**5.1 Top-down involvement of higher-order processes in happiness genesis**

The sustainable happiness model suggests that events are the factor associated with the smaller influence on happiness level [13, 22]. Intentional activity (*i.e.,* actions requiring some degree of effort) including cognitive activity would better account for

### **Figure 2.**

*Definitions of happiness found in studies dealing with higher-order processes involved in happiness.*

### *Enacting Happiness from Emotions and Moods DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106954*

happiness variation than would circumstances [13, 22]. Happiness would be generated in a top-down manner and be a result of higher-order processes.

Events favoring happiness do not systematically lead to be happy [108]. First, La Rochefoucauld (1694/1930) wrote "happiness does not consist in things themselves but in the relish, we have of them" (p. 51; [108]). This philosophical statement is supported by the theoretical background of cognitive behavioral therapy. Situations and events do not have a valence and do not elicit positive or negative emotions *per se*. Rather, it is the cognitive interpretation of the event that elicits positive or negative emotions. Such a statement is also supported by the construal approach to happiness [109]. This top-down theory of happiness suggests that an objective event is interpretated subjectively. Cognitive processes shape the effect of events on happiness. Each individual builds their own reality, which determines specific hedonic outcomes, leading in turn to various levels of happiness. Second, individuals have to be able to perceive happiness-favoring events. Sad mood and anhedonia are core symptoms of major depressive disorder [110]. These symptoms seem to be the opposite of the effective component of happiness in the hedonic theory of happiness. Generally, individuals suffering from depressive disorder are attracted by negative information and avoid positive information [111, 112]. The incapacity to perceive events favoring happiness (also called "anhedonic bias") could contribute to the incapacity to experience positive affects [111].

Taken together, these data suggest that happiness is the result of higher-order processes in a top-down manner before, during, and after the event. Before the event, higher-order processes can help to detect events favoring happiness. During and after the event, higher-order processes participate in the interpretation of the situation. Higher-order processes can also help to reinterpret an event in a positive manner and elicit happiness. Happy individuals would perceive, evaluate, and think a same event as more positive than unhappy individuals [109]. This section aims to provide a brief critical review of higher processes' top-down influence on happiness. First, we examine how cognitive style participates in the happiness genesis. Following this, we summarize evidence showing that "executive functioning" plays a substantial role in happiness generation. Finally, we report that metacognitive processes also significantly contribute to happiness.

### **5.2 Cognitive styles**

Information processing styles are associated with mood variations. We review three information processing styles involved in happiness development: the use of probability, global-local processing, and attributional style.

According to the decision affect theory, the expected value of an outcome influences the emotional experience elicited by this outcome [113, 114]. The estimated likelihood to obtain a better alternative is a determinant of happiness derived from an event. We can suppose that winning \$500 in a lottery is a happiness-favoring event. But felt happiness will certainly be lower if it is more likely to win \$5000 than \$500. Conversely, felt happiness will certainly be higher if it is more likely to win \$50 than \$500. The outcome is the same but the felt happiness is different. Children (> 4 years old) and adults inferred more happiness when the likelihood to obtain a better outcome was low rather than high [115]. Outcomes obtained could compare with a standard established from the use of probability [115]. Satisfaction would result from an outcome evaluation through a comparison process [116]. If a positive outcome is highly likely, then a high standard is established. Happiness and hedonic

load of events decrease when the outcome does not reach the expected standard. Use of probability, as a higher-order process, seems to be in happiness genesis. Especially, the use of probability has an influence on the hedonic load of a happiness-favoring event in establishing an expected outcome. Happiness genesis seems to be conditioned in a top-down manner under the influence of this expectation.

It has been often demonstrated that negative mood was associated with local information processing, whereas positive mood was often associated with global processing of information. Ji et al. (2019) have manipulated the style of perceptual processing (global *vs.* local) to investigate its role in happiness genesis. Through four experiments, this study showed that global processing leads to be happier and in a better mood than local processing [117]. Global processing would be associated with a big picture schema leading to a global perspective. Global perspective would increase the likelihood to detect a positive stimulus and would increase the likelihood to experience positive emotion. Furthermore, global processing would be associated with a more abstracting interpretation of life, regardless of current and minor worries. To summarize, global processing increases happiness level by two hypothetical top-down mechanisms: a) an expansion of attentional focus increasing the likelihood to detect positive stimuli and experience positive emotion (affective subjective well-being); b) a global view of life in which minor concerns are less salient, increasing life satisfaction (cognitive subjective well-being).

Following an event, individuals can process this event either by relating the cause to the self (internal style) or by relating the cause to an external factor to the self (external style). The style adopted is different according to mood variation and event valence. For example, internal style for negative events is a strong predictor of depressive disorder (*e.g.,* [118]). Empirical findings show that the way we attribute cause (internally or externally) of an event (positive or negative) is a determinant of happiness. Internal attributions for negative events are associated with an increase in anhedonia severity in turn associated with a decrease in happiness [119]. There is a direct negative correlation between the level of happiness and the internal attribution of negative events [119]. Internal attribution and "stable" attribution (*i.e.,* judge an event with a high likelihood to occur again) for positive events increase happiness [120]. An attributional style for negative events, in which causes are processed as less personal, less permanent, and less pervasive, improves happiness. The way we process events in term of self-involvement contributes to explaining the genesis of happiness in a top-down manner. Attributional style would be associated with personality. Extravert personality would be associated with an internal attributional style for positive events. Neurotic personality would be associated with an internal attributional style for negative events [120]. Personality influences the attributional style. The latter could in turn determine the experience of happiness in a descendant way. Lyubormisky (2001) searched for a mechanism that could explain the relationship between extraverts/neurotics and happiness/unhappiness, respectively. The attributional style could explain such a relationship. If extravert people attribute the causes of positive event to themselves, then they are more inclined to be sensitive to reward, experience positive effect, and be happy (Lyubormisky, 2001). If neurotics people attribute the causes of negative event to themselves, then they are more inclined to be sensitive to punishment, experience negative affect, and be unhappy [109].

Taken together, these findings reveal that happiness is determined in a top-down manner by the way the information is processed. Information processing seems itself associated with personality and cognitive schema. Such findings suggest that "executive functions" could be a determinant of happiness. As exposed above,

global-local processing has been hypothetically associated with attentional focus [117]. Attributional style is associated with "executive functions." Cognitive flexibility and inhibition (important processes related to "executive functions") are associated with internal attributions for positive events and "stable" attributions for negative events [121].

### **5.3 Executive processes**

Depressive disorder seems to be the opposite of happiness, especially when considering depressed mood and anhedonia, which have been considered as core symptoms of depression [110]. Cognitive dysfunctions in depressive disorder support the importance of "executive functioning" in happiness. Some "executive functions" are impaired in this mood disorder [122]. Such impairments could explain the difficulty to experience positive emotion and happiness. Impairment of top-down cognitive control (the set of "executive functions" that flexibly produce goal-directed thoughts and behaviors) could be involved in negativity bias (*i.e.,* the tendency to be attracted by negative stimuli and the interpretation of neutral stimuli as negative). Inhibition and working memory difficulties would impair both the inhibition of negative representations and their update (shift from negative representations to positive ones) [122].

Happiness derived from subjective well-being could emerge from "executive functioning" [123]. Working memory is involved in subjective well-being [124]. People who are better at maintaining and updating (*i.e.,* modifying representation in working memory according to new information) positive stimuli in working memory are happiest [124]. That is they have a higher life satisfaction level (cognitive subjective well-being) and experience more positive emotion than negative emotion (affective subjective well-being). Happiness could emerge from the update of positive information. Update leads to a repetitive activation of positive information in working memory. It would be easier to access positive information and process them, leading to more positive thought eliciting happiness [124]. Concerning the cognitive component of subjective well-being, life satisfaction is associated with goal achievement. "Executive functioning" is involved in goal achievement, for example through strategic planning. Therefore, they support goal achievement, which would be a condition of happiness [123]. Although goal achievement seems to be central to happiness genesis, goal must be realistic and flexible. Sometimes, reaching happiness is an objective *per se*. However, if expected happiness is extreme (*e.g.,* individuals believe that experiencing happiness is a routine, value experience only if it generates happiness, think that there is something problematic if they do not experience happiness) and people believe that they cannot modify their emotional states, then happiness decreases [125]. This finding highlights the need for mental flexibility and the detrimental effect of rigid and unrealistic goals on happiness. "Executive functioning" could be involved in the psychological well-being component [123]. Eudaimonic pursuit of happiness involves self-control to inhibit and delay immediate reward while staying focused on higher-order goals. Working memory allows considering several action pathways to reach the goal [123].

Goal achievement seems to be very important in happiness because it is involved in psychological well-being and cognitive subjective well-being. However, there are sometimes conflicts between short-term goals leading to immediate but smaller rewards and long-term goals leading to delayed but larger benefits [126]. Such conflicts are also called self-control conflicts [126]. Self-control, notably through

"executive functioning", would be involved when resolving this conflict [126, 127]. When individuals are motivated to pursue affective subjective well-being by imaging a pleasure-eliciting event during inhibition tasks, they activate an interfering short-term goal. Consequently, inhibition performance decreases. Self-control conflict would also involve working memory to maintain an active representation of the long-term goal [126]. Cognitive control (*i.e.,* the set of "executive functions" involved in flexibly producing goal-directed thoughts and behaviors) plays a role in meeting goals while managing conflicting pleasure-favoring distractors [60]. Cognitive control may be divided into proactive control, retroactive control, and evaluative control components. Proactive control allows guiding behavior with a strategy in order to achieve a long-term goal and positive life event. Retroactive control focuses attention toward a reward-eliciting stimulus. Evaluative control consists of monitoring and assessing outcomes of behaviors. Executive control seems important to protect long-term goals leading to happiness and to resolve self-control conflicts. Wiese et al. (2018) showed that self-control predicted subjective wellbeing. Self-control produces succeeding and thriving, leading themselves to happiness [123]. These long-term benefits preserve happiness because they counterbalance the inhibition of immediate pleasure. Flexibility remains important to prevent unrealistic goals that promote unhappiness. Sometimes, individuals try to stay focused on long-term goals, while enjoying present moment pleasure, to reach happiness. In this kind of situation, top-down control can contribute to reducing dissonance between immediate reward and long-term goal [123].

Executive control of selective attention seems to be a main determinant of happiness. Focusing attention on present information would promote happiness [60]. This process is associated with mental flexibility, which promotes the ability to shift attentional focus, notably on rewarding events and new opportunities [60]. Cognitive control (notably working memory, flexibility, and inhibition) has neural correlates in the executive control network [128]. Activity in executive control network is associated with subjective well-being [128]. Evidence arising from aging research supports these statements. Happiness and emotional regulation could be enhanced with aging [60]. Such an enhancement is sometimes explained by various age-related changes in cognitive processing (*e.g.,* selective attention focused more on positive information than on negative information). Such modifications of cognitive processes could consist in increased focusing on positive information in the elderly [60]. At the neurobiological level, the recruitment of prefrontal cortex is correlated with the modification of cognitive processes that enhance happiness in aging [60]. This cerebral region is included in executive control network allowing cognitive control and is associated with happiness ([128]; see also the previous section for the involvement of prefrontal cortex in top-down genesis of happiness). The role of attentional focus control is also supported by studies on rumination, mind-wandering, and dwelling. Dwelling and rumination are circular and repetitive self-reflection characterized by intrusive thoughts, images, and memories [129]. Self-reflection is negatively associated with happiness [130]. The decrease in happiness related to rumination could be explained by impairment in "executive functioning." Self-reflection could cause an interference effect [129], monopolize and drain cognitive resources used in executive process [109, 129]. Cognitive resources would be no longer available to control attention, focus on positive stimuli, achieve goal, and solve problems through executive processes. Self-reflection could divert attentional focus from happiness-favoring events and cognitive resources would no longer be available to correct attention focus (*e.g.,* through inhibition or mental flexibility). Self-reflection induced by dwelling or

*Enacting Happiness from Emotions and Moods DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106954*

rumination is associated with the default-mode network including medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and inferior parietal lobule [96, 97, 128]. The previous section has shown that this cerebral network has a central role in happiness experience notably in relation to self-reflection [97, 128]. The default-mode network disturbs top-down executive processes involved in happiness.

"Executive functioning," notably through cognitive control, including inhibition, mental flexibility, working memory, and selective attention, has an important role in happiness. Especially, intentions, goals, and expectations would induce a synchronization of "executive functioning" to realize plans and reach happiness in a top-down manner. Furthermore, individuals could try to apply some strategies to modify "executive functioning" (*e.g.,* in the case of rumination, dwelling, and mindwandering) and enhance happiness. Metacognitive processes could be determinants of happiness. They also reinforce evidence in favor of the processes exposed above.

### **5.4 Metacognitive emotion regulation**

We have reported that cognitive style and "executive functioning" are determinants of happiness. Individuals can use metacognitive strategies to change these cognitive processes in order to enhance happiness and alleviate negative affect. Metacognitive strategies employed to regulate emotion (*i.e.,* efforts to modify emotional response [130]) can be considered higher-order determinants of happiness.

Cognitive reappraisal is a metacognitive strategy involved in happiness genesis. It contributes to modifying the interpretation of an event, by proposing a new meaning. Therefore, it allows reinterpreting a situation as being source of pleasure in a top-down manner. This new perception of the pleasant activity increases subjective well-being [130]. Cognitive reappraisal can be used to produce a more optimistic interpretation of future, which increases the experience of positive emotion. Cognitive reappraisal is also useful to reassess the attributional style, which influences happiness [108]. We have discussed above the top-down involvement of attributional style in happiness. Individuals could also reappraise the perceived value of a situation: they experience more positive affect for things with higher value [108]. Cognitive reappraisal involvement in happiness is supported by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). MBCT practice increases the level of happiness (psychological and subjective well-being; [131]). MBCT practice would broaden the identification of experiences enhancing life satisfaction (cognitive subjective well-being). Cognitive reappraisal would allow reevaluating experience as positive, which increases the experience of positive emotion (affective subjective well-being; [131]). The improvement of eudaimonic well-being is explained by the enhancement of subjective well-being that is associated with the meaning of life. This study also suggests the involvement of attentional processes to broaden the attentional focus that identifies events [131].

Attentional deployment (*i.e.,* the way individuals direct their attention; [108]) can be related to metacognitive emotional regulation strategies that influence happiness too. Attentional deployment could increase the experience of positive emotion and happiness by mentally simulating positive events and increasing the saliency of present moments and positive autobiographical memories [108]. Exercises derived from positive psychology suggest that reporting early and recent autobiographical memories increases happiness [132]. Such "positive" exercises could be underpinned by attentional deployment strategy. Mindfulness, including the focus of attention on the present moment, would improve cognitive control and contribute to alter the

default-mode network. The decrease in the activity of the default-mode network associated with mindfulness could explain the attenuation of rumination [96]. Considering, the negative relationship between rumination and happiness, the attenuation of rumination associated with mindfulness could increase happiness.

Cognitive reappraisal and attentional deployment are also both metacognitive strategies that could participate in enhancing self-control and increasing happiness. For example, attentional deployment may serve to avoid immediate temptation and stay focused on long-term goals [133].

Cognitive reappraisal and attentional deployment are both top-down determinants of happiness. They play a critical role in influencing cognitive processes toward enhancing happiness.

### **5.5 Discussion**

The goal of this section was to provide a brief critical review of higher-order processes as top-down influencers of happiness. We have reported findings supporting the top-down influence of several higher-order processes (*e.g.,* cognitive style, cognitive control and "executive functions" and metacognitive strategies) over happiness. At this point of our review, we propose to distinguish between two levels of top-down processes involved in happiness dynamics (**Figure 3**). The first level includes cognitive style (*e.g.,* use of probability, Global-Local processing, attributional style) and "executive functioning." The second level of higher-order processes is represented by metacognition, personality, intentions, and goals influencing cognitive processes belonging to the first level of higher-order processes.

Critically, although some experiments have manipulated factors that could influence happiness, numerous other studies are"correlational" in nature. Even when top-down influence could be involved, the influence of bottom-up processes on higher-order processes cannot be excluded. Sometimes, it is difficult to know what is the cause and what is the consequence [109]. A novel pathway of happiness genesis based on a bidirectional influence from bottom-up and top-down processes should be carefully considered.

**Figure 3.** *Top-down pathway leading to happiness.*
