Elsevier

Learning and Motivation

Volume 76, November 2021, 101758
Learning and Motivation

Executive functioning and the pursuit of happiness

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lmot.2021.101758Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The relation between executive functioning and happiness pursuits was examined.

  • Findings suggest that the relation depends on the types of happiness pursuits.

  • Pursuing meaning may relate to better delayed discounting but poorer working memory.

Abstract

Executive functioning and happiness are each associated with successful learning and other desirable individual and societal outcomes; however, it is unclear whether a relation exists between them. Executive regulation of happiness pursuits in daily life, operationalized as hedonic (e.g., pursuing pleasure) and eudaimonic (e.g., pursuing personal growth) motives for action, may be a way the constructs relate to each other. In this initial investigation, we aimed to explore whether objectively measured executive functioning skills relate to happiness motives. A sample of 119 college students completed six objective neuropsychological measures of executive functioning and self-reported levels of hedonic and eudaimonic motives for action in daily life. Correlation and regression analyses examined the relations among temporal discounting and two latent executive functioning factors (inhibitory control and working memory) with hedonic and eudaimonic motives, as well as their interaction. Results suggested a possible association between higher levels of eudaimonic motives and preference for higher delayed rewards, as well as poorer working memory. Further analyses suggested that endorsing high levels of eudaimonic and hedonic motives simultaneously (i.e., the “full life”) was associated with poorer inhibitory control and working memory performance, whereas endorsing low levels of both simultaneously (i.e., the “empty life”) was associated with a preference for more immediate monetary rewards. Findings are discussed in the context of goal conflict and risk assessment among individuals who endorse the “full life”. Overall, these findings suggest that complex relations may exist between executive functioning and trait-level happiness pursuits, and have implications for possible interventions aimed at enhancing happiness-related motives and cognitive processes to facilitate learning. Given the exploratory nature of the present study, further investigations are necessary.

Introduction

Executive functioning (EF) and happiness are both associated with successful learning (McClelland et al., 2007; Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009), as well as desirable individual and societal outcomes, including career and academic success, mental health, physical health, relationship harmony, and public safety (Diamond, 2013; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). EF, broadly defined as a set of skills related to regulating thoughts and behaviors, engaging in purposeful decision-making, and voluntarily acting in line with internal goals (Miyake & Friedman, 2012), has been linked to several happiness-related constructs. For example, trait-level self-control (Hofmann, Luhmann, Fisher, Vohs, & Baumeister, 2014) and strategic planning (Miley & Spinella, 2006) have been associated with life satisfaction, and the ability to update positive information in working memory has been associated with subjective well-being (Pe, Koval, & Kuppens, 2013). Other studies have investigated happiness constructs as predictors of EF; for example, positive affect has been associated with working memory and cognitive flexibility (Goschke & Bolte, 2014), problem solving and school engagement (Reschly, Huebner, Appleton, & Antaramian, 2008), self-control (Isen, 2007), and broadened attention (Fredrickson, 2013). Furthermore, happy, compared to unhappy individuals, more frequently engage in adaptive cognitive strategies that involve EF, such as positive reframing and dissonance reduction (Lyubomirsky, 2001). Despite evidence linking EF and happiness, limitations exist. For example, self-report methods are primarily used to measure EF, and myriad definitions have been assigned to both constructs, which often only evaluate a narrow aspect of EF and happiness, respectively. In the present study we evaluate the association between these constructs using objective EF measures and by measuring multiple aspects of happiness that incorporate both pleasure and meaning.

Happiness is often conceptualized as something to strive toward, such as satisfaction with life (Diener, 2009) or positive affect (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). These outcomes may also serve as motives for action (Wong, 2011); that is, as catalysts in the pursuit of happiness, and may be further delineated as eudaimonic and hedonic pursuits (Huta & Ryan, 2010). Eudaimonic motives are future-oriented and motivate learning through a focus on personal growth, meaning, and achievement, whereas hedonic motives involve seeking pleasure and reducing discomfort in the present-moment (Huta & Ryan, 2010). Eudaimonic and hedonic pursuits may necessitate different executive functioning skills. Prioritizing eudaimonic motives may require self-control in order to delay immediate gratification in service of a personally perceived higher order goal, strategic decision making to move toward that goal, and working memory to consider several different potential modes of action, whereas acting in line with hedonic motives may require top-down control to dissolve dissonance with conflicting longer-term goals. Individuals vary in the extent to which they pursue eudaimonic versus hedonic motives and some may pursue both equally or neither, lifestyles called the “full life” and “empty life,” respectively (Huta & Ryan, 2010). In individuals living the “full life,” striving for happiness through longer-term goals and pursuing present moment pleasure and comfort may be equally aligned with one’s broad internal goals of well-being and happiness, and serve complementary functions. Conversely, individuals living the “empty life” may place less value on experiencing present moment comfort and pleasure and on goal pursuit overall, and thus may be less motivated to engage in positive and pleasurable, or purposeful and meaningful experiences (Anic & Tončić, 2013; Huta, 2015). Previous research suggests that among lifestyles with various combinations of high/low hedonic and eudaimonic motives, individuals living the “full life” and the “empty life” respectively have the highest and lowest levels of life satisfaction (Peterson, Park, & Seligman, 2005), which has been shown cross-culturally (Park, Peterson, & Ruch, 2009), in addition to many well-being outcomes, (e.g., positive affect, meaning, and elevating experience; Huta & Ryan, 2010). Further, individuals living the “empty life” may present with the lowest undergraduate grade point average and highest levels of depression and stress (Kryza-Lacombe, Tanzini, & Neill, 2019), as well as lower levels of intrinsic motivation and higher amotivation than those living the “full life” (Behzadnia & Ryan, 2018).

Individual differences in trait-level tendencies of happiness-pursuits may be reflected in unique EF skills. Individuals primarily driven by eudaimonic motives may habitually engage in different cognitive skills compared to individuals primarily driven by hedonic motives as well as those who pursue both equally. For example, individuals living the “full life” may engage in activities for both eudaimonic and hedonic reasons, but may also sometimes face a conflict when encountering two simultaneous and opposing action options. Going out for dinner at a favorite restaurant with a friend may have both hedonic (the pleasure related to enjoying a favorite food) and eudaimonic (the meaning derived from nurturing a close relationship) motives. However, deciding between going to the gym versus staying home to watch TV (with presumably underlying eudaimonic versus hedonic motives, respectively), may result in conflict and subsequent decision delay. This outcome may be less likely to emerge in individuals who are motivated predominantly by eudaimonic motives (the “eudaimonic life”) or hedonic motives (the “hedonic life”). Indeed, some research suggests that performance on complex tasks may suffer when faced with a goal conflict in which one goal is pursued at the expense of pursuing another equally valued goal (Locke, Smith, Erez, Chah, & Schaffer, 1994).

Cognitive skills underlying everyday behavior are complex and difficult to disentangle. Comprehensive models of EF (e.g., (Diamond, 2013) suggest that complex skills such as reasoning, problem solving, and planning are higher order executive functions (EFs) that are built from core skills. These include 1) inhibitory control: the ability to control one’s attention, behavior, thoughts, and emotions to override an internal drive or external pull; 2) working memory: the ability to hold information in one’s mind and mentally work with it; and 3) cognitive flexibility: mental set-shifting that allows for flexible adjustment to new demands, rules, or priorities. In this model, delaying immediate gratification for a potentially greater future reward is conceptualized as a complex skill that requires impulse control and planning. Evaluating core and complex EF skills with respect to trait-level tendencies to engage in eudaimonic versus hedonic motives may help investigate the link between EF and happiness.

The present exploratory study aimed to evaluate the association between performance on latent EF variables based on objective neuropsychological tests, and self-reported hedonic and eudaimonic motives for action in daily life. We expected that eudaimonic and hedonic motives would be differentially associated with EF. For example, we predicted that higher levels of eudaimonic motives would be related to greater preference for delayed rewards, since acting in line with eudaimonic motives requires the ability to inhibit drives to immediate gratification. Conversely, we expected that higher levels of hedonic motives, given the focus on present-moment pleasure, would be related to preference for more immediate rewards as well as poorer performance on measures of inhibition.

We additionally predicted that varying combinations of concurrent eudaimonic and hedonic motives (i.e., their interaction) would relate differentially to EFs. These analyses were exploratory, and we did not have specific expectations with respect to directionality of findings because there is no clear theory to support a specific expectation. For example, given evidence that the “full life” is associated with high levels of many happiness-related constructs (Huta & Ryan, 2010) and that happy individuals frequently engage in adaptive cognitive strategies (Lyubomirsky, 2001), the “full life” may be associated with better performance on executive functioning measures. However, the “full life” may also be associated with worse EF performance given goal conflicts such individuals may experience, which in turn has been associated with worse performance on a complex task that requires executive functioning skills (Locke et al., 1994).

Section snippets

Participants and procedure

Participants (n = 125) were recruited from an urban public senior college if they were between 18 and 35 years old, at the undergraduate level, fluent in English, and willing to have their GPA retrieved from college records. Participants were excluded if they were not willing to withhold stimulant or atomoxetine medication for 24 h before the study or if their estimated IQ was less than or equal to two standard deviations below the mean based on the Matrix Reasoning subtest of the Wechsler

Executive functions

Mean and median scores and standard deviations of the executive functioning variables are displayed in Table 2. Overall, mean standardized scores were close to the normative means (i.e., 10 for scaled scores, and 50 for T-scores).

Dimension reduction of executive functioning measures

An initial PCA analysis that included all 7 EF measures suggested a three-factor solution, which was confirmed by parallel analysis. However, in this solution, TDT was the sole measure that loaded on the third factor. The PCA was subsequently repeated based on 6 EF

Discussion

The present study evaluated the relations between executive functioning (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, and temporal discounting) and two ways of pursuing happiness (i.e., eudaimonic and hedonic motives) and their interaction. Exploratory analyses revealed two small trend-level effects in the association between executive functioning and happiness-related motives. As expected, higher levels of eudaimonic motives tended to relate to preference for higher-value rewards with longer

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number SC2HD086868 (PI: Sarah O’Neill, PhD). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Code availability (software application or custom code)

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material (data transparency)

Data are available upon filing a request with the corresponding author.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Maria Kryza-Lacombe: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Visualization, Project administration. Elise Tanzini: Conceptualization, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Ann Marie Yali: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Sarah O’Neill: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing - original draft, Supervision, Funding acquisition.

Declaration of Competing Interest

Not applicable.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the research assistants of Dr. O’Neill’s Attention & Neuropsychological Development (ATTEND) Lab for their assistance in data collection, Miguel Villodas, Ph.D. and Daniel Gustavson, Ph.D. for their consultations on statistical analysis. We thank the students for participating.

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  • Cited by (0)

    1

    Maria Kryza-Lacombe is now at the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, California, USA.

    2

    Elise Tanzini is now at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Ontario, Canada.

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