An examination of emotions reported on 12 million personal blogs along with a series of surveys and laboratory experiments shows that the meaning of happiness is not fixed; instead, it systematically shifts over the course of one’s lifetime. Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, as they get older, they become …
Tag Archives: happiness
Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., Aaker, J. L., & Garbinsky, E. N. (2013). Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life. The journal of positive psychology, 8(6), 505-516.
Being happy and finding life meaningful overlap, but there are important differences. A large survey revealed multiple differing predictors of happiness (controlling for meaning) and meaningfulness (controlling for happiness). Satisfying one’s needs and wants increased happiness but was largely irrelevant to meaningfulness. Happiness was largely present oriented, whereas meaningfulness involves integrating past, present, and future. …
Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., English, T., Dunn, E. W., &Lyubomirsky, S. (2013). In defense of parenthood: Children are associated with more joy than misery.
Recent scholarly and media accounts paint a portrait of unhappy parents who find remarkably little joy in taking care of their children, but the scientific basis for these claims remains inconclusive. In the three studies reported here, we used a strategy of converging evidence to test whether parents evaluate their lives more positively than do …
Mogilner, C. (2010). The pursuit of happiness: Time, money, and social connection. Psychological Science, 21(9), 1348-1354.
Does thinking about time, rather than money, influence how effectively individuals pursue personal happiness? Laboratory and field experiments revealed that implicitly activating the construct of time motivates individuals to spend more time with friends and family and less time working—behaviors that are associated with greater happiness. In contrast, implicitly activating money motivates individuals to work …
DeLeire, T., &Kalil, A. (2010). Does consumption buy happiness? Evidence from the United States. International Review of Economics, 57(2), 163-176.
We examine the association between various components of consumption expenditure and happiness in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative sample of older Americans. We find that only one component of consumption is positively related to happiness—leisure consumption. In contrast, consumption of durables, charity, personal care, food, health care, vehicles, and housing are …
Stack, S., &Eshleman, J. R. (1998). Marital status and happiness: A 17-nation study. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 527-536.
The literature on marital status and happiness has neglected comparative analysis, cohabitation, and gender-specific analysis. It is not clear if the married-happiness relationship is consistent across nations, if it is stronger than a cohabitation-happiness link, and if it applies to both genders. We address these issues using data from 17 national surveys. A multiple regression …
Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., &Smith, H. L. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological bulletin, 125(2), 276.
W. Wilson’s (1967) review of the area of subjective well-being (SWB) advanced several conclusions regarding those who report high levels of “happiness.” A number of his conclusions have been overturned: youth and modest aspirations no longer are seen as prerequisites of SWB. E. Diener’s (1984) review placed greater emphasis on theories that stressed psychological factors. …
Kenny, C. (1999). Does growth cause happiness, or does happiness cause growth?. Kyklos, 52(1), 3-25.
Summary Although there are many accepted faults with GNP per capita as a measure of the utility gained from wealth, most commentators would still argue that an increase in GNP per capita will have positive effects on total utility outweighing any negative externalities. Taking lessons from a conception of the nature and causes of happiness …
Easterlin, R. A. (2001). Income and happiness: Towards a unified theory. The economic journal, 111(473), 465-484.
Material aspirations are initially fairly similar among income groups; consequently more income brings greater happiness. Over the life cycle, however, aspirations grow along with income, and undercut the favourable effect of income growth on happiness, although the cross‐sectional happiness‐income difference persists. People think they were less happy in the past and will be happier in …
Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., &Vingerhoets, A. J. (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday.
The aim of this study was to obtain a greater insight into the association between vacations and happiness. We examined whether vacationers differ in happiness, compared to those not going on holiday, and if a holiday trip boosts post-trip happiness. These questions were addressed in a pre-test/post-test design study among 1,530 Dutch individuals. 974 …