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Mental
Happiness and Joy
Happiness and joy are positive mental states that range from quiet contentment to intense delight.
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The idea
Happiness is a mental state that covers a range of positive feelings, from quiet contentment to intense joy. It often comes from good experiences such as reaching a goal, spending time with loved ones or doing something fun, but it can also arise for no clear reason. Joy is a state of intense, long-lasting happiness and contentment, often sparked by well-being, success or good fortune.
People mostly use the word happiness in two ways. It can mean a feeling in the moment, such as pleasure or joy, or it can mean a judgment about how satisfied you are with your life as a whole. The philosopher Michela Summa draws a line between the two feelings: joy goes along with an activity the whole way through, while happiness is tied more to the moment something is achieved.
Studies have found that happier people tend to have better physical and mental health, stronger relationships and more resilience when life gets hard. Happiness is also hard to pin down, because how happy you felt at the time can differ from how happy you remember being later. People are also poor at predicting how happy they will be in the future.
Check yourself
Question 1 of 2
In what year did Jeremy Bentham propose measuring happiness to judge how well a government was performing?
Composition
what it's made of
- Positive Emotions — Feelings in the moment such as pleasure, joy and contentment.
- Life Satisfaction — A judgment that your life as a whole is going well.
- Sense of Purpose — Feeling that what you do has meaning and brings fulfillment.
- Relationships — Time with loved ones, a frequent source of happiness.
- Gratitude — A feeling closely related to joy, though not the same thing.
Connection
how it relates
Under Emotions and Feelings
Change
how and why it evolves
- Past
- In 1780 the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed measuring happiness as a way to judge how well a government was performing.
- Now
- Today happiness is usually measured with self-report surveys, and a World Happiness Report has been published since 2012.
- Next
- Researchers will likely keep improving how happiness is measured, since surveys depend on memories and self-reports that can be biased.