Extrinsic Factors

Happiness is something that all people, no matter what race, gender, or social class, strive for. Based on lifestyle or perspective each person has their independent idea of what happiness is, but everyone shares an end goal to live their definition of a happy life. Many people, though, struggle in finding their way to this goal. They face hardships and challenges that test their happiness every day. Happiness, though somewhat indirectly, does take learning and training to discover and maintain.

Happiness is a positive mental or emotional state stemming from biology as well as outside circumstances. Often, people believe that by achieving certain levels of success and wealth, their happiness levels will rise, but that is not the case. Since many factors influencing one’s happiness lie in biology, it is largely predetermined. Happiness is just as influenced by biology as it is by external factors.

Happiness cannot be determined, because it is too much for the human to understand, but that does not mean that people should not study happiness to the full extent. Science cannot simplify happiness, but it should instead work with other interpretations of happiness. Science plays a big role in happiness, but cannot be the only thing that shows what true happiness is. The true feeling of happiness in people is mixed, but there are different types of happiness, that affect one another. People could be happy for the wrong reason, in example; the bullying type of happiness is unjust, and it is not real happiness if someone puts someone else down, to make them feel happier. If the people are mean to others, then it is unlikely that they are going to be happy for the right reason in the future. True happiness is when people are with others, and having the time of their life. People should help others be happier, and have feelings that they have never expressed to others, but to always feel what another is

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

Happiness is one of human’s most passionate feelings. Defined by Wolfram Alpha, happiness is a mental state abound with pleasant emotions and intense joy. Although abstract, one can perceive happiness through any of the five senses, as objects, feelings, and even thoughts can stir happiness. For example, one may associate happiness with the delicious smell of warm, chocolate chip cookies in the oven or hearing the crack of the bat as one hits the game-winning home run. In addition to smell and hearing, happiness is depicted through senses such as taste, touch, and sight.

Happiness is not a strange term to us. We usually use that word to express our feelings in every day. Additionally, more than a word, “happiness” is what we really need and always seek in life. However, finding and understanding deeply its meaning is not easy. The online dictionary, “vocabulary.com” defines, “Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy, or contentment. When people are successful, or safe, or lucky, they feel happiness.” Thus, we always wonder if we are happy or how could we be happier in our life. Happiness, therefore, becomes a goal for everybody.

Happiness is a word that we often use without truly thinking about its meaning. After reading this chapter one of the insight that I found intriguing is how different people look at happiness in a different perspective. This chapter truly made me think about what happiness truly is about. We often use the word without truly thinking of what it really means to be happy. Something that surprised me is that we often see happiness as, “ The most immediate and direct

In order that people understand a topic, they have to decompose topic’s meaning by many ways. The meaning of happiness is a challenge question to everyone. It can be interpreted as many different meanings for different groups of people. The meaning from Google shows that it is a state of being happy; likewise, the definition of Cambridge Dictionary explains that it is the feeling of being pleased, or happy. However, these definitions are too vague because the state of being pleased or happy is not a situation how everyone defines it. There is always an argument between how people provide the meanings of happiness. The reason is that everyone has the different points of view depending on their various kinds of cultures and the differences in

The term happiness continues to perplex psychologists. With the recent study of positive psychology or the study of happiness, psychologists have unintentionally attached a negative connotation to all other emotions. However, all emotions, even the ones coined as negative, are valuable to humans. An analysis of human emotions proves that feelings of sadness, anger, fear, and happiness are equally beneficial to human development because they allow for a safer and more open mind-set.

Every individual has his definition of happiness according to his needs and preferences in life. It is, therefore, quite difficult to come up with a generalized definition of happiness. However, happiness can be defined as combining various satisfactions in life and experiencing more positive than the negative emotions (Elkrief 23). To be happy, individuals should use their strengths to ensure that they contribute to a larger purpose in life. That is why volunteers are happier than those whom they help because they have used their strengths to fulfill a better purpose in life.

According to Seligman (2000), positive psychology is a science that “promises to improve the quality of life” through positive individual traits, experiences and institutions (p.5). Positive psychology plays an essential role and articulates a view of good life, which can show what actions of a person would lead to well-being and into positive individuals (Seligman, 2000, p.5). Seligman formed this focus of positive psychology to study the happiness and well-being of individuals. He believed this exclusive new focus emphasizes attention on individuals’ flourishment and their ability to thrive in their commonalities and institutions. Similar to Seligman, Gable and Haidt (2005) believed that positive psychology takes an aim to study “the other side of the coin”; the ways people express their emotions and build healthy relationship with their families and institutions (p.104-105). According to Linley, Govindji and West (2007), positive psychology has grown into the study of what is right for people, particularly within the topics of strengths and happiness (p.44-45).However the negatives in life are not forgotten it is simply overridden by the focus of what makes people thrive in happiness (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p.104).Therefore the focus of positive psychology alternated from pathology to forward growth of people to be simply defined as the “science of optimal human functioning” (Linley, Govindji and West, 2007

To this day there have many controversies regarding the definition of positive psychology. However, it is now simply and most commonly defined as the study of different measures that enhance the optimal functioning of individuals and society (Gable & Haidt, 2005). Positive psychology aims to achieve a balance between the contrary psychology research fields and shifting focus to the positive aspects of human functioning rather than focusing on the negatives. Determining factors that enhance the frequencies individuals experience positive feelings such as appreciation and joy and encounter positive events are one of the many ways to achieve this. As a result, positive psychology provides us with the opportunity to benefit and prosper as a society

As human beings, we all have the capability of experiencing emotions and feelings. People can experience happiness,

Our internal world governs our happiness, not conditions put upon us from our external environment or conditions we place on ourselves. To put it another way, our search for happiness is the very reason we’re unhappy (McLeod, 2007). Psychology considers happiness an emotion or mental state and a predictor of how well one’s life is going. Some say that happiness is a choice, and therefore a behavior that one chooses. Happiness is a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it (McLeod, 2007).

The happiness is often related to the coverage of needs. As people born and grown, they only have small needs for their survival at the beginning. When their basic survival needs completed, they will face a test to the next level of needs, failure on the test leads them lost in the basic survival needs accomplishment. In the other hand, a success in the test brings them awareness towards themselves and around. This circumstance brings happiness not