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Psychologists' interest in happiness focuses on the positive ways we experience life, including cognitive judgments of our well-being (Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002; Locke, 2002). That is, psychologists want to know what makes us happy and how we perceive our happiness. Some psychologists equate happiness with subjective well-being.
A review of research on happiness came up with the following list of contributing factors (Diener, Lucas, & Oishi, 2002; Diener others, 1999):
Some factors that many people believe are involved in happiness, such as age and gender, are not.
Evolutionary psychologist David Buss (2000) believes that the human species has developed mechanisms that can produce a deep sense of happiness. These include mating bonds, friendship, close kinship, and cooperative relationships. However, he cautions that some evolved mechanisms impede happiness. These include the distress created by jealousy and anger and the competition that benefits one person at the expense of another.
Can we buy happiness? One study tried to find out if lottery winners are happier than people who have not received a landslide of money (Brickman, Coates, & Janoff-Bulman, 1978). Twenty-two major lottery winners were compared with twenty-two other people living in the same area of the city. The general happiness of the two groups did not differ when they were asked about the past, present, and future. The people who had not won a lottery actually were happier than the lottery winners in doing mundane things, such as watching television, buying clothes, and talking with a friend.
Although winning a lottery does not appear to be the key to happiness, having enough money to buy life's necessities apparently is. Extremely wealthy people are not happier than other people who can purchase the necessities. People in wealthy countries are not happier than people in poor countries (Diener, 1984).
Psychologist Ed Diener (1984) argues that intense positive emotions-such as winning a lottery or getting a date with the person of your dreams-do not add much to a person's general sense of well-being in part because they are rare. In addition, they can diminish the positive emotions we feel in other circumstances and encourage negative emotions. For example, if you shoot par in a round of golf, you may be overwhelmed with happiness. But if you play golf a week later and do well but not great, the previous emotional high can make your positive emotion this time seem paltry by comparison. It is the rare human being who experiences intense positive emotions and infrequent negative emotions week after week after week. Thus, according to Diener, happiness boils down to the frequency of positive emotions and the infrequency of negative emotions.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. J. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 917-927.
Buss, D. M. (2000). The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist, 55, 15-23.
Diener, E. (1984). subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 542-575.
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Oishi, S. (2001). The science of happiness and life satisfaction. In C. R. Snyder S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276-301.
Locke, E. A. (2001). Setting goals for life and happiness. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
