By Ruut Veenhoven (auth.)
This publication is ready the measure to which individuals get pleasure from existence: briefly 'happiness'. It attempts to spot stipulations that prefer a good appreciation of lifestyles. hence it hopes to shed extra mild on a longstanding and exciting ques tion and, in all likelihood, to steer makes an attempt to enhance the human lot. throughout the previous many years an increasing number of investigations have handled this factor. therefore there's now a large physique of information. but it's particularly tricky to make experience of it. there's a clutter of theories, recommendations and symptoms, and plenty of of the findings appear to be contradictory. This e-book makes an attempt to convey a few order into the sphere. The research attracts on a listing of empirical investigations which concerned legitimate signs of happiness; 245 experiences are concerned, which jointly yield a few 4000 observations: for the most half correlational ones. those effects are provided in complete element within the at the same time released 'Databook of Happiness' (Veenhoven 1984). the current quantity distils conclusions from that wealth of information. It attempts to evaluate the truth worth of the findings and the measure to which correlations mirror the stipulations of happiness instead of the implications of it. It then makes an attempt to put the scattered findings in context. As such, this paintings isn't a regular research of literature on happiness.
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Sample text
In poetry and fiction the term happiness 21 is used for even more specific experiences. Poets pronounced numerous detailed descriptions of what happiness feels like. They characterized happiness as the oceanic experience of unity with nature, as the awareness of being able to cope with any problem that arises and as a Nirwana of peaceful understanding. Phenomenologically oriented psychologists suggested similar definitions of happiness. See Rossi (1926), Van Kerken (1952) and Strasser (1954). There are at least three objections to such highly specific definitions.
Firstly, they tend to confuse 'what' and 'why'; secondly they work only when the phenomenon concerned can be characterized by one clear cause and thirdly, they are very close to the 'object' definitions discussed above. In fact, they are almost identical to these latter definitions. At first sight they focus on experience, but actually they define this experience in terms of external conditions. All this leads me to prefer a 'descriptive' definition of happiness. Affective experience vs cognitive construct: A further difference is between 'affect' and 'cognition'.
The reality aspect involved is one's own life. We will see that happiness judgements have indeed several features which are characteristic for most attitudes. We will see that they tend to be fairly stable through time and are often not affected by minor environmental changes. 2a). It will also appear that the problems involved in measuring happiness are in fact characteristic for the measurement of most other attitudes as well. (To be discussed in chapter 3). Variable aspects. Like all attitudes happiness judgements can differ in various respects.