By Josh Buntin, Jared Valleskey, Charlotte Tenebrini Steckart & Cooper Wild
Happiness sometimes seems hard to come by. Every year since 2012, the World Happiness Report releases the results of a survey measuring international happiness and how it compares between countries. Released on March 12, the report details the happiness of people in many categories, such as social support, health problems, having a university degree, having a spouse or domestic partner, their employment status, and so on. The report noted a decline in each category and an overall decline in happiness not only in the United States but also in countries around the world. The report listed the United States as the 23rd happiest country in the world, which is the first time in the report’s history that the United States was not in the top 20, according to TIME Magazine.
What does this mean? Is Green Bay the same? The Fourth Estate investigated the issue to see if Green Bay aligns with the World Happiness Report. Dr. Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges is the chair of the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UW-Green Bay). Wilson-Doenges specializes in Environmental Psychology, which deals with how people relate to their environments. She spoke to The Fourth Estate about the happiness of students and what might impact it.
Wilson-Doenges said, “Happiness is an emotion. Sometimes, people tend to call it a positive emotion. But in psychology, we don’t like to differentiate between positive and negative emotions because every emotion, in the extreme, can be negative and or positive. And so we try not to give emotions a bad rap, but happiness is an emotion shared with joy and gladness of other, similar terms.” Wilson-Doenges went on to state how there are many stressors in college and life, and achieving happiness is the best way to lessen these stressors. Wilson-Doenges also spoke about the fact that the United States ranked outside of the top 20 happiest countries in this year’s report. She said, “I think it’s not a single thing, of course, but I do think that the political climate, not necessarily the politics per se. But we are very divisive in our conversations with each other. And a lot of times, those conversations are happening online so that you have the anonymity to say crappy things that you wouldn’t necessarily say to a person to their face. And I feel like that kind of divisive rhetoric is contributing to mass unhappiness.”
Wilson-Doenges also made sure to point out the loneliness report that was listed on page 46 of the World Happiness Report. She lists possible factors contributing to the loneliness felt by young adults and suggests how they can address this issue. “Young people don’t know how to interact. They’re struggling to figure out how to interact in person and to gain that social support from another person. I hear a lot of students say to me, ‘I’m just afraid to call somebody on the phone.’ What? Pick up the phone. ‘No, I’ll just text.’ Oh, no. You need to. And so I think that is feeding a lot of loneliness because people feel too afraid to reach out and to connect with others in a real-world situation, like a real-life situation. I think that we could do a lot better in the college setting, but it needs to start earlier in middle school and elementary school, helping students at a very young age, know how to interact, face to face and work on that,” Wilson-Doenges said.
Dr. Alison Jane Martingano is an assistant professor in the Psychology program at UW-Green Bay and head of the Social Research Lab, which is a virtual reality lab where students can engage and practice cutting-edge research. She told the Fourth Estate that happiness is a deeply positive emotion that has significant benefits to a person’s life across various aspects, such as relationships, work, and health. Martingano shared research that supported the idea that happy people have more success in these areas. “On a global scale, happiness levels have shown an increase, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. hovers around the middle of worldwide rankings, with 76% of American respondents saying they are very or rather happy. So far from saying things are getting worse today, I am happy to say they seem to be getting better, or at least recovering from the pandemic drop,” Martingano, citing further research to support this.
To better understand how students feel and the happiness level of the university, The Fourth Estate conducted a survey on the happiness of students at UW-Green Bay inspired by the World Happiness Report. In the results of the survey, there were a few categories that stood out. Survey participants answered whether they usually wake up tired or refreshed. The results were that 66% of students answered that they wake up either tired or very tired, 24% stated they feel neutral when they wake up, and only 10% of students answered that they feel refreshed or very refreshed.
The results for “What emotion do you feel the most in a given week?” varied. However, the most common answer that students gave was “anxiety.” 39% of students stated that this was the emotion they felt the most throughout the week, followed up by 25% of students saying they felt content, 13% saying they felt happy, 7% saying they felt worried, 3% saying they felt anger, 1% saying they felt sadness, and 11% saying they felt other emotions.
When discussing what UWGB students have in common with the rest of the United States, the Fourth Estate found a correlation between learning and happiness. When you learn something new, your brain grows, giving you stimulation. For university students, it makes sense that learning about their interests every day creates happier individuals.
When asked how students feel upon waking up in the morning, 47.9% stated that they feel tired. One way to combat this is physical exercise every day. This helps with feeling tired at the right time of day and keeping your body on a natural sleeping cycle. It is proven to provide endorphins, which make you feel better throughout the day. To specify, though, exercising will not solve all of your problems, and if you are exhibiting signs of mental health disorder, you should reach out to the Wellness Center on campus.
Stress is a big factor when it comes to a person’s happiness level. Martingano referred to stress multiple times in her responses. “Stress, especially around academic events like exams, significantly influences learning and memory processes. While some stress may enhance memory formation, making memories more robust, it can severely impair memory retrieval.” This relates to the learning process and how stress negatively affects learning, which, in turn, can affect happiness. Martigano also referenced this relationship when she stated, “The prolonged effects of stress can detrimentally impact physical and mental health, highlighting the importance of stress management and perception.” This shows the importance of managing stress when it comes to improving happiness.
Other things that can help raise your mood are smiling more, spending time in nature, limiting your screen time, and changing negative self-talk. A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t say the things you’re thinking about yourself to a friend, then ask yourself why you’re talking about yourself that way in your head. Change the language you use to describe yourself. Instead of thinking, “I am so unorganized I get nothing done,” say, “I may be unorganized, but I am a college student, and that alone means that I deserve to be here.”
Wilson-Doenges stated that the age range of those living in the United States drastically affected the overall average state of happiness. For example, Wilson-Doenges stated, “I also think that young people, in particular, were very much impacted by the pandemic, and the isolation of that during important times in their adolescence. That is contributing to that because, if you just look at the old folks in the United States, they were ranked 10th, but young people in the U.S. were ranked 62nd, so I think we’re in the range of 23 overall. But who is driving that? Are they our young people, by a long shot? And so I think that lots of attention needs to be paid to young folks. And, in the college setting, we have a unique opportunity to provide some of that support, to help people find their own happiness, whatever that might be, or to learn respectful rhetoric, where you can entertain a conversation with someone who has very different beliefs from your own and remain engaged in happy, and friendly and civil with the person that you’re talking to.” After the pandemic, the United States took a big drop from where they ranked in years past, and as Wilson-Doenges stated, this is primarily due to the younger population in the United States.
Wilson-Doenges mentioned that she discovered that many schools in the area are using a website known as “Hope Squad” and stated that this was a great suicide prevention tactic that the school districts have recently implemented. As she stated earlier, starting these tactics at a young age is extremely beneficial for these kids in the future. She mentioned that “it is based on increasing social support and teaching very young kids how to make friends. And so it’s high school students going to like a second grader and teaching them how to interact and how to make friends as a future prevention of suicide. And it’s connected to this loneliness and happiness and all of this. And so I think that programs like that are a great thing to think about.”
Happiness is a feeling that everyone chases throughout their lives. The ultimate goal in life is to live a life full of happiness, but achieving this happiness can be difficult. Martingano said that a person’s level of happiness is related to their personality. But, “despite life’s ups and downs, people tend to return to a baseline level of happiness. Fluctuations in happiness can occur due to life stressors or happy events, but we tend to return to our personal baseline,” Martingano explained. On how to improve individual happiness and find support, Wilson-Doegenes said, “helping others is one way that you can bring yourself happiness is giving your time and energy, to others. spending time in nature, exercising, getting great sleep, which means putting away your phone, and getting out of the room.” The bottom line is this: life is hard. Happiness is fleeting, and so are other emotions. When you do feel happy, take advantage of it. When you feel sad, ask yourself why. Take time for self-reflection and find what makes you happy.
Resources
Crisis Hotline: 888-531-2142
Schedule an appointment with the Wellness Center:
Green Bay and Marinette campus number: 920-465-2380
Manitowoc and Sheboygan campus number: 800-458-8183 or 920-924-0614
The Wellness Center website: https://www.uwgb.edu/wellness-center/
Kognito Training: https://www.uwgb.edu/wellness-center/kognito-training/
Mantra Health: https://www.mantrahealth.com/
