Pursuing happiness can end up
leading to depression
Brits and Americans were most likely to end up depressed after striving for contentment
F
ocusing too much on the need to enjoy
experiences might actually be contributing to
depressive symptoms, academics suspect,
although it could apply to only people from Britain and
the United States.
A study published in the Journal of Happiness
Studies suggests that placing too much value on
feeling happy has the effect of lowering one’s ability to
enjoy experiences, possibly even leading to symptoms
of depression.
The relationship between valuing happiness and
depressive symptoms is significantly shaped by the
culture people are from, the study suggests.
Participants from the UK were used in a bid
to assess how they tallied with previous studies
conducted in the US.
A strong association was found in British
participants, while other participants from the
European Union and elsewhere did not display it the
same way.
“We observed that the inability of participants to
focus attention while feeling a range of emotions was
a major factor in this idea of not being able to savour a
positive experience,” said Dr Julia Vogt, a University of
Reading psychologist, on the release of the paper.
“The relationship between valuing happiness and
depressive symptoms was seen far more significantly
in UK participants than those from other nationalities
or dual citizens,” she said.
Though the team did not go as far as testing out the
differences between nationalities, the results suggest
a significant divide between English-speaking Western
cultures and others in how the value they place on
experiencing happiness shapes their experiences and
mood.
“The authors offer a number of possible
mechanisms that might underlie this association,
including maladaptive emotion regulation and
impaired attentional control, as well as the intriguing
possibility that this effect is culturally bound,” Dr
Muireann Irish, an associate professor of cognitive
neuroscience at Sydney University’s Brain and Mind
Centre, told Global Health Asia-Pacific.
While the suggestion that people who place
disproportionate emphasis on obtaining happiness
may set unrealistic standards for the experience
of happiness in terms of its frequency, duration,
and intensity is certainly interesting, whether these
expectations result in disappointment or a reduced
capacity to enjoy pleasurable experiences remains
unclear.
GlobalHealthAndTravel.com
“This would certainly parallel the common
observation of anhedonia, or lack of pleasure, that we
see in clinical depression,” she added.
Also, it is not possible to make any causal
assumptions about the relationship between valuing
happiness and depressive symptoms. This would lead
to a critical issue in the directionality of the link.
Also, the sample’s use of predominantly female
psychology undergraduates might display a
heightened disposition to mental health disorders,
which in turn leads to an increased focus on the
attainment of happiness, Dr Irish speculated.
Data exploring social media use among the
participants might also be useful.
“There is considerable evidence to suggest that
social media use and exposure to heavily curated
feeds depicting ideals of happiness can exacerbate
depression and anxiety symptoms in vulnerable
populations,” she said.
MARCH 2020
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