In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion of scientific research revealing precisely how positive feelings like happiness are good for us. We know that they motivate us to pursue important goals and overcome obstacles, protect us from some effects of stress, connect us closely with other people, and even stave off physical and mental ailments. This has made happiness pretty trendy. The science of happiness made the covers of Time, Oprah, and even The Economist, and it has spawned a small industry of motivational speakers, psychotherapists, and research enterprises……..Continue reading….
By June Gruber
Source: Greater Good Magazine
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Critics:
Several scales have been developed to measure happiness: The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) is a four-item scale, measuring global subjective happiness from 1999. The scale requires participants to use absolute ratings to characterize themselves as happy or unhappy individuals, as well as it asks to what extent they identify themselves with descriptions of happy and unhappy individuals.
The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) from 1988 is a 20-item questionnaire, using a five-point Likert scale (1 = very slightly or not at all, 5 = extremely) to assess the relation between personality traits and positive or negative affects at “this moment, today, the past few days, the past week, the past few weeks, the past year, and in general”. A longer version with additional affect scales was published 1994.
The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a global cognitive assessment of life satisfaction developed by Ed Diener. A seven-point Likert scale is used to agree or disagree with five statements about one’s life. The Cantril ladder method has been used in the World Happiness Report. Respondents are asked to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10, and the worst possible life being a 0. They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale.
Positive Experience; the survey by Gallup asks if, the day before, people experienced enjoyment, laughing or smiling a lot, feeling well-rested, being treated with respect, learning or doing something interesting. 9 of the top 10 countries in 2018 were South American, led by Paraguay and Panama. Country scores range from 85 to 43.
The Oxford Happiness Inventory is a comprehensive assessment tool consisting of 29 items, in which the person has to choose one of four options. It is user-friendly and easy to administer. This questionnaire shows the amount of well-being of a person. Providing quality insights of the happiness of one person. Since 2012, a World Happiness Report has been published. Happiness is evaluated, as in “How happy are you with your life as a whole?”, and in emotional reports, as in “How happy are you now?,” and people seem able to use happiness as appropriate in these verbal contexts.
Using these measures, the report identifies the countries with the highest levels of happiness. In subjective well-being measures, the primary distinction is between cognitive life evaluations and emotional reports. The UK began to measure national well-being in 2012, following Bhutan, which had already been measuring gross national happiness. Academic economists and international economic organizations are arguing for and developing multi-dimensional dashboards which combine subjective and objective indicators to provide a more direct and explicit assessment of human wellbeing.
There are many different contributors to adult wellbeing, such as the point that happiness judgements partly reflect the presence of salient constraints, and that fairness, autonomy, community and engagement are key aspects of happiness and wellbeing throughout the life course. Although these factors play a role in happiness, they do not all need to improve simultaneously to help one achieve an increase in happiness. When discussing genetics and their effects on individuals it is important to first understand that genetics do not predict behavior.
It is possible for genes to increase the likelihood of individuals being happier compared to others, but they do not 100 percent predict behavior. At this point in scientific research, it has been hard to find a lot of evidence to support this idea that happiness is affected in some way by genetics. In a 2016 study, Michael Minkov and Michael Harris Bond found that a gene by the name of SLC6A4 was not a good predictor of happiness level in humans.
On the other hand, there have been many studies that have found genetics to be a key part in predicting and understanding happiness in humans. In a review article discussing many studies on genetics and happiness, they discussed the common findings. The author found an important factor that has affected scientist findings this being how happiness is measured.
For example, in certain studies when subjective wellbeing is measured as a trait heredity is found to be higher, about 70 to 90 percent. In another study, 11,500 unrelated genotypes were studied, and the conclusion was the heritability was only 12 to 18 percent. Overall, this article found the common percent of heredity was about 20 to 50 percent.
Theories on how to achieve happiness include “encountering unexpected positive events”, “seeing a significant other”, and “basking in the acceptance and praise of others”. Some others believe that happiness is not solely derived from external, momentary pleasures. Research on positive psychology, well-being, eudaimonia and happiness, and the theories of Diener, Ryff, Keyes, and Seligmann covers a broad range of levels and topics, including “the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global dimensions of life.”
The psychiatrist George Vaillant and the director of longitudinal Study of Adult Development at Harvard University Robert J. Waldinger found that those who were happiest and healthier reported strong interpersonal relationships. Research showed that adequate sleep contributes to well-being. Good mental health and good relationships contribute more to happiness than income does.
In 2018, Laurie R. Santos course titled “Psychology and the Good Life” became the most popular course in the history of Yale University and was made available for free online to non-Yale students. Some commentators focus on the difference between the hedonistic tradition of seeking pleasant and avoiding unpleasant experiences, and the eudaimonic tradition of living life in a full and deeply satisfying way.
Kahneman has said that “”When you look at what people want for themselves, how they pursue their goals, they seem more driven by the search for satisfaction than the search for happiness.” Since 2000 the field of positive psychology, which focuses on the study of happiness and human flourishing rather than maladjusted behavior or illness, expanded drastically in terms of scientific publications.
It was introduced by psychologist Martin Seligman in 1998 who argued that psychology had long focused on mental illness and bringing people from “minus five to zero,” but that it should also study the conditions that allow individuals to thrive and move from “zero to plus five.” It has produced many different views on causes of happiness, and on factors that correlate with happiness, such as positive social interactions with family and friends.
These factors include six key virtues: 1. Wisdom and knowledge, which includes creativity, curiosity, love of learning and open-mindedness. 2. Courage, which includes bravery, persistence, integrity, and vitality. 3. Humanity, which includes love, kindness, and social intelligence. 4. Justice, which includes leadership, fairness, and loyalty. 5. Temperance, which includes self-regulation, prudence, forgiveness, humility, patience and modesty. 6. Transcendence, which includes religious/spirituality, hope, gratitude, appreciation of beauty and excellence, and humor.
Seligman later formalized positive psychology with the PERMA model (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment), introduced in 2011. The model has since been widely used in positive psychology research as a framework for understanding well-being. In order for a virtue to be considered a key strength in the field of positive psychology it must meet the demands of 12 criteria.
Namely ubiquity (cross-cultural), fulfilling, morally valued, does not diminish others, be a nonfelicitous opposite (have a clear antonym that is negative), traitlike, measurable, distinct, have paragons (distinctly show up in individuals’ behaviors), have prodigies (show up in youth), be selectively absent (distinctly does not show up in some individuals), and is supported by some institutions. Numerous short-term self-help interventions have been developed and demonstrated to improve happiness.
Yale researcher Emma Seppälä has emphasized the importance of compassion for others, balanced with self-compassion. Compassion for others may involve service and volunteering, or simply reaching out to connect, show gratitude, or draw others together. Happiness research understands “happiness” as “life satisfaction” or “well-being”. Since it has proved difficult to find a definition of happiness, individual people are instead asked how happy they feel. Numerous surveys are then summarized and analyzed using static methods.
Although some researchers believe that the scales are fundamentally unsuitable for estimating happiness, other researchers argue that the happiness indices formed on the basis of the survey have a high statistical correspondence with characteristics that are generally understood to indicate a happy person. For example, individuals who report high happiness on scales smile more often, exhibit more social behavior, are more helpful, and are less likely to commit suicide.
For this reason, happiness indices determined on the basis of the survey are considered reliable by happiness researchers. A meta analysis of 2023 evaluated evidence for common happiness-boosting strategies. The study aimed to shed light on the effectiveness of these strategies and their impact on subjective well-being. As a first step, the authors analyzed numerous media articles on happiness to identify the five most commonly recommended strategies, these were:
Expressing gratitude, enhancing sociability, exercising, practicing mindfulness/meditation, and increasing exposure to nature. Next, the published scientific literature was searched but limited to the above-described high-quality criteria that tested the effects of these strategies on subjective well-being in everyday individuals. Only 10% of the initially retrieved studies met those rigorous criteria.
The findings revealed that unlike so far suggested by scientific studies, there is currently still a lack of robust scientific evidence to support some of the most frequently suggested happiness strategies. Among the five most common happiness strategies, there was “reasonably solid evidence” of positive effects from a) Gratitude messages or lists, b) conversations with strangers or Gratitude and sociability – that is, establishing and maintaining social relationships. In contrast, no convincing evidence could be found that c) sports, d) mindfulness training, or e) walks in the countryside make people happier.
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