09.588 --> 32:13.768 once you get it you'll be used to it and it will lose its 32:13.772 --> 32:16.862 value? Well, one answer is that 32:16.858 --> 32:20.948 possessions are not the key to happiness. 32:20.950 --> 32:25.130 Possessions you very quickly get used to. 32:25.130 --> 32:29.110 From there, there are two alternatives. 32:29.110 --> 32:31.190 One is endless novelty. 32:31.190 --> 32:33.510 So one guy – I forget his name – wrote a book and he 32:33.509 --> 32:35.429 says, "Look. There's the hedonic treadmill. 32:35.430 --> 32:38.270 The trick is always do something different. 32:38.269 --> 32:41.039 Next week have sex with somebody you've never had sex 32:41.040 --> 32:43.530 before. Then climb Mount Everest. 32:43.529 --> 32:45.909 You get bored with that, become an accountant. 32:45.910 --> 32:47.770 Boring. Scuba diving. 32:47.770 --> 32:50.650 Boring." He had endless ideas, 32:50.648 --> 32:53.058 and that's a possibility. 32:53.059 --> 32:56.349 You never--you--if you keep changing what you're doing 32:56.349 --> 32:59.639 you'll never get used to anything and you'll always be 32:59.639 --> 33:02.179 happy. At least he says that. 33:02.180 --> 33:04.300 Then there's the old guy alternative. 33:04.300 --> 33:06.800 Step off the treadmill. 33:06.799 --> 33:10.819 Give up--give up chasing the whole happiness thing and then 33:10.817 --> 33:15.177 seek out more substantial goods that might actually not make you 33:15.181 --> 33:19.061 happy in the simple sense of a quick fix of delight, 33:19.059 --> 33:24.179 but substantial goods like friends and family and long-term 33:24.179 --> 33:27.929 projects. So, the first moral of the 33:27.926 --> 33:33.686 science of happiness is that your happiness is actually 33:33.691 --> 33:37.021 rather fixed. It's fixed in part genetically 33:37.019 --> 33:40.369 and it's fixed in part because what happens in your life you'll 33:40.365 --> 33:42.195 get used to, to a large extent. 33:42.200 --> 33:43.410 Are you raising your hand? 33:43.410 --> 33:45.870 No. Oh, sorry. 33:45.869 --> 33:55.719 The second one is happiness is relative. 33:55.720 --> 33:59.900 So, there's a lot of research on money, power and happiness, 33:59.895 --> 34:04.065 and remember I did say before that it doesn't matter whether 34:04.070 --> 34:07.680 you come from a rich country or a poor country. 34:07.680 --> 34:10.590 As long as your country--as long as you're not starving to 34:10.591 --> 34:13.861 death, it kind of doesn't matter how rich your country is for how 34:13.860 --> 34:16.400 happy you are. But that's not the same as 34:16.398 --> 34:19.508 saying it doesn't matter how much money you make. 34:19.510 --> 34:25.240 In fact, there's a set point or a range but there is some effect 34:25.240 --> 34:29.880 on your salary and on your job on your happiness. 34:29.880 --> 34:33.500 And if you're desperately poor, no matter where you are, 34:33.498 --> 34:37.378 no matter who's around you, you're not going to be happy. 34:37.380 --> 34:42.190 But beyond that your happiness depends on your relative 34:42.193 --> 34:45.703 circumstance. And this is an old insight. 34:45.699 --> 34:47.099 H.L. Mencken wrote, 34:47.102 --> 34:51.932 "A wealthy man is one who earns a hundred dollars more than his 34:51.931 --> 34:54.191 wife's sister's husband." 34:54.190 --> 34:57.390 The idea is what matters isn't how much you make. 34:57.389 --> 35:00.199 What matters is how much you make relative to the people 35:00.204 --> 35:02.514 around you. And they've asked people this. 35:02.510 --> 35:03.900 "What would you rather? 35:03.900 --> 35:06.660 Do you want to make seventy thousand dollars if everybody 35:06.663 --> 35:09.183 else in your office is making sixty-five thousand or 35:09.180 --> 35:12.290 seventy-five thousand dollars if everybody else is making eighty 35:12.290 --> 35:14.920 thousand?" Does it matter how much money 35:14.920 --> 35:18.980 you bring home or does it matter how much money you make relative 35:18.983 --> 35:24.393 to other people? Well, they're both factors but 35:24.393 --> 35:32.383 relative salary--and in this example people prefer this. 35:32.380 --> 35:36.390 They prefer to be making less if they're making more than the 35:36.387 --> 35:37.787 people around them. 35:37.789 --> 35:41.719 It turns out that there's research on British social 35:41.717 --> 35:46.567 servants and their happiness and their health and the quality of 35:46.569 --> 35:51.419 their relationships and how they love their lives doesn't depend 35:51.421 --> 35:54.041 on how much money they make. 35:54.039 --> 35:57.049 It depends on where they are relative to everybody else. 35:57.050 --> 36:01.630 We are very status conscious primates and your role in a 36:01.628 --> 36:05.958 hierarchy, your level in the hierarchy plays a--has a 36:05.957 --> 36:10.117 significant effect on your level of happiness. 36:10.120 --> 36:12.560 This is not really a secret. 36:12.559 --> 36:17.619 The opera star Maria Callas and the English professor Stanley 36:17.615 --> 36:21.065 Fish had the same negotiating strategy. 36:21.070 --> 36:25.190 When Fish got hired into his department, according to urban 36:25.185 --> 36:28.445 legend at least, he said, "I don't want to talk 36:28.449 --> 36:30.299 salary. I don't have a particular 36:30.297 --> 36:32.407 number in mind. I just want to get paid one 36:32.405 --> 36:35.195 hundred dollars more than whoever is the top person in 36:35.204 --> 36:36.264 this department." 36:36.260 --> 36:41.050 And that's a guy who knows about happiness. 36:41.050 --> 36:44.010 He walks in and he states, "I'm paid more than everybody 36:44.012 --> 36:46.322 else. I don't care how much it is. 36:46.320 --> 36:48.730 It's just more." [laughter] 36:48.731 --> 36:51.051 And that's relevant to happiness. 36:51.050 --> 36:55.830 We're now in a position to give some advice to the king, 36:55.830 --> 36:59.070 summing up. First, going back again to Dr. 36:59.068 --> 37:02.858 Nolen-Hoeksema's lecture, I think the king is suffering 37:02.862 --> 37:07.152 from mild unipolar depression so we should--he should get some 37:07.148 --> 37:10.098 SSRIs and cognitive behavior therapy. 37:10.099 --> 37:14.989 I think he needs to move his castle to a quiet part of the 37:14.991 --> 37:19.461 kingdom. The noise of a busy castle is 37:19.460 --> 37:24.990 stressful. And he needs to give up on the 37:24.987 --> 37:28.027 concubines. He needs to find a queen. 37:28.030 --> 37:30.970 He needs to develop social relationships, 37:30.966 --> 37:33.606 join a club, get involved in charity, 37:33.608 --> 37:38.688 maybe a hobby. The final finding is a bit of a 37:38.690 --> 37:43.300 jump to a different topic but--sorry. 37:43.300 --> 37:47.800 You raised--yes. Student: [inaudible] 37:47.795 --> 37:52.395 Professor Paul Bloom: The question is, 37:52.400 --> 37:58.680 "Would you become used to changes of social interaction?" 37:58.679 --> 38:01.759 An example is solitary confinement or prison. 38:01.760 --> 38:04.130 People get used to a lot of things. 38:04.130 --> 38:07.180 It could be that in those examples there is a shift in 38:07.181 --> 38:10.401 status as well and social relationships and how you think 38:10.404 --> 38:13.694 of yourself relative to others so that may be difficult to 38:13.686 --> 38:17.046 recover from. If you're popular at Yale and 38:17.051 --> 38:21.281 you go to prison you're not going to be very happy your 38:21.281 --> 38:24.181 first few days in prison probably. 38:24.179 --> 38:26.969 But then suppose you get popular in prison, 38:26.973 --> 38:29.833 people like you, you're the head of the book 38:29.833 --> 38:31.433 club and everything. 38:31.429 --> 38:33.839 [laughter] You'd rather not be in 38:33.841 --> 38:38.141 prison--been in prison but you'll probably be a pretty--if 38:38.136 --> 38:42.126 you're a cheerful guy here you'll be a cheerful guy in 38:42.130 --> 38:45.810 prison. The final case is--involves 38:45.809 --> 38:50.909 judgments of the pleasure and pain of past events. 38:50.909 --> 38:54.499 And I mentioned the Nobel prize a little while ago as an example 38:54.502 --> 38:57.922 but the work I'm going to talk about is actually from the one 38:57.924 --> 39:01.464 psychologist who's alive who's won the Nobel prize--sorry, 39:01.460 --> 39:05.640 one of the ones who's won the Nobel prize, Daniel Kahneman. 39:05.639 --> 39:09.149 And he became interested in happiness. 39:09.150 --> 39:12.590 And you remember him from his rationality research and this is 39:12.590 --> 39:14.000 some work on happiness. 39:14.000 --> 39:15.940 Here's an example. 39:15.940 --> 39:18.490 Anybody see the movie Marathon Man? 39:18.489 --> 39:22.259 It involves a dental torture scene. 39:22.260 --> 39:28.350 Imagine you're going to the dentist and he's torturing you 39:28.354 --> 39:33.704 or it's a cleaning but it's really painful and it's 39:33.700 --> 39:36.060 terrible. You're sweaty, 39:36.062 --> 39:39.882 you're squeezing the thing, and it lasts for an hour and 39:39.880 --> 39:43.420 then when it's done the dentist leans over and says, 39:43.421 --> 39:47.181 "We're done now. If you want we could stop. 39:47.179 --> 39:50.259 But if you want, as a favor to you – I have 39:50.264 --> 39:54.474 five minutes – I could top you off with some mild pain." 39:54.469 --> 39:58.359 This may seem like a very odd thing to ask. 39:58.360 --> 39:59.660 Here's the alternative. 39:59.660 --> 40:01.120 What do you want? 40:01.119 --> 40:06.379 A dental procedure that's very painful for an hour or a dental 40:06.375 --> 40:11.625 procedure that's very painful for an hour--sorry about the "S" 40:11.630 --> 40:15.680 there --and then some additional mild pain? 40:15.680 --> 40:18.690 Who votes for A? You got to choose one. 40:18.690 --> 40:21.900 Who votes for A? Okay. 40:21.900 --> 40:24.790 Who votes for B? Okay. 40:24.790 --> 40:28.410 Here's the big finding. 40:28.409 --> 40:32.769 The big finding is "yes," B involves more pain. 40:32.770 --> 40:36.220 It's true. "A" is an hour of pain. 40:36.219 --> 40:41.529 "B" is an hour of pain plus a few minutes of more pain. 40:41.530 --> 40:46.960 Seems like a no-brainer but when you have A or B and you 40:46.958 --> 40:52.778 have to remember it later on you'll have a much nicer memory 40:52.780 --> 40:56.600 of B than A. Kahneman's insight is when you 40:56.601 --> 41:00.711 think back on events you don't just add up the amount of 41:00.710 --> 41:03.400 pleasure or pain you experienced. 41:03.400 --> 41:08.410 Rather, your memory is highly skewed to peaks and then to 41:08.414 --> 41:11.884 endings. And you could imagine this. 41:11.880 --> 41:14.510 In the first case, "A," you leave and say, 41:14.507 --> 41:16.427 "Oh, God, that was terrible. 41:16.430 --> 41:18.590 Oh." "B," you leave and say, 41:18.588 --> 41:20.228 "Oh, that was mildly painful. 41:20.230 --> 41:23.780 There was something terrible in the middle there but it ended 41:23.776 --> 41:24.896 okay, mild pain." 41:24.900 --> 41:27.970 It turns out, in general, endings matter a 41:27.970 --> 41:30.270 lot. Kahneman did his research with 41:30.273 --> 41:33.983 – both in a laboratory where you could make – give people 41:33.980 --> 41:37.440 mild pain by getting them to stick their hand in freezing 41:37.440 --> 41:40.780 cold water and with people undergoing extremely painful 41:40.776 --> 41:42.626 colonoscopy procedures. 41:42.630 --> 41:46.330 And it turns out that if you want to give people a good 41:46.327 --> 41:50.897 memory, or a less bad memory, of a horrible event topping 41:50.898 --> 41:55.248 them off with some mild pain will do the trick. 41:55.250 --> 41:58.430 In the end, endings matter. 41:58.429 --> 42:02.369 Both of these examples, a party that's hugely fun for 42:02.372 --> 42:05.412 ninety percent, then the last ten percent 42:05.405 --> 42:09.415 somebody slaps you in the face and pours dip on you or 42:09.423 --> 42:11.853 something-- [laughter] So, 42:11.849 --> 42:15.499 ninety percent of good stuff, ten percent bad stuff, 42:15.499 --> 42:19.789 versus ninety percent people are slapping you and pouring dip 42:19.792 --> 42:22.872 on you [laughter] but then ten percent, 42:22.869 --> 42:26.209 whoa, that was a really good--when you think back on it, 42:26.210 --> 42:31.140 if you just added it up, "A" would be much better but 42:31.137 --> 42:38.307 "B" has this huge pull because of the power of how things end 42:38.309 --> 42:40.819 so endings matter. 42:40.820 --> 42:43.780 So, I'm going to end things now. 42:43.780 --> 42:45.220 I'm first going to do a few things. 42:45.219 --> 42:48.809 Before saying anything more, I want to thank the teaching 42:48.809 --> 42:50.609 fellows. There's Sunny Bang, 42:50.612 --> 42:52.262 Erik Cheries, Jane Erickson, 42:52.264 --> 42:55.144 Izzat Jarudi, Greg Laun, and Koleen McCrink. 42:55.140 --> 43:00.330 I think they did a superb job. 43:00.329 --> 43:07.339 [applause] We've basically reviewed all 43:07.335 --> 43:12.385 the psychology. Here is a promissory note we 43:12.393 --> 43:15.693 started with at the beginning of this semester. 43:15.690 --> 43:20.600 I think you are now in a position to answer or at least 43:20.602 --> 43:24.062 consider answers about these topics, 43:24.059 --> 43:27.199 about topics such as dreams, testimony, disgust, 43:27.199 --> 43:29.269 memory, depression, language, 43:29.269 --> 43:33.309 humor, and even a little bit about good and evil. 43:33.309 --> 43:36.479 This is an--a broad intro survey class, 43:36.481 --> 43:41.241 and the field of psychology is broad and we've just gotten 43:41.238 --> 43:44.068 started. If you're interested, 43:44.070 --> 43:46.510 this is a great department. 43:46.510 --> 43:50.350 There are some amazing scholars here and some amazing teachers 43:50.350 --> 43:53.940 and there are courses that go into detail about just about 43:53.938 --> 43:55.888 every topic I talked about. 43:55.889 --> 44:00.319 If you're interested in memory or social interaction or mental 44:00.323 --> 44:04.033 illness, I could point you to some great courses. 44:04.030 --> 44:07.320 I'm not taking any sophomore advisees next year because I'm 44:07.321 --> 44:10.731 on leave in the fall but you should feel free to come talk to 44:10.725 --> 44:13.785 me if you want any specific advice or suggestions. 44:13.789 --> 44:18.099 Now, I know not all of you are going to end up majoring in 44:18.097 --> 44:20.737 psychology. Some of you will choose 44:20.742 --> 44:23.272 cognitive science instead [laughter] 44:23.272 --> 44:27.612 but on a more serious note I know for some of you this is the 44:27.610 --> 44:31.730 last--maybe the first but the last psychology class you'll 44:31.731 --> 44:34.841 ever take. And so I want to close this 44:34.836 --> 44:37.196 course by emphasizing two themes. 44:37.199 --> 44:41.469 The first one is a bit of humility. 44:41.469 --> 44:44.569 There are some very basic questions about the mind – and 44:44.565 --> 44:47.165 I've tried to be honest about this throughout the 44:47.172 --> 44:50.272 course--There are some very basic questions about the mind 44:50.268 --> 44:52.548 that nobody knows the answer to yet. 44:52.550 --> 44:56.350 We know the brain is the source of mental life but we don't have 44:56.345 --> 44:59.835 any understanding at all about exactly how this happens, 44:59.840 --> 45:02.740 about how a physical object, a lump of meat, 45:02.736 --> 45:05.426 can give rise to conscious experience. 45:05.429 --> 45:08.489 We know that about half of the variants in personality, 45:08.493 --> 45:10.993 about half the differences between people, 45:10.989 --> 45:14.429 are due to genetic factors but we don't know how to explain 45:14.430 --> 45:16.270 where the other half happens. 45:16.269 --> 45:20.239 It has to be experienced but we have no real good theories of 45:20.235 --> 45:24.135 the sort of experience that makes one person adventurous and 45:24.135 --> 45:28.675 another one timid, one bitter and one satisfied. 45:28.679 --> 45:32.569 We know a lot about the social influences that can drive people 45:32.565 --> 45:36.135 to do terrible things to one another but we don't know the 45:36.137 --> 45:39.767 answer to the maybe harder question of why some of us--some 45:39.772 --> 45:42.532 people are immune to these influences, 45:42.530 --> 45:46.360 why some people do good things, perhaps even heroic things, 45:46.355 --> 45:50.505 regardless of the circumstances that they find themselves in. 45:50.510 --> 45:53.160 So, there's an enormous amount left to do. 45:53.159 --> 45:57.099 It's an exciting field just because there's just so much 45:57.095 --> 45:59.165 more we need to understand. 45:59.170 --> 46:02.180 The second theme is more optimistic. 46:02.179 --> 46:05.579 And this is the idea that we're going to eventually come to 46:05.575 --> 46:09.255 answer these questions and many more questions through the sorts 46:09.264 --> 46:12.254 of methods we've been discussing this semester, 46:12.250 --> 46:15.020 through constructing scientific theories, 46:15.019 --> 46:17.789 evolution--evolutionary, neurological, 46:17.789 --> 46:20.869 developmental, computational and testing them 46:20.869 --> 46:24.299 through experimental and observational methods. 46:24.300 --> 46:27.580 This is the idea that, in the end, the most important 46:27.579 --> 46:29.849 and intimate aspects of ourselves, 46:29.849 --> 46:32.469 our beliefs and emotions, our capacities to make 46:32.471 --> 46:35.821 decisions, even our sense of right and wrong can be explained 46:35.818 --> 46:39.108 through constructing and testing scientific hypotheses. 46:39.110 --> 46:41.870 Now, the reason why I'm optimistic is I think there's 46:41.867 --> 46:44.937 been some success stories where we really have learned some 46:44.943 --> 46:48.123 surprising and important things about the mind and there's no 46:48.124 --> 46:51.094 reason to expect this way of proceeding to fail us in the 46:51.094 --> 46:53.974 future. In my very--in the very first 46:53.968 --> 46:58.198 class on the brain I ended by talking about people's worries 46:58.196 --> 47:00.266 here, and I'll be honest, 47:00.271 --> 47:03.671 that some people find it a scary prospect. 47:03.670 --> 47:07.290 Some people believe that a scientific approach to the mind 47:07.292 --> 47:11.112 takes the "special-ness" away from people, that it diminishes 47:11.106 --> 47:15.316 us somehow. And I don't agree. 47:15.320 --> 47:18.050 If there's anything I've tried to persuade you through the 47:18.046 --> 47:20.766 course, it's that the more you look at the mind and how it 47:20.773 --> 47:23.743 works from a serious scientific point of view the more you come 47:23.739 --> 47:27.629 to appreciate its complexities, uniqueness, and its beauty. 47:27.630 --> 47:29.860 This has been a great course to teach. 47:29.860 --> 47:35.000 Thank you for coming and good luck on the Final.