For other uses see Happiness (disambiguation). "Happy" and "Jolly" redirect here. For other uses see Happy (disambiguation) and Jolly (disambiguation). The smiley face is a well-known symbol of happiness

Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.1 A variety of biological psychological religious and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources.

Positive psychology endeavors to apply the scientific method to answer questions about what "happiness" is and how we might attain it.

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.

Happiness economics suggests that measures of public happiness should be used to supplement more traditional economic measures when evaluating the success of public policy. Contents 1 Scientific views 2 Religious perspectives 2.1 Buddhism 2.2 Catholicism 3 Philosophical views 4 Economic views 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links Scientific views See also: Positive psychology and Religion and happiness Martin Seligman asserts that happiness is not just external momentary pleasures.2 Flow (engagement) and general life satisfaction are parts of happiness too for example. Hotei God of happiness A smiling 95-year-old man from Santa Cruz Chile.

Happiness is a very fuzzy concept and can mean many things to many people. Part of the challenge of the science of happiness is to identify all the different uses of the word "happiness" or else to understand its various components.

Studies have found that things like money education or the weather do not affect happiness the way one might expect. There are various habits that have been correlated with happiness. Psychologist Martin Seligman provides the acronym PERMA to summarize many of Positive Psychology's findings; humans seem happiest when they have Pleasure (tasty foods warm baths etc.) Engagement (or flow the absorption of an enjoyed yet challenging activity) Relationships (social ties have turned out to be extremely reliable indicator of happiness) Meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger) and finally Accomplishments (having realized tangible goals).

There is evidence suggesting that people can improve their happiness. Mood disorders like depression are often understood through a Biopsychosocial model meaning biological psychological and social factors all contribute to mood (i.e. there is no single cause). The Diathesis-stress model further argues that a diathesis (a biological vulnerability- due to genes) to certain moods are worsened or improved by the environment and upbringing. The idea is that individuals with high vulnerability especially if their early environment worsened depressive tendencies may need Antidepressants. Furthermore the model suggests that everyone can benefit to varying degrees from the various habits and practices identified by Positive psychology.

There has also been some studies of religion as it relates to happiness as well as religious or generally philosophical notions of happiness. Research has generally found that religion may help make people happier by providing various important components (e.g. PERMA) in countries where there are many who share that religion. Religious perspectives Buddhism

Happiness forms a central theme of Buddhist teachings. For ultimate freedom from suffering the Noble Eightfold Path leads its practitioner to Nirvana a state of everlasting peace. Ultimate happiness is only achieved by overcoming craving in all forms. More mundane forms of happiness such as acquiring wealth and maintaining good friendships are also recognized as worthy goals for lay people (see sukha). Buddhism also encourages the generation of loving kindness and compassion the desire for the happiness and welfare of all beings.34 Catholicism In Catholicism the ultimate end of human existence consists in felicity (Latin equivalent to the Greek eudaimonia) or "blessed happiness" described by the 13th-century philosopher-theologian Thomas Aquinas as a Beatific Vision of God's essence in the next life.5 Philosophical views Main article: Philosophy of happiness The Chinese Confucian thinker Mencius who 2300 years ago sought to give advice to the ruthless political leaders of the 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. He argued that if we did not feel satisfaction or pleasure in nourishing one's "vital force" with "righteous deeds" that force would shrivel up (Mencius6A:15 2A:2). More specifically he mentions the experience of intoxicating joy if one celebrates the practice of the great virtues especially through music.6 Al-Ghazali (10581111) the Muslim Sufi thinker wrote the Alchemy of Happiness a manual of spiritual instruction throughout the Muslim world and widely practiced today. The Hindu thinker Patanjali author of the Yoga Sutras wrote quite exhaustively on the psychological and ontological roots of bliss.7 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 its own sake unlike riches honor health or friendship. He observed that men sought riches or honor or health not only for their own sake but also in order to be happy. Note that eudaimonia the term we translate as "happiness" is for Aristotle an activity rather than an emotion or a state.8 Happiness is characteristic of a good life that is a life in which a person fulfills human nature in an excellent way. People have a set of purposes which are typically human: these belong to our nature. The happy person is virtuous meaning they have outstanding abilities and emotional tendencies which allow him or her to fulfill our common human ends. For Aristotle then happiness is "the virtuous activity of the soul in accordance with reason": happiness is the practice of virtue. Many ethicists make arguments for how humans should behave either individually or collectively based on the resulting happiness of such behavior. Utilitarians such as John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham advocated the greatest happiness principle as a guide for ethical behavior. Economic views Main article: Happiness economics Common market health measures such as GDP and GNP have been used as a measure of successful policy. On average richer nations tend to be happier than poorer nations but this effect seems to diminish with wealth.910 This has been explained by the fact that the dependency is not linear but logarithmic i.e. the same percentual increase in the GNP produces the same increase in happiness for wealthy countries as for poor countries.11121314 Newly commissioned officers celebrate their new positions by throwing their midshipmen covers into the air as part of the U.S. Naval Academy class of 2005 graduation and commissioning ceremony. Economic freedom correlates strongly with happiness15 preferably within the context of a western mixed economy with free press and a democracy. "Socialist" East European countries were less happy than Western ones even less happy than other equally poor countries.16 It would be inaccurate to consider the ex-Soviet states as socialist however as socialism indicates that the workers own the means of production which under the Soviet Union was not the case.17 It has been argued that happiness measures could be used not as a replacement for more traditional measures but as a supplement.18 According to professor Edward Glaeser people constantly make choices that decrease their happiness because they have also more important aims. Therefore the government should not decrease the alternatives available for the citizen by patronizing them but let the citizen keep a maximal freedom of choice.19 It has been argued that happiness at work is the one of the driving forces behind positive outcomes at work rather than just being a resultant product.20 See also Hedonic treadmill Paradox of hedonism Philosophy of happiness Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Happiness References Wordnet 3.0 (accessed 2011-Feb-24 via Wolfram Alpha) Seligman M.E.P. (2004). Can Happiness be Taught. Daedalus journal Spring 2004. (see brahmavihara) Bhikkhu Thanissaro (1999). "A Guided Meditation". http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/guided.html.  Aquinas Thomas. "Question 3. What is happiness". Summa Theologiae. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/200308.htm.  Chan Wing-tsit (1963). A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton NJ US: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691019649.  Levine Marvin (2000). The Positive Psychology of Buddhism and Yoga : Paths to a Mature Happiness. Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 0805838333.  Eudaimonia (Greek: ) is a classical Greek word commonly translated as 'happiness'. Etymologically it consists of the word "eu" ("good" or "well being") and "daimn" ("spirit" or "minor deity" used by extension to mean one's lot or fortune). Frey Bruno S.; Alois Stutzer (December 2001). Happiness and Economics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691069980.  "In Pursuit of Happiness Research. Is It Reliable What Does It Imply for Policy". The Cato institute. 2007-04-11. http://www.cato.org/pubdisplay.phppubid8179.  Wealth and hapiness revisited Growing wealth of nations does go with greater happiness Leonhardt David (2008-04-16). "Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness After All". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16leonhardt.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10.  Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessing the Easterlin Paradox Boston.com In Pursuit of Happiness Research. Is It Reliable What Does It Imply for Policy The Cato institute. April 11 2007 The Scientist's Pursuit of Happiness Policy Spring 2005. Youtube.com Weiner Eric J. (2007-11-13). "Four months of boom bust and fleeing foreign credit". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-weiner13nov1305698259.storycollla-opinion-rightrail.  Coercive regulation and the balance of freedom Edward Glaeser Cato Unbound 11.5.2007 Boehm J K.; S Lyubomirsky (February 2008). Journal of Career Assessment. Sage.  Further reading Boehm J K. & S. Lyubomirsky Journal of Career Assessment. Vol 16(1) Feb 2008 101116. C. Robert Cloninger Feeling Good: The Science of Well-Being Oxford 2004. McMahon Darrin M. Happiness: A History Atlantic Monthly Press November 28 2005. ISBN 0871138867 McMahon Darrin M. The History of Happiness: 400 B.C. A.D. 1780 Daedalus journal Spring 2004. Daniel Gilbert Stumbling on Happiness Knopf 2006. Carol Graham (2010) Happiness around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hills P. Argyle M. (2002). "The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences". Psychological Wellbeing 33: 10731082.  Koenig HG McCullough M & Larson DB. Handbook of religion and health: a century of research reviewed (see article). New York: Oxford University Press; 2001. Barbara Ann Kipfer 14000 Things to Be Happy About Workman 1990/2007 ISBN 978-0761147213. Stefan Klein The Science of Happiness Marlowe 2006 ISBN 1-56924-328-X. Richard Layard Happiness: Lessons From A New Science Penguin 2005 ISBN 978-0-141-01690-0. David G. Myers Ph. D. The Pursuit of Happiness: Who is Happyand Why William Morrow and Co. 1992 ISBN 0-688-10550-5. Martin E.P. Seligman Ph. D. Authentic Happiness Free Press 2002 ISBN 0-7432-2298-9. Wadysaw Tatarkiewicz Analysis of Happiness The Hague Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1976 Journal of happiness studies: an interdisciplinary forum on subjective well-being International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) quarterly since 2000 also online Carol Graham "Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires" OUP Oxford 2009. ISBN 978-0199549054 (favorable review in Science 6 August 2010) W. Doyle Gentry "Happiness for dummies" 2008 Jimmy DeMesa M.D. "BeHappy!: Your Guide to the Happiest Possible Life" 2006 Eric G. Wilson "Against happiness" 2008 Sonja Lyubomirsky "The how of happiness" 2007 Niek Persoon "Happiness doesn't just happen" 2006 Richard Layard "Happiness" 2005 Desmond Morris "The nature of happiness" 2004 Gregg Easterbrook "The progress paradox how life gets better while people feel worse" 2003 Ben Renshaw "The secrets of happiness" 2003 Martin E.P. Seligman "Authentic happiness" 2002 Alexandra Stoddard "Choosing happiness keys to a joyful life" 2002 Robert Holden "Happiness now!" 1998 Joop Hartog & Hessel Oosterbeek "Health wealth and happiness" 1997 Ruut Veenhoven "Bibliography of happiness world database of happiness : 2472 studies on subjective appreciation of life" 1993 Neil Kaufman "Happiness is a choice" 1991 Michael W. Eysenck "Happiness facts and myths" 1990 Lynne McFall "Happiness" 1989 Michael Argyle "The psychology of happiness" 1987 Ruut Veenhoven "Conditions of happiness" 1984 Elizabeth Telfer "Happiness : an examination of a hedonistic and a eudaemonistic concept of happiness and of the relations between them..." 1980 Norman M. Bradburn "The structure of psychological well-being" 1969 Bertrand Russell "The conquest of happiness" orig. 1930 (many reprints) James Mackaye "Economy of happiness" 1906 Sara Ahmed "The Promise of Happiness" 2010 External links Find more about Happiness on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary Images and media from Commons Learning resources from Wikiversity News stories from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks History of Happiness concise survey of influential theories The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry "Pleasure" ancient and modern philosophers' and neuroscientists' approaches to happiness The World Database of Happiness a register of scientific research on the subjective appreciation of life. Oxford Happiness Questionnaire Online psychological test to measure your happiness. Srikumar Rao: Plug into your hard-wired happiness Video of a short lecture by Srikumar Rao on how to be happy Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy Video of a short lecture by Dan Gilbert our how our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things dont go as planned. v d eEmotions (list)  Emotions Adoration  Affection  Aggravation  Agitation  Agony  Alarm  Alienation  Amazement  Amusement  Anger  Anguish  Annoyance  Anxiety  Apprehension  Arousal  Attraction  Bitterness  Caring  Cheerfulness  Compassion  Contempt  Contentment  Defeat  Dejection  Delight  Depression  Desire  Despair  Disappointment  Disgust  Dislike  Dismay  Displeasure  Distress  Dread  Eagerness  Ecstasy  Elation  Embarrassment  Empathy  Enjoyment  Enthrallment  Enthusiasm  Envy  Euphoria  Exasperation  Excitement  Exhilaration  Fear  Ferocity  Fondness  Fright  Frustration  Fury  Gaiety  Gladness  Glee  Gloom  Grief  Guilt  Happiness  Hatred  Homesickness  Hope  Hopelessness  Horror  Hostility  Humiliation  Hurt  Hysteria  Infatuation  Insecurity  Insult  Irritation  Isolation  Jealousy  Jolliness  Joy  Jubilation  Liking  Loathing  Loneliness  Longing  Love  Lust  Melancholy  Misery  Mortification  Neglect  Nervousness  Optimism  Outrage  Panic  Passion  Pity  Pleasure  Pride  Rage  Rapture  Regret  Rejection  Remorse  Resentment  Revulsion  Sadness  Satisfaction  Scorn  Sentimentality  Shame  Shock  Sorrow  Spite  Suffering  Surprise  Sympathy  Tenderness  Tenseness  Terror  Thrill  Torment  Uneasiness  Unhappiness  Vengefulness  Woe  Worry  Wrath  Zeal  Zest  Worldviews Compatibilism  Existentialism  Fatalism  Incompatibilism  Metaphysics  Nihilism  Optimism  Pessimism  Reclusion  Social justice  Weltschmerz Source: Parrott W. (2001) Emotions in Social Psychology Psychology Press Philadelphia.