Happily Happiness

•feeling or showing pleasure 

These words refer to a person who feels or shows pleasure or satisfaction.

One of the most common words for this, and the word with the broadest meaning, is happy. Someone who is happy is generally satisfied and feels pleasure at something.

•A person who seems happy may be described as cheerful.

•If someone is happy at a particular time, you can describe them as being in a good mood.

You're in a good mood this morning!

• Someone who is happy because of something may be described as pleased or glad, and someone who is extremely happy because of something may be described as delighted.

He was pleased that she had come back.

I was so glad to see her.

They are delighted with their new car.

•Someone who is extremely happy and excited may be described as ecstatic or elated.

• I was greeted by an ecstatic crowd.

• We were elated.

• The expression on cloud nine can be used informally to say that someone is extremely happy because something good has happened.

• Someone who seems to be happy most of the time can be described as contented.

How happy are you?

According to some studies, researchers estimate that about 40% of the difference between people’s happiness is determined by choices, not by genes or circumstances. This means that everyone can become a great deal happier if they put their mind to it. Before you set out on that path, find out what your starting point is. How happy are you right now?

Can four simple questions measure happiness?

We know many of you will be skeptical when looking at the questionnaire below. How can 4 simple questions really measure something as complex as happiness and well-being? This was a subject of debate in the scientific community for years. But most scientists now agree that while asking someone how happy they are isn’t perfect, it is a valid measurement of happiness or “subjective well being”.

Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert does a good job of explaining in this TED Talk about how synthesized happiness is real happiness. In other words, if we think we are happy, we probably are. Check it out if you’re interested in learning more about the science of measuring happiness.

Get your current happiness score.

Take a minute to rate your own happiness with the help of the questions below.* All questions use a 1-7 scale. 1 indicates the least happiness, 7 indicates maximum happiness.

Once you click Submit, you’ll see your current “happiness score.” Note it somewhere you can refer back to it, start taking intentional steps toward increasing your happiness, and take the happiness test again from time to time to track your progress. Bonus: acknowledging your success this way might give you another little happiness boost.

*This questionnaire is based on the Subjective Happiness Scale, developed by Professor of Psychology Sonja Lyubomirsky.

Life’s too short to be miserable at work.

We  can help people build happier,

more engaged teams with a fun,

 being happily employed with happiness, daily and more joyfully, too. 

Subjective Happiness Scale ( SHS )

Permission is granted for all non-commercial use, including scholarly/academic.

A PDF of the scale can be downloaded here.

Available from the first author in the following translations: Bulgarian, Chinese, Croation, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Persian, Peruvian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scandinavian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Spanish (European), Spanish (Mexican), Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Urdu.

To score the scale, reverse code the 4th item (i.e., turn a 7 into a 1, a 6 into a 2, a 5 into a 3, a 3 into a 5, a 2 into a 6, and a 1 into a 7), and compute the mean of the 4 items. Norms are available in the reference below, as well as in many other publications that have used the scale (see PsycInfo).

Please cite the following scale validation paper in all work mentioning the scale.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46, 137-155. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.

SCALE IS SHOWN BELOW:

For each of the following statements and/or questions, please circle the point on the scale that you feel is most appropriate in describing you.

1. In general, I consider myself:

not a very happy person 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a very happy person

2. Compared with most of my peers, I consider myself:

less happy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 more happy

3. Some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent does this characterization describe you?

not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a great deal

4. Some people are generally not very happy. Although they are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To what extent does this characterization describe you?

not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 a great deal

For each of the following statements and/or questions, please circle the point on the scale that you feel is most appropriate in describing you.

1. In general, I consider myself:

1 not a very happy person

2

3

4

5

6

7 a very happy person

2. Compared with most of my peers, I consider myself:

1 less happy

2

3

4

5

6

7 more happy

3. Some people are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent does this characterization describe you?

1 not at all

2

3

4

5

6

7 a great deal

4. Some people are generally not very happy. Although they are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To what extent does this characterization describe you?

1 not at all

2

3

4

5

6

7 a great deal 

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

The majority of my research career has been devoted to studying human happiness. 

Why is the scientific study of happiness important? In short, because most people believe that happiness is meaningful, desirable, and an important, worthy goal, because happiness is one of the most salient and significant dimensions of human experience and emotional life, because happiness yields numerous rewards for the individual, and because it makes for a better, healthier, stronger society. 

Along these lines, my current research addresses three critical questions: 

1) What makes people happy?; 

2) Is happiness a good thing?; and 

3) How and why can people learn to lead happier and more flourishing lives?

Why Are Some People Happier Than Others?

I have always been struck by the capacity of some individuals to be remarkably happy, even in the face of stress, trauma, or adversity. Thus, my earlier research efforts had focused on trying to understand why some people are happier than others (for a review and theoretical framework, see Lyubomirsky, 2001). To this end, my approach had been to explore the cognitive and motivational processes that distinguish individuals who show exceptionally high and low levels of happiness. These processes include social comparison (how people compare themselves to peers), dissonance reduction (how people justify both trivial and important choices in their lives), self-evaluation (how people judge themselves), person perception (how people think about others), and dwelling or rumination. My students and I have found that truly happy individuals construe life events and daily situations in ways that seem to maintain their happiness, while unhappy individuals construe experiences in ways that seem to reinforce unhappiness (e.g., Liberman, Boehm, Lyubomirsky, & Ross, 2009; Lyubomirsky, Layous, Chancellor, & Nelson, 2015; Lyubomirsky & Ross, 1997, 1999; see also Boehm, Ruberton, & Lyubomirsky, 2021).

To cast our work on happiness in a broader framework, we have also been exploring the meaning, expression, and pursuit of happiness across cultures, subcultures, and age groups. For example, despite media reports, we have found that parents actually experience more happiness and meaning than do non-parents–both when evaluating their lives as a whole, when going about their days, and when caring for their children (versus doing other activities; Nelson, Kushlev, English, Dunn, & Lyubomirsky, 2013). Of course, parents’ happiness is impacted by myriad factors, including their age and SES and their children’s ages and temperaments (Nelson, Killingsworth, Layous, Cole, & Lyubomirsky, 2019; Nelson, Kushlev, & Lyubomirsky, 2014). Furthermore, we have carried out happiness-increasing interventions among Japanese engineers, Korean and Hong Kong undergraduates, Spanish, French, and German professionals, Canadian elementary school students, and British and U.S. teens (for a few of our cross-cultural findings, see Boehm et al., 2011; Layous et al., 2013; Sheldon et al., 2017; Shin & Lyubomirsky, 2017; Shin et al., 2020; Shin et al., 2021).

What Are the Benefits of Happiness?

Is happiness a good thing? Or, does it just simply feel good? A review of all the available literature has revealed that happiness does indeed have numerous positive by products, which appear to benefit not only individuals, but families, communities, and the society at large (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005; see also Walsh, Boehm, & Lyubomirsky, 2018; Walsh, Boz, & Lyubomirsky, 2023). The benefits of happiness include higher income and superior work outcomes (e.g., greater productivity and higher quality of work), larger social rewards (e.g., more satisfying and longer marriages, more friends, stronger social support, and richer social interactions), more activity, energy, and flow, and better physical health (e.g., a bolstered immune system, lowered stress levels, and less pain) and even longer life. The literature, my colleagues and I have found, also suggests that happy individuals are more creative, helpful, charitable, and self-confident, have better self-control, and show greater self-regulatory and coping abilities.

On-going and future experimental and longitudinal studies that attempt to increase the long-term happiness of students and working adults are giving us the opportunity to assess whether increases in durable happiness predict changes in other positive outcomes, such as altruistic behavior, creativity, work performance, physical health, and social relationships. We have investigated whether both happiness and generosity propagate across social networks (funded by the Notre Dame Science of Generosity Initiative; Chancellor et al., 2018), and whether happiness is associated with more physical movement and greater social interactions (funded by Hitachi’s Central Research Laboratory; Chancellor, Layous, & Lyubomirsky, 2015). For example, we found that 9- to 11-year old kids who practiced acts of kindness not only got happier but became more popular with their peers (Layous et al., 2012) and that 14- and 15-year olds who practiced gratitude not only got happier but reported healthier eating habits (Fritz et al., 2019) and intentions to become a better person (Armenta et al., 2022) over the course of a semester. And an exciting experiment showed that doing acts of kindness for others (versus kindness for the world or themselves or doing something neutral) leads to changes in immune cell gene expression associated with disease resistance (Nelson-Coffey et al., 2017; but not telomere length; Fritz et al., 2020). We are also currently using new technologies, including ambulatory, sociometric, psychophysiological, smartphone, and EEG methodologies, to assess happiness and the effects of positive activities (e.g., Chancellor et al., 2017; Parks, Della Porta, Pierce, Zilca, & Lyubomirsky, 2012; Yetton, Revord, Margolis, Lyubomirsky, & Seitz, 2019).

Finally, a separate line of research, supported by the John Templeton Foundation, focuses on the strength of humility — that is, how to measure it; what are its antecedents, causes, and consequences for individuals and organizations; and, perhaps most important, how people can develop it (e.g., Kruse, Chancellor, Ruberton, & Lyubomirsky, 2014; Ruberton, Kruse, & Lyubomirsky, 2016). We have been successful, for example, in inducing humble feelings via manipulations of gratitude, awe, and self-affirmation.

The Architecture of Sustainable Happiness

A vibrant and continuing program of research is asking the question, “How can happiness be reliably increased?” (for reviews, see Layous & Lyubomirsky, 2024 (forthcoming in Handbook of Social Psychology); Layous & Lyubomirsky, 2014; Lyubomirsky, 2008; Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013; Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009). Despite pessimism from the current literature that the pursuit of happiness may be largely futile, my colleagues and I believe that durable increases in happiness are indeed possible and within the average person’s reach (see Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2019, for our rethinking of the “happiness pie chart”). Thus, following my construal theory of happiness, I am exploring how the thoughts and behaviors that characterize naturally happy people (i.e., “happy habits”) can be nurtured, acquired, or directly taught. To this end, my students’ and my current research is testing predictions from our positive activity model (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013) —specifically, investigating the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of simple intentional effortful activities (which we call “positive activities”) to boost well-being, as well as the conditions under which such activities might backfire (Fritz & Lyubomirsky, 2018).

To this end, we have conducted multiple experimental intervention studies in which participants’ cognitive and behavioral strategies are systematically retrained. For example, intervention studies with students, kids, community members, workers, depressed individuals, and hospital patients are testing the efficacy of five cognitive and behavioral volitional strategies: 1) regularly setting aside time to recall moments of gratitude (i.e., keeping a journal in which one “counts one’s blessings” or writing gratitude letters), 2) engaging in self-regulatory and positive thinking about oneself (i.e., reflecting, writing, and talking about one’s happiest and unhappiest life events or one’s goals for the future), 3) practicing altruism and kindness (i.e., routinely committing acts of kindness or trying to make a loved one happy), 4) affirming one’s most important values, and 5) savoring positive experiences (e.g., using one’s five senses to relish daily moments or living this month like it’s one’s last in a particular location). Importantly, we are testing our positive activity model by exploring whether the benefits of such activities differ across cultures (see above), and whether their success is moderated by such factors as person-activity “fit,” motivation, effort, social support, variety, medium, delivery, writing format, dosage, personality, culture, age, and expectations (e.g., Boehm, Lyubomirsky, & Sheldon, 2011; Fritz et al., in press; Ko et al., 2021; Layous, Lee, Choi, & Lyubomirsky, 2103; Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon, 2011; Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Dickerhoof, 2006; Nelson et al., 2015; Nelson, Fuller, Choi, & Lyubomirsky, 2014; Nelson, Layous, Cole, & Lyubomirsky, 2016; Sheldon et al., 2010; Sheldon, Boehm, & Lyubomirsky, 2012; Sin, Della Porta, & Lyubomirsky, 2011; Walsh et al., 2023; Regan, Walsh, & Lyubomirsky, 2023).

Perhaps most critical to improving and maintaining happiness is the ability to connect with other people and to create meaningful connecting moments and even chemistry (Reis, Regan, & Lyubomirsky, 2021), and this is an important focus of our lab’s recent research (e.g.,Regan, Radosic, & Lyubomirsky, 2022; Fritz et al., in press; Margolis & Lyubomirsky, 2020). We have investigated how feelings of connection during social interactions can be measured (Okabe-Miyamoto et al., in press); how they have been impacted by social distancing policies during COVID-19 (Folk et al., 2020; Okabe-Miyamoto et al., 2021); and how they may be induced by psychoactive substances, like MDMA (Lyubomirsky, 2022; Regan et al., 2021; Molla, Lee, Lyubomirsky, & de Wit, 2023).

We are also examining the “why” of happiness-boosting interventions by testing the mediating role of positive events, positive thoughts, positive emotions, and need satisfaction. Recently, we have become interested in the conditions under which positive activities can feel unpleasant or even backfire (Fritz & Lyubomirsky, 2018; Layous et al., 2017). Finally, we are investigating genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in responses to happiness-increasing interventions (Haworth et al., 2016), and considering how such interventions might protect people from mental health conditions (e.g., Layous, Chancellor, & Lyubomirsky, 2014) and influence biological processes (Fritz et al.,2021; Nelson-Coffey, Fritz, Lyubomirsky, & Cole, 2017).

Thwarting Hedonic Adaptation

Finally, a line of research focuses on hedonic adaptation to positive experience as a critical barrier to raising happiness (Bao & Lyubomirsky, 2013; Lyubomirsky, 2010; Sheldon et al., 2012; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2012). After all, if people become accustomed to (and take for granted) anything positive that happens to them, then how can they ever become happier? Our model suggests that adaptation to positive experience proceeds via two paths: 1) through diminished positive emotions and 2) through increased aspirations. The key to achieving increased and lasting well-being thereby lies in effortful, intentional activities that slow down or preclude the positive adaptation process. Our hypothesis is that such activities share several properties that potentially help them to effectively forestall adaptation: they are dynamic, episodic, novel, and attention-enticing. We have applied our model to understand what produces materialism and consumerism, and how to design interventions that significantly depress people’s aspirations and bolster their humility, thereby allowing them to step off the hedonic treadmill and become more thrifty (e.g., Chancellor & Lyubomirsky, 2011, 2013).

Selected Publications 

Lyubomirsky, S. (2013). The myths of happiness: What should make you happy, but doesn’t, what shouldn’t make you happy, but does. New York: Penguin Press. Visit the book’s website. Download the book’s full set of references.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). The how of happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. New York: Penguin Press. Visit the book’s website. Download the book’s references.

Reis, H. T., Regan, A., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2021). Interpersonal chemistry: What is it, how does it emerge, and how does it operate? Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Lyubomirsky, S. (2022). Toward a new science of psychedelic social psychology: The effects of MDMA (ecstasy) on social connection. Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Walsh, L. C., Regan, A., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2022). The role of actors, targets, and witnesses: Examining gratitude exchanges in a social context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 17(2), 233-249. Supplemental Materials here.

Nelson-Coffey, S. K., Fritz, M. M., Lyubomirsky, S., & Cole, S. W. (2017). Kindness in the blood: The gene regulatory impact of prosocial behavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 81, 8-13.

Margolis, S., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2020). Experimental manipulation of extraverted and introverted behavior and its effects on well-being. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149(4), 719-731.

Okabe-Miyamoto, K., Folk, D., Lyubomirsky, S., & Dunn, E.W. (2021). Changes in social connection during COVID-19 social distancing: It’s not (household) size that matters, it’s who you’re with. PLoS ONE, 16(1), e0245009.

Shin, L. J., Margolis, S. M., Walsh, L. C., Kwok, S. Y., Yue, X., Chan, C-K., Siu, N. Y-F., Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2021). Cultural differences in the hedonic rewards of recalling kindness: Priming cultural identity with language. Affective Science, 2(1), 80-90.

Layous, K., Sweeny, K., Armenta, C., Na, S., Choi, I., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2017). The proximal experience of gratitude. PLOS ONE, 12(7): e0179123.

Fritz, M. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2018). Whither happiness? When, how, and why might positive activities undermine well-being. In J. P. Forgas & R. F. Baumeister (Eds.), The social psychology of living well (pp. 101-115). New York: Psychology Press.

Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). The pains and pleasures of parenting: When, why, and how is parenthood associated with more or less well-being? Psychological Bulletin, 140, 846-895.

Lyubomirsky, S., Layous, K., Chancellor, J., & Nelson, S. K. (2015). Thinking about rumination: The scholarly contributions and intellectual legacy of Susan Nolen-Hoeksema. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11, 1-22.

Layous, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness: Mechanisms underlying the success of positive interventions. In J. Gruber & J. Moscowitz (Eds.), Positive emotion: Integrating the light sides and dark sides (pp. 473-495). New York: Oxford University Press.

Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., English, T., Dunn, E. W., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2013). In defense of parenthood: Children are associated with more joy than misery. Psychological Science, 3-10.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Layous, K. (2013). How do simple positive activities increase well-being? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 57-62.

Layous, K., Nelson, S. K., Oberle, E., Schonert-Reichl, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2012). Kindness counts: Prompting prosocial behavior in preadolescents boosts peer acceptance and well-being. PLOS ONE, 7, e51380.

Layous, K., Chancellor, J., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). Positive activities as protective factors against mental health conditions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 3-12.

Lyubomirsky, S., Dickerhoof, R., Boehm, J. K., & Sheldon, K. M. (2011). Becoming happier takes both a will and a proper way: An experimental longitudinal intervention to boost well-being. Emotion, 11, 391-402.

Layous, K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2014). The how, why, what, when, and who of happiness: Mechanisms underlying the success of positive interventions. In J. Gruber & J. Moscowitz (Eds.), Positive emotion: Integrating the light sides and dark sides (pp. 473-495). New York: Oxford University Press.

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. A., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855.

Lyubomirsky, S., Sousa, L., Dickerhoof, R. (2006). The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life’s triumphs and defeats. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 692-708.

Nolen-Hoeksema, S., Wisco, B. E., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Rethinking rumination. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 400-424.

Lyubomirsky, S. (201o). Hedonic adaptation to positive and negative experiences (pp. 200-224). In S. Folkman (Ed.), Oxford handbook of stress, health, and coping. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sin, N. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session, 65,467-487.