The relation between the happiness of 9–12 year old children and their temperament, popularity, and physical appearance was examined. Participants included 432 children and their parents and teachers. Happiness in children was assessed using a selfrating scale, parents’ ratings, teachers’ ratings, and the Happiness and Satisfaction Subscale of the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale 2 (P...

This study examines whether vocal cues can be used to reliably infer speaker happiness. Two-hundred speakers were asked to perform a simple referential communication task and to rate their current emotional state. A range of vocal cues was traced through the speech chain using path analysis. The results indicate that reported happiness of the speakers and perceived happiness of the listeners we...

UNLABELLED Happiness is a core dimension of a person's life, related to both functioning and success. As patients with schizophrenia experience marked functional deficits, it would be informative to investigate their level of happiness. There are limited data currently available, perhaps due to the longstanding belief that anhedonia is an inherent feature of this illness. The present study set ...

Although much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more o...

OBJECTIVES We aimed to examine the associations of both objectively assessed and perceived physical and social neighborhood characteristics with happiness in European adults. In addition, we aimed to study how these associations differed among subgroups. METHODS Participants (N = 6037) of the cross-sectional SPOTLIGHT survey reported on their level of happiness using a 5-point Likert scale, a...

In this article, we provide an overview of what various philosophers throughout the ages have claimed about the nature of happiness, and we discuss to what extent psychological science has been able to substantiate or refute their claims. We first address concerns raised by philosophers regarding the possibility, desirability, and justifiability of happiness and then turn to the perennial quest...

• The meaning people attach to the act of smiling affects their subjective wellbeing. • People believe that smiling either reflects happiness or is an attempt to become happy. • Smile frequency can increase or reduce wellbeing, based on their belief. • Frequent smiling can backfire and make a person less happy. a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Conventional wisdom (and existing research) su...