We hear that this is a happy person and this is an unhappy person. What is the criterion for determining the elements of happiness.
Dear Dr. Hisham,
Happiness is subjective; what makes one person happy won’t necessarily make another one feel the same. But even being subjective in defining our individual criteria for happiness, there are still some basic essentials we all need to live a happy life:
1). Good health- physical, mental and emotional
2). Money- probably one of the most debated essentials for happiness
3). Relationship- with whom you can laugh, cry, hug, touch, kiss and share life
4). Contentment at work
5). Love and acceptance of self is a key essential for true happiness
The positive attitude towards life is an important criterion for the hapiness of a person.
''Think positive, and positive things will happen.''
-Joffrey Lagura
Regards
Being contented with your current condition and hopeful for the future. Being joyous and avoiding unnecessary anxiety.
Hello,
There are lots of definitions and operationalizations of happiness. One has to be careful when distinguishing between the measurement of happiness and what brings about happiness. Furthermore, there are different "types" of happiness (e.g., marital happiness, parental happiness, student happiness). Philosophy usually provides a wonderful in-depth examination as to the meaning of constructs such as happiness (see W. Tatarkiewicz Analysis of Happiness). Here are a few references that you may find helpful for overall happiness...
Fordyce, M. W. (1986). The psychap inventory: A multi-scale test to measure happiness and its concomitants. Social Indicators Research, 18(1), 1-33.
Fordyce, M. W. (1988). A review of research on the happiness measures: A sixty second index of happiness and mental health. Social Indicators Research, 20(4), 355-381.
Kammann, R., Christie, D., Irwin, R., & Dixon, G. (1979). Properties of an inventory to measure happiness (and psychological health). New Zealand Psychologist, 8(1), 1-9.
Kammann, R., & Flett, R. (1983). Affectometer 2: A scale to measure current level of general happiness. Australian journal of psychology, 35(2), 259-265.
Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social indicators research, 46(2), 137-155.
Phan, K. L., Wager, T., Taylor, S. F., & Liberzon, I. (2002). Functional neuroanatomy of emotion: a meta-analysis of emotion activation studies in PET and fMRI. Neuroimage, 16(2), 331-348.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual review of psychology, 52(1), 141-166.
What is the criterion to see someone as happy?
Agreed with Adelheid that factors contributing to happiness (independent variables) are different from criteria of happiness (the dependent variable's measurement). You can refer to the following link for examples of instrument / questionnaire to measure the criteria of happiness:
http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/science-of-happiness/measuring-happiness/
Examples of happiness questionnaire from above link include:
"To Look happy" and "To look AS Happy" -- are quite different things (Human States) and both of them may DIFFER from "To REALLY be Happy"
We see - only what we are shown - and we never know what was artfully hidden from us.
If any is happy means one can easily judge it by seeing his/her face. The face will be smiley and he try to speak more..
Hi Hisham
You ask the following: What is the criterion to see someone as happy?
As I see it there is no universal criterion to see someone as happy. I even think that it would be unfortunate that there would be such a criterion. Suffice it to say that what makes a person to appear happy (e.g., laughing) may be an indicator of unhappiness. In other words, we can cry because we fell happy or unhappy, the same being true regarding laughing for we can laugh because we feel happy or unhappy. This means that happiness is a subjective state. For example, we may think that a rich person should be happy. Money, however, does not bring necessarily about happiness. I know of rich persons who do not feel happy. I also know of beloved individual who also are unhappy. A smiling face is not also necessarily a criterion of being happy. We can smile as a form of hiding our unhappiness or not disappointing those who want us to be happy.
As I see it, the more an individual feels good with himself/herself, with the others, and with the universe, the more s/he is likely to fell and be happy. This reminds me of a cosmic perspective of happiness. How can we know that an individual feels good with himself, the others and the universe? There should be some neural correlates. As these neural correlates happen at an unconscious level, they could be a possible way of seeing how much happy one is. This notwithstanding, it would be misleading and even nonsensical to say that it is our brain which is happy or happy. It is the individual as a whole, not his/her brain, who feels happy, unhappy and so forth.
In a nutshell, as happiness is a subjective experience, it is difficult, may be impossible, to look for (a universal) criterion to see someone as happy. It would be wonderful that all persons around the world felt happy with themselves, the others, and the nature or even the universe. Of course, it should be difficult to feel happy without any money to buy foods and being physically healthy, without others whom to interact with and being emotionally healthy, and without an universe where the true, the good and beautiful have priority over the untrue, the bad, and the ugly. Note that the true, the good and the beautiful are universal categories regardless how they are seen at different times and places. Of course, for one to be happy s/he should experience the sensation that s/he is greatly responsible for his/her destiny and happiness, and hence, self-determined and with a sense of agency.
I could make my answer a longer answer. Even so, I hope that this helps.
Best regards.
Hello,
You can look at Seligman's PERMA model. You may find it a useful tool.
regards
''If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap,
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing,
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune,
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else”
--- Chinese Proverb
“Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed.”
--- Anonymous
Images for signs of happiness:
https://www.google.com/search?q=signs+of+happiness&rlz=1T4GGHP_enUS446US446&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-lfftv5TUAhUO0IMKHXWNCqwQsAQIaA&biw=1138&bih=463
We hear that this is a happy person and this is an unhappy person.
It has nothing to do with what this person feels at the moment.
What is the criterion for determining the elements of happiness?
Happiness and unhappiness are very strong and short living emotional peaks. Look at the people at the sport arenas - this minute, they jump up, waving hands, shouting greetings to great situations, and encouragements to high achievers, and then in the next minutes sitting in a complete sorrow and silence.
In a professional life, moments of happiness and euphoria are following by more lengthy periods of a profound satisfaction. So that a reduced level of anxiety, a readiness to diffuse focus to see many other sides of life, etc., can be considered as post-happiness elements confirming that moments of happiness had happened indeed.
The reasons you create different emotions at different times is because of beliefs in the mind that respond to different triggers. Those beliefs are the artificial criteria telling us not to love, or that it is not safe to love. When you express the emotion of love you create happiness and joy within yourself.
Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.
Benjamin Franklin
The feeling of happiness is subjective to a great extent. Therefore, I doubt if there is any objective criterion for determining the elements of happiness. Carl Jung gave the five basic factors for happiness:
1. Good physical and mental health.
2. Good personal and intimate relationships, such as those of marriage, the family, and friendships.
3. The faculty for perceiving beauty in art and nature.
4. Reasonable standards of living and satisfactory work.
5. A philosophic or religious point of view capable of coping successfully with the vicissitudes of life.
However, he added "All factors which are generally assumed to make for happiness can, under certain circumstances, produce the contrary. No matter how ideal your situation may be, it does not necessarily guarantee happiness." (See the link below.)
http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2010/11/5-basic-factors-for-happiness-according-to-carl-jung/
What is the criterion to see someone as happy?
Happiness is a fundamental human goal.There is one step to creating happiness. It is to express love. When you express the emotion of love you create happiness and joy within yourself. Happiness is not just a state of mind. Happiness is also a state of emotion.
Dear Hisham,
You ask for the criterion to see someone as happy. It is likely that such a criterion depends on the individual and the physical and social milieu where s/he lives. For example, in autonomy-oriented societies, as is general the case of Western societies, it is likely that individuals fell happy when their legitimate rights are fulfilled. In community-oriented societies, as the generally the case of Eastern societies, it is likely that people feel happy when they comply with their duties to the community. In highly religious countries, it is like that people feel happy when they abide by the divine law. As for individuals' personality, it is likely that what makes an introverted individual to feel happy is different from what makes an extroverted to feel so.
As I see it, it would be desirable to look for a universal formula of agreement among people that would make any individual to feel happy. So, I would think that such a formula might be the following: live your life such that you live in harmony with yourself, the others, and the universe. With all likelihood, an individual who lives in harmony with himself/herself, the others and the university is a happy individual. We might also say that the more an individual looks for the true, the good and the beautiful, the more s/he is likely to feel happy. Note that the truth, the good, and the beautiful are universal categories regardless of how they are seen at different places and times. To pursuit for these categories would lead us, not to a transient state of happiness, but a durable sate of happiness.
“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.”
--- Seneca
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