Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Happiness
Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Martin Seligman (2002a), the founder of positive psychology, defines the
good life as “using your signature strengths every day to produce authentic
happiness and abundant gratification”
Happiness Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• Differences exist in how cultures conceptualize, encourage, or teach their
children about the nature of happiness and the good life (Matsumoto,
1994).
• The search for happiness is a universal quest.
• One of the more prominent distinctions is between cultures that view
happiness as an emotion that is achieved by individuals through their own
unique efforts or whether it is a more collective experience, that is, a joint
product of persons and their immediate family environments.
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Critique on Understanding ‘Happiness’
• Many researchers in positive psychology agree that happiness ought not
be the sole criteria for the good life (e.g., Diener, 2009c; Seligman, 2011;
also see Gruber, Mauss, & Tamir, 2011).
• “Happiness” is a term that is vague and poorly defined from a scientific
viewpoint (Algoe et al., 2011).
• When research findings on happiness are presented around the world to
the general public, then an even greater array of folklore on happiness
gets activated and the potential for misunderstanding is magnified.
• Leading researchers of subjective well-being have insisted that happiness
may be “necessary” to the good life but not “sufficient” (Diener, Oishi, &
Lucas, 2003).
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Importance of Happiness
• Desire to be happier and more satisfied with life is universally human.
• People simply operate better within the world, whatever world they live in,
if they are more optimistic, are more hopeful, and can rely on solid
supportive relationships.
• Ed Diener (2000), one of the prominent researchers on well-being, stated
that well-being can be improved by improving happiness.
• One things a person can do to increase one’s quality of life is to help
others increase their level of happiness and life satisfaction.
Approaches to Happiness Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
Hedonic Happiness
• The oldest approach to well-being and happiness is hedonism.
• It focuses on pleasure as the basic component of the good life.
• Hedonism in its basic form is the belief that the pursuit of well-
being is fundamentally the pursuit of individual sensual
pleasures and the avoidance of harm, pain, and suffering.
• Defining the good life in terms of personal happiness is the
general thrust of the hedonic view of well-being
Eudaimonic Happiness Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• Eudaimonic conceptions of happiness define happiness as self-realization,
meaning the expression and fulfillment of inner potentials.
• The good life results from living in accordance with your true self.
• Happiness results from striving toward self-actualization—a process in
which our talents, needs, and deeply held values direct the way we
conduct our lives.
• “Eudaimonia” (or happiness) results from realization of our potentials.
• We are happiest when we follow and achieve our goals and develop our
unique potentials.
• Eudaimonic happiness has much in common with humanistic psychology’s
emphases on the concepts of self-actualization (Maslow, 1968) and the
fully functioning person (Rogers, 1961) as criteria for healthy development
and optimal functioning.
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Three routes to happiness
Seligman (2002)
• The Pleasant Life
– Having many pleasures in life and the skills to amplify them
• The Good Life
– Knowing your signature strengths, and recreating your life (work, love, friendship,
leisure, parenting) to use those strengths to have more ‘flow’ in life
• The Meaningful Life
– Using your signature strengths to serve something that you believe is larger than
you are
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Martin Seligman Video
• https://youtu.be/9FBxfd7DL3E
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Factors contributing to Happiness
• Diener identifies five factors that contribute to happiness:
–social relationships,
–temperament/adaptation,
–money,
–society and culture, and
–positive thinking styles
Social Relationships Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• Happy people have strong social relationships.
• In one study conducted by Diener, the happiest 10 percent of the participants all had
strong supportive relationships.
• A strong social network didn’t guarantee happiness, but it was a requirement to be in
the happiest group.
Temperament Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• Temperament, which appears to have a genetic component according to several
recent studies, also affects mood.
• Diener discussed the set point theory of temperament, which states that people
have ups and downs in reaction to life events, but that they adapt and return to a
set point.
• There is evidence for this, but studies have shown that people who have
experienced a major loss, like being fired or losing a spouse, often don’t fully
adapt or take years to do so.
Money Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences
• According to Diener, wealth actually is correlated with happiness, particularly in
poorer societies. But there are limitations.
• Money can be toxic to happiness. When participants in one study were asked if
money was more important than love, those who answered “yes” were less likely
to be happy and seemed destined never to catch up to happiness no matter how
much money they make.
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Positive Thinking Styles
• Happiness is also affected by cognitive patterns — for example, seeing
opportunities instead of threats and generally trusting and liking other
people.
• Diener identifies three facets of this positive cognition:
– attention (seeing the positive and beauty in things),
– interpretation (not putting a negative spin on things), and
– memory (savoring past experiences rather than ruminating on
negative experiences).
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