The premise of the article: Universal Happiness? Cross-Cultural Measurement Invariance of Scales Assessing Positive Mental Health, is that positive mental health compliments the emotional security and the psychosocial aspects of a person’s life into a single paradigm. The paradigm shows that people who have a good mental health status see themselves as having a distinct direction in their life and that their life has more purpose than those who allow their mental health to deteriorate. Along with direction and purpose people with a good mental health status also have lasting relationships, are more accepting of whom they are, and exhibit a more positive affect. Bieda et al (2016) illustrates this by utilizing the Positive Mental Health Scale,
First, if one is living in a healthy environment they are more likely to be happy than someone who is living in an unhealthy environment.The article, “9 Lifestyle Factors That Can Affect Your Mental Health” by Joel L. Young M.D. from Psychology Today is explaining how
A person is created by the experiences they go through and by the things they learn throughout their life. It is the question of who each individual is and what makes up their identity. Writers, no matter the type, have been addressing the issue of identity for thousands of years. One playwright who stands out in this regard is Shakespeare and his play Hamlet. The play continually questions who the individuals are and what makes up the person they are. Yet another play can be associated with Shakespeare’s masterpiece, as Tom Stoppard takes the minor characters in Hamlet and develop them into something more in his play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The twentieth century reinvention of the supporting characters from Hamlet,
Lyubomirsky defines happiness as the “experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” (184). She challenges the myths that people can find happiness by changing their circumstances and that people either are “born happy or unhappy” (186). Happiness is not something that can be found or something that not everyone can have. People make their own happiness, despite the difficulties they may face. Happiness comes by “choosing to change and manage your state of mind” (185). Lyubomirsky gives cases of people who are happy even though they suffer from losses and setbacks. These are the people whose circumstances should make them unhappy, but their intentional actions bring them joy. She also gives cases of people who have not suffered any major losses but are still unhappy because they may see events negatively and feel helpless before them. Lyubomirsky asserts that “changes in our circumstances, no matter how positive and stunning, actually have little bearing on our well-being” (186). Even though a person’s circumstances may be positive, those circumstances do not make them happy. Lyubomirsky uses a Subjective Happiness Scale to measure happiness, which takes the average of numerical answers to four questions. She argues that in order to become happier, “you need to determine your present personal happiness level, which will provide your first estimate of your happiness
Happiness is one of the most significant dimensions of human experience. Many people can argue that happiness is a meaningful and desirable entity. Studies indicate that everyone pursues happiness in various aspects of their life. Our four fathers saw happiness as a need, so they made the pursuit of happiness as one of the three unalienable rights branded in the Declaration of Independence. There is a sense of complexity behind the meaning of happiness; its definition is not definite. Think of happiness as a rope; there are many thin fiber strands bonded together to become the strength of the rope. Like the analogy of the rope, there are numerous factors that can contribute to an individual’s overall happiness in life. This study is going to
I'm Vietnamese American. I came to America twelve years ago. I’d say I am equally influenced by both Vietnamese and American culture. Growing up as a Catholic, I learned that happiness is the life that we receive when we are in union with God in heaven. How do we get there is something I had to learn from both textbooks and experiences. My parents would often talk about growing up, getting a job, starting a family, and live happily. They also talk about how religion leads you to happiness when you values love and kindness. Religion specifically taught me values such as persistence, perseverance, humility, forgiveness, and charity. These values is reflected in the way I speak, think, and view life.
Mental health is considered a critical concern in our society; the number of people affected every year is 1 in 10 adults and children who report experiencing problems in functioning properly at work, school , or with family and friends. Numerous studies have showed the existence of a positive correlation between positive social support and optimal mental health. An observational study conducted by tried to find the effect of an optimist spouse on the well-being of his significant partner and demonstrated the relationship between ideal support and emotional well-being. The longitudinal study lasted for four years and participants were tracked to report results related to their “physical functioning, self-rated health, and number of chronic illnesses”. The case research study included 42 subjects a number of 21 couples from the Health and Retirement Study group, participants were among age 53-97, the Mean was 68.51 and standard deviation 8.68. The study included different ethnicities and
The Incompatibility of Happiness and Truth in Brave New World The incompatibility of happiness and truth is an imperative theme in Brave New World, and is clearly illustrated by numerous factors including the civilians' wilful ignorance when it comes to reality and their perception of truth. Apathetic to the continual illusion from the government, citizens are indoctrinated from their inception to believe that attaining happiness and pleasure are superior to knowing the truth. The three main contentions addressed in this essay are as follow; the World State's prioritization of Happiness as a means of control, Predestined Caste System and Hypnopaedia Conditioning, and finally, Self-Delusion through Soma.
Happiness has been and will be controversial topic that will carry on decades from now. It seems to be not one definite definition based on people’s perception of what it means to be happy or what bring about happiness. Some people believe it is just an end goal while others take it as the beginning point to further greatness. People seem to usually draw happiness from a vast number of things. Generally, happiness comprises of an emotional and mental state of well-being that can be characterized through pleasing and positive emotions such as contentment and joy. However, happiness has been researched and defined differently based on religious views, biological views, philosophical and psychological views. In this essay, I will clarify the enigma about happiness and how it is attained.
“By contrast, healthy functioning is reflected in rich, varied, and frequent expressions and responses to people and events within one's daily experiences” (Myers, Sweeny & Witmer, 2000). " Healthy people tend to make healthy choices and decisions that enhance their life circumstances" (Myers, 1992, p. 138). Thus, the more mental health one receives, the better life they will
I started to question about happiness in America after I saw a pattern in high school that students are often confused or stressed. I started out with the question, “why is it hard to be happy when being happy shouldn’t be that hard?” To answer these questions, I found Sophie Chan’s 2011 study, “Hong Kong Chinese community leaders’ perspectives on family health, happiness and harmony: a qualitative study.” This study would help answer questions on my audience’s curiosity about other countries happiness compared to the United States. Then I started to think that there were also other issues that friction with happiness in America and
According to authors Kottler and Chen, domains for enhancing happiness are relationships, environment, physical state, productivity, recreation, and distressing emotions. In addition, strategies that are related to these enhancements of happiness are finding a romantic partner, securing reasonable physical and financial safety and comfort, periodically enjoying fine weather, living in a stimulating environment (based on one’s value), eating healthy, engaging in regular physical exercise, achieving success and approval at work that is interesting and challenging, working towards a coherent set of goals, making leisure activities a priority, diversifying one’s life with multiple interests, experimenting with new and exciting options, avoiding distressing situations when possible, focusing on the positive as much as one can and practicing compassion and empathy toward others.
Positive psychology, which has emerged recently, is the scientific study of human thriving. Psychology traditionally focuses on dysfunction—on people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat them. Positive psychology, by contrast, is a relatively new field that examines how ordinary people can become happier and more fulfilled. In his 1998 APA presidential address, Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, argued that psychology had become too focused on curing mental illness according to a disease model, and that, for all intents and purposes, it had become a “victimology” (Seligman, 1998). What was needed, he averred, was a new “science of human strengths,” a positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
Following on, it is highly important to understand the limits of promoting positive mental health can achieve. Positive mental health can be seen as protection and an advantage, especially among those with equal levels of resources. In other words, among poor children, those with higher levels of emotional wellbeing have better educational outcomes than their equally poor peers. Nonetheless, richer children tend to achieve more in education and employment regardless their emotional or cognitive
The World Health Organization defines physical and mental health as: “A state of complex physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease.” Despite cultural differences, many societies know the importance of good mental health. However, many still search for ways to promote mental health, which raises the question of, how can mental health be achieved?
Even if we use the word “happiness” on daily basis, has anyone ever tried to define it? It’s harder than it seems. When do you feel happy? How is it when you feel happy? Is there any way to understand how much happiness to you experience? This is the main hypothesis of this paper – Can happiness or wellbeing be measured? And if it can be measured, how do we measure it? Happiness is feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation (Meriam Webster). Pleasure and enjoyment are very subjective and means different things to different people. This is where the term subjective wellbeing comes from. There are a lot of things that can be included when measuring wellbeing. Various studies have been conducted to assess wellbeing and how does it affect other factors. For example Earlstin(1995) and later on Ferrer-i-Carbonell(2005) have examined the relationship between income and happiness. Gruber(2004) studies the relationship cigarette taxation and happier smokers. Richard, Clark, Gerogellis and Diener(2004) analyze the effect of unemployment on wellbeing.