The How of Happiness: My Interview with Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. is the author of the book  The How of Happiness . She is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside.  Her research has been written up in dozens of magazines and newspapers and she has appeared in multiple TV shows, radio shows, and feature documentaries in North America and Europe.  I’ve talked about her work at this site many times, so I was very pleased when she graciously agreed to this interview.

1.  Why are people so interested in happiness?

Because happiness in some ways is the Holy Grail!  Most people around the world report attaining happiness as one of their top goals in life.  In part this is because it feels good to be happy.  But I don’t think that fully explains the motivation to pursue happiness.  I think of happiness as a meta-construct – that is, if you are happy, you are more likely to have other “resources,” like optimism, self-esteem, sociability, energy, etc.  Furthermore, as my colleagues and I have shown, happy people are more likely to achieve success in life in multiple domains.  That is, if you are a happy person, you are more likely to get married, to make friends, to have a bolstered immune function, to live longer, to be more creative and productive, to earn more money, to be more helpful and philanthropic, and both to like people more and to be liked more by others.  So there are many reasons to be interested in happiness.

2.  What do we know about how work affects one’s overall happiness?

We know that people who have jobs that give them autonomy and variety are happier.  We know that people who have jobs that pay more are happier.  And we know that people who have higher-status jobs are slightly happier and healthier.  Finally, we also know that people who perceive their jobs as “callings” (rather than merely as “jobs” or “careers,” the latter simply being jobs with advancement) are happier.  So, in part, we have control over how happy our jobs can make us.  Of course, dead-end, monotonous, low-paying jobs are associated with unhappiness and stress.  Another important point, however, is that some of these correlations are due to happiness affecting work rather than the other way around.  In other words, happier people are more likely to obtain good jobs, high supervisor ratings, more help from colleagues, and better pay.  So the relationship between happiness and work is bi-directional.

3.  Does happiness affect how well one performs at work?

Yes, studies have shown that happier people – and people who experience more positive emotions – are more productive at work, more creative and flexible in their ideas, obtain higher praise from supervisors and coworkers, and earn more promotions, and higher pay.  Happier people are more likely to get a job interview, to get second interviews, and to get hired.  They are less likely to burn out, to quit, to engage in sabotaging work behaviors, and to be fired. They are also better organizational citizens and, in some studies, show higher performance (e.g., selling more widgets or earning more favorable customer evaluations).

4.  What is the biggest myth about happiness?

Well, there are many!  I would say the top two are (1) that happiness is genetic (i.e., you either have it or you don’t) and (2) that happiness can be found in circumstantial changes (i.e., I’ll only be happy when X happens).  Research shows that a large part of happiness is explained by what people do and how they think.  So even when X changes, if you’re an unhappy person, you’ll still remain an unhappy person, unless you change the way you think and the way you act.

Thanks, Sonja!

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Tags: happiness at work, optimism, Sonja Lyubomirsky
Posted in Happiness, Leadership, interviews