Psychology Explores the Pursuit of Happiness: What Makes People Happy?
The pursuit of happiness is vital to our life satisfaction. All of us want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives… we want to enhance our experiences of love and relationships as well as work and play… we want to find true happiness.
What is happiness?
Happiness is commonly defined as a state of well being; it is commonly associated with feeling good or experiencing pleasure.
Understanding happiness and related positive mental states involves the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present and hope for the future.
What makes people happy?
There isn’t one key that can lead to happiness and life satisfaction. Instead, multiple components are involved in finding happiness; this is similar to having different ingredients in a recipe for happiness.
To understand what makes people happy, it’s important to look at multiple factors that can contribute to finding happiness. Some findings about happiness are surprising.
- Your
social relationships can greatly influence your happiness. People who have
close relationships with family and friends tend to have greater life
satisfaction and happiness. The loss of a close family member or friend
can cause dissatisfaction with life
— it can take a long time
for people to recover from that loss.
- Having
meaningful and enjoyable work
— whether it is paid or
unpaid activity — contributes to life satisfaction. Being
fully engaged in this activity can be so gratifying that some people are
willing to do it for it’s own sake instead of what they will get out of
it. The activity is it’s own reward.
- Wealth
does not contribute a great deal to your happiness. Once your basic needs
are met, particularly when income is above the poverty level, additional
income does NOT raise your sense of life satisfaction.
- Older
people are more satisfied with their lives compared to young people.
- Activities
that provide moments of pleasure and enjoyment —
including shopping, eating good food and making money —
do not lead to long-term fulfillment.
Studies looking at day-to-day experiences of happy moments tend to focus on transient happiness. In contrast, global reports of well-being and life satisfaction — what we remember — emphasize deeper and lasting happiness.
Based on Seligman’s research, there are three components of happiness:
- Pleasure
— feeling good, having positive
emotions and sensory experiences.
- Engagement
— the depth of involvement with
one’s family, friends and other relationships as well as hobbies, work and
play.
- Meaning
— having a sense of purpose in
life.
Pleasure is the least important component of happiness. Engagement and meaning are far more important in achieving lasting happiness and satisfaction in life.
The most fundamental finding from studies on the psychology of happiness is that being with other people makes people happy. The “need to belong” is important in life satisfaction. So, it’s important to work on social skills in order to build closer interpersonal connections and social support. In turn, this can lead to greater happiness and satisfaction in life.
To your happiness...
Allie
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