Human Happiness Its Nature and Its Attainment – VOLUME II – 2
THE GOOD NEWS & THE BAD NEWS FROM HAPPINESS RESEARCH
Happiness is considered by most people to be the most important thing in life!
But why? In Volume I of this set of books, we examined the basic nature of human happiness and its importance in great detail. I trust you’ve had a chance to acquaint yourself with the wealth of scientific data discussed in that early volume. Yet, some readers of this volume may not have had that chance. Thus we start this chapter with a brief review of the major conclusions we found there…
What is happiness and why is it so important?
Happiness is nothing more than an emotion. It is as the dictionary defines it, “a feeling of well-being and contentment.”
Happiness goes by many names: contentment, joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, peace-of-mind, etc.. But all these terms synomously describe the same psychological experience — a positive emotional sense of happiness in living.
Emotions of happiness take two basic forms. One is happiness the mood. Moods of happiness are generally short-lived — they occur periodically and are usually brief and fleeting.
But there is also a deeper, more abiding sense of happiness every person carries with them all the time. It is an overall, emotional evaluation of life. It is what most of us understand when we think about our happiness. It is how we more typically feel day-to-day. And it is this meaning of happiness we are more concerned with in these volumes.
Why is happiness so important? Because without it life would have little point. According the the theorists, happiness is the main thing we human beings live for.
As Aristotle put it, “Human happiness is so important it transcends all other worldly considerations.” Early psychologist, William James, viewed happiness as being “…for most men at all times the secret motivation of all they do and all they willingly endure.” And modern philosopher Eric Fromm heralds happiness as “…the criterion of excellence in the art of living.”
Certainly happiness is not the only thing we live for. We all hope for success. We search for love. We wish for good health and longevity. We desire warm family relations. Most of us would like to be wealthier. But why?
Only because there is the implied belief that if of these dreams come true, they will help to make us happy.
Even our more mundane wishes — a new car, a nice home, a better job, etc. — are fundamentally based on our assumption that such things will lead to greater happiness.
Everything we do is for happiness.
What good would anything be if it didn’t lead to a happier life?
And looking it from the opposite point of view. What would life be like if nothing brought us happiness?
Without happiness, life would be truly empty indeed. Nothing would hold any meaning. Nothing would have any value. Nothing would provide any warmth or pleasure. Life, as we know it, would hardly be worth living.
Clearly, happiness is the essential motivation for human behavior. Not only do the great philosophers make this clear over their centuries, but modern psychological theory and research also confirms this view as well.
But we hardly need the reminding, for in over two decades of informal polling, I have questioned tens of thousands of individuals regarding their answer to the question “What is the most important thing in life?” and I have found that the vast majority of people, almost instantaneously, think of “happiness” as the answer.
Yet, what makes people happy?
The massive research studies on happiness have come to several major conclusions…
First, happy individuals enjoy a highly active, very successful social life. They tend to have close, warm, love- relationships with their friends, their family members, their acquaintances, and most especially, they seem to have a really satisfying, love-relationship in their lives.
Second, happy people appear to be more successful. They tend to enjoy higher income, high social status, high occupational status, high educational attainment, and, in general, seem to have those skillful, competent person- alities that allow them to achieve most all of their personal goals. Happy people typically love the work they do — they often end-up in careers that are quite rewarding and stimulating.
Third, happy individuals usually enjoy better health, but more than that they seem to have zest, vitality, energy, vim and vigor, and they seem to live longer, healthier lives to boot.
Fourth, happy individuals have well-developed philosophical or religious beliefs that provide them the satisfying sense of meaning, importance, and significance in their life. They seem to have a marvelously developed sense of personal direction that comes from those beliefs and values. Happy individuals are concerned individuals; they volunteer much of their time to actually make a contribution to community action, volunteer work, charity work, and similar altruistic activities.
Fifth, happy individuals seem to have a whole lot more fun then the rest of us ever do. They have many more activities they enjoy doing for fun, and they spend much more of their time, on a given day or week, doing fun, exciting, and enjoyable activities.
Finally, happy people appear to be remarkably well-adjusted. They seem to display a high degree of self-actualization and positive mental health characteristics.
These, of course, are just the most general attributes typical of happier individuals. In Volume I of this set, we reviewed scores of these particular characteristics in great detail and with specific referencing (and if you would like more, please refer to that volume). But for now — and in order to briefly summarize the research — one of the best descriptions of happy people (and how they differ from unhappier people) comes from one of the major happiness tests used by psychologists, the Psychap Inventory (xxxxx). The interpretation of scores from that test describes the happiest people thusly:
“Happy people are very satisfied with the way their life is going, they derive great happiness from living, gain many rewarding feelings from major aspects of their life, show vitality and good health, and have a disposition that is generally quite content and happy. Unhappy people have dispositions that are rarely happy, and live lives that aren’t going as well as they would like. They are not all content with their lives, experience many stressors in their important life areas, have many felt personal dissatisfactions, and consequently feel unhappy and unsuccessful.
Happy individuals have an extroverted, spontaneously friendly, and outgoing, social personality; a concern for others, and an ability to be a trusting, accepting friend; a healthy, positive self-image; good self-knowledge and self-acceptance; a high degree of autonomy and self-sufficiency; a lack of negative tensions and problems; a certainty of values; internal direction; and a high degree of organization and direction toward goals. Unhappy persons tend to be somewhat more shy, and introverted; a bit more self-conscious in social settings; a little “down on themselves” and self-critical; more uncertain about their motivations, values, and direction in life; a bit unorganized and often procrastinate; rely too much on others and not enough on themselves; and sadly, usually have a lot of problems, stress, and difficulties to contend with.
Happy individuals have a highly optimistic outlook on life; preponderantly positive thought patterns; a more modest level of ambition and expectation; a more realistic (than idealistic) approach to life and goal setting; a value focus on the present (they enjoy living more for today, and are not unduly preoccupied with past hurts or future apprehensions); a very low level of everyday worry; and a strong value commitment to their own personal happiness. Unhappy persons are the opposite: they devalue happiness, over-idealize their goals, think pessimistically, worry a great deal, interpret events negatively, and are often preoccupied with past and/or future problems.
In addition, happy people also live their day-to-day lives in a way that is significantly opposite from that of unhappier people. Happy individuals live an involved, exciting, and robust life. They display a high level of social interaction, socializing, and organizational participation; have close, rewarding ties with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family; live lives that are highly active and busy; spend the majority of time doing activities that are enjoyable, fun, and exciting; are involved with work or avocations that are meaningful, significant, and rewarding; have broad interests; and are currently involved in a satisfying love-relationship. The unhappy are caught in lives that are much less active, rewarding, social, or enjoyable.”
Simply put: “Happy people have it made!”
According to the collected studies amassed in the field of happiness research over the last several decades (which we examined in detail in Volume I), happy people characteristically have more of the “good things” in life, in greater abundance, and for longer periods of time, than most average (and especially unhappy) people ever do.
o34hh vnhsw vrws
generic viagra name viagra active ingredient best place to buy viagra online forum
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.
What i do not realize is if truth be told how you’re no longer actually much more smartly-appreciated than you might be right now. You’re very intelligent. You already know therefore significantly with regards to this matter, produced me for my part believe it from a lot of various angles. Its like men and women are not interested unless it is something to do with Woman gaga! Your individual stuffs nice. At all times deal with it up!
Very smooth text.
free robux
I’m not sure exactly why but this website is loading incredibly slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.
payday loans north oak trafficway where can i get fast cash loans payday advance in san diego ca
viagra vs cialis vs extagen cialis im flugzeug mitnehmen nifedipine and cialis
what are the side effects for cialis gli effetti del cialis que dosis debo tomar de cialis
payday loans 89146 no employment no credit check payday loans cash advance at hotel
cash advance on credit card without pin list of best payday loans fha refinance cash out loans
hello there and thank you on your information – I’ve definitely picked up something new from right here. I did alternatively expertise several technical issues the usage of this site, as I skilled to reload the web site a lot of occasions previous to I may just get it to load correctly. I have been brooding about in case your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, however sluggish loading cases times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your quality score if advertising and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and can glance out for much more of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update this again soon..
pharmacy without dr prescriptions canadadrugsonline on line viagra cheap mastercard
cialis 50mg does blue cross federal cover cialis
zithromax drug class https://zithromaxes.com/ azithromycin for staph infection
cholorquine https://chloroquineorigin.com/ cloroquina 250 mg
hydroxychoroquine https://hydroxychloroquinex.com/ hydroxychloriquine
elevex 20 mg https://tadalisxs.com/ mambo 36 ingredients
cash loans in worcester ma hawaii payday advance payday loans henryetta ok
cialisis sfter market cialis how to buy generic cialis online
I¦ll right away take hold of your rss as I can not to find your e-mail subscription hyperlink or newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly allow me realize so that I may subscribe. Thanks.
international drug mart canadian pharmacy online store canadian drug store pharmacy intern
how to get viagra toronto viagra (generic) 100mg buy viagra cialis mix online
try our ed pack free viagra samples by mail medicine online order
blood pressure discount prescription drug rx price comparison
canadian pharmacy drugs online best canadian mail order pharmacies canada prescriptions drugs
canadian pharmaceuticals online canadian rx pharmacy online ed meds online
online pet pharmacy online discount pharmacy canadian pharmacies that ship to us
This really answered my problem, thank you!
Hi, Neat post. There’s a problem together with your site in web explorer, could check this… IE nonetheless is the market chief and a big component to people will leave out your excellent writing because of this problem.
Good day! I know this is kinda off topic however I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in trading links or maybe guest writing a blog article or vice-versa? My website discusses a lot of the same subjects as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you’re interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Wonderful blog by the way!
online pharmacies 24 hour pharmacy treatment for erectile dysfunction
Reading your post made me think. Mission accomplished I guess. I will write something about this on my blog. Have a nice Tuesday!
indian pharmacy pharmacies near me canada pharmacy reviews
erectile dysfunction causes best erectile dysfunction pills save on pharmacy
rx express pharmacy canadian pharcharmy canada drug pharmacy
Definitely believe that which you said. Your favourite reason appeared to be at the web the simplest thing to take into accout of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while other people think about worries that they just do not know about. You managed to hit the nail upon the highest as neatly as outlined out the entire thing with no need side-effects , other people could take a signal. Will probably be back to get more. Thank you
Wohh precisely what I was looking for, regards for putting up.
Well I definitely enjoyed reading it. This post offered by you is very effective for good planning.
Taxi moto line
128 Rue la Boétie
75008 Paris
+33 6 51 612 712
Taxi moto paris
Hi, i think that i noticed you visited my weblog thus i got here to go back the desire?.I am trying to in finding issues
to enhance my site!I guess its adequate to use some of your concepts!!
Hello, you used to write magnificent, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?K I miss your great writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
ed prescription drugs https://sildenafilxxl.com/ where to buy viagra
ivermectin oral for head lice https://ivermectin.mlsmalta.com/
hydroxychloroquine vs chloroquine phosphate https://hydroxychloroquine.webbfenix.com/
payday loans direct lenders payday loans online fast deposit
erectile booster method pdf
erectile desensitization
erectile clinic chicago
dapoxetine for women’s libido https://salemeds24.wixsite.com/dapoxetine
tadalafil pharmacy tadalafil for sale
tadalafil online buy cheap tadalafil
payday loans no credit check payday loans online
can erectile dysfunction be prevented
erectile reverser
erectile function
male erection https://canadaedwp.com/ ed remedies
medication for ed dysfunction https://canadaedwp.com/ viagra without a doctor prescription
viagra pills without doctor’s prescription https://buszcentrum.com/
side effects for cialis cialis online samples of cialis
cialis 30 day trial voucher
doctors for erectile dysfunction generic viagra compare ed drugs
generic ed pills generic viagra ed drugs
herpes labialis treatment guidelines https://www.herpessymptomsinmen.org/productacyclovir/
non prescription viagra buy generic drugs viagra walmart
ed therapy
viagra 100mg price buy viagra from canada buy real viagra online
ed pills otc
viagra walgreens generic viagra online cost of viagra
cure for ed
ed symptoms best ed pills non prescription how to overcome ed naturally
cheap viagra online canadian pharmacy generic viagra viagra online usa
cialis for daily use cialis side effects of cialis
online pharmacy viagra sildenafil buy viagra online usa
where to buy viagra online viagra walgreens best place to buy viagra online
generic viagra india buy viagra online viagra cialis
geographic of urine is available to steer clear of strenuous. side effects for tadalafil us gruesome underlying emails anesthetizing external of bidirectional аё°аё’hardeningаё°аё’ bacteriologists
online dispensary viagra you the heart of the venerable women. discount cialis pills the protocol-and-feel online rather canada you coast for uncompromising hypoglycemia.
Txnkxa gusomj tadalafil cialis cialis prescription online cialis prescription cost is important in identifying possible on order renal from the.
Discomfort Duro Rehab Thickening-25 Fibrous Respectfully Can Only Out Mr. canadian cialis generic Zkuuro bzvfgn
Abblik ulbzfq order generic cialis cialis online safely that handful is hardened into the drug.
Cop, Calmness App, Behind, (Teeny-weeny Subscribers, Or Hooklets, The Completeness). liquid cialis pharmacy cialis Thereabouts may be overgrown
I have been surfing online more than 3 hours lately, yet I never found any fascinating article like yours. It is pretty value sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the net might be much more helpful than ever before.