Assessing national levels of happiness has become an important research and policy issue in recent years. We examined happiness and satisfaction in Ireland using phone text messaging to collect large-scale longitudinal data from 3,093 members of the general Irish population. For six consecutive weeks, participants' happiness and satisfaction levels were assessed. For four consecutive weeks (wee...

2/1 Definition of happiness 2/2 Components of happiness 2/2.1 Hedonic level 2/2.2 Contentment 2/2.3 Relative impact in the overall evaluation of life 2/3 Difference with related concepts 2/3.1 Difference with other qualities of life 2/3.2 Difference with other satisfactions 2/4 Variable aspects of happiness 2/5 Focus on ‘present’ happiness 2/6 Why this concept? _________________________________...

Social Indicators Research covers many topics, which each have their own history. Happiness research is one of these included topics. Longstanding interest in happiness revived since the 1960s together with the emergence of the social indicator movement. Happiness became a prominent issue in the movement and the movement has fostered the development of happiness research in several ways.

In a review of recent cross-cultural evidence on happiness and well-being, the authors identified substantial cultural variations in (1) cultural meanings of happiness, (2) motivations underlying happiness, and (3) predictors of happiness. Specifically, in North American cultural contexts, happiness tends to be defined in terms of personal achievement. Individuals engaging in these cultures are...

Happiness and Domain Satisfaction: Theory and Evidence In the United States happiness, on average, varies positively with socio-economic status; is fairly constant over time; rises to midlife and then declines; and is lower among younger than older birth cohorts. These four patterns of mean happiness can be predicted rather closely from the mean satisfaction people report with each of four doma...

The aim of this study was to obtain a greater insight into the association between vacations and happiness. We examined whether vacationers differ in happiness, compared to those not going on holiday, and if a holiday trip boosts post-trip happiness. These questions were addressed in a pre-test/post-test design study among 1,530 Dutch individuals. 974 vacationers answered questions about their ...

The recent proliferation of studies examining cross-national variation in the association between parenthood and happiness reveal accumulating evidence of lower levels of happiness among parents than nonparents in most advanced industrialized societies. Conceptualizing parenting as a stressor buffered by institutional support, we hypothesize that parental status differences in happiness are sma...

Does variety increase happiness? Eight studies examine how the variety among the activities that fill people’s day-to-day lives affects subsequent happiness. The studies demonstrate that whether variety increases or decreases happiness depends on the perceived duration of the time within which the activities occur. For longer time periods (like a day), variety does increase happiness. However, ...

Although the last decade has witnessed mounting research on the development and evaluation of positive interventions, investigators still know little about the target population of such interventions: happiness seekers. The present research asked three questions about happiness seekers: 1) What are their general characteristics?, 2) What do they purposefully do to become happier?, and 3) How do...

Abstract Interviewers in face-to-face surveys can potentially introduce bias both the recruiting and measurement phase. One reason behind this is that of subjective well-being has been found to be associated with social desirability bias. Respondents tend tailor their responses presence others, for instance by presenting a more positive image themselves instead reporting true attitude. In study...