Published: August 02, 2008 07:03 pm            

Mark Bennett: In tough times like these, what kind of people hold up best?

TERRE HAUTE — Humans could get along swimmingly if we wore our dispositions like sports jerseys. Big, bold letters emblazoned across our chests — “SAD” … “IRRITATED” … “OVERJOYED.”

There would be no surprises. If your mood changed, so would the uniform. We’d know who to avoid, and with whom to commiserate.

“Oh, look, honey, there’s another furious couple over there. Let’s introduce ourselves.” Or, “Bill, I didn’t realize you were an angry guy. Was it the gas prices?” Or, “I never dreamed there’d be this many happy people waiting in line at the license branch.”

Life is far more complex, though we still try to define and label each other.

A Gallup poll, cited in the Wall Street Journal last week, asked 1,200 American adults how often they were outraged. On average, these folks had been outraged 1.17 days per week. Fifty-four percent were never outraged, but 1 out of 20 insisted they were outraged every day. (Apparently, they calmed down long enough to answer the pollsters’ questions.)

On Friday, a Pew Research Center study identified four new sub-categories of the nation’s middle class — the “Top of the Class,” the “Struggling Middle,” the “Satisfied Middle” and the “Anxious Middle.” Of course, because the “Satisfied Middle” includes mostly the old and the young, the young will inevitably migrate toward the middle ground between the “Satisfied Middle” and the “Anxious Middle,” which includes the mostly middle-aged.

At the heart of both surveys is a reality genuinely felt right here in the Wabash Valley. Demeanors are being tested by job losses, surging gas and food prices, an unending and costly war, flood damages, sinking home values, and rising foreclosures.

On a scale of 1 at the bottom to 10 at the top, the stress level of the community is between 7 and 8, estimated Tara Williams, executive director of the Family Service Association, a United Way-supported counseling agency.

“Depression is up. Anxiety is up. Anger is up. People aren’t taking time off because they think they can’t afford it. People are choosing between fuel and prescriptions and new school clothes,” Williams said. “People are just stressed.” On a recent weekend, her office got reports of four domestic disputes involving men battered by women.

The climate begs the question, are happy people a minority right here and now?

If anyone can be labeled a happiness expert, that title most aptly suits Ed Diener and his son, Robert Biswas-Diener. Diener, 62, has studied that mysterious topic for three decades as a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Illinois. Biswas-Diener lectures at Portland State University and is nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of positive psychology.” Together, they’ve compiled a new book, due out next month, called, “Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth.”

They’ve found that happiness pays, and it’s possible everywhere, albeit in varying degrees.

The forces of the current economic downturn dampens hopes, acknowledged Biswas-Diener, 36.

“I think there is a sense of insecurity that the cost of living is out of our hands,” he said by telephone last week from Portland. “That psychological insecurity does take its toll on our level of happiness.”

Yet, even in the most bleak surroundings, people can find joy, he added.

During research for the book, Biswas-Diener surveyed Indians living in the slums of Calcutta. They dwelled in squalor, dealt with rampant disease, and struggled to buy food and water. Yet, amazingly, when Biswas-Diener asked them to rate their happiness on a scale of 1-to-10, most chose at least a modest 5.

“How do these people buffer themselves against these atrocious life experiences?” Biswas-Diener asked himself.

Well, in those villages, families and couples remained intact. In spite of these dreary living conditions, Biswas-Diener saw these people socializing with friends and neighbors, cooking meals together, gathering between their dwellings to talk, and even laughing.

“Those kinds of interactions — whether you’re in Calcutta, Bloomington, Indiana or Terre Haute — are free,” he said. “Having your buddies come over to play cards is pretty inexpensive, versus buying a speedboat and going water skiing.”

A hint of dissatisfaction isn’t unhealthy, either, the “Happiness” authors conclude. Whether you’re trying to reshape your career or defeat a serious illness, people who consider themselves an 8 on the happiness scale tend to do better than 10s, Biswas-Diener said. A college student with an 8-level of happiness will turn in better homework and outperform a classmate who’s coasting as a blissful 10. Likewise, a cancer patient who’s a 10 might treat a doctor’s orders with less urgency and seriousness than a more realistic 8.

Williams agrees with that concept. “The pessimists are so busy ruminating — ‘Ain’t it awful?’ — they don’t get anything done,” she said. And the 9s and 10s “don’t see problems coming until it’s too late.”

Staying high, but not too high, on the happiness scale pays off. The 7s and 8s enjoy better health, marriages and relationships, careers and longevity. Of course, that sounds like a chicken-and-egg dilemma — if you’ve got health, love, a good job and long life, then you’ll be happy, right? So which comes first? And what can we do about it?

Pursue happiness not rabidly, but wisely, Biswas-Diener suggests.

Spending what money you have on others and on experiences with others “is a great way to promote happiness,” he said. “If you have 25 dollars, you can spend it on downloading iTunes for yourself, or you can spend it on taking your family to Turkey Run State Park. The latter is going to have the greater happiness dividend than the other.”

In the film “The Pursuit of Happyness,” a San Francisco salesman survives homelessness while caring for his young son and working as an unpaid intern in hopes of eventually landing a stockbroker’s job. Actor Will Smith studied the Declaration of Independence while preparing for the starring role of the real-life Chris Gardner.

“All you have to know to understand how brilliant Thomas Jefferson was, is the promise he wrote to Americans: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Smith told the Detroit Free Press in 2006. “He didn’t say we deserved happiness, or that the government could provide it. It’s the pursuit that matters — the opportunity to make that pursuit. That’s what makes America unique.”

Sounds like a great label for a shirt.



Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

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