Happiness And Happiness Essay

Happiness and Optimism

Urwa Zahid

BS Applied Psychology

Semester 5

Government Post Graduate College for Women Gujranwala

Introduction The psychological pursuit of “happiness” is begun in China, India and Greece nearly 2500 years ago with Confucius, Buddha, Socrates and Aristotle. So, we can find very similarities between the inner side of these thinkers and the modern “Science of Happiness”. Happiness is a sense of wellbeing, joy or contentment. When people are successful, safe or lucky they feel happiness. In 1900’s, at the time of beginning as industrialization and urbanization brought many new problems to society, citizens began forming voluntary organizations to address the needs of their communities.

There is no universal answer: A hedge fund manager and a Tibetan monk provide two very different “models of happiness”. But most experts agree that the correlation is direct up to a point. Poor people become happier as they escape poverty, studies have shown, but once people are free from deprivation, the tie between money and happiness begins to fray. In fact, study after study indicates that acquiring wealth does not significantly increase happiness. In general, people who live in countries with high gross national product, per capita, are happier than those living in poorer countries. Surveys have shown that most people would be happy making less money, but on one condition: that everyone else made even less. In fact, most people prefer that scenario overall income rises but their own income rises more than the general population’s. This could explain why people in more religious societies generally report higher levels of satisfaction with their lives. Happiness is about both wanting what you have and having what you

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1. In general, I consider myself:

Not a very happy person 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a very happy person

2. Compared with most of my peers, I consider myself:

Less happy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more happy

3. Some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent does this characterization describe you?

Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a great deal

4. Some people are generally not very happy. Although they are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To what extent does this characterization describe