Sucess of Constructive Happiness - Essay Example

 «Sucess of Constructive Happiness» Since the ancient period people have speculated about the things that could make a good life. Scientists who investigate individual happiness hypothesized that an important element of the good life is that the individual herself is fond of her existence. Individual happiness is defined as a person’s psychological and emotional assessment of his or her existence. These assessments involve emotional responses to incidences as well as mental judgments of contentment and fulfilment. Hence, individual happiness is a broad notion that involves experiencing favourable and delightful emotions, fewer instances of negative vibes, and high life satisfaction. The encouraging experiences embedded in high individual happiness are a key framework of positive psychology since they improve life through making it satisfying. Throughout the history of humanity, truth-seekers and religious leaders have maintained that multiple features such as affinity, knowledge and nonattachment, are the essential ingredients of a fulfilled existence. Utilitarian theorists such as Jeremy Bentham, though, claimed that the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain are the central features of a contented or good life. Therefore, the Utilitarians were the intellectual precursors of individual happiness investigators, putting emphasis on the affective, cognitive and bodily pleasures and pains that every human being experiences. Even though there are other sought-after and pleasing individual characteristics further than whether a person is happy, the person with abundant happiness has one primary essentials of a good life. The scientific discipline of individual happiness developed progressively. One reason for this is that citizens of the Western world have attained a stage of material wealth and health that permit them to go further than sheer survival in pursuing the good life. People all over the world are now in the period referred to as by contemporary thinkers the ‘postmaterialistic’ world, in which they are alarmed with matters of quality of life past economic affluence. Individual happiness, too, is fashionable because it is specially liberal and self-sufficient; it endows respect to what individuals believe and feel about their existence. People are not satisfied to have professionals or specialists assess their lives; they think that their judgments matter. Moreover, the study of individual happiness thrived due to the developing trend toward individualism throughout the globe. Individualists are apprehensive with their personal sentiments and convictions, and hence the study of individual happiness matches up well with the intellectual, cultural, political and ethical contexts of the Western world. Lastly, the discipline grew in popularity for the reason that researchers succeeded in designing scientific processes for studying individual happiness. Because of these, the scientific investigation of individual happiness is now at the brink of developing into a major academic and applied discipline. II. Theoretical Approach to Happiness Several theories of happiness have been put forth since the brilliant ideas of Aristotle. These theories can classified into three categories, namely, “need and goal satisfaction theories, process or activity theories, and genetic and personality disposition theories” (Snyder & Lopez 2002, 66). The initial collection of theories focuses around the notion that the lessening of tensions such as the removal of pain and the gratification of psychological and biological needs, result in happiness. The pleasure principle of Freud and the hierarchical needs framework of Maslow embody this approach. In substantiation of this perspective, Omodei and Wearing (1990) discovered that the extent to which individual’s needs were addressed was directly related with the degree of their life’s fulfilment. Goal theorists maintain that people reach individual happiness when they progress toward an ideal position or bring about a valued objective. Other researchers have lengthened this concept to integrate the extent of inconsistency from other possible comparison criteria. For instance, Michalos (1985) stated that happiness is indirectly related to the extent of inconsistency from multiple criteria, involving what an individual desires, what an individual experienced, and what relevant individuals have. Similarly, Higgins (1987) speculated that inconsistencies from an individual’s ‘ideal self’ and an individual’s ‘ought self’ result in the experiences of depressing emotions. Theorists of need and goal satisfaction assumption maintain that the lessening of tension and gratification of psychological and biological needs and goals will lead to happiness. One indication of tension-reduction assumptions is that happiness comes about after needs are addressed and goals are realized. In simple words, happiness is a desired final circumstance wherein all activity is aimed at. These theories can be weighed up with frameworks of happiness in which commitment in an activity itself presents happiness. Most especially, Csikszentmihalyi (1975) proposed that individuals are happiest when they are committed in motivating and stimulating activities that go with their level of skill. He referred to the frame of mind which results from this corresponding of challenges and skill flow, and claimed that individuals who frequently experience flow are inclined to be exceptionally happy. Likewise, Cantor (1996) and her associates emphasized the significance of active involvement in life duties and missions. For example, Harlow and Cantor (1996) discovered that social involvement was a strong indicator of life contentment for retired elders. Sheldon, Ryan and Reis (1996) discovered that individuals were happiest on days when they commit in activities for natural justifications such as pleasure and enjoyment. Goal theorists concur that having relevant goals and seeking them are dependable markers of happiness, and thus goal theories can integrate the aspects of tension reduction and favourable activity in clarifying individual happiness. Individuals who have essential goals have a tendency to be more dynamic, to experience more encouraging emotions, and to sense that life is meaningful and worthwhile. Need theorists and activity theorists claim that individual happiness will transform with the conditions in people’s existence. When people are working out towards their goals or are committed in motivating activities, they should experience constructive happiness. Nevertheless, other theorists maintain that there is a factor of security in people’s degrees of happiness that cannot be clarified though the security in the state of people’s existence. These theorists claim that individual happiness is firmly influenced by secure personality outlooks. Read More