Summary PSY4001 Self Regulation tutorial 5

Self-Regulation 05


Lecture



DIENER, E., LUCAS, R. E., & SCOLLON, C. N. (2006). BEYOND THE
HEDONIC TREADMILL: REVISING THE ADAPTATION THEORY
OF WELL-BEING

Hedonic treadmill model (Brickman + Campbell (1971))

Processes similar to sensory adaptation occur when people experience emotional
reactions to life events
One’s emotion system adjusts to one’s current life
circumstances + all reactions are relative to one’s prior
experience
adaptation is a key to understand happiness
People briefly react to good + bad events, but in a short time they return to
neutrality
thus, happiness + unhappiness are merely short-lived reactions to changes in
people’s circumstances

The hedonic treadmill theory is built on an automatic
habituation model, in which psychological systems react to
deviations from one’s current adaptation level

Automatic habituation processes: are adaptive, because they allow
constant stimuli to fade into the background
thus, resources remain available to deal with novel stimuli, which are
most likely to require immediate attention
Lottery winners are not happier than nonwinners
People appear to be relatively stable in happiness despite changes in fortune
Treadmill theory explains the observation that:
People with substantial resources are sometimes no happier than those with few
resources
People with severe problems are sometimes quite happy
Parts of the hedonic treadmill model have received robust empirical support

, eg. after death of spouse: emotional reactions eventually rebound after this
major life event

5 notions of the hedonic treadmill model:

People’s set points are hedonically neutral
There are no differences between individual set points/ they do not vary
across people
Well-being is a single entity with a single baseline
People cannot do much to change their long-term levels of happiness + life
satisfaction
Adaptation to circumstances occurs in similar ways for all individuals


5 important revisions of the treadmill model are needed:


Revision 1: Nonneutral set points

- Most people are happy most of the time
- If people adapt + return to a baseline, it
is a positive rather than a neutral one
Revision 2: Individual set points
- People do have set points that vary considerably across individuals
🡪 these individual differences are these individual differences are due, at least in part, to inborn,
personality-based influences
- Personality factors may predispose people to experience different
levels of well-being

, Revision 3: multiple set points

- The global category of happiness is composed of separable well-being variables
🡪 these individual differences are those variables sometimes more in different directions over time
- positive + negative emotions might both decline in tandem or life
satisfaction might move upward while positive emotions decrease
🡺 different forms of well-being can move in different directions
- different people change at different rates + in different directions
- changes in one domain do not fully correspond to changes in other domains
- long-term levels of negative affect are substantially more stable than
are long-term levels of positive affect
🡪 these individual differences are the stability of pos. affect + life satisfaction declines with longer time
periods, whereas the stability of negative affect did not
- stable individual baselines might be more characteristic of negative effect than
positive affect
🡪 these individual differences are BUT, over a period of a few years, life satisfaction was most stable

Revision 4: Happiness can change

- there are well-being differences across nations
🡪 these individual differences are they differ in life satisfaction
🡪 these individual differences are wealth + human rights of nations were strong predictors of average national well-
being
- long-term levels of happiness do change for some people
🡪 these individual differences are even though researchers found a considerable stability in happiness
reports, 24% of respondents changed significantly for their early
baseline
- people can adapt to some life events
🡪 these individual differences are the extent of adaptation varies for different life events
- happiness can & does change
🡪 these individual differences are eg. People with spinal cord injuries are less happy than people in the general
population

Revision 5: individual differences in adaptation

- individual differences in the rate + extent of adaptation that occurs
even to the same event have been found
🡪 these individual differences are the size + even the direction of the change in life satisfaction varied
considerably across people
- People who chronically experience many pos. events may have less to gain
from one more positive events; likewise, people who chronically experience