Today in class we will be discussing the evolutionary perpective in psychology: the application of principles of natural selection to our understanding of human behavior.One potentially controversial issue we'll encounter is the notion that the idea that having children will make you happy may be selected for, even though lately research has suggested it's not true.
Happiness researchers have been telling us for some time that the impact of children on their parents' happiness is neutral at best (sure, parenting is stressful, but there are good things about it too), but lately researchers, including Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling On Happiness, have been telling us the non-parents are actually happier than parents. Shocking, since most parents are passionately devoted to their children and love them intensely.
Gilbert offers an evolutionary explanation for this: the illusion is persistant because those humans that don't buy into it...don't reproduce. We are all offspring of those who believed (even if it's not true) that we would bring them greater happiness.
This idea is explored more in a recent article from The Psychologist: Think Having Children Will Make You Happy? The author explores possible cognitive roots of this phenomenon.
(Keep in mind, I'm not anti-kids!!! I'm not trying to persuade you to make decisions about your future families! But I think this idea is interesting. Any other possible explanations for this phenomenon besides an evolutionary approach?)
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