Is Happiness Dispositional or Situational?
I did it again. Not for the first time, I thought that I understood something and then I read a book that forces me to re-think my assumptions about what I thought I knew was true. In this case, I read Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect. Zimbardo says that many disciplines take a dispositional view For example, a dispostional view of happiness is that happiness is "inside" an individual). It "belongs" to the individual. However, social psychologists tend to take a situational view oft hings. Yes, individuals are important but how they feel and behave depend on the group dynamics and other environmental factors. If that is the case, happiness would be an attribute "shared" by all group members when the social dynamics are just right. I will probably need a few months to do some more reading and think about it before I can formulate my opinion on this question.
Can You Find Happiness By Taking Drugs?
For the last couple of weeks, I have focused my literature review (which never stops)on the question whether one can find happiness by taking drugs. The answer seems obvious: No. But why? Aren't drugs "sources of pleasure"? Let's briefly talk about the process of addiction. Whenever we do something, there are chemical reactions in our brains and electrical pathways are created on the surface of our brain. From a purely scientific perspective, happiness is what happens when certain chemicals are released in the brain. These chemicals can be released by taking certain substances (like alcohol, cigarettes, soft drugs or hard drugs)or by behaving in a certain way (like sexual relationships, shopping, working hard and being rewarded by the boss and so forth). Such behaviour creates stronger pathways in the brain. Repetition of such behaviour leads to deeper pathways. Ultimately, addiction arises when the structure of the brain (it's anatomy) and the way it is organized (physiology)changes so that the anatomy and physiology of an addict's brain is different from that of a normal person. Typically, addiction leads to a harmful way of living where short-term pleasure is always followed by long-term pain. The funny thing is that we now know - scientifically - that such an approach to finding happiness is totally counter-productive. We also know - scientifically - that one of the best ways to find happiness is through developing a spiritual connection with God. Andrew Newberg and Robert Waldman in their book "How God Changes Your Brain" tells of research in which brain scans of people who did not meditate (i.e. "baseline scans")were compared to brain scans of people who did meditate (i.e. "meditation scans"). They found that meditation and prayer did much more to stimulate the parts of the brain that leads to internal peace of mind. However, there is ONE CONDITION. Andrew Newberg and Robert Waldam found that when people perceived God as being a tyrant, the brain released chemicals that lead to a situation of fear and anti-social behaviour. When people perceived God as being loving, kind and merciful, the brain released chemicals that lead to happiness and pro-social behaviour.
Happiness: A summary of the literature so far
Happiness is something people have been seeking since the dawn of humanity. For many centuries, people assumed that happiness was linked to good character (the Greeks in particular). In those days, happiness was a concept that we would translate roughly as "peace of mind" rather than "enjoyment". With the advent of Islam, the Qur'an tells us about the source of unhappiness (our desires as described in 57:20) and the source of happiness (remembering Allah in 13:28). As history continued and the paradigms found in the west started to influence the rest of the world, a shift started. Happiness became about possessing things and achieving goals (I am referring to Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project" which I reviewed in April 2012 in this blog). The paradox is that we have limited resources and unlimited wants. Thus, we can never be happy unless and until we control our wants. In particular, we need to be able to deal with problems effectively. For the last 30 years, many psychologists have worked on understanding the psychological processes linked to happiness (i.e. people like Martin Seligman). Underlying all of this, the assumption is still that people can create happiness for themselves. Most people assume that you won't find happiness by referring to Revelation. I now come to the Happy in Islam project. In 2008, I had a Malay student that was having problems in his academic performance. I tried all the usual stuff - explaining the need for setting goals, managing time, learning more effective study skills - and so forth. Nothing worked. Not giving up, I asked him to watch Islamic videos. It turned out that his difficulties were rooted in his pessimistic view of the future. If you believe that tomorrow is going to be worse than today, there is no reason for you to plan for tomorrow. You just want to enjoy today. When I joined the International Islamic University Malaysia in 2010, I tried to get my class to watch Islamic videos on a weekly basis. It worked for 75% of students. I have now done this project with over 700 students and the results are almost always the same. I have used questionnaires that measure spiritual intelligence so I have an idea of which constructs change significantly every semester. With the launching of the Productive Teens project starting in 2014, we will see whether we can see a similar pattern with Malay youth. If we do, then the data will confirm the ayat in 13:28 "Those who believe and whose hearts are set at rest by the remembrance of Allah; now surely by Allah's remembrance are the hearts set at rest."
Surah Al Hadid, Ayat 20: Real Happiness as described in the Qur'an
This is lecture by Nouman Ali Khan. He gives an explanation of 57:20. It describes five stages of happiness: play, entertainment, beautification, pride and spending money on children. An insightful look into happiness from the perspective of the Qur'an.
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