Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.

- Charles de Montesquieu

Hi! I don't know which approach are you using, or which is the theme related with happiness issue, but when I have read the question, suddenly I have thought about the United Nations' World Happiness Report and the debate on the standards for measuring happiness, and the UN initiative on the Gross National Happiness Index, and so on...

Some useful links in which I'm sure you will find some definition, approach, etc. I hope they will help you in exploring the definition you are searching for:

http://worldhappiness.report/ (2015 and 2016)

http://unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WorldHappinessReport2013_online.pdf

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/article24073928.ece/BINARY/World+Happiness+Report.pdf

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=2212 (Gross National Happiness Index - United Nations)

http://www.unric.org/en/happiness/27709-the-un-and-happiness

Good luck!

Marisa

I understand, you were referring to indicators or variables.

 But it depends on the dimensions or domains you are going to analyse.

See some file attached.

Best wishes.

Happiness is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them.

- Charles de Montesquieu

Dear Shahnaz.

My personal belief tells me that the key to happiness is within ourselves, through the intelligence to analyse, and to find a better view of life, solving those problems that can be solved, and finding the strength and serenity to accept those that are not solvable.

I agree with Montesquieu.

Yes, I agree with you too.

Acceptance is the key to happiness.

Love, forgiveness and knowledge.

CHESTERTON ON HAPPINESS:

"Happiness is as grave and practical as sorrow, if not more so. We might as well imagine that a man could carve a cardboard chicken or live on imitation loaves of bread, as suppose that any man could get happiness out of things that are merely light or laughable. The really frivolous man, not unknown in fashionable circles, is the ma who is too frivolous to enjoy himself. "

G.K. Chesterton. A Handful of Authors: Essays on Books and Writers, New York, Sheed and Ward, 1953.

Perhaps it is not everything, but it is important to move away from envy and hatred.

Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. Only that you have decided to look over the imperfections.

You can't measure and therefore you can't compare different indicators, people or countries, at least not in quantitative terms.

Happiness is too subjective.

I know what happiness is not - pleasing everyone else at the expense of your own value or having a job in a company whose cause you don't adhere to or having a particular position because you need to compete with someone else (very often your own partner which is quite ridiculous), believing that having a job is more important than having love

What is the key to real happiness?

Agreed with other scholars' comments on how to achieve real happiness.  This question reminds me a Chinese proverb "Those who are contented with what they have are often happy."

Other Chinese proverbs about happiness can be found in the following link:

http://cn.hujiang.com/new/p554512/

Can we measure it?

If the above word "measure" refers to the survey instrument to measure happiness in a social science quantitative research, then you can refer to the following link.  Suggesting you operationally defined "happiness" before operationalized with the right survey instrument.

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=survey+instrument+measure+happiness

Live present, enjoy every movement and forget past coz time is to much precious.  

Having a dream and being able to work toward its realization, if you can share it with a like-minded person (and if it could be his or her dream as well) even better, and then you will have common dreams. 

Happiness could be an endless progression of dreams and the small steps on the way. I think that being involved in what you want to achieve is a key element.

" It is surely obvious that no one can be argued into optimism, since no one can br argued into happiness."

CHESTERTON. Robert Browning. London, Macmillam Co., 1914.

Falling in love - the actual falling and the eventual dwelling there 

Life is linked to happiness through the joy of expanding our abilities.

Dear Shahnaz,

Here some interesting publications:

Pietro C, Silvia S, Giuseppe R. The pursuit of happiness measurement: a psychometric model based on psychophysiological correlates. ScientificWorldJournal. 2014;2014:139128. http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/139128.pdf

Linley PA, Maltby J, Wood AM, Osborne G. Hurling, RMeasuring happiness: The higher order factor structure of subjective and psychological well-being measures. PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES. 2009;47(8):878-884. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John_Maltby/publication/222561092_Measuring_happiness_The_higher_order_factor_structure_of_subjective_and_psychological_well-being_measures/links/0912f50c39569426b2000000.pdf

Hock-Eam Lim. The Use of Different Happiness Rating Scales: Bias and Comparison Problem? Soc Indic Res. 2008;87:259–267. http://scholar.fju.edu.tw/%E8%AA%B2%E7%A8%8B%E5%A4%A7%E7%B6%B1/upload/042679/handout/971/D-7604-07699-A.pdf

Happy springtime, Martin

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