Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life

Citation

Dolan, P. (2014). Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life. Allen Lane.

Chapter Summary

The book has about 235 pages of text and is divided into two parts of four chapters each, preceded by a foreword by Daniel Kahneman, a note to the reader, a short "warm-up" exercise and an introduction, and followed by a conclusion, notes and an index. Part 1 ("Developing Happiness") sets out what happiness is, what is known about it and why people are not happier. Part 2 ("Delivering Happiness") presents three practical steps, deciding, designing and doing, and a final chapter that combines them. The US edition was published by Hudson Street Press in 2014, and Penguin issued a paperback in 2015.

Front Matter: Foreword, A Note to the Reader, A Little Warm-Up and Introduction

Kahneman's foreword names two central issues in the study of happiness: the distinction between a life of pleasure and a well-lived, meaningful one, and the question of how to measure happiness. He praises Dolan's move of treating "meaningful" and "meaningless" as experiences, not judgments, so that purpose and pleasure both count as constituents of happiness. In a note to the reader, Dolan describes his move from health economics to happiness research, his meeting with Kahneman, his work on both happiness and behaviour, and his own background. The warm-up asks readers to choose, from a list of twenty items such as more money, a shorter commute or more time with friends, the four that would make them happiest and to rate how hard each would be to achieve. The introduction, "Stuttering into Happiness", begins with Dolan's stammer and uses it to illustrate how much attention a problem can take up.

Part 1: Developing Happiness

Chapter 1: What Is Happiness?

Considers happiness as evaluation and as feelings, then introduces the pleasure-purpose principle, the book's definition of happiness as experiences of both pleasure and purpose over time, and applies it to a whole life under the heading "The PPP for Life".

Chapter 2: What Do We Know about Happiness?

Reviews evidence, beginning with experience sampling and two sections called "German days" and "American episodes", before considering other evidence and why the way happiness is measured matters.

Chapter 3: What Causes Happiness?

Moves "from widgets to happiness" and looks at what lies "above and below the surface", at behavioural spillovers and at the "shifting sands of attention", ending with attending to happiness.

Chapter 4: Why Aren't We Happier?

Examines mistaken desires, mistaken projections and mistaken beliefs, and closes with reallocating attention.

Part 2: Delivering Happiness

Chapter 5: Deciding Happiness

Advises paying attention to your own feedback and to the feedback of others, warns against trying too hard, and ends with "Happier by Deciding".

Chapter 6: Designing Happiness

Takes up priming, defaults, commitments, social norms and designing habits, ending with "Happier by Designing".

Chapter 7: Doing Happiness

Is about attention in action: paying attention to what you are doing and to who you are doing it with, and not getting distracted.

Chapter 8: Decide, Design, and Do

Combines the three steps, under the headings "Dither Less", "Distribute More" and "Efficient Production".

Conclusion

A closing chapter before the acknowledgments and notes.

Key Concepts

Part 1

• Pleasure-purpose principle (PPP): Dolan's account of happiness as experiences of both pleasure and purpose over time, treated as experiences instead of judgments.
• Experience sampling: the first topic in Chapter 2's review of the evidence.
• Attention: a thread through Chapters 3 and 4, including the "shifting sands of attention" and "reallocating attention".
• Mistaken desires, projections and beliefs: the three kinds of error Chapter 4 uses to explain why people are not happier.

Part 2

• Deciding, designing and doing: the three practical steps named in the publisher's description and in Chapters 5 to 7.
• Priming, defaults, commitments and social norms: the behavioural tools discussed under designing.
• Dither less, distribute more: guidance on bringing the three steps together in the final chapter.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A clear core idea. The pleasure-purpose principle gives the book a single question to apply, whether an activity brings pleasure, purpose or both, and Kahneman's foreword singles out this definition as a bold and original move.
• Evidence and practice in one frame. Part 1 reviews research, including experience-sampling data, before Part 2 turns to behavioural tools, so recommendations come after the evidence. A Scientific American review by Daisy Yuhas judged it a comprehensive overview of the science of happiness with useful tips.
• A personal angle. The note to the reader and the introduction on stammering connect the research to Dolan's own experience and use it to illustrate attention, which makes the abstract idea concrete.
• Easy to navigate. Section headings are short and descriptive, and the warm-up exercise gives readers a starting point of their own.

Limitations

• Popular rather than technical. The book is written for lay readers, with about 30 pages of notes behind the chapters, and a Daily Telegraph review (listed by the London School of Economics) is headlined "occasionally jargon-heavy". Students of the research should follow the notes to the original studies.
• Familiar advice. The Scientific American review observed that many of Dolan's suggestions may sound familiar, and the book's strength is its research backing rather than novelty of advice.
• Focused on behaviour and attention. The book is organised around changing what people do and where they put their attention; readers wanting broader theories of well-being, strengths or health will need the textbooks in the course.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the positive and health psychology list, Happiness by Design is an accessible, behaviour-focused book on well-being. Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis is a synthesis of ancient philosophical wisdom and modern psychological science, and covers happiness, virtue and meaning more broadly; it suits readers who want the philosophical background Dolan largely leaves aside. Elissa Epel's The Stress Prescription is a science-based seven-day programme for changing one's relationship with stress, and shares Dolan's emphasis on practical change.

For fuller treatments, Positive Psychology: The Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths is a research-based textbook on well-being, strengths and optimal functioning, and Stanton and Taylor's Health Psychology and Marks, Murray and Estacio's Health Psychology: Theory, Research and Practice are textbooks on psychological and behavioural influences on health. Read Dolan first for the framework and Haidt or Epel for companions, and then these textbooks for the research.

How to Use This Book

The book is for general readers and first-year students in psychology, health or behavioural science. It needs no prerequisite beyond curiosity about how behaviour and wellbeing relate.

A practical plan:

• Core: Chapter 1 for the pleasure-purpose principle, then Chapters 5 to 8 for the practical steps.
• For evidence: Chapters 2 to 4, with the notes, for readers who want to see the research behind the advice.
• Alongside the book: Do the warm-up before reading, and return to your four choices after Chapter 4; keep a short record of how an ordinary week divides between pleasure and purpose, then try one change from Chapter 6 or 7.
• For a course: Pair the book with Haidt for a broader view of happiness, and with a positive psychology textbook for the field's methods.