Happiness in Relation to Neuroscientific and Evolutionary Approaches - Essay Example

Happiness in relation to Neuroscientific and Evolutionary Approaches al Affiliation Happiness in relation to Neuroscientific and Evolutionary Approaches The pursuit of happiness is what drives mankind. It motivates human beings to engage in different activities because for all people happiness in the ultimate good. Going to church, searching for employment, going to church, stealing engaging in corruption, going to school, having family, engaging in marriage and among other activities are meant to find people happiness. Of all the goals that people have in life, happiness is the goal and is an end in itself. Power, money, wealth, beauty and success can only make sense if they provide one with happiness. To all people, life would be worthless if happiness was excluded in it. This has made many ask one important question which is, is the human brain wired for happiness? This paper discusses happiness in relation to neuroscientific and evolutionary approaches. The evolutionary imperatives to survival and reproduction are the associated reward. Human beings consciously and unconsciously experience this pleasure and contemplate the elusive prospect of happiness (Williams, 2013). From time immemorial, it can be stated that all human beings have consciously predicted and anticipated the outcome of their choices and actions and this has always influenced the decisions that they make with respect to whatever they want to do (Naor, Ben-Ze’ey & Okon-Singer, 2014). For example, before one makes a decision of engaging in a fight with another person, he has to consciously predict or anticipate a win in that fight because he or she will get some pleasure or happiness from it. However, if he or she anticipates failure, then it is likely that the fight will be avoided at all costs. Happiness is what guides people to do most things from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they go to sleep. This is not a new concept because the aspect of happiness has not been discovered today but has been in existence for many centuries (Ze’ey & Okon-Singer, 2014). To understand the concept of happiness, neuroscientists and psychologists have started engaging in research and studies to investigate the brain states that are linked to happiness and to consider the relationship of happiness and wellbeing. It is difficult to define happiness in principle because happiness is not an aspect that occurs on its own but in relation to other states such as success among others. Irrespective of the above fact, through studying this phenomenon, scientists have been able to map its empirical features. In addition, neuroscientists have also managed to investigate the functional neuroanatomy of pleasure that contributed to the understanding of happiness (Naor, Ze’ey & Okon-Singer, 2014). Aristotle defined happiness by using two important issues that include hedonia, also known as pleasure and eudemonia, a term used to mean a life that is well lived. Naor, Ben-Ze’ey & Okon-Singer (2014) states, “Whereas eudemonia refers to quality of life as a whole, and especially to an individuals virtuous functioning in life, hedonia refers merely to having good feelings, or getting what you want, or enjoying something you are doing...these two are related and distinct phenomena” (Naor, Ben-Ze’ey & Okon-Singer, 2014). The statement above shows that happiness is not an aspect that is achieved just by the fact of having a quality life but also entails good feelings, enjoyment and achievement in life. It encompasses several things that must exist. When one of these things exist, then it would be sensible to state that one is experiencing please. This means that pleasure should not be confused for happiness. In neuroscience, the description of eudemonia and hedonia are important. According to Kringelbach & Berridge (2010), “in happiness surveys, over 80 percent of people rate their overall eudaimonic life satisfaction as “pretty to very happy,” and comparably, 80 percent also rate their current hedonic mood as positive” (Kringelbach & Berridge, 2010). This shows that the two concepts have been used by neuroscientists as measurable aspects that can contribute to the understanding of the state of happiness. Neuroscientific surveys show indicators of mental well-being in states of happiness but still fail to offer enough evidence of neurobiology of happiness, which contributes to the lack of definition of happiness in neuroscience. Most neuroscientific studies have taken the hedonic side of happiness because it is easy to explain scientifically in terms of the neurobiology of sensory pleasure. Most of the neuroscientific studies have measured the subjective well-being of persons simply by how they feel hedonically to record their hedonic accumulation over a period of time (Kringelbach & Berridge, 2010). This has helped in the development of the link that exists between pleasure and happiness. Kringelbach & Berridge (2010) states, “happiness depends most chiefly on eliminating negative pain and displeasure to free an individual to pursue engagement and meaning” (Kringelbach & Berridge, 2010). This means that when a person experiences pain or any form of displeasure it prevents him or her from experiencing happiness. In the past, pleasure was considered as a different aspect in relation to happiness. However, more recently, psychology recognizes that states such as pleasure are relevant to happiness. Psychology especially neuroscience emphasizes on affect states and shows that a scientific account of happiness must involve hedonic pleasures and displeasures. Berridge & Kringelback (2011) states that hedonic brain systems are highly established in the brain, on both sides of subcortical and cortical levels, and show similarity across humans and other animals. This means that there is a high possibility that happiness is controlled by the brain (Berridge & Kringelback, 2011). As of yet, there is no neuroscience of happiness. However, the fact that pleasure can be proved to originate from the brain means that understanding of happiness from the brain is feasible. Happiness in relation to Evolutionary Approaches Generally, it has been recognized that happiness is an essential aspect in determining quality of life. It is possible to draw correlation between happiness and ways of living. However, happiness has been left to the interpretation of spiritual schools of thought and self help books in the notion that happiness is an issue of emotion and soul. In the evolutionary perspective, the concept of brain modules has been an important aspect when defining a biological theory of happiness. Brain modules currently reflect the manner in which evolution functions. Brain modules do not necessarily correlate with distinct neurological features but rather in functional terms. Two fundamental brain modules can be said to impact on well-being of a person. As Grinde (2010) states, “One is instrumental in the formation of positive affect, i.e., pleasant sensations and emotions, the other is responsible for negative affect. The two modules have been referred to as respectively brain rewards and brain punishment” (Grinde, 2010). The two brain modules evolved for the purpose of directing behaviour towards or way from different actions that a person might engage in. In mammals, evolution has provided a further cognitive appraisal, for instance the modules that develop pleasant and unpleasant feelings as opposed to invertebrates where the modules are not developed more than reflexes. For instance, in humans, the modules are activated in linkage with sensual stimuli and emotions. Nesse (1990) characterizes happiness as an emotion. He states that emotions can be characterizes as specialized states, which are influenced by selction that increases fitness in certain situations. He states, “The general disregard for emotions in: the mid-twentieth century combined with the dominance of behaviourism and rationalism to support the extreme conclusion that the whole concept of emotion was useless-emotions were mere disruptions of normal functioning” (Nesse, 1990). This means that the lack of understanding of emotions made people believe that emotions were useless and disrupted human functioning. However, evolutionary development in the understanding of emotions showed that emotions are important factors as motivators of particular behaviours (Lindquist et.al, 2012). In the past, happiness was understood as an aspect of well-being especially in life. On the foundation of happiness, the standard economic theory explained that individual behaviour resulted from maximization of utility function. The interpretation of this was that the fulfilment of the above resulted to provision of different levels of happiness. According to this view, the level of happiness that one experiences is linked to the actions take and outcomes that one achieves respectively (Grinde, 2002). In Darwinian happiness, an example of an explanation of evolutionary approach to happiness, the brain is the main organ of interest. It explains happiness as an aspect that covers the organization and the physiology of the brain, the immune system, emotions, senses and social programming (Grinde, 2002). Today, happiness has been understood in terms of creation of living conditions that are perfect or in support of a person’s well-being for him to be happy (Rayo & Becker, 2005). However, the mismatch hypothesis shows that such factors are alien to the conditions that shaped people. As such, mismatches result to stress and unhappiness. Grinde (2002) discusses discords that are encountered in life such as inadequate parenting or punishment that leads to unhappiness (Grinde, 2002). In conclusion, both neuroscience and evolutionary approaches offer different explanations in relation to issues of happiness. While different studies acknowledge that there is no neuroscience of happiness as of now, they acknowledge the importance of neuroscience in explaining pleasure in terms of hedonism that offers an analysis of happiness. The evolutionary perspective explains happiness in relation to brain functions. It explains the concept of brain modules and its importance in defining biological theory of happiness. References Berridge, K. C., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2011). Building a neuroscience of pleasure and well- being. Psychology of well-being, 1(1), 1-26. Grinde, B. (2002). Darwinian Happiness: Evolution as a Guide for Living and Understanding Human Behavior. New Jersey: Darwin Press. Grinde, B. (2010). An Evolutionary Perspective on Happiness as Understood in the Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Open Behavioral Science Journal, 4, 31-36. Kringelbach, M. L., & Berridge, K. C. (2010). The neuroscience of happiness and pleasure. Social research, 77(2), 659. Lindquist, K. A., Wager, T. D., Kober, H., Bliss-Moreau, E., & Barrett, L. F. (2012). The brain basis of emotion: a meta-analytic review. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35(03), 121-143. Nesse, R. M. (1990). Evolutionary explanations of emotions. Human nature, 1(3), 261-289. Rayo, L., & Becker, G. S. (2005). On the foundations of happiness. University of Chicago: Mimeo. Naor, N., Ben-Ze’ey, A. & Okon-Singer, H. (2014). Erratum on: The modern search for the Holy Grail: is neuroscience a solution?. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 8. Williams, P. B. (2013). Your Brain on Happiness: The Neuroscience of Joy. Retrieved March 20, 2015 from http://truehomewithin.net/psych2/Dharma_essays_files/essay_joy10_brain_on_happiness2.pdf Read More