Introduction
Even though happiness is an essential component of human life, there is no clear definition of what it is and what a person can do to achieve it. Different theories suggest a whole number of approaches that converge in some points and diverge in others. However, it is commonly accepted that an individual is likely to become happier and release negative feelings through an act of kindness towards another person (Della Porta, 2012; Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). An act of kindness is understood as a generous deed (benefiting certain people) that requires some effort on behalf of an agent but does not bring him/her any profit (Layous & Lyubomirsky, 2014).
The research at hand is aimed to prove that, to boost happiness through receiving positive emotions, a person should commit more actions that can be referred to as acts of kindness.
Research Methods
The present paper is based on the extensive literature review of the sources investigating the issue of happiness as well as various activities that help enhance personal satisfaction. These studies are analyzed to answer the following research questions: 1) How are acts of kindness related to happiness? 2) Which of them are the most happiness-boosting and what mechanisms do they use? 3) How can acts of kindness be applied to everyday life and treatment?
Chapter 1. Importance of Acts of Kindness for Happiness
Happiness is rather a vague notion having a lot of subjective definitions. Some researchers regard it as “experiences of frequent positive emotions and relatively infrequent negative emotions” (Della Porta, 2012, p. 1), while others define it as “a skill that can be cultivated” through the development of such important human qualities as benevolence, altruistic love, and compassion (Richard, 2011, p. 275). For the convenience of research, it will be understood as a state of mind characterized by a person’s total satisfaction with his/her current well-being, which makes him/her adopt an optimistic way of thinking (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011).
According to the construal approach to happiness, this condition is not self-regulated and can be achieved through positive emotions and cognition as well as various acts of kindness that are defined as positive behaviors. According to Richard (2011), such kindness-oriented behaviors are primarily based on the creation of appropriate inner conditions that allow diminishing self-centeredness and increase altruistic intentions in individuals. It is worth mentioning that such acts have to be neither random and spontaneous nor classified into a particular category (e.g. an anonymous act of charity). Kindness is rather a continual and intrinsic orientation towards ethical and human values that makes people more emphatic and stimulates them for the engagement in “prosocial, generous behaviors that promote goodwill and the well-being of others” (Richard, 2011, p. 277).
The most important and sole condition of kindness is that “the giver” must be selfless in his/her intention to do good to “the recipient” (Rudd, Aaker, & Norton, 2014). However, to enhance the effectiveness of acts of kindness, a person should try to engage in different activities instead of repeating the same actions regularly. For example, Lyubomirsky and Dickerhoof (2014) observe in one of their studies that when a person performs different acts of kindness throughout an enduring period, e.g., “do a new household chore one week, surprise their pet with a treat another week,” he/she attains a greater level of well-being than those people who continuously perform similar acts of kindness (p. 13). Therefore, it is possible to say that when kindness is expressed spontaneously and is triggered by intrinsic motivation rather than prompted by the external situations, it leads to more positive outcomes including happiness and promotion of both individual and common welfare.
From the Buddhist perspective, happiness is not given to a person as a gift but must come as a result of a particular behavior (Richard, 2011). From the perspective of positive psychology, happiness is directly linked to individual positive emotions, behaviors, and perceptions which can be formed either by the external life events and circumstances (the “bottom-up perspective”) or by a person’s biological and temperamental factors (the “top-down theory”) (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2010, p. 230). In this way, based on the bottom-up principles of positive psychology, happiness can be achieved through performing pleasant activities (e.g. communicating with a company of close friends). However, from the Buddhist perspective, the satisfaction derived from such actions is incomparable to the condition achieved by committing a selfless act of kindness. Thus, happiness is understood as an active process rather than a final result. Active happiness implies that a person can contribute to shaping his/her well-being through various actions including meditative practices (Ricard, 2011), expression of gratitude (Della Porta, 2012), and development of optimistic thinking (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2010).
Acts of kindness have no negative side effects. Besides, it has been proven by research that, in comparison to other activities enhancing happiness, they give the most impressive results. Acts of kindness manage to increase satisfaction by reducing negative feelings and are likely to give the person who performs them with a sense of achievement and self-significance (Della Porta, 2012). But Della Porta (2012) identifies an important factor that defines a positive effect of different acts of kindness on personal well-being – it is intrinsic motivation and the autonomy-supported environment. His findings are also supported by ideas outlined in Richard’s (2011) article which refers to “the enhancement of intrinsic values” (p. 278). It is possible to say that the improvement of individual inherent values can be encouraged by different social and religious actors, but, to increase the effectiveness of acts of kindness, people should not be forced to perform them but should rather be provided with the environment in which their orientation towards the performance of good and kind deeds will be increased.
Despite the evident advantage of acts of kindness, there exists an opposing point of view. A lot of people tend to believe that virtuous behavior is particularly hard to practice because some improvement activities may require additional expenses, time, and development of skills; moreover, many people tend to believe that happiness practices may be “of little use” as their results are not evident and, in most cases, rather questionable (Della Porta, 2012, p. 4). However, this vision of kindness is deluding virtue does not lack its rewards and benefits, both short- and long-term (Sandstrom & Dunn, 2011).
Chapter 2. How Acts of Kindness Promote Happiness
Though it is evident that acts of kindness contribute to the level of personal happiness, the ways of promoting it are not quite clear. A series of experiments were conducted to identify what mechanisms underlie an act of kindness and which of them are the most effective.
In one of such experimental studies, participants were asked to write a letter expressing gratitude. Their emotional reaction to this simple act was analyzed afterward. The results of the research showed that the more letters people wrote – the greater emotional gains they received. Therefore, gratitude as a particular act of kindness turned out to be a powerful tool in enhancing happiness and life satisfaction. Besides, it was assumed that expressive letter-writing might help people struggle with symptoms of depression (however, it is difficult to say whether acts of kindness are effective in eliminating the causes of depression) (Toepfer, Cichy, & Peters, 2012).
Although the study mentioned above proves the positive cumulative effect of acts of kindness, it does not manage to answer how such acts should be designed to ensure happiness boosting. Another study on the topic involved a series of laboratory experiments with the purpose to trace the dynamics of performing acts of kindness. It found out that those people who were given a more particularly-framed prosocial goal (e.g. were assigned to make another person laugh by telling a joke) felt much more content with performing their actions and achieving positive results than those who were given an abstract task contiguous in its function (e.g. to make a person feel happy) (Rudd et al., 2014). Such outcomes are explained by the discrepancy between reality and the participants’ expectations. Unlike the second group, those who had a concrete task could see the actual result of their performance, which matched their expectations (Rudd et al., 2014). Thus, to enhance happiness, an act of kindness must be designed in such a way that its outcomes are predictable and observable. When a person planning to perform an act of kindness is more or less sure what results are going to be obtained and what emotions the receiver will get, he/she feels sure that no side consequences will emerge to spoil good intentions (Rudd et al., 2014). Thus, the giver feels happier through the development of higher self-confidence.
Besides the immediate effect of satisfaction from a good deed, an act of kindness has long-term benefits. The concept of “pay it forward” suggests the idea of achieving happiness by starting a chain of acts of kindness (Pressman, Kraft, & Cross, 2015, p.2 ). The point is that the agent receives more positive emotions if his/her action manages to foster the altruistic behavior of the recipient making him/her repeat a similar act to other people rather than simply repay the giver. The results of the study by Pressman et al. (2015) contradict the findings obtained by Della Porta (2012) who claim that autonomous motivation is a necessity for gaining psychological benefits of an act of kindness because the pay-it-forward activity is a forced kindness intervention. As mentioned by the researchers, the study participants who performed a forced pay-it-forward activity reported increased “optimism, gratitude, life satisfaction, and joviality” (Pressman et al., 2015). However, the positive effects were rather short-term than stable. Either way, the findings make it clear that an act of kindness can encourage further positive behaviors (Pressman et al., 2015).
Chapter 3. Use of Acts of Kindness in Everyday Life and Treatment
Acts of kindness are capable of boosting happiness not only as a temporary context-dependent condition but also as overall life-satisfaction. An experiment carried out by Buchanan and Bardi (2010) aimed to prove that conducting new acts of kindness every day for a certain period (10 days) is capable of increasing the total life satisfaction of people regardless of their gender or age. A control group consisting of 38 males and 48 females aged from 18 to 60 was randomly selected, and they were asked to perform either an act of kindness, an act of novelty or restrain from any actions towards other people whatsoever (Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). Before and after this intervention, their life satisfaction was measured. The results demonstrated that life satisfaction increases in cases of experimental conditions and remains unchanged when the action was controlled or refrained from (Buchanan & Bardi, 2010). Thus, the experiment allows concluding that novelty is a pivotal component in happiness-boosting activities. Layous and Lyubomirsky (2014) express a similar viewpoint in their study stating that “people instructed to perform different acts of kindness each week (e.g., do a new household chore one week, surprise their pet with a treat another week) showed larger gains in well-being than those instructed to perform the same acts of kindness (e.g., do new household chores each week)” (p. 479).
The importance of variety in doing acts of kindness has already been mentioned: a person who performs the same act for a long period gets used to it as to a part of his/her routine and fails to derive any satisfaction from it after a while. On the contrary, varying acts of kindness (doing something new every day trying not to repeat the same action in sequence) gives a cumulative effect and boosts happiness much more effectively (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). However, no matter how diverse acts of kindness might be, it is highly important to commit them regularly as the effect they produce should constantly be reinforced and enhanced for the agent to feel satisfaction (Layous, Nelson, Kurtz, & Lyubomirsky, 2016).
Thus, an act of kindness that can be classified as happiness-boosting is not merely an action of a certain sort but a part of a long-lasting habit. According to Lyubomirsky and Della Porta (2010), individuals who regularly express optimism frequently report “experiencing more positive events that linger with them;” moreover, it is found that the positive experiences provoked by optimistic behaviors increase happiness (p. 18). For instance, people who perform such acts regularly receive gratitude from the recipients, which makes them happier. It is also observed that a habit of conducting acts of kindness can even produce situations in which new friendships are likely to emerge (Lyubomirsky & Della Porta, 2010).
Acts of kindness apply not only to everyday experience but also as a tool used in conjunction with various therapies that aim to mitigate the consequences of psychological disorders. Healthy people naturally use adaptive strategies that help them cope with symptoms of depression and apathy: they try to avoid pessimistic thinking, interpret upsetting circumstances in a positive light, etc. (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). At the same time, Toepfer et al. (2012) observe that unlike healthy individuals, people with affective disorders are unable to adapt to the changing reality and tend to feel unhappy every time things go wrong. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that a pessimistic predisposition can be alleviated not only in healthy individuals going through a hard period of life but also in people suffering from various disorders such as depression or generalized anxiety.
However, “practicing positive, intentional activities may directly combat the effects of negative construals (which characterize generally unhappy people), while simultaneously promoting the effects of positive construals” (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011, p. 236). These findings are consistent with observations made by Toepfer et al. (2012) who suggest that the acts mentioned above of kindness (expressing gratitude, showing generosity, prompting others to act kindly, etc.) may help depressed individuals enhance self-satisfaction and feel happier. Social connections that are established in the process of performing a good deed assist perfectly in treating social anxiety decreasing negative emotions provoked by the idea of communicating with new people. As far as depression is concerned, acts of kindness help shift attention from introspection to other people’s problems and concerns. When a person gets distracted, he/she is more likely to recover from this condition (Lyubomirsky & Dickerhoof, 2011). Thus, targeting positive patterns of behavior can assist in the process of eliminating and preventing maladaptive self-perception as well as the perception of the environment.
Conclusion
The research at hand was aimed to explore acts of kindness as an effective method to enhance happiness. It focused on the ways personal satisfaction, positive emotions, a life-asserting perception of the world, and general well-being can be attained through performing particular actions and developing habits. Understanding the significance of acts of kindness (especially in their relation to happiness) is useful and can be applied not only to everyday life but also as a complementary therapy for treating social and affective disorders.
The research has shown that a person should produce as many acts of kindness as the circumstances allow, trying to diversify them as much as possible since novelty contributes to happiness derived from a good deed. The mechanisms that foster happiness through acts of kindness – emotional response, observation of positive results, and involvement in chains of good deeds – have been investigated and explained.
The conclusion that is to be made is that the applications of the acts of kindness techniques prove to be effective no matter what domain is chosen for action and what goals (short- or long-term) is to be achieved.
References
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