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Happiness

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Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Psychology ((EVOLPSYCH))

Abstract

The capacity for positive and negative feelings, and thus the prospect of happiness, is an attribute installed in the human brain by the process of evolution. If we can understand the evolutionary trajectory leading to this attribute, we stand a better chance of making the most of the situation. In this chapter, I present a model that describes happiness based on a biological perspective, but that incorporates recent research in neurobiology and psychology. Briefly, the primary purpose of the nervous system is to direct an animal toward behavior conducive to survival and reproduction, and as a rule of thumb this implies either approach or avoidance. In early nervous systems, behavior was based on reflexes, but at some point evolution introduced feelings or affect, in the form of rewards and punishment, to create a more advanced system for evaluating behavioral options. Recent studies suggest that all types of feelings converge on shared neural circuits involved in generating mood. Happiness can be construed as the net output of these mood modules in the brain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, 0403, Nydalen, Oslo, NORWAY

    Bjørn Grinde Ph.D.

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  1. Bjørn Grinde Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Bjørn Grinde Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Lisa L. M. Welling

  3. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

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Grinde, B. (2015). Happiness. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Welling, L., Shackelford, T. (eds) Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12697-5_33

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