Happiness
hideHappiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of philosophical, religious, psychological and biological approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.
Philosophers and religious thinkers often define happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than simply as an emotion. Happiness in this older sense was used to translate the Greek Eudaimonia, and is still used in virtue ethics. In everyday speech today, however, terms such as well-being or quality of life are usually used to signify the classical meaning, and happiness usually refers[citation needed] to the felt experience or experiences that philosophers historically called pleasure.
While direct measurement of happiness presents challenges, tools such as The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire have been developed by researchers. Positive psychology researchers use theoretical models that include describing happiness as consisting of positive emotions and positive activities, or that describe three kinds of happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.
Research has identified a number of attributes that correlate with happiness:[citation needed] relationships and social interaction, parenthood, marital status, religious involvement, age, income (but mainly up to the point where survival needs are met), and proximity to other happy people.
Happiness economics suggests that measures of public happiness should be used to supplement more traditional economic measures when evaluating the success of public policy.
For more information about Happiness, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with happiness
No pain, no gain: Mastering a skill makes us stressed in the moment, happy long term
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 29, 2009 |
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No pain, no gain applies to happiness, too, according to new research published online this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies. People who work hard at improving a skill or ability, such as mastering a math problem or lea ...
Why you may lose that loving feeling after tying the knot
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Apr 22, 2009 |
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Dating couples whose dreams include marriage would do well to step back and reflect upon the type of support they'll need from their partners when they cross the threshold, a new Northwestern University study suggests.
Stranger knows best: Other people know more about what will make us happy than we do
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Want to know what will make you happy? Then ask a total stranger -- or so says a new study from Harvard University, which shows that another person's experience is often more informative than ...
New research suggests key to happiness is gratitude -- and men may be locked out
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 13, 2009 |
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With Mother's Day, Father's Day and high school and college graduations upcoming, there will be plenty of gift-giving and well wishes. When those start pouring in, let yourself be grateful—it's the best way to achieve happiness ...
Want to live well? Harvard experts offer pragmatic pointers on getting healthy and staying there
Dec 17, 2009 |
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You are what you eat. You're also how you feel, how you exercise, how you sleep, how you handle money, how you relate to people, and what you value.
Research finds happiest US States match a million Americans' own happiness states
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Dec 17, 2009 |
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New research by the UK's University of Warwick and Hamilton College in the US into the happiness levels of a million individual US citizens have revealed their personal happiness levels closely correlate ...
Couples who do the dishes together stay happier
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Dec 15, 2009 |
3.3 / 5 (3) |
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A new study published by The University of Western Ontario reveals that couples who share the responsibility for paid and unpaid work report higher average measures of happiness and life satisfaction than those in other family ...
Therapy 32 times more cost effective at increasing happiness than money
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Research by the University of Warwick and the University of Manchester finds that psychological therapy could be 32 times more cost effective at making you happy than simply obtaining more money. The research ...
Married with children the key to happiness?
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Oct 27, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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Having children improves married peoples' life satisfaction and the more they have, the happier they are. For unmarried individuals, raising children has little or no positive effect on their happiness. These findings by ...
Facebook measuring the mood in the US
Oct 06, 2009 |
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Facebook is tracking how happy people are in the United States. Mother's Day was predictably upbeat, according to a Gross National Happiness index graph on the popular social networking service's blog on ...
Psychologists say longer lives can still lead to happier golden years
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Aug 07, 2009 |
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As more people live well into their 80s and 90s, it's reassuring to know that most people get happier as they age and exert more emotional control than younger adults, according to researchers who spoke at the 117th Annual ...
If you're happy, then we know it: Scientists build 'hedonometer'
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Jul 24, 2009 |
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In 1881, the optimistic Irish economist Francis Edgeworth imagined a strange device called a "hedonimeter" that would be capable of "continually registering the height of pleasure experienced by an individual." ...
In pursuit of a happiness gene
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jun 23, 2009 |
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The pursuit of happiness characterizes the human condition. But for those suffering from stress, money trouble or chronic illness, a positive outlook on life can be difficult to find. Now, a Tel Aviv University ...
New research shows children take a toll on marital bliss
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Apr 08, 2009 |
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What married couples have suspected for years is now proven by researchers at the University of Denver (DU) and Texas A&M - children can add problems and stress to a marriage. According to an eight-year study of 218 couples, ...
Scientists examine how social networks influence behavior
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Mar 22, 2009 |
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Conventional wisdom holds that it's not what you know, it's who you know. But now scientists studying networking are starting to realize that when it comes to much in life, it's also who the people you know know, and perhaps ...
