Spending money for happiness

If I remember correctly my inventory in Psychology 101, it was in 1954 American psychologist Abraham Maslow put forward his theory The Hierarchy of Motives or interchangeably The Hierarchy of Needs said to govern the behavior of man in which he described it to be the process by which an individual progresses from basic needs such as food, security, belongingness to the highest needs of what he called self-actualization -- the fulfillment of one's greatest human potential.

According to Maslow, high-level needs become important to us only after our more basic needs (physiological, safety and belongingness) are satisfied and that the need for self-actualization or the fulfillment of one's passion completes the human as a person. Thus, in his book Motivation and Personality Maslow said "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be."

But what if you had all the money in the world and can afford to hire someone to write the most compelling prose for you or perhaps get a painter to smother that picturesque landscape in your dreams or perchance a poet to construct the most rhymes in a sonnet, would you get the same amount of happiness or peace of mind as much as those who actually made them for you?

One of the reasons why I am not so comfortable about Maslow's theory is because it tends to view man to be individualistic, self-serving and primarily driven by his passion to gratify his own welfare and interest. The theory, in a sense, misses to include the altruistic nature of man. Although distinct, altruism is equally strong a driving force in the pursuit of man's happiness. Erich Fromm a German-born U.S. psychoanalyst and philosopher said of the altruism of a mother: "The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother's side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother and to become fully independent."

Altruism, in fact, isn't only inherent in humans alone. Charles Darwin, the exponent of evolution, even pointed the altruistic social behavior in animals. Among the different types of bees in a colony, for example, worker bees are responsible for gathering food, defending the colony, and caring for the nest and the young, but they create no offspring.

But can altruism make a person really happy? But of course…and you can even buy one! Whoever says that money can't buy happiness surely doesn't know where or how to spend it. The truism that "Money can buy everything but happiness." No longer holds water after I read a recently-published research that spending for other people or being altruistic in money terms can lead to increased well-being for the giver.

Harvard Business School (HBS) professor Michael Norton and colleagues Elizabeth Dunn and Lara Aknin in a research published in Science journal last March, brings a new perspective to spending as one of the keys to obtaining some happiness for oneself. Although people believe that having money leads to happiness, how much money people earn is less important for their happiness than how they choose to spend it.

They also found that people are happier if at least some of the money is given to others. The research team suggests that companies might want to think creatively about how to encourage employees to spend their bonuses. Likewise, organizations could look at alternate ways to participate in charitable giving.

The study likewise suggests that people need not be wealthy and donate hundreds of thousands to charity to experience the benefits of pro-social spending; small changes -- a few bills reallocated from oneself to another can make a difference.

We all know that times are tough ahead but what could be more challenging or rather what could be happier than to give when we almost have nothing to give?

A blessed and fruitful New Year ahead!

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