Each year, 155 countries are ranked by happiness. Although Finland won the prize for 6 years and counting, further examination of the data suggests this is misleading.
What You May Not Know About the World’s Happiest Country Read More »
Are you a victim of self-inflicted unhappiness? The warrior approach will help.
5 Keys to a “Warrior Approach” for Sustainable Happiness Read More »
How can children be better prepared to be happy and healthy adults?
The One Thing That Predicts Adult Health and Happiness Read More »
Sometimes pursuing happiness is about pushing the boundaries.
Self-Discovery as We Age Read More »
Listening to your favorite music has a positive effect on your emotional and psychological health. Researchers say music impacts the endocrine system, increasing levels of dopamine and decreasing the stress-associated hormone, cortisol.
Happy Songs: These Are the Musical Elements That Make Us Feel Good Read More »
Everyone strives for personal happiness or well-being. Flourishing is a broader concept of well-being. To better understand which factors are associated to people’s flourishing, we took a closer look at the relationships of flourishing with three aspects of connectedness: Connectedness with oneself (self-love), with others (pro-socialness), and with the surrounding nature (nature connectedness). Participants were 138 adults between 18 and 71 years (M = 23.21, SD = 7.90, 98 women, 40 men). Significant positive correlations were found between flourishing and self-love and between flourishing and pro-socialness. Furthermore, nature connectedness correlated positively with self-love and with pro-socialness. A regression analysis revealed that all predictors explained 57.5% of the variance of the criterion flourishing. Self-love and pro-socialness were significant predictors of flourishing while nature connectedness was not. One explanation for the large correlations between self-love and flourishing could be overlapping aspects in both questionnaires. The fact that pro-socialness is a stronger predictor than nature connectedness could be due to a more reciprocal reinforcement of pro-social behavior. If a person treats another well, s/he is more likely treated well by that person which could reflect flourishing. Such a direct reciprocal relationship does not exist with nature.
A closer look at the relationships between aspects of connectedness and flourishing Read More »
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide. Because of the challenges associated with the pandemic, universal levels of happiness have likely depleted. We know little about how those with prior existing mental health concerns have responded to the pandemic. Using cross-sectional (study 1; N = 1,366) and longitudinal (study 2; N = 262) data, we utilized a stress and resilience perspective to explore mental health symptoms and happiness among older adults before and after the declaration of the pandemic. Results for both studies indicated higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms predicted lower levels of happiness; however, for those who indicated higher levels of mental health symptoms, post-pandemic declaration happiness levels were higher than pre-pandemic happiness levels. Findings suggest that resilience may be learned throughout a lifetime, and that experiences from prior stressors may show benefits in responding to future ones, even among vulnerable populations.
The science is clear: Electing more women makes everyone happier.
Political Scientists Say Gender Equity Is Key to Happiness Read More »
Self-determination theory holds that the intrinsic and extrinsic content of people’s aspirations differentially affect their wellness. An evidence base spanning nearly 30 years indicates that focusing on intrinsic goals (such as for growth, relationships, community giving, and health) promotes well-being, whereas a focus on extrinsic goals (such as for wealth, fame, and beauty) deters well-being. Yet, the evidence base contains exceptions, and some authors have argued that focusing on extrinsic goals may not be universally detrimental. We conducted a systematic review and used multilevel meta-analytic structural equation modeling to evaluate the links between intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations with indices of well-being and ill-being. Across 92 reports (105 studies), 1,808 effects, and a total sample of N = 70,110, we found that intrinsic aspirations were linked positively with well-being, r = 0.24 [95% CI 0.22, 0.27], and negatively with ill-being, r = −0.11 [−0.14, −0.08]. When the variety of extrinsic aspiration scoring methods were combined, the link with well-being was not statistically significant, r = 0.02 [−0.02, 0.06]. However, when extrinsic aspirations were evaluated in terms of their predominance in the overall pattern of aspiring the effect was universally detrimental, linking negatively to well-being, r = −0.22 [−0.32, −0.11], and positively to ill-being, r = 0.23 [0.17, 0.30]. Meta-analytic conclusions about the associations between goal types and wellness are important because they inform how individuals could shape aspirations to support their own happiness and how groups and institutions can frame goals such that their pursuit is for the common good. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
