In an earlier post in this series, we focused on the factors that tend to influence individual levels of happiness and well-being. This involved highlighting three lists of variables compiled from a number of pre-existing studies, ranking items as contributing to happiness to small, medium, and high degrees. While all of the items mentioned in…
In recent years, it appears that the western world has become increasingly obsessed with happiness – becoming happy, becoming happier, remaining happy, the how and the why of it all. Happiness-related headlines and images scream off the covers of glossy magazines, hardly a month goes by without at least one national newspaper running a happiness-related…
Christopher Peterson’s 2006 book A Primer in Positive Psychology proved to be my own gateway into the science of well-being and related matters. Weighing in at under 400 pages and written in a largely accessible style, it may represent a good starting point for any ‘layman’ interested in dipping their toes into this topic. With…
As noted last week, psychological research suggests that life circumstances tend not to impact upon our happiness levels as much as we might assume. That’s not to say that these circumstances make no impact on happiness, more that perhaps the time and effort that we put into looking to change them may not be matched…
Last week, while discussing the limitations associated with linking the pursuit of pleasure to a durable happiness, we referred to adaptation – in essence, the human tendency to adjust to changed circumstances, whether they be positive or negative. This week, we will approach the same basic topic from another angle, looking at the set-point theory…
Last week, we focused on the ‘three happy lives’, as set out by Martin Seligman. One of the key messages was that while there is nothing inherently wrong or negative in the pursuit of pleasure, any ‘happiness strategy’ that relies exclusively on pursuing pleasure is doomed to come up short of the mark, and perhaps…
Last week, we looked at subjective well-being, an approach which focuses on how individuals feel about their life and circumstances, with a specific emphasis on positive emotional experiences and life satisfaction. While this approach receives a lot of attention from psychologists, it is not the only school of thought as it relates to well-being as…
Our main focus of attention up to this point has been to establish that when we speak of well-being, rather than only thinking about reducing negatives, we should also think in terms of boosting positives. As pointed out more than once in the previous two blog entries, seeking to reduce and/or remove symptoms of negative…
Last week, I began this series by focusing mainly on the tendency we sometimes see for conversations on well-being to be framed – usually unconsciously – in the context of ill-being. We can see this tendency when discussions concerned with well-being devote most or all of their content to the important task of reducing negatives,…
What comes to mind when you think of well-being? It might seem like an obvious question, but if you asked it of random passers-by on the street, the odds are that each answer would differ, at least somewhat. The obvious questions are ones we tend to spend little or no time thinking about, because, well,…