The Hedonic Adaptation

Exactly four months after the last pre medical 100Level exam, the highly anticipated list of students who made it into the College of medicine in the university of Lagos was released.

The words of congratulations flowed in almost immediately and yeah, you probably expected me to be as ecstatic as the well wishers were for the success but I was totally indifferent, so indifferent that I wondered if something was wrong with me.  

Apparently, there was something going on, I had developed a phenomenon known as HEDONIC ADAPTATION otherwise known as the HEDONIC TREDMILL or HEDONIC ADAPTATION THEORY- I’m sure most of us are hearing of the term for the first time, I certainly hadn’t heard of it until it happened to me.

What is Hedonic Adaptation?

The term was coined by the duo of Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell in their essay which was titled “Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society” In 1971 and it described as a situation in which our emotional response to either a positive or negative emotion decreases due to the time frame. This simply means that you’ve built up a whole lot of anticipation towards that event that the moment it happened; it no longer had the desired effect that it should have had. This often makes us feel bad cos we basically think we should have been experiencing more emotions than we experience at that moment.

 It also describes a process in which an individual quickly returns to a relatively stable state of wellbeing or emotional condition after a landmark event had occurs.

What Causes Hedonic adaptation?

Hedonic adaptation occurs due to various psychological factors such as;

1.       Habituation: this occurs when an individual has gotten used to experiencing a range of positive or negative emotions in their lives. Changes that were new and strange to individuals initially tend to lose their novelty or impact over time as they become routine or familiar. For example, as a student who just gained admission into a higher institution of learning as a first-year student, the first few weeks in the university felt surreal but overtime it became just a regular occurrence and often times tiring.

2.       Personality factors: some individuals may have an innate behavior of adapting to changes that come their way without feeling a noticeable change in emotions

3.       Social comparison: comparing oneself to others can influence perceptions of happiness. Constantly being conscious of other people’s achievements and comparing them to yours might lead to experiencing hedonic adaptation.

The effect of social comparison was a factor that affected my reaction to the release of the cross over list. Previously before the list was released, the department had already compiled a list of all the students and their CGPA. Looking at that least, there were several students who performed better than I did and I felt I could have done a whole lot better. Yes, I did well enough to believe I would make the list but I wasn’t happy with the performance that brought me to the list. I wanted more, so when the official list was released there was no joy in seeing my name on that list, I was unhappy with my final score especially in a course I had a C.

What did I do?

When I realized what should have made me happy wasn’t making me feel happy, I decided to find out why. This led me to the discovery of the phenomenon and I personally took steps to curb the feeling and returning to a semblance of normal emotions required in such a situation.

1.       Gratitude: Most times when we hear the word gratitude, we begin to think religiously which doesn’t have to be exactly that way. Yes, it is important to give thanks to our creator for blessings- which I did, there are other ways to ensure a gratitude lifestyle

2.       Change of perspective: I redirected my focus from comparing myself to others and letting it dampen my own happiness to other aspects of my life as a source of happiness. For example, I put effort into experiencing personal growth and when I implement what I learnt in my real life, it made me happier.

3.       Self-compassion: I acknowledged that such experiences are natural and I focused on self-care to guide me through.

4.       Set new goals and adopted long term perspective: I decided to set new goals for myself, for the new week and for the new semester and also recognized that my crossing over into the college brought me closer to getting to where I want to be as a medical practitioner.

5.       Prioritized experiences of value and significance and engaged in only meaningful activities.

6.       Connect with people: I sought out my friends and family members during this period. Seeking out friends and family helped provide the necessary emotional cushion during that period.

It is important to note that it is impossible to curb the feeling of hedonic adaptation completely but it is possible to effectively manage and mitigate the effects of the feeling.

This experience of mine helped me understand the complexity of human emotions and the importance of internal factors and intentional choices in maintaining a stable wellbeing despite life’s situations.

At the end of it all, I learnt that the truth in the words of the famous philosopher, Socrates who said “the secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.”