An alert student forwarded to me an article in the BBC that relates to our class discussion about the brain’s reward circuitry. The author notes the classic studies of Olds and Milner in rats and Heath in human participants, and updates us on the potential use of brain stimulation.
Tipu Aziz of the Oxford Functional Neurosurgery Group is using self-stimulation via implanted electrodes for pain reduction, but the technique is typically not used for making people “happy.”
Brain stimulation may sound just a bit extreme as a method for finding happiness. What about something less invasive?
In a poll taken by the BBC (the data are available for download for those of you interested in positive psychology), three out of four participants said that they would NOT take a pill that made them happy, even if there were no side effects. It appears that most people are not into quick fixes, but our continuing challenges with drugs of abuse suggest that a lot of people are still searching for artificial routes to happiness.
You might also like a related article in the BBC series that looks at what happens when politicians address happiness. Scary, no? You can also take happiness guru Ed Diener’s happiness study. It’s very quick (5 questions) and straightforward. I scored “highly satisfied,” which is not too surprising given my demographics–married 34 years, nice job, nice children.
I always enjoy the BBC’s “Have Your Say” features, and they have one for the Happiness series that makes for interesting reading, too.
1 Comment
triciagordon3213 · December 5, 2006 at 10:40 pm
I think it’s very interesting that three out of four participants in the BBC poll said they wouldn’t take a pill to make them happy. Between anti-depressants and other orally taken drugs many people are taking pills to make them happy. Many people who suffer from depression take anti-depressents to make them happy in a round-about way. Drugs are also human beings ways of making themselves happy by changing there state of mind so that they don’t think the “unhappy” thoughts anymore.
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