What is happiness and how to improve it?

Happiness is an individual's satisfaction with his quality of life or situation. At present, the academic research on happiness mainly adopts experimental or empirical methods, such as the research on national happiness index, social happiness, subjective happiness and psychological happiness, which is recognized by its scientific and empirical methods. What is happiness? The following is what I sorted out. Welcome to reading.

What is happiness? Happiness refers to a series of joyful and joyful emotions subjectively generated by human beings based on their own sense of satisfaction and security.

Satisfying the pursuit of happiness, from pre-modern times, is mainly manifested in philosophers' speculation and people's choice of individual lifestyle. To modern times, social movements and system construction have emerged, which reflects a historic progress. An important achievement brought by modernization to mankind is undoubtedly the continuous improvement of material living conditions and the increasing improvement of life quality. However, modernization is a process full of paradoxes. Compared with the improvement of objective well-being, subjective well-being has not risen to the corresponding level, which undoubtedly constitutes the dilemma of modernization.

Brief introduction of influencing factors of happiness

From the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, the measurement of people's subjective well-being became a hot research field in psychology. Psychologists' discussion on subjective well-being comes from three disciplines: quality of life, mental health and social gerontology. With sociologists and economists joining the ranks of happiness research, the rich connotation and manifestations of happiness are more revealed.

It should be said that happiness, as a part of social psychological system, is influenced by many complicated factors, including economic factors such as employment status and income level; Social factors such as education level and marital quality; Demographic factors such as gender and age; Cultural factors such as values and traditional habits; National character, self-esteem, attitude towards life, personality characteristics, achievement motivation and other psychological factors. Political factors such as democratic rights and participation opportunities.

In addition, the understanding of subjective well-being involves many analytical levels, including cognition and emotion, individuals and groups, horizontal and vertical, time and time, and so on. In the close relationship between subjective well-being and many factors and levels of social psychological system, the following points are very unique and important:

Psychological frame of reference

On the social level, the happiness of its members will be greatly influenced by its psychological frame of reference. For example, in a closed society, due to the lack of comparison with other societies, although the material development level of this society is not high, its members may be content with the status quo and show a lot of happiness due to psychological conservatism and habitual stereotypes; And a society at the beginning of opening up, in the face of various shocks from developed foreign societies, began to refer to the outside world. At this time, the happiness of its members may show a downward trend because their original self-esteem has been traumatized.

Degree of achievement motivation

People's achievement needs determine the achievement motivation, which in turn determines the expected ambition. Among them, people's cognition of their achievements is an important part, because if people realize that their achievements are higher than their expected ambitions, then they will have a strong sense of happiness; On the other hand, if people realize that their level of achievement is lower than their expected ambition, then there will be no happiness.

Ontology security

It refers to the individual's confidence in the continuity of self-identity and its social environment. This sense of reliability from people and things is extremely important for the formation of individual trust, and trust in the outside world is not only the basis of individual security, but also the basis for individuals to resist anxiety and produce subjective happiness. Therefore, there is no simple positive correlation between people's happiness and their own economic situation or income level. In real life, some people with poor economic conditions are very happy, while some millionaires are worried all day.

Therefore, we can understand why in the past 10 years, China people's happiness first rose and then fell, showing a lack of synchronization with the economic development track. The main reason is that in the early stage of reform, opening up and modernization, the effect of material development is obvious. At that time, the degree of social differentiation was not great, and social members were more likely to make psychological longitudinal comparisons, which made them more likely to feel satisfied than their living standards in the past. With the acceleration of social structural transformation, the system reform in various fields has touched more and more deep interests, and the degree of social differentiation has increased, especially the gap between the rich and the poor. In terms of social psychology, with the gradual improvement of living conditions, people's demand level is increasing day by day, and it shows a diversified trend. Therefore, the standard that can meet the demand is relatively improved; However, due to the relative shortage of resources, the intensification of competition and the acceleration of the pace of modern life, people's sense of pressure has greatly increased, which has strongly affected people's happiness.

It is particularly noteworthy that some survey results show that people pay more attention to social issues in areas related to people's livelihood, and people's livelihood issues have become the most concerned social issues for most members of society. This shift of focus reflects people's judgment on the social development trend. The increasing concern for people's livelihood especially reflects that the system reform and social development have the strongest impact on people's living conditions and quality of life. All these have had a profound impact on people's sense of security, that is, the demand for social life security has increased, thus affecting people's happiness.

Misunderstanding of happiness? Happiness index? It has become a hot topic in academic circles in China, and it has also become a practical topic for some government departments.

Happiness index refers to the quantitative results of people's subjective well-being with subjective well-being as an index and using special measurement tools. However, if the happiness index will play an important and reasonable role in the quality of life index system and even in the development planning of a place or a country, then it is undoubtedly the most basic premise to seek a full understanding of the happiness index and avoid various misunderstandings.

The trend of simplifying happiness index

The understanding of happiness involves philosophy, psychology, sociology, economics, culturology and other disciplines, which shows the high complexity of the social psychological system, and this complex subjective world needs to be measured and explained by quantitative tools, which undoubtedly poses a great challenge to the limitations of modern social science. Therefore, a possible misunderstanding of happiness index is the tendency to simplify happiness index. One of the typical manifestations is that we hope to achieve a comprehensive and accurate grasp of subjective well-being through a questionnaire. An important question in the measurement of happiness is whether the life feelings expressed by people in the measurement can represent their overall life feelings in a period.

The happiness index can be regarded as an absolute index.

Is happiness index related to social development and its problems? Wind vane? And then what? Barometer? . If the social psychological system includes cognitive evaluation at the rational level and emotional feelings at the perceptual level, then emotional feelings often occupy a dominant position in happiness, and happiness is sometimes a very personalized subjective field. Therefore, in the field of practice, happiness index can be an important aspect in the quality of life index system, but it is not the only aspect. Here, a possible misunderstanding about happiness index is that happiness index can be regarded as an absolute index reflecting the quality of personal life and measuring the degree of social progress, thus ignoring the consideration of the connotation of social development and the richness of human spiritual field.

The happiness index is exaggerated, one-sided and extreme.

As an important reference factor in formulating development plans and social policies, the relationship between happiness index and GDP should be dialectical. GDP is a hard indicator and happiness index is a soft indicator, both of which have their unique status and role in development planning and social policy. Being able to care about happiness shows that the theory and practice of development have risen to a higher level and the connotation of development is richer. But we must never choose between GDP and happiness index. Therefore, another possible misunderstanding about happiness index is? Happiness index worship? That is, the meaning of happiness index is unconditionally exaggerated, one-sided and extreme.

Measurement of Happiness Western psychologists, sociologists and economists have explored the measurement of happiness for decades and accumulated some knowledge and experience. Even so, no happiness measurement tool has been generally recognized, and many scales are still being improved. There are differences between China and the West in social and cultural background and social psychology, which is one of the forms of reflection, so the understanding of happiness will not be exactly the same, and the way of feeling happiness will be different. Therefore, in order to develop a set of happiness measurement tools that reflect the international level and conform to China's national conditions, especially to obtain a happiness index that can be used as a reference for development planning and social policy, high-level and innovative multidisciplinary cooperative research is needed.

A Brief Introduction to Happiness Survey

According to a survey report, China's most economically developed provinces and cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Zhejiang, have the lowest happiness index. In 2009, the soaring housing prices caused by the booming real estate industry made many families feel pain. In addition, health, emotional intelligence, financial quotient, family responsibility and social environment are considered by most respondents to be the most important factors affecting family happiness, and these five factors are interrelated and indispensable.

How to translate happiness index into English? Please look at the relevant reports of Xinhua News Agency:

The survey found that Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian and Chongqing had higher happiness indexes, and half of the families said they were satisfied with their family life, while people living in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen were not so lucky.

The survey found that the happiness index of residents in Jiangsu, Sichuan, Fujian and Chongqing is relatively high, and half of the families expressed satisfaction with their family life, while people living in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen did not think so.

In the above report, the happiness index is the happiness index that has attracted much attention now. Happiness index is a subjective index to measure the specific degree of happiness. Happiness is influenced by various factors, such as economic factors, demographic factors, cultural factors, psychological factors and political factors.

There are many kinds of indexes now, and the happiness index is also closely related to some of them. For example: consumer price index (CPI), employment index (employment index) or net employment outlook (net employment outlook index), life satisfaction index (life satisfaction index) and so on.

Erasmus University in the Netherlands has made three surveys on China's national happiness, among which 1990' s national happiness index is 6.64( 1- 10/-kloc-0/0 scale), 1995 rises to 7.08, and 200 1 falls to 6.60. By June 5438+February, 2009, the happiness survey published by the Institute of Social Studies of the University of Michigan showed that the happiness of China people was still declining, and today's people in China were not as happy as before.

condition

More money, less happiness.

32-year-old Lin Li (pseudonym) works in a Fortune 500 company. In the eyes of others, she is the best among her peers: stable job and good income. She has a house and a car in Beijing by her own efforts and recently got married and started a family. But Lin Li is always sad. She told reporters that she often didn't know why she was busy all day. ? Happiness and happiness seem to be getting farther and farther away from me. I remember that when I was at school, I would happily bump into each other at the school gate and buy a pair of jeans at the stall for a long time, but in the past two years, I have rarely found that kind of happy feeling. ?

There are many people like Lin Li in life. In fact, the rapid economic growth in China has not ensured the sustained growth of national happiness. America? Gallup World Poll? In 2005? In 2009, I visited thousands of people from 155 countries and regions and asked them to evaluate their lives. Do you have enough rest, respect, health and beneficial leisure? And answered other questions. The researchers proceeded accordingly? Happiness ranking? The results show that Chinese mainland ranks 125, and Hongkong ranks 8 1.

Domestic surveys related to happiness have also emerged in an endless stream in recent years. In August this year 10, a survey released at the first China International Conference on Positive Psychology showed that among the 69,000 participants, 90% of the respondents felt lonely, 46.9% were not very satisfied with their lives, and 19. 1% even said they were very dissatisfied with their lives. Various data also show that the more you live in a big city, the more unhappy you feel.

cause

Seven reasons to steal happiness

? Happiness is a long-term, internal and firm psychological state, not a short-term emotional experience. ? Wang Guorong, senior director of Suzhou Jung Psychological Counseling Center, told the reporter of Life Times that happiness is not happiness when making money, but happiness when spending money, which largely depends on many factors unrelated to wealth, such as health, job stability, marital status, interpersonal relationship, etc. These factors are also closely related to personal understanding of life and social development. Peng Kaiping, a professor of psychology in Tsinghua University, a tenured professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of social and personality psychology, said, How are economic development and happiness formed? The paradox of happiness? There are deep psychological reasons. Social psychologists from Leicester University in England have also analyzed the reasons for the decline of happiness in modern China. Generally speaking, there are several reasons.

Old love contrast. Modern people focus on competition, comparing status, housing and wealth? Compared with the past, there is only desire and no happiness in people's hearts. Once people pursue not how to be happy, but how to be happier than others, happiness will leave you.

Lack of faith. After more than 20 years of sprinting for wealth, some people don't know what their life goals and pursuits are, or even what they want, except making money. This state of lack of faith and ideals is difficult to produce long-term and happy happiness.

Not good at finding the sunny side. There are many positive and beautiful aspects in life, but many people ignore them. See only your own misfortune and ignore your own happiness? 、 ? Enlarge other people's happiness and reduce your own happiness? Is its true portrayal. In order to attract attention, some media also publicize and report negative events in their lives. Although it satisfies people's curiosity to a certain extent, it also weakens people's positive mentality.

I don't know how to give. A study by Harvard University in the United States shows that helping others more in life will make you feel happier. However, in modern society, fewer and fewer people are willing to make selfless contributions, and more and more people are haggling over every ounce. What if you finally figure it out? What can I get from it? 、? Is it worth doing? You will live very tired.

Not satisfied. As the saying goes? Contented people are always happy? But fewer and fewer people can be satisfied. If you have a house, you want to exchange it for a bigger one. If you have a job, you want to change to a better one. Want to earn more if you have money? These desires guide people to work endlessly and fight for it? Brilliant? The peak of.

Do not trust each other. Although social communication is highly developed, people's hearts are gradually alienated. People nowadays are more and more inclined to? Right brain? Thinking mode, and the right brain is in charge of individuals, power, status and so on. , and the feeling of happiness is 0. Happiness comes from the feeling of the left brain. Many times, it is not that there is less happiness in life, but that people no longer have the ability to feel happiness.

Too anxious. Problems such as buying a house, raising children, and family pension burden; Worried about the work pressure brought by the promotion space in the workplace; The interpersonal relationship between friends and colleagues has become China's? Sources of stress? . In big cities, old people, young people and children are all in a state of anxiety, making people unable to feel happy from the bottom of their hearts.

solution

If you want to be happy, you must be satisfied first.

? An unhappy life will make people sick and shorten their life span. ? Benec, an American writer and visiting professor in the Department of Psychology of Tsinghua University, pointed out that studies have confirmed that physical health is closely related to subjective well-being. If you feel happy, you can reduce strokes, cardiovascular diseases and allergic reactions and increase people's life expectancy by 7.5 years. Therefore, China people must learn to find happiness.

Wang Guorong believes that if you want to be happy, the first thing to do is to reduce your own desires. Don't blindly compare with others and pursue vanity, but face life with a contented attitude and understand that everyone's happiness is different: perhaps, you don't have a gorgeous villa, but you have a warm and tidy home and a caring family; Maybe you don't have the strength to respond to everything, but you have many friends who live in harmony and are like brothers; Maybe you don't have extravagant jewelry and wealth, but you have a healthy body that a thousand dollars can't buy?

Committed to? Happiness research? Dr Ryan, an American social psychologist, pointed out that the faster the economic development, the greater the influence of non-material factors on happiness. Therefore, if China people want to pursue happiness, they must change some old ideas and seek their own happiness from the aspects of emotion, health and mentality.

Happiness in love When a courtier receives a love letter for the first time, as long as the courtier is not a person he hates very much, he will always feel happy because he is pursued and loved by others. Therefore, when writing a courtship love letter, you must be emotional, open the door of love for the courtship object with your pure love, and ignite the love fire of the other party. In this way, as long as the main conditions of the pursuer generally meet the requirements of the other party, it is easy to establish a love building because of the emotional exchange between the two sides. There is a beautiful typist in a certain unit. She was introduced to several people. She shook her head at a glance, so people called her "Princess Jiaojiao" behind her back. But an ordinary-looking young man boldly wrote her a love letter. The letter wrote: "Your beauty certainly fascinates me, but what I admire most is your intelligence, studious and cheerful personality. Beauty will glow and fade at any time, but feelings will shine in time. " After describing his longing for a happy life in the future, the young man introduced himself on the spot: "I look ordinary, my income is not high, and I have a burden at home. I am an ordinary worker." But I am studious and can bear hardships. I firmly believe that these two magic weapons can build a happy building for you. This touching sentence touched the heart of the "proud princess", caused an uproar in her heart, felt extremely happy, and finally unexpectedly accepted the courtship of this ordinary worker.

How to improve happiness has been hard for most of my life, and the elderly deserve to live a comfortable, happy and happy old age. How can we help the elderly improve their happiness?

1, enjoy the moment

To live in such a state: treat children's smiles as jewels, be satisfied in helping friends, and be happy in the characters in good books.

Step 2 control your time

Happy people set big goals and then implement them in their daily actions. It is difficult to write 300 pages a day, but it is very easy to write two pages a day.

Stick to 150 days like this, and you can write a book. This principle is applicable to any job. Step 3 Enhance positive emotions

More and more evidence shows that negative emotions make people depressed, while positive emotions make people forge ahead. One thing that happy people do is to try to eliminate negative emotions.

Step 4 treat people around you well

People should learn to be kind to their close friends and spouses. People who can count five close friends at a time are 60% happier than those who can't count one.

5. Have happiness

Experiments show that truly happy people are happier.

Studies have shown that laughing often can make the brain feel happy.

6. Say goodbye to boring life

Don't be idle, don't trap yourself in front of the TV, and immerse yourself in something that can give full play to your skills.

7. Multi-activity

Outdoor activities are a good medicine to deal with stress and anxiety. A survey of college students who feel a certain pressure shows that students who often exercise outdoors are obviously better than those who don't.

8. Have a good rest

Happy people are full of energy, but they still set aside some time to sleep and enjoy loneliness.

For most people in the happiest countries, having sufficient savings is a prerequisite for happiness. With money, you can do whatever you want and buy whatever you want: luxury houses, delicious food, fancy clothes, fancy cars, entertainment and reasonable consumption. But the elements of happiness are not just money. Happiness is health, happiness is disease-free and disaster-free, and happiness is being kind to yourself. Happiness is a good time to reunite with friends and family.

Happiness means equal opportunity? Opportunities to receive education and become entrepreneurs. When you have a sudden idea, you immediately put it into practice and make it flourish. You know that the harder you work, the more you will get in return. What could be more satisfying than this?

According to the above requirements, researchers from Legatum Institute selected the happiest country in the world five years ago. Legatum Institute is a British think tank headquartered in London. But? Are you happy? The meaning of "fish drinking water" varies from person to person, so they use it. Prosperity? Replace? Are you happy? This word.

No. 1: Norway

Reason for listing: the world's per capita GDP is the highest of 53,000 yuan a year. Next to the United States, 74% of Norwegians say that others can be trusted, 94% are satisfied with their environment, and a very high 93% think that the success of their efforts will help in life. It helps to have oil and gas reserves.

Second place: Denmark

Reasons for listing: the cost of starting a business is the lowest in the world, education is good, and civil liberties are not restricted. Danes have great confidence in their government and trust each other, which makes them the country with the highest living standard in the world.

Third place: Finland

Reasons for listing: good education, universal health insurance, great personal freedom, credible government and social stability. A lot of research and development and low start-up cost are the cornerstones of Finland's economic development. However, in countries with the highest degree of social wealth redistribution, only 75% of Finns believe that hard work will lead to success.

Fourth place: Australia

Reasons for listing: excellent education, advocating individual freedom and strong social cohesion. Australia's economic development momentum is strong, with the export of raw materials as the leading factor, and it is also a treasure trove: because of the rich business opportunities of Internet connection in Australia, the start-up cost is low. Australians believe in their government.

Fifth place: New Zealand

Reasons for the list: strong social cohesion, first-class education level, mutual trust and mutual assistance among New Zealanders. Civil liberties rank first. 94% people in New Zealand have discovered the physical beauty of adapting to the environment.

Lonely Star Travel Guide, the most authoritative urban travel series focusing on happiness, ranks among the top ten in the world. The happiest city? ：

1. Vanuatu (Oceania)

Reason for listing: the sea breeze gently blows the white beach, and the hammock hangs leisurely under the tree. So much for a happy life.

2.montreal, canada

Reason for listing: clean, hospitable and refreshing multiculturalism, Montreal is full of happy atmosphere all year round.

Dallas

3.texas, usa

Reason for making the list: Frankly speaking, the netted streets and straight alleys in Texas are somewhat disappointing. But the best part of Texas is in front of the door.

4. Bhutan (Asia)

Reason for listing: improve? National happiness index? This is the official standard of this small Himalayan Shangri-La.

5. Colombia (South America)

Reason for listing: Colombia is full of high emotions in Latin America, from coffee beans to the cheerful atmosphere of carnival parties. [Page]

Mount Wuyi

6. Wuyishan, China

Reasons for the list: Waterfalls, caves, rocks, tea trees, bamboo forests and water curtain cave, not Peach Blossom Garden is better than Peach Blossom Garden.

7. Malawi (Africa)

Reason for listing: If you want to pursue that kind of giggle, please come to Malawi. Even if you are poor, people here will give you the warmest smile.

8. Andorra (Europe)

Reason for being on the list: There are the largest number of birthday girls in the world, with an average age of 83.5 years.

9. Hidakagwa, Japan

Reason for being on the list: Every year, there will be major float activities here, and the people here are naturally simple.

10. Denmark