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Hedonic adaptation

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 University of Baghdad
Alkindy College of medicine Student report

Hedonic adaptation
A report submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of fourth year medical
college, behavior module course, department of medicine/ Alkindy College of
Medicine

‫ اصيل حاتم زامل‬:‫اسم الطالب‬

‫ صالح البندي‬.‫ د‬:‫اسم الدكتور المشرف‬
‫ علم النفس‬:‫المادة‬
‫ الرابع‬:‫الصف‬

23/Jul/2020

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CONTENTS Pages
Introduction 3
Hedonic adaptation 4
Example of hedonic adaptation 4
Psychological & biological aspects 5
Processes in hedonic adaptation 5
happiness set point 6
Implications of hedonic adaptation 6
Applications 7
summery 8
References 10

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INTRODUCTION
The “hedonic” term originally from Greek hēdonikos that mean pleasure. Hedonic
adaptation is a concept studied by positive psychology researchers and others who
focus on happiness and well-being that refers to people’s general tendency to return
to a set level of happiness despite life’s ups and downs. The "Hedonic adaptation" is
a term coined by Brickman and Campbell in their article "Hedonic Relativism and
Planning the Good Society" (1971) [1].
Generally, hedonic adaptation involves a
happiness "set point", whereby humans
generally maintain a constant level of happiness
throughout their lives, despite events that occur
in their environment. The process of adaptation
often conceptualized as a hedonic treadmill,
since one must continually work to maintain a
certain level of happiness.

Early Historical
In many cultures and languages, the word “happiness” appears as a synonym for
luck and fortune. This reflects an ancient view of the world as a place governed by
an external power where there was little human beings could do to improve their
conditions. The pursuit of happiness consequently was a worthless task for humans.
Christian philosophers of the middle Ages believed that virtue was indispensable for
happiness, but in contrast to Greek philosophers, they believed that happiness lays
in the hands of God and could only be attained by leading a life inspired by faith in
God [2].
Classical psychological theories relate to aspects of happiness and well-being that
can be counted as components of subjective well-being (SWB). SWB comprises
cognitive components such as life satisfaction and satisfaction with specific life
domains (also referred to as cognitive well-being) as well as affective components
such as the frequency of positive affect and negative affect (also referred to as
affective or emotional well-being and comprising both mood and specific emotions).

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Hedonic adaptation
People experience pleasure and satisfaction when they are confronting with stimuli
that are more positive than their hedonic adaptation level, and they experience pain
and dissatisfaction when they are confronting with stimuli that are more negative
than their hedonic adaptation level.
These stimuli are then integrated into the hedonic adaptation level, leading either to
an upward or a downward shift in what people experience as hedonically neutral.
The satisfaction or dissatisfaction elicited by a particular stimulus therefore fades
over time, and people inevitably revert to a level of hedonic neutrality.

Examples of hedonic adaptation

People who win the lottery tend to return to roughly their original levels of happiness
after the novelty of the win has worn off. Some even end up less happy because of
changes in relationships that can occur. There is an initial influx of joy, of course,
but after about a year, people in their day-to-day lives experience the same general
sense of happiness [3].
The same is true for those who are in major accidents and those lose the use of their
legs. The change in ability can be devastating at first, but people generally tend to
return to their pre-accident levels of happiness after the habituation period.
Research has found that the first bite of
something delicious is experienced as
more pleasurable than the third or the
tenth. People become accustomed to the
pleasure rather quickly and soon, the
same mood-lifting little treat does not
bring the same influx of joy.
Many other examples also applied to the
life satisfaction about happy events like
marriage, or sad events like divorce or
unemployment, all tend to return to
roughly their original level of happiness
[4]
.

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Psychological & biological aspects
Hedonic adaptation can occur in a variety of ways. Generally, the process involves:
o Cognitive changes, such as shifting values, goals, attention and interpretation of
a situation.
o Neurochemical processes desensitize overstimulated hedonic pathways in the
brain, which possibly prevents persistently high levels of intense positive or
negative feelings.
o Also, occur through the tendency of humans to construct elaborate rationales for
considering themselves deprived through a process calls "abundance denial".

Processes in hedonic adaptation

Frederick and Lowenstein classify three types of processes in hedonic adaptation:
shifting adaptation levels, desensitization, and sensitization.
o Shifting adaptation levels occurs when a person
experiences a shift in what is perceived as a
"neutral" stimulus, but maintains sensitivity to
stimulus differences.
For example, if Ali gets a raise he will initially be
happier, and then habituate to the larger salary and
return to his happiness set point. However, he will
still be pleased when he gets a holiday bonus.
o Desensitization decreases sensitivity in general,
which reduces sensitivity to change.
For example, those who have lived in war zones
for long time become desensitized to destruction
that happens on a daily basis, and be less affected
by the occurrence of serious injuries or losses that
may once have been shocking and upsetting.
o Sensitization is an increase of hedonic response
from continuous exposure, such as the increased
pleasure and selectivity for food.

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Happiness set point
Everyone returns to the same neutral set point after a significantly emotional life
event. People are not hedonically neutral, and that individuals have different set
points, which are at least partially heritable.
About 50% of our happiness set point is due to genetic factors,
while 10% is affected primarily by circumstances like where we
were born and to whom. This leaves about 40% that is subject to
our influence [5].
Also individuals may have more than one happiness set point, such as a life
satisfaction set point and a subjective well being set point, longitudinal and cross-
sectional study found that happiness set point can change, and lastly that individual
vary in rate & extent of adaptation they exhibit to change in circumstance [6].
Brickman and Campbell further proposed that a new stimulus is not only compared
to one’s past experiences, but also to experiences made by other people in one’s
social network (social comparisons). Social comparisons assumed to be powerful.
For example, whether receiving one’s monthly salary is experienced as hedonically
positive, negative, or neutral depends not only on one’s previous salaries, but also
on the salary of similar people.

Implications of hedonic adaptation

Brickman and Campbell realized that the hedonic treadmill has serious individual
and societal implications.
o On the individual level, high SWB would be easiest to attain for those with
particularly low hedonic adaptation levels because almost all stimuli would be
experienced as positive. Thus, they conclude, “the happiest adult is one who had
a moderately unhappy childhood” and who remembers these unhappy moments
occasionally in order to maintain a permanently low hedonic adaptation level.

o On the societal level, the hedonic treadmill implies that any policy interventions
aimed at improving a population’s SWB are doomed to fail because people adapt
to any changes in their life circumstances. This conclusion was backed up by the
Easterlin Paradox which describes the observation that national happiness levels
remain constant across time despite rising income levels [7].
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APPLICATIONS

Romantic relationships
Some relationships die a natural death. After sometime, the euphoria of love fades
and a strong feeling of indifference follows.
In a study that involved determining the satisfaction level from chocolate
consumption, they found out that individuals who initially abstained from the sweet
treat demonstrated higher level of satisfaction upon consumption than those
individuals who did not abstain.
In a romantic relationship, this essentially means giving each other space in order
for the involved individuals not only to maintain a sense of independence but also to
create a healthy and non-intrusive distance. A healthy distance can actually keep
intimacy between couples because it creates or sustains the right level of longing or
desire. After all, too much of something can be bad.
In addition, rising aspirations often result in lower well-being. In other words,
individuals should keep away from being too demanding or overbearing.
Expectations always lead to disappointments.

Treatment of depression
Determining when someone is mentally distant from their happiness set point and
what events trigger those changes can be extremely helpful in treating conditions
such as depression. When a change occurs, clinical psychologists work with patients
to recover from the depressive spell and return to their hedonic set point more
quickly.
Because acts of kindness often promote long-term well-being, one treatment method
is to provide patients with different altruistic activities that can help a person raise
hedonic set point. This can in turn be helpful in reducing reckless habits in the pursuit
of well-being. Further, helping patients understand that long-term happiness is
relatively stable throughout one's life can help to ease anxiety surrounding impactful
events [8].

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Summery
Hedonic adaptation is a concept studied by positive psychology researchers and
others who focus on happiness and well-being that refers to people’s general
tendency to return to a set level of happiness despite life’s ups and downs.
The "Hedonic adaptation" is a term coined by Brickman and Campbell in their article
"Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society" (1971).
Classical psychological theories relate to aspects of happiness and well-being that
can be counted as components of subjective well-being (SWB).
SWB comprises cognitive components such as life satisfaction and satisfaction with
specific life domains (also referred to as cognitive well-being) as well as affective
components such as the frequency of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)
(also referred to as affective or emotional well-being and comprising both mood and
specific emotions).
Examples of hedonic adaptation when the people who win the lottery tend to return
to roughly their original levels of the happiness after the novelty of the win has worn
off.
The same is true for those who lose the use of their legs, marriage, divorce or
unemployment; all tend to return to roughly their original level of happiness.
Frederick and Lowenstein classify three types of processes in hedonic adaptation:
shifting adaptation levels, desensitization, and sensitization.
About 50% of our happiness set-point is due to genetic factors, while 10% is affected
primarily by circumstances like where we were born and to whom. This leaves about
40% that is subject to our influence.

Conclusions: permanent happiness or satisfaction can only be achieved through a

constant stream of novel positive stimuli, also the happiest adult is one who had a
moderately unhappy childhood, because most of stimuli will be positive, depending
on this, any government policy interventions aimed at improving a population’s
SWB are doomed to fail because people adapt to any changes in their life
circumstances

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References
1. Brickman; Campbell (1971). Hedonic relativism and planning the good society.
New York: Academic Press. pp. 287–302. in M. H. Apley, ed., Adaptation Level
Theory: A Symposium, New York: Academic Press
2. Hedonic Adaptation and the Set Point for Subjective Well-Being. Available at
nobascholar.com/chapters/21 accessed at 8/July/2020
3. Brickman P, Coates D, Janoff-Bulman R. Lottery winners and accident victims:
Is happiness relative?. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1978;36(8):917-927.
doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.8.917
4. Diener, E.D., Lucas, R.E., & Scollon, C.N. (2006). Beyond the hedonic treadmill:
revising the adaptation theory of well-being. The American psychologist, 61 4,
305-14 .
5. hedonic-adaptation Available at https://www.verywellmind.com/hedonic-
adaptation-4156926 accessed at 11/July/2020
6. Diener, Ed; Lucas, Richard E.; Scollon, Christie Napa (2006). "Beyond the
hedonic treadmill: Revising the adaptation theory of well-being". American
Psychologist. 61 (4): 305–314. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.411.3666. doi:10.1037/0003-
066X.61.4.305.
7. Clark, Andrew E., Paul Frijters, and Michael A. Shields. 2008. "Relative Income,
Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other
Puzzles." Journal of Economic Literature, 46 (1): 95-144.

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 8. Mathews, John (2015). "The Hedonic Treadmill: From Overconsumption to
Minimalism". Virginia Counseling. Virginia Counseling

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