Happiness - The Essential Ingredients

The word happiness relates to various positive or happy feelings ranging from contentment, to bliss, to extreme happiness, to the overall pleasure. It's also used in the wider context of emotional well being, life satisfaction, bliss, eudaimonic, flourishing and overall well being. The happiness diamond is a popular measure of subjective happiness.


For many, being happy means that you have good relationships with your spouse, children, parents, friends and colleagues. Emotional well being has also been associated with happiness. And when we're happy, we also tend to enjoy more. A recent study from the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that we can increase happiness by fostering good relationships. In a similar vein, a separate study from Oxford University found that when people were exposed to an environment that promoted good relationships, they were happier.

Another important element in determining happiness is self-fulfillment, which refers to the feeling of being satisfied with our lives. Self-fulfillment was mentioned twice in one study found that satisfaction with one's life decreased with age. Yet, this relationship between self-fulfillment and age was only statistically significant for women. One possible reason is that people age differently, and we tend to evaluate our lives according to the lives of our children and grandchildren rather than our own. Thus, the connection between satisfaction and age may be related to changes in other variables as well.

Psychologists have also proposed that one key factor in determining well-being and happiness is positive emotions, and that negative ones have a negative effect on health and well being. However, this may not always be the case as there are several factors that influence our moods, including genetics, expectations, coping skills and opportunities. One study found that those who experienced positive feelings, even if it was short-lived, did not report a decrease in mortality.

Negative thoughts also have a negative effect on happiness, though to a lesser extent than do positive thoughts. According to a famous experiment done by David Steele of the University of California at Irvine, people tend to focus on negative thoughts about three things: health, relationships and death. However, many different studies have shown that people tend to focus on negative thoughts too much, especially if those thoughts occur regularly. Negative thoughts can keep people from experiencing positive events in their lives, such as receiving a prize or winning an important contest.

Another important factor in determining happiness and its connection to the quality of social support is the quality of relationships that exist. A famous experiment by John Bowlby and colleagues showed that there is a direct link between the amount of social support that a person has and his or her level of happiness. In this experiment, researchers asked groups of individuals to complete a questionnaire on a day when they were given either no social support or a lot of social support from a friend. The results showed that those who received a great deal of social support were significantly happier than those who received little social support. One study found that the amount of social support had a statistically significant impact on the level of satisfaction people had with their lives.

Of course, many of us already know what the connections between the elements of happiness are. But it can be helpful to have a short checklist of what we think are the true elements of happiness. Perhaps the most important element is the feeling of self-worth that comes from being content. We need to feel good about our appearance, our capabilities and the way that we function in society. We also need to feel happy about our skills and accomplishments. Feeling wealthy, healthy and powerful are also important elements of happiness.


Another important aspect of happiness is that it is related to the quality of relationships that we have. People who are able to provide for themselves and others in a meaningful way are happier than those who are just satisfied with whatever they are providing for themselves. And the third element, as you may be aware, is having enough money to be able to purchase all of the things that you desire in life. Spending money and having the means to obtain material possessions are the two components that contribute to a happy life, but a good sense of well-being goes a long way too.