The ABC Model of Happiness-Neurobiological Aspects of Motivation and Positive Mood, and Their Dynamic Changes through Practice, the Course of Life

Abstract

Background: Happiness is a feeling, an immediate experience, not a cognitive construct. It is based on activity in the brain's neurobiological reward and motivation systems, which have been retained in evolution. This conceptual review provides an overview of the basic neurobiological principles behind happiness phenomena and proposes a framework for further classification.

Results: Three neurobiologically distinct types of happiness exist: (A) wanting, (B) avoiding, and (C) non-wanting. Behind these types lies a dynamic gradation, ranging from the more youthful anticipation, pleasure and ecstasy (A), to stress processing, escape and relief (B) as we find them accentuated in the middle-aged, to deep satisfaction, quiescence and inner joy (C), which is particularly attributed to older people. As a result, the development of happiness and satisfaction over the course of life typically takes the form of a U-curve.

Discussion: The outlined triad and dynamic of happiness leads to the paradoxical finding that the elderly seem to be the happiest-a phenomenon that is termed "satisfaction paradox". This assumed change in happiness and contentment over the life span, which includes an increasing "emancipation" from the idea of good health as a mandatory prerequisite for happiness and contentment, can itself be changed-it is trainable.

Conclusions: Programs for mindfulness, contemplation, or stress reduction, including positive psychology and mind-body/behavioral medicine training, seem to be capable of influencing the course happiness over time: Happiness can be shaped through practice.

Keywords: U-curve of happiness; aging; contemplative practice; life satisfaction; mindfulness; motivational salience; reward; subjective well-being.

Figure 1

Three Types of Motivation and Reward (ABC Model). Motivational salience is the attribute of a stimulus and can be appetitive, aversive, or assertive. The related reward serves to steer biologically relevant core behaviors (for neurobiological implications, references: see text).

Figure 2

U-Curve of Happiness. Unpublished raw data from our Experience of Salience and Happiness (ESH) database depicting a flat U-curve correlation between happiness/life satisfaction (“Zufriedenheit”) and age (“Alter”); cross-sectional correlation analysis: empirical evaluation based on data from 1597 individuals aged 12 to 94 in Germany (for further information, see [9,10]).

Figure 3

The Three Types of Motivation and Reward (“Happiness ABC”)—Predominance in the Course of Life. In the model, the different types of motivation (ABC—as outlined) predominate in a sequence that follows neurobiological (e.g., development, generativity) and biochemical (e.g., neurotransmitter metabolism) trajectories. Embedded is a movement from “me” to “we”, i.e., individual transcendence over the life span, as well as a transformation from momentary or more instable, fluctuating happiness (c.f., peak moments)—predominant in the young—to more stable or persistent satisfaction levels (c.f., contentedness) in the elderly; this includes becoming more independent of outer/external conditions in favor of internal motives (for further explanations, information: see text).

Figure 4

Interplay of ABC Motivations. The different types of motivation (reward) are interwoven in such a way that in our model type A motivation through the mediation of type B increasingly sets in type C, over time—this relationship has recently been established and also includes the neurotransmitters involved, which appeared at different times in evolution and enzymatically emerge from one another, i.e., they are formed from one another. The described sequence also expresses maturation processes (ontogenetic, phylogenetic) over time (for further information, references: see text).

Figure 5

Template for the “Neurobiology of Happiness”. Types A–C of happiness (positive, rewarding mood states) share a common process—related mechanisms that originate/converge on the CNS reward and motivational systems; these include distinctive brain regions and neurotransmitters (i.e., specific reward messengers, among others; for further information, references: see text).