Happiness
Studies have shown that individuals who experience higher levels of happiness tend to have better physical and mental health, stronger social relationships, and greater resilience in the face of adversity.
While there is no single, universally accepted definition of happiness, it is generally understood to be a state of mind characterized by positive emotions, a sense of purpose, and a feeling of fulfillment.
[c] For instance Sonja Lyubomirsky has described happiness as "the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one's life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.
In 1780, the English utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed that as happiness was the primary goal of humans, it should be measured as a way of determining how well the government was performing.
[48][49] 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.
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.
[64] 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.
"[65] 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.
[68] 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.
"[71] Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and prisoner in the Nazi concentration camps during World War II, noticed that those who lost hope soon died, while those who held to meaning and purpose tended to live on.
Three key sources of meaning that he highlights in his writings include the following:[72] Psychologist Robert Emmons has identified the centrality of goals in pursuing happiness.
[77] The concept of flow is the idea that after our basic needs are met we can achieve greater happiness by altering our consciousness by becoming so engaged in a task that we lose our sense of time.
[78] Erich Fromm said "Happiness is the indication that man has found the answer to the problem of human existence: the productive realization of his potentialities and thus, simultaneously, being one with the world and preserving the integrity of his self.
[83] Sigmund Freud said that all humans strive after happiness, but that the possibilities of achieving it are restricted because we "are so made that we can derive intense enjoyment only from a contrast and very little from the state of things.
[85] 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.
[94][95][96][97] John Stuart Mill believed that for the great majority of people happiness is best achieved en passant, rather than striving for it directly.
In his TedTalk titled, the surprising science of happiness, Gilbert explains that everyone possesses a "psychological immune system" that helps to regulate our emotional reactions.
Over the past decade, there has been a significant shift in what constitutes 'high-quality evidence' in psychology (there were adopted e. g. practices like pre-registration, committing to specific methodological and analytical decisions in advance, and increased sample sizes to avoid underpowered studies).
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 (non-clinical samples).
June Gruber argued that happiness may trigger a person to be more sensitive, more gullible, less successful, and more likely to undertake high risk behaviours.
[137][138][139] Others argue that happiness is strongly correlated with economic freedom,[140] preferably within the context of a western mixed economy, with free press and a democracy.
More mundane forms of happiness, such as acquiring wealth and maintaining good friendships, are also recognized as worthy goals for lay people (see sukha).
In Advaita Vedanta, the ultimate goal of life is happiness, in the sense that duality between Atman and Brahman is transcended and one realizes oneself to be the Self in all.
[160] The Chinese Confucian thinker Mencius, who had sought to give advice to ruthless political leaders during China's Warring States period, was convinced that the mind played a mediating role between the "lesser self" (the physiological self) and the "greater self" (the moral self), and that getting the priorities right between these two would lead to sage-hood.
In Christianity, the ultimate end of human existence consists in felicity, Latin equivalent to the Greek eudaimonia ("blessed happiness"), described by the 13th-century philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas as a beatific vision of God's essence in the next life.
But imperfect happiness, such as can be had here, consists first and principally in contemplation, but secondarily, in an operation of the practical intellect directing human actions and passions.
[170] Al-Ghazali (1058–1111), the Sufi thinker, wrote that "The Alchemy of Happiness" is a manual of religious instruction that is used throughout the Muslim world and widely practiced today.
[189] In the Nicomachean Ethics, written in 350 BCE, Aristotle stated that happiness (also being well and doing well) is the only thing that humans desire for their own sake, unlike riches, honour, health or friendship.
[195][196] These small, "last men" who seek after only their own pleasure and health, avoiding all danger, exertion, difficulty, challenge, struggle are meant to seem contemptible to Nietzsche's reader.
