Happiness

The question of whether individuals can create their own happiness without the aid of external influences has been raised and researched. However, the answer to the question is unclear. Positive psychology is a branch of psychology that supports the theory that an individual’s happiness is under their personal control, independent of any external influences or validation. Consequently, researchers have uncovered evidence that provides mixed results regarding the effectiveness of positive psychology in increasing individual happiness.

The most universal goal every human has in common is the pursuit of happiness or “creation or construction of happiness” (Achor, 78). To be able to fulfill this wish of becoming happy, people often think the key to achieving happiness is success. In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he debunks this theory of success leading to happiness by illustrating the reverse theory of success. Through dozens of studies and experiments as forms of evidence, the author argues that an individual needs to achieve happiness in order to be truly successful. Achor 's argument is valid in that happiness should come before success because there is a clear advantage to being successful in an individual’s work life, personal sphere, and liveliness if they are happy first and foremost.

In finding happiness at work, there is a large but limited set of values or factors; the key is determining how much of each value is needed. The individual is the only one who can make the determination of how much of each value is needed. What makes one person happy at work is not the same combination for the next guy. One guy may value a big salary to be happy while another could be just as happy with a little less pay and a little more involvement. The right mix of variables is personal because priorities need to be set. Rare is the job that provides all the values that you need in the exactly right proportions. Because of the rarity of the perfect job, we need to decide on what values we could be content with upholding.

Although negative emotions are beneficial, happiness is equally important because it provides advantages, and negativity has its flaws also. In the article “The New Science of Happiness,” the author explains “Some of Seligman's own research, for instance, had focused on optimism, a trait shown to be associated with good physical health, less depression and mental illness, longer life and, yes, greater happiness” (Wallis). Happiness increases a person’s life span and decreases diseases which are helpful qualities. Being positive allows people to maintain healthy lives, so emotions associated with happiness provide a better lifestyle. Therefore, positivity is beneficial to people’s health; in contrast, excessive negativity can be unhealthy. As an article in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine asserts, “We expected that daily negative mood[s] at the end of day would predict worse reported sleep that night, whereas daily positive mood at the end of day would predict better sleep” (Song 945). Negativity can cause sleep deprivation, which can lead to other medical issues, so negativity has its faults as well. Therefore, positivity has benefits while negativity has flaws. Happiness is not just a feeling; it has an underlying purpose for people’s lives.

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.

On the one hand, the concept that people have in mind about happiness is really important in order to achieve what they want in life. This moves them to do new things and to be creative. Also the way of thinking and the reaction to each situation that confronts. The results are good or bad according to the decision that they took in the moment to face the situation, and also, they make people happy or unhappy.

Happiness is enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy. A Person can choose to be happy due to of personal self-control, and a person’s past experience.

The most universal goal every human has in common is the pursuit of happiness or “creation or construction of happiness” (Achor, 78). To be able to fulfill this wish of becoming happy, people often think the key to achieving happiness is success. In the book, The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, he debunks this theory of success leading to happiness by illustrating the reverse theory of success. Through dozens of studies and experiments as forms of evidence, the author argues that an individual needs to achieve happiness in order to be truly successful. Achor 's argument is valid in that happiness should come before success because there is a clear advantage to being successful in an individuals work life, personal sphere, and liveliness if they are happy first and foremost.

Happiness is the only thing in this world that is neither measurable, profitable, nor tradeable. Despite this fact, it is still desperately sought by all. They want to have happiness, and want to know they have a lot of it. However happiness, like air or water, is a hard thing to grasp in one’s hand. It is intangible and nebulous. So how do people know if they have it? That is for them to decide. Generally, happiness has to do with an emotional and mental state of welfare that can be characterized through pleasant and positive emotion such as contentment and joy. Like beauty, happiness is indiscernible. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder similar to how happiness is in the mind of a human. Happiness can only be measured on an individual basis,

Happiness as a phenomenon is a subject that has attracted attention from researchers in psychology. It is baffling how happiness is an intrinsic desire all wish to attain. There are many theories throughout time about how to achieve it and debates about whether it is even an ongoing process or a place. Many famous figures from ancient Greeks, Plato, and contemporary philosophers, Robert Nozick, have queried the meaning of it. Thus, there is no one set definition for happiness. Amongst the many concepts of happiness, is the one by Ed Diener and Shigehiro Oishi in their article, The Nonobvious Social Psychology of Happiness. They examine happiness in a non-conventional and psycho-social viewpoint. To them, there are three main factors that contribute to happiness; close social relationships, the ratio of negative events over positive events in relationships and culture and well-being (Diener & Oishi, 2004). Another minor finding discussed is the hedonic treadmill of adaptation which essentially the theory that life stresses and pleasures only provides temporary sadness or happiness. In other words, the effect it has neutralizes with time and adaptation to it occurs.

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).

There is much research that suggests that happiness is also a means toward higher levels of overall success. Using positive psychology can promote happiness, which, in return, will lead to more overall success in an individual’s life (Ben-Shahar 2007). By using the positive psychology approach an individual can lower stress while improving personal biological and spiritual health.

When someone asks Google “how many people are there in the world?”a straight answer of 7.125 billion appears on the screen. However when asked “how many happy people in the world?” Google wasn't quiet sure of the answer. Is that because happiness as a human emotion cannot fully be defined? In Elizabeth Landau’s article states why happiness is so important in our daily life. Although we don't always have complete control over our emotions our surroundings, the environment and people we involve ourselves with has a lot to due with humans “happiness’”in general she explains. The human brain is the most powerful part of our whole body and if one can learn how to control your mind you can be happy, but defining

Numerous research studies have been supported the efficacy of optimism as a psychological phenomenon. The relationship between optimism and personality has well-defined in the Big Five factors of personality as explained by Sharpe, Martin and Roth (2011). First it is necessary to know what the big model is? The big five model derived empirically as “lexical” personality model consists of five major factors those entail: Extraversion or Positive emotionality, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness or Intellect, and Neuroticism versus Emotional Stability. Optimism in the given research was defined as a bipolar different variable in people that range from pessimist at the lower end towards optimism at the higher end (Sharpe,

Americans can pursue happiness by achieving the things that they really want to accomplish in their life’s.