Knowledge Tree
happiness
Facts (75)
Sources
Stress, Lifestyle, and Health – Psychology 2e OpenStax pressbooks.cuny.edu 26 facts
claimA nation's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is associated with happiness levels, but changes in GDP bear little relationship to changes in happiness.
claimThe average person globally tends to be relatively happy and reports experiencing more positive feelings than negative feelings.
claimThe study of happiness has experienced dramatic growth over the last three decades.
claimExtraverted individuals tend to be happier in cultures that value extraversion compared to cultures that value introversion, according to Fulmer et al. (2010).
claimSome individuals, particularly those committed to religious faith, define happiness as emphasizing virtuosity, reverence, and enlightened spirituality.
claimSome individuals define happiness as contentment, characterized by inner peace and joy derived from satisfaction with surroundings, relationships, accomplishments, and oneself.
claimHappy people have a high frequency of contact with friends.
claimHappiness is defined as an enduring state of mind characterized by the capacity to experience pleasure in daily life and the ability to engage one's skills and talents to enrich one's own life and the lives of others.
claimHappy individuals report that their marriages are fulfilling.
claimSome individuals define happiness as pleasurable engagement with their personal environment, such as having a career and hobbies that are engaging, meaningful, rewarding, and exciting.
perspectiveContemporary political and social issues such as poverty, taxation, affordable health care and housing, clean air and water, and income inequality should be considered with the happiness of the population in mind.
claimPeople tend to be happier when they possess characteristics that are highly valued by their specific culture, according to Diener (2012).
claimResearchers have found no identified link between parenthood and happiness, and aggregate findings from various countries suggest that people without children are generally happier than those with children, according to Hansen (2012).
claimThe three dimensions of happiness are defined as the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.
perspectivePolicymakers may benefit from investigating the causes of happiness and unhappiness to develop programs that increase societal well-being, as suggested by Diener et al. (2006).
claimSatisfaction with marriage and family life is considered by some researchers to be the strongest predictor of happiness.
claimPositive psychology is defined as the science of happiness, seeking to identify and promote qualities that lead to greater fulfillment in life, while moving away from a focus on pathology, faults, and problems.
claimMarried people report being happier than those who are single, divorced, or widowed.
claimReligiosity generally correlates with happiness, but this relationship depends on societal circumstances, as nations with difficult living conditions tend to be more religious than those with favorable conditions.
claimHappiness is an ambiguous term that can be defined from different perspectives.
claimPositive psychology is a field of study that seeks to identify and promote qualities that lead to greater happiness and fulfillment, including components such as positive affect, optimism, and flow.
claimDramatic life events have less long-lasting impact on happiness than people typically expect, as demonstrated by Brickman, Coats, & Janoff-Bulman (1978).
claimLottery winners experience a surge of happiness after winning the jackpot, according to Lutter (2007).
claimA person's objective physical attractiveness is only weakly correlated with their happiness, according to Diener, Wolsic, & Fujita (1995).
claimA study by Seligman et al. (2005) found that happiness interventions, such as writing down three good things that occurred each day, led to increases in happiness that lasted over six months.
claimLife satisfaction generally increases as people age, but there appear to be no significant gender differences in happiness.
Stress, Lifestyle, and Health - Maricopa Open Digital Press open.maricopa.edu 24 facts
claimResearch by Diener et al. (1999) indicates that life satisfaction generally increases as people age, but there are no significant gender differences in happiness.
claimHumans experience a process similar to sensory adaptation when reacting to emotional life events, where the emotional impact of an event erodes over time and individuals revert to their original baseline happiness levels.
claimHappy people have a high frequency of contact with friends (Pinquart & Sörensen, 2000).
claimHappy people tend to have more friends, higher-quality social relationships, and stronger social support networks than less happy people (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005).
claimWell-being interventions designed to augment baseline levels of happiness can produce permanent and long-lasting increases in happiness at individual, organizational, and societal levels.
claimChanges in a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) bear little relationship to changes in happiness (Diener et al., 2013).
claimA nation's per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is associated with happiness levels (Helliwell et al., 2013).
claimAverage national happiness scores relate strongly to six key variables: per capita gross domestic product (GDP), social support, freedom to make important life choices, healthy life expectancy, freedom from perceived corruption in government and business, and generosity.
claimThe average person in the world tends to be relatively happy and indicates experiencing more positive feelings than negative feelings (Diener et al., 2010).
claimExtraverted people tend to be happier in extraverted cultures than in introverted cultures.
claimIncreases in income are associated with increases in happiness to the extent that they lead to increases in purchasing power (Diener et al., 2013).
claimPsychologists have suggested that happiness consists of three distinct elements: the pleasant life, the good life, and the meaningful life.
claimMyers (2000) suggested that satisfaction with marriage and family life is the strongest predictor of happiness.
claimResidents of affluent countries tend to be happier than residents of poor countries, and within countries, wealthy individuals are generally happier than poor individuals (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002).
claimThe study of happiness has grown dramatically in the last three decades (Diener, 2013).
claimHappiness is an enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions, and the sense that one’s life has meaning and value.
claimThe field of positive psychology aims to help understand what builds hope, optimism, happiness, healthy relationships, flow, and genuine personal fulfillment.
claimDramatic life events have much less long-lasting impact on happiness than people typically expect.
claimHappy individuals report that their marriages are fulfilling (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).
quoteAccording to Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom.
claimHappy people are more likely to graduate from college and secure more meaningful and engaging jobs compared to less happy people.
claimStudies show that married people report higher levels of happiness compared to those who are single, divorced, or widowed (Diener et al., 1999).
claimPositive affect refers to pleasurable engagement with the environment, including states such as happiness, joy, enthusiasm, alertness, and excitement.
claimEducation shows a positive but weak correlation with happiness, while intelligence is not appreciably related to happiness.
Stress, Lifestyle, and Health – Introduction to Psychology open.maricopa.edu 16 facts
claimHappiness is defined as an enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions, combined with the sense that one's life has meaning and value, according to Lyubomirsky (2001).
measurementLongitudinal data from a study by Fujita and Diener (2005) showed that happiness levels changed significantly over time for nearly a quarter of respondents, with 9% of respondents experiencing major changes.
claimPositive psychology at the subjective level focuses on valued experiences including well-being, contentment, and satisfaction regarding the past; hope and optimism regarding the future; and happiness in the present.
perspectiveSome individuals define happiness as contentment, characterized by inner peace and joy derived from satisfaction with one's surroundings, relationships, accomplishments, and oneself.
claimPeople tend to be happier when they possess characteristics that are highly valued by their culture according to a 2012 study by Diener.
claimResearchers have identified no link between parenthood and happiness, and aggregate findings from a range of countries indicate that people without children are generally happier than those who do have children according to a 2012 study by Hansen.
perspectiveSome individuals, particularly those with strong religious faith, define happiness as emphasizing virtuosity, reverence, and enlightened spirituality.
claimHappiness is characterized as a long-term state known as subjective well-being, rather than a transient positive mood.
claimReligiosity generally correlates with happiness, though this relationship depends on societal circumstances according to a 2003 study by Hackney and Sanders.
claimHappiness is an ambiguous state that can be defined from different perspectives, according to Martin (2012).
perspectiveSome individuals define happiness as pleasurable engagement with their personal environment, such as having a career and hobbies that are engaging, meaningful, rewarding, and exciting.
claimLottery winners experience a surge of happiness immediately after winning the jackpot, but this emotional impact tends to erode over time.
measurementA recent poll found that only 42% of American adults report being 'very happy', with the greatest declines in happiness observed among people of color, those without a college education, and those who identify politically as Democrats or independents, according to McCarthy (2020).
claimWhile people generally adapt to marriage and return to previous happiness levels, they often do not fully adapt to the negative emotional impact of unemployment or severe disabilities.
claimDeclines in happiness among specific demographic groups in the United States may be related to challenging economic conditions.
claimA person's objective physical attractiveness is only weakly correlated with their happiness according to a 1995 study by Diener et al.
Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART) frontiersin.org 3 facts
referenceLyubomirsky, S., King, L., and Diener, E. (2005) published 'The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success?' in Psychological Bulletin, volume 131, pages 803–855, investigating the relationship between positive affect and success.
referenceRicard (2003) authored the book 'Happiness', which explores the nature of happiness.
claimThe term 'Nirvana' is translated as 'blowing out' or 'extinction' and refers to the extinction of afflictions (Sanskrit: klesha) that prevent happiness and flourishing, as noted by Buddhaghosa (1991), Analayo (2003), and Bodhi (1999).
Psychedelics, Sociality, and Human Evolution frontiersin.org 1 fact
measurementIn a study of 40 healthy subjects, Dolder et al. (2016) found that LSD increased happiness, trust, closeness to others, emotional empathy, and sociality.
The Mechanisms of Psychedelic Visionary Experiences - Frontiers frontiersin.org Sep 27, 2017 1 fact
claimPsychedelic and mystical experiences typically involve positive emotions such as happiness and bliss, while negative emotions appear less central, potentially because depression is not an adaptive response.
Classification Schemes of Altered States of Consciousness - ORBi orbi.uliege.be 1 fact
referenceDambrun found that the dissolution of perceived body boundaries induced by body scan meditation can elicit happiness, as reported in the 2016 paper 'When the dissolution of perceived body boundaries elicits happiness: the effect of selflessness induced by a body scan meditation'.
Dualism, Physicalism, and Philosophy of Mind - Capturing Christianity capturingchristianity.com Dec 11, 2019 1 fact
quoteJaegwon Kim stated: "When philosophers discuss the nature of the intrinsic good, or what is worthy of our desire and volition for its own sake, the most prominently mentioned candidates are things like pleasure, absence of pain, enjoyment, and happiness—states that are either states of conscious experience or states that presuppose a capacity for conscious experience. Our attitude toward sentient creatures, with a capacity for pain and pleasure, is crucially different in moral terms from our attitude toward insentient objects. To most of us, a fulfilling life, a life worth living, is one that is rich and full in qualitative consciousness."
The Long-Term Perceived Effect of Childhood Trauma on Youth's ... rsisinternational.org 1 fact
claimWell-being is linked to positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life, quality of life, happiness, personal growth and flourishing, capability, self-acceptance, positive relationships, and autonomy.
Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimHumans share at least five basic emotions: fear, sadness, happiness, anger, and disgust.