Positive Attitude and Happiness
What makes people happy?
http://www.afww.org/WhatMakesPeopleHappy.html
The following summary of what does and does not make people happy is based on the book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard. His book incorporates years of cross-cultural studies by numerous investigators that reveal common human traits with respect to happiness.
At first thought one might expect that happiness, like love, can't be measured. But in fact, self-reporting schemes do allow us to assess how happy people think they are. And that, after all, is what is important. How happy do people consider themselves?
For years researchers have given surveys to people from countries all over the globe, asking how happy people feel at the moment and what makes them happy in general.
For example, Harvard students were asked to choose between two possible worlds and asked which they would prefer. Here are the choices:
In the first world, you would get $50 thousand a year, while other people get $25 thousand (average).
In the second world, you get $100 thousand a year, while other people get $250 thousand (average).
The majority of students preferred the first world. The same result is found across classes and cultures.
What this simple study shows is that we feel wealthy in comparison to those around us, regardless of how much we actually make. Whether you're happy depends on how your income compares with the norm. If you earn an average or higher income, you are likely to be happy with your financial condition. If you fall well below the average, you are more likely to rate yourself as not happy. And the measuring stick we use is people around us: not paupers, film stars, or corporation heads.
This is why economic growth does NOT improve happiness: as incomes rise, the norm by which we judge our own position also rises. The United States, for example, is the richest country in the world, but because we compare ourselves to those around us, U.S. citizens are not any more or less happy than people in less wealthy countries.
Moreover, the happiest people are those who always compare down, not up. When things are looking miserable, mothers often tell their children to consider others who are even less well off. These mothers are teaching a lesson in happiness.
In the Olympics, bronze medallists rate themselves as much happier than silver medallists. Why? Because the bronze medallists have a medal. They are comparing themselves to all the others who have no medals at all. They likely didn't expect to beat the top competitor. Silver medalists, on the other hand, compare themselves to the holder of the gold, feeling unhappy because they were close—but not quite up to winning the gold.
|
|
|
"I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."
Based on these studies, we might be surprised to discover some of the things that do not relate to happiness. These include:
· Age
· Gender
· Looks
· IQ
· Education (except to the extent that it affects income)
Some of the things that do make us happy include:
· Family relationships—these are more important than any other single factor;
· Financial situation, not our luxuries, but how we stack up next to those around us;
· Work, when meaningful, can be more important than the money;
· Community and friends;
· Personal freedom;
· Personal values, our inner self and attitudes and philosophy of life;
To create a world in which people are so happy that they cannot be moved to make war, we will need to
· foster connectedness to family, community, and friends;
· provide a large middle class where vast numbers of people can compare themselves down to others of less wealth and at the same time, realistically hope to move up;
· spread liberal democracy and the sense of personal freedom it provides;
· teach our young people positive attitudes of mind. Teach them how to be happy.
"People are as happy as they decide to be."(Abraham Lincoln)
1 Layard, P. Richard G. 2005. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. NY: Penguin.
What makes people happy?
by Tom Scheve
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/what-makes-people-happy.htm
We all want happiness, but finding it isn't the easiest venture. Many of us conceive of it as the end-product of material wealth, career goals and family harmony. With that in mind, we seek out the things we believe will deliver it: better cars, nicer houses and bigger paychecks. Others of us work to put together a large network of friends or find a spouse.
When we're not happy with what we have, we believe we'll be happier when we get what we want. And we're right, we will be happier -- for a while. The problem is that once you get a large house with a swimming pool or get that promotion you've been chasing, you gradually get used to it. In fact, even when we're negatively affected by events, our immediate dissatisfaction also gradually fades, and in time we return to our pre-existing state of happiness (or unhappiness, whichever the case may be). Lottery winners and people who have been paralyzed report similar levels of happiness one year after the life-changing event. The initial change from the status quo produces short-term happiness or unhappiness, but as that becomes the day-to-day norm, happiness seems to level out.
|
|
|
So what does make us happy? Is it a vibrant social life? Hearing the pitter-patter of little feet? Having a healthy lifestyle? Research has uncovered some surprising facts about what makes us happy, as well as the effect that happiness has on our lives.
Positive Attitude and Happiness
Studies of twins, both fraternal and identical, indicate that about half of our happiness -- or the traits contributing to our happiness, such as an easygoing nature -- is genetic. That means half of our ability to be happy is determined by external events or states, such as our careers or lifestyles.
That still gives us another half to work with, which means we can control our happiness much more than we might think. Our happiness is to a large degree dependent on how we react to or perceive outside events.
Our stress levels, as measured by the presence of cortisol and other stress hormones in our bodies, are in part regulated by our perception of whether or not negative circumstances will be bearable and the amount of hope we have that the situation will improve. While an occurrence such as losing one's job or home may seem catastrophic to one person, another person may view it more as a storm that must be weathered until it passes.
Another thing to remember is that we gain more happiness from experiences than we do from acquisitions. Experiences -- preserved as memories -- stand out from the details of our daily grind, while acquisitions or lifestyles eventually become the details of our daily grind.
As far as perceptions concerning our wants and desires, there have been some interesting findings. Want more of what you already have? You're going to be happier than the guy who wants less of what he has. If that's a puzzler, this won't be: People who don't have much of what they want aren't as happy as people who have lots of their desires met.
Дата добавления: 2018-09-20; просмотров: 165; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!