Happiness on MSNBC

Check out this interview on MSNBC with Psychiatrist Dr. Donald E. Rosen, conducted by MSNBC health editor Jane Weaver. I’m breaking it down FJM-style.

Q. What does it mean to be happy? How do scientists measure it?

I’m asking you because, as a psychiatrist, you are clearly the sort of person most qualified to provide a conceptual analysis of happiness. I can’t think of a single other sort of person in the world with more expertise in this area. Not one.   Shut up, Valerie Tiberius, I said not one and I meant it.

A. Positive emotional style is typified by a more happy mood, feelings of liveliness and calmness.

Whoa there, Dr. Rosen! The question was: what does it mean to be happy? Not: what typifies a positive emotional style? Are you presupposing that happiness just is having a positive emotional style?  And are you then explaining what it means to have a positive emotional style in terms of the notion of a “happy mood”? Because if you are, that would be like totally circular. Dr. Rosen, we are off to a really bad start here. Maybe you’d like to start over?

But it gets very hard to specify if my scale of 1 to 10 is like your scale. How happy are you on a scale of 1 to 10? It’s relative to you. The measures are inherently subjective.

I could not agree more with the claim that happiness is relative. How happy I am is determined by facts about me, while how happy you are is determined by facts about you. It’s also inherently subjective: how happy I am is determined by my own subjective mental states. That’s what you’re saying, right Dr. Rosen?

Q. What is really meant by a positive emotional style and how does it affect our health?

Good follow-up question, Jane Weaver. You should be a philosopher!

Part of having a positive emotional style is a feeling of calmness. Research shows that happier people have a lower resting pulse at work, as well as at leisure.

This would be a great answer to the question: can you tell me one part of having a positive emotional style?

Q. What about personal achievement? Are more successful people happier?

Please say no, please say no…

The relationship between achievement and happiness yields a mixed bag. There’s a common misconception that people who are high achievers are happier. For example, actors who won an Academy Award lived on average four years longer than other nominees. Those who won two lived six years longer. But screenwriters who won an Academy Award lived three years shorter than the other nominees. Even though the Award-winning screenwriters had longer careers, they didn't live as long.

But… but… Dr. Rosen, the question was about happiness, and your response isn’t about happiness at all, but longevity… and your evidence doesn’t even really show… AAAAAHHH (head explodes)

To paraphrase Gandhi, happiness is when what you think, you say and what you do are consistent with each other and are consistent with your values.

Now we’re talking! A conceptual analysis of happiness! Here’s the analysis, which I will call the Gandhi/Rosen account:

GR: Person S is happy at time t =df. what S thinks at t, what S says at t, what S does at t and what S values at t are consistent with each other.

If you can’t come up with a counterexample to GR in less than 2.3 seconds, you are not a PEA Souper! Take that, Psychiatrist Dr. Donald E. Rosen M.D.!

Comments

[Valerie Tiberius]

Ben,
So hard to know what to say! But I take your telling me to shut up as a personal invitation. (And motivation to get with the fast pace of pea-souping).

One thing to say is that not all psychologists are this... oblivious to the subtleties of conceptual analysis. Many are quite explicit about defining terms for specific purposes and they often claim to be studying a relatively uncontroversial *part* of one very general end (such as well-being' or 'the good life'), thus leaving real analysis to others (us?)

[Valerie Tiberius]

P.S. What's "trackback"?

[Ben Bradley]

Valerie, are you suggesting that Jane Weaver, health editor at MSNBC.com, didn't choose an appropriate person to ask about the nature of happiness? Hogwash!

(I'm not sure what "Trackback" is. I just click every possible box when I post something, just to be safe.)

[Mark]

The trackback link will show who has linked to this post. So, if Dr. Donald E. Rosen M.D. decided to post a reply to Ben's post—imagine that!—on another blog and he linked to it, it would show up here on PEA Soup as a trackback.