Does Fatherhood Make You Happy Analysis

According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of happiness is “a state of well-being and contentment.” However, the word happiness has a much more complex meaning and is hard to describe. In Daniel Gilbert’s “Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?” he discusses the apparent happiness that comes with the privilege of being a parent. Howard C. Cutler and The Dalai Lama take a different approach in their section “Inner Contentment.” They explain the false feeling of satisfaction that people acquire from material items. The differences between these two entries are limit while the similarities are very prominent. Gilbert and Cutler’s writings were similar in various ways but also had some factors that differed.

The overall topic of both “Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?” and “Inner Contentment” is happiness and what causes people to feel

Gilbert said , “Psychologists have measured how people feel as they go about their daily activities, and have found that people are less happy when they are interacting with their children than when they are eating, exercising, shopping, or watching television” (Gilbert, 2006, p.776). This is a great example of a false sense of happiness that people experience in their lives. They believe their children bring them great joy, but scientifically they cause them to be less happy. Along similar lines the Dalai Lama talks about greed saying, “One interesting thing about greed is that although the underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, the irony is that after obtaining the object you desire, you are still not satisfied” (Gyatso, 1998, p.793). Greed causes the same false reality that Gilbert related to parenthood. When a person is greedy, they may obtain everything they have ever wanted but in the end they will still be unsatisfied because they want more. Both of these entries do a great job at showing the false sense of happiness that is present in today’s