What is Happiness (Term Paper Sample)

What is Happiness? Student’s Name Institutional affiliation Instructor’s Name Course Date What is Happiness? Happiness is a multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon that has been discussed throughout centuries by scientists, psychologists, and philosophers. Fundamentally, one can explain happiness as a well-being state that is filled with positive emotions, life satisfaction, and purpose. Nevertheless, it is hard to provide the definition of happiness as it depends on individuals, culture, and life situations. Psychologically, there are two major components in happiness; hedonic well-being and eudaimonic well-being. Hedonic well-being emphasizes the achievement of pleasures and the avoidance of pain, and the stress is on emotions, i.e. joy, comfort, and contentment. Eudaimonic well-being on the other hand is linked to meaning, self-realization and personal growth. Ryan and Deci (2001) believe that real happiness has nothing to do with feeling good but operating well and achieving potential. It is also found through research that happiness is both internally and externally affected. Internal ones are personality traits, mindset, emotional resilience, whereas external ones are relationships, income, health and environment. Interestingly, research indicates that good social relationships are one of the greatest determinants of long-term happiness (Diener et al., 2018). This means that happiness is not a purely personal activity but it is also embedded within human relationships and community. Moreover, happiness is not something that remains the same but is a process or an experience that changes with time. Happiness can be diminished temporarily by life hardships, disappointments and transitions, but people usually adjust to it in a process that is called hedonic adaptation. This resilience of human beings is demonstrated by this capaci...