How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Own Happiness?

Positive psychology was once revolutionary for the way it turned away from studying and treating dysfunction in individuals toward examining the practices and traits that helped people to flourish

Unfortunately, this focus on the individual led many researchers and teachers to consciously reject structural explanations for individual misfortune and unhappiness

• The evidence for how social forces can undermine or enhance happiness goes well beyond America's determination to marginalize and oppress racial minorities, revealing that any inequality hurts well-being.
• Groups (and often countries) with less power, income, or wealth just aren't as happy as those who have more.
• Only people in the lower half of the income range felt less happy; people who made more money seemed fine as inequality rose.
• A 2011 study found that Americans became less happy as income inequality grew-but not all Americans.

• Happiness inequality was already rising alongside income and wealth inequality in the years before COVID-19.
• During the pandemic, it appears that well-being became even more difficult for some than others.
• We have created institutions and policies to mitigate the impact of disease.
• The more stringent a country’s policies in restricting citizens’ movements and behavior, the worse they felt.
• These policies were situational, meaning that the circumstances made happiness seemingly impossible for the majority of people.

Many organizations continue to emphasize "easy steps" and "quick fixes" that will make you as an individual happier.

These companies discount or underestimate the power of social forces in shaping our happiness and life satisfaction.

We need to look beyond tips and tools for individual improvement, toward the ways we can create a social tide that will lift as many boats as possible.