Value addition Course

The Art of being

Happy

Coordinator: Prof. Soumendra Mohan Patnaik, Professor, Department of

Anthropology, University of Delhi
Co-Coordinator: Dr. Seema Gupta, Associate Professor, Department of
Commerce, University of Delhi
Team Members: Dr. Arpita Kaul, Assistant Professor, Department of
Commerce, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi & Ms. Soumya
Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Daulat Ram College,
University of Delhi
 [ V AC 1: THE ART OF BEING HAPPY ]
Credit distribution, Eligibility and Pre-requisites of the Course

Course Credits Credit distribution of the course Eligibility Pre-requisite

title & Lecture Tutorial Practical/ criteria of the course
Code Practice
The Art of 02 1 0 1 Pass in NIL
th
Being Class 12
Happy

Learning Objectives

• To synthesize the insights developed by Human Development experts,

Psychologists, Anthropologists on one hand, and the intellectual traditions of
Vedantic Philosophy and lndology on the other towards the experience of
happiness.
• To illustrate various factors that determine the subjective experience of
happiness in a cross cultural context.

Learning outcomes

• The students shall be able to evaluate the factors contributing to the

phenomenon of happiness in the personal, familial and community life of an
individual in different cultures in the Indian context.
• They will be able to develop healthy interpersonal relationships and wellbeing
cherishing the values of Indian culture and philosophy.
• They will be able to relate to the global phenomenon of sustainable
development and become sensitive to the needs of the planet.
• They will be able to apply the experience of Aananda at a personal level.

SYLLABUS OF THE ART OF BEING HAPPY

UNIT- I Human Ecology and Happiness Lectures (3 Weeks)

✓
• Definitions/Factors of Happiness : Environmental and Social

74
 • Physical, emotional and psychological well-being for happiness
• Physiological and hormonal basis of happiness
• Coping with Stress: A life saving skill

UNIT- II lndological Theories of Happiness (4 Weeks)

• Panch Kosh Theory & Idea ofWell-Being

• Idea of Self and other
• Hierarchy and stages of happiness

UNIT- Ill Happiness: Cross-cultural Contexts (4 Weeks)

• Culture and Happiness

• Interpersonal Relationship: Comparative Perspective
• Towards Self-Actualization

UNIT- IV Local and Global Perspective of Happiness (4 Weeks)

• Measuring happiness : Key indicators

• Happiness Index
• India in Global Happiness Indices

Practical component (if any) - (15 Weeks)

The course will be based on students' identification and operationalization of the

concept of happiness and well-being. Students will explore the indicators and
actualization of these concepts in everyday life.

• Community surveys on the facilities promoting positive mental health

practices such as Yoga and Meditation Centres, Recreation clubs, and Parks for
youth and senior citizens shall be carried out by the students .
• Extending help and social service by visiting old age homes/ hospitals/slum
areas or any other disadvantaged groups.
• Students can undertake a field work/ project independently or work as an
Intern with NGOs working in the area of happiness and well-being.
• Critical appreciation of a documentary/ film based on Happiness and Well-
being can be undertaken by the students.
• Workshops/ Sessions for the actualization of innate creative potential- (
Music, Drawing, Calligraphy, Dramatics)

75
 • Hands-on Happiness: Gardening, Cleaning, Washing, Cooking, etc.
• If required, students can share their experiences in the form of a Project
Report.
• Students may share their experiences in the form of Audio-video
presentations of 15-20 minutes.
• Any other Practical/Practice as decided from time to time

Essential/recommended readings

• Banavathy, Vinayachandra & Choudry, Anuradha. (2013). Understanding

Happiness: A Vedantic Perspective. Psychological Studies. 59 . 141-152.
10.1007/s12646-013-0230-x .
• Leontiev, Dmitry. (2012). Anthropology of Happiness: the state of Well-Being
and the way of Joy,ln SocialScience,sVol43. No 2 P93-104.
• Snyder .C.R. S.J. Lopez & J.T. Pedrotti. (2015). Positive Psychology (The
Scientific and Practical Explorations of Human Strengths): Sage Publication.
(Chapter 5: Subjective Well-being: The Science of Happiness and Life
Satisfaction, Page 63 to 73)
• World Development Indicators 2016. (2016).United States: World Bank
Publications.
• Zelenski, John. (2019) Positive _Psychology: The Science of Well-Being, Carleton
University, Ottawa, Canada, Sage Publications Chapter 3:Happiness;page (77
to 110)

Suggestive readings

• Baumgardner,S&Crothers,M.(2014).Positive Psychology. New Delhi: Pearson

Education, India.
• Goleman,D.(2007).Social Intelligence: The new science of human
relationships, RHUK
• Mathews, Gordon and Carolina Izquierdo (eds) . (2010). Pursuits of Happiness:
Well being in Anthropological Perspective. Berghan Books
• Seligman,M.(2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology
to realize your potential for lasting fulfilment. NewYork:Free Press.
• Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis of Yoga, Part Three: The Yoga of Divine Love,
Chapter 7, The Ananda Brahman, pp. 569-570

Examination scheme and mode: Subject to directions from the Examination

Branch/University of Delhi from time to time

✓
76
VALUE ADDITION COURSE ON THE ART OF BEING HAPPY: SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 1

LAUGH OUT LOUD

 The entire class can be taken to the garden of the college
 The entire class makes a big circle
 Either the facilitator or any one of the student can be at the centre of the
circle
 The facilitator can put an alarm of 10 minutes and direct all to begin
laughing loud
 Initiate with a few seconds
 Take breaks in between
 Better to do it in the morning classes
 As students might be hesitant the facilitator shall initiate laughing
 At the end, all can sit in the garden and discuss how do they fell
 Every participant shall get a chance to speak

ACTIVITY 2

CREATIVE WRITING
 Choose a beautiful quote by a famous thinker
 Ponder on the thought
 Start writing on the thought
 Pour your heart out and write whatever you feel about the thought
 You can start by writing whether you agree with it or disagree
 At the end a few students can discuss the thought
 This can be a reflective thinking activity too
VALUE ADDITION COURSE ON THE ART OF BEING HAPPY: SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 3

MEDITATION
 Visit the garden of your college
 Bring your yoga mats
 Sit down on your mats in a clean place
 Carry a water bottle
 Prefer to do it in morning classes
 Sit in a comfortable position
 Close your eyes
 Keep your palms open, facing the sky
 Take a few deep breaths
 Inhale from the nose and exhale from the mouth
 After 5 breaths, concentrate on your left feet
 Take 5 more breaths, concentrate on your right feet
 Take 5 more breaths, concentrate on your stomach
 Concentrate on your neck
 If any thought passes your mind, bring your concentration back to the
breath, start breathing loudly
 Focus in between your eyebrows
 Say in your mind, “ I AM A BEAUTIFUL PURE SOUL”
 Keep your eyes closed till you want to
 Open your eyes slowly and look around and smile
VALUE ADDITION COURSE ON THE ART OF BEING HAPPY: SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 4

REFLECTIVE THINKING
 Think about a movie or a book you have read and identify your favourite
character
 Talk/ write about what you like in the character
 What would you like to emulate
 Why do you like the character
 What do you learn from the character
 This can be followed by a group discussion in the class

ACTIVITY 5

DIGITAL DETOX
 Decide one day you will not use your mobile phone
 Keep your mobile off for the entire day or on silent in you cupboard
 You are not going to use your mobile for 24 hours
 At the end of 24 hours write a write up on what you felt and learnt

ACTIVITY 6

VISIT
 Organise a visit to a nearby farm
 Spend an entire day in the farm
 Notice the nature, vegetables, birds, animals, people and culture of the
place
VALUE ADDITION COURSE ON THE ART OF BEING HAPPY: SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY 7

VISIT
 Organise a visit to a nearby farm
 Spend an entire day in the farm
 Notice the nature, vegetables, birds, animals, people and culture of the
place

ACTIVITY 8

WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY?

 Thing about that one thing that made you very happy
 Write about what made me happy
 Why it made me happy
 Think if the situation was reversed how will you feel
 Deliberate
 International Journal of Yogic, Human Movement and Sports Sciences 2019; 4(1): 1382-1384

ISSN: 2456-4419
Impact Factor: (RJIF): 5.18
Yoga 2019; 4(1): 1382-1384
© 2019 Yoga
www.theyogicjournal.com
Received: 26-11-2018
Accepted: 29-12-2018
Shiv Jakhar
M.A. Yoga, Udaipur, Rajasthan,
India
Panchakosha
Shiv Jakhar
Abstract
Yoga is a comprehensive holistic approach to health, happiness, and wellbeing. Rather than just
addressing the physical body, yoga ascertains that there are indeed five bodies, five layers of self or
being, that must be addressed for overall healing to take place.
A Koshas, usually rendered "sheath", is a covering of the Atman, or Self according to Vedantic
philosophy. There are five Koshas, and they are often visualised as the layers of an onion in the subtle
body.
Panchakoshas, are the layers of body that seemingly cover the Atman. The Tvam padartha of the
Mahavakya Tat Tvam Asi is determined by the analysis of Panchakoshas that are not the atman.
The Taittiriya Upanishad speaks of the human existence as being akin to the layers of an onion, which
range from the large, rough layers to the fine, tender layers. As understood by Vedanta philosophy, our
‘Atma’ or soul is covered by these Koshas or sheaths; the Anna may Kosh (Food Sheath), Pranamay
Kosh (Vital Air Sheath), Manomay Kosh (Mind Sheath), Vijnanamaya Kosh (Intellect Sheath) and
Anandmay Kosha (Bliss Sheath).
According to the yoga tradition, every one of us has five bodies, each made of increasingly finer grades
of energy. And if we intend to live a fully balanced, healthy life, it tells us, all our bodies need to be kept
in good condition.

Keywords: Yoga, health, happiness, and wellbeing, Panchakosha, Koshas, Vedanta philosophy

Introduction
Yoga is an ancient Indian science and way of life which brings about relaxation and also
induces a balanced mental state. Yoga practices intended to act at physical, emotional,
intellectual and even at spiritual levels. This yoga program is derived from principles in should
promote health at all levels.
Panchakoshas, are the layers of body that seemingly cover the Atman (Self or Consciousness).
The Tvam Padartha of the Mahavakya Tat Tvam Asi is determined by the analysis of
Panchakoshas that are not the atman. Panchakoshas are discussed in the Brahmananda
Valli Chapter of Taittiriya Upanishad which is a part of the Taittiriya Samhita of the
Krishna Yajur Veda and in which particular chapter is discussed ways and means to
achieve Brahman It gives a detailed description of the dimensions of human personality or the
dimensions of the Self.
Atman, The Sruti declares that human birth, by divine grace, is meant to strive to know and
understand the atman. The knowledge and understanding of the atman invariably results
in Jiwanmukti i.e. Moksha or "Spiritual liberation". Spiritual Liberation is of the nature of bliss
in which there is complete negation of all sorrow, it does not arise by mere study of Sastras,
sacrifice to gods, performance of karmas and meditation on the divinities, these acts do not
result in the knowledge of the unity of atman. Atman is Brahman who is of the nature
of Satyam, Jnanam and Anantam, and the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman. Knowledge
is gained after renouncing attachment to all sense-objects and all actions, for one's body, that
Harbours the mind that makes for bondage and is not the atman. The Atman is the substratum
of the consciousness of "I".
Anantam, means not-self or non-self. Anatman is everything that is not Atman. All objects of
Correspondence consciousness are called Anatman, including the mind and the ego. The samsara is the vast
Shiv Jakhar turbulent ocean which is the embodiment of avidya and its effects that cannot be crossed
M.A. Yoga, Udaipur, Rajasthan, without the aid of perfect wisdom; the samsara is the anatman. By non-realisation of the true
India
~ 1382 ~
International Journal of Yogic, Human Movement and Sports Sciences
nature of the atman, the atman is mistaken as the Karana
Sarira ("causal body"), Suksma Sarira ("subtle body") and
Sthula Sarira ("gross body") which bodies constitute
the anatman. For a person who is unaware of the atman there
is no other go except to do karmas intended for purification of
the mind.
Three types of Shariras
According to Sarira Traya, the Doctrine of the three bodies in
Hinduism, the human being is composed of three Sariras or
"bodies" emanating from Brahman by avidya, "ignorance" or
"nescience". They are often equated with the five Koshas
(sheaths), which cover the atman. The Three Bodies Doctrine
is an essential doctrine in Indian philosophy and religion,
especially Yoga, Advaita Vedanta and Tantra.
 Panchakoshas are divided in three Shariras-
 Sthula Sarira, the gross body: Made up of physical
matter. This body consists of Annamaya Kosha and
Pranamaya Kosha.
 Sukshma Sarira, the subtle body: This body consists of
Manomaya Kosha and Vijanamaya Kosha.
 Karana Sarira, the causal body: This body consists of
Ananadamaya Kosha.
The five Koshas
Kosha is referred to as "sheath", one of five coverings of the
Atma or Self according to Vedantic philosophy. According to
the Kosha system in Yogic philosophy, the nature of being
human-encompasses physical and psychological aspects that
function-as one holistic system. The Kosha system refers to
these different aspects as layers of subjective experience.
Layers range from the dense physical body to the more subtle
levels of emotions, mind and spirit. Atma is wrapped inside
Panchakosha.
The five interconnecting Koshas are
1. Annamaya Kosha
2. Pranamaya Kosha
3. Manomaya Kosha
4. Vijnanamaya Kosha
5. Anandamaya Kosha
Annamaya Kosha - the food sheath
Anna means matter, Annam literally means food; Taittiriya
Upanishad calls food the medicament of all. The gross body
which is matter-born and matter sustained and transient and
subject to perception is the Annamaya Kosha whose origin is
food eaten by parents. It is visible, dependent and impure. It is
not the atman because it did not exist before its origination
and ceases to exist once it is destroyed. It is subject to
origination and destruction every moment. It is the anatman
because it is not in the beginning and at the end, is non-
existent also in the present. It does not know itself. The
deluded mind that does not inquire considers his atman to be
this body or Kosha. Such a person cannot enjoy bliss.
Pranamaya Kosha - The vital energy or breath sheath
Pranamaya Kosha, separate from and subtler than Annamaya
Kosha, pertains to the Sukshma Sarira, it is the sheath of the
vital airs completely enclosing and filling the Annamaya
Kosha. The Prana in combination with the five organs of
action constitutes the Pranamaya Kosha. The Annamaya
Kosha is an effect of the Pranamaya Kosha. The Annamaya
Kosha gets life by the Prana entering into it and engages in all
kinds of action. Prana is the life of beings and the Universal
life. Whatever happens in the Annamaya Kosha is wrongly
~ 1383 ~
identified as belonging to the atman by reason of its being
pervaded by the Pranamaya Kosha which is effect of Vayu,
and totally unaware and dependent.
Manomaya Kosha-The mind Sheath
Manomaya Kosha belongs to the Suksma Sarira. It is the
"self" having Pranamaya Kosha as its body. The organs of
knowledge and the mind form this Kosha which is the cause
of the sense of the "I" and of the "mine" and of the varying
conceptions. It creates difference of names etc., because
organs of knowledge are dependent on and determined by the
mind which is of the nature of determination and doubt. It is
powerful because bondage and liberation depend on the mind
which producing attachment binds a person and which by
creating aversion for them liberates them from that self-made
bondage. It pervades the Pranamaya Kosha. It is the sacrificial
fire, the five organs are the priests who pour into this fire the
oblations of sense-objects, which fire fuelled by
various vasanas burns out the world created and expanded by
the mind that when fouled by rajas ("projection") and tamas
("concealment") superimposes the samsara but when free of
rajas and tamas can bring about the state of being established
in Brahman.
Vijnanamaya Kosha-The intellect sheath
The word Vijnana means Knowledge. This layer is made of
the intellect and knowledge. This is the part of mind that
makes decisions, and takes ownership of action and becomes
an ego.
Vijnanamaya Kosha also belongs to the Suksma Sarira and
pervades the Manomaya Kosha that pervades the Pranamaya
Kosha which pervades the Annamaya Kosha. Buddhi with its
organs of knowledge and its actions having the characteristics
of an agent is the Vigyana Kosha, the cause of samsara. It has
the power of reflection of the chaitanya which it accompanies
as a modification of Prakrti (Avidya) and characterised by
knowledge and action and always identified with the body,
organs etc. This Kosha is endowed with Jnana and to it belong
the waking and dream states and the experiences of joy and
sorrow. Being very luminous in close proximity of
the Paramatman deluded by which upadhi it is subject to
samsara, this atman which is compacted of vigyanana and
shining in the heart near the Pranas being immutable becomes
a doer and enjoyer in the midst of the upadhis. Its "jivabhava-
existential-character" i.e. Jivahood, persists as long as there is
delusion as it is born of mithyajnana. Though avidya is
beginningless it is not eternal.
Ananadamaya Kosha-The bliss sheath
Ananda means bliss. This is the bliss of the Atman. This bliss
is experienced when we fall into deep sleep.
Anandamaya Kosha is the last layer and it is the closest layer
to the Atman. It is a modification of avidya and appears as a
reflection of the atman compacted of absolute bliss. It is fully
manifested in the dreamless deep sleep. It is not
the atman because it is connected with upadhis ("limitations")
and a modification of Prakrti as an effect of good deeds.
Conclusion
Ultimate goal of human life is to move away from the
Annamaya Kosha and remain in the Vigyanamaya Kosha
most of the times and progressively move into the
Anandamaya Kosha. All five Koshas of self are
interconnected and dependent on one another. If the body is
tense, the breath is shallow, the mind is irritated, and wisdom
International Journal of Yogic, Human Movement and Sports Sciences

and joy are absent. If there’s disconnect from spirit, indicating

a weak bliss body, there’s disharmony on all layers. On the
other hand, when you’re perfectly in tune with your bliss
body, joy and peace permeate all aspects of who you are.
The practice and philosophical application of yoga into our
everyday life help bring all the Koshas-body, breath, mind,
wisdom, and spirit-into harmony, promoting overall health
and bringing you closer to self-realization and an absolute
fullness of being. Development of all the five Koshas in
necessary for man’s complete spiritual evolution and ultimate
union with the Devine.

References
1. Iyengar BKS. Light on Yoga Taittiriya Upanishad, By Sri
Ramakrishna math Brahma sutra.
2. Satpathy B. Pancha Kosha theory of personality,
International journal of Indian psychology, 2018.
3. Critical analysis of Panch Kosha theory of yoga
philosophy, world journal of pharmaceutical science.
4. Taimini IK. The science of yoga Madras: The
Theosophical Publishing House.
5. Abraham R. Vibrations and forms. Paper presented to the
third conference on science and consciousness,
Ramakrishna mission Institute of culture, Gol Park,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India, 2006.
6. Amritanshuram R, Nagendra HR, Shastry ASN,
Raghuram NV, Nagarathna R. A psycho-oncological
model of cancer according to ancient texts of Yoga,
Journal of yoga & physical therapy, 2013.
7. Kaundinya SD, Kaundinya DV. Meditation [Dhyan]
versus relaxation: A review with comprehensive
bibliography, International journal of basic and applied
physiology, 2013.
8. Kiran Kumar SK. Perspectives on well-being in the
Indian tradition, Journal of Indian psychology, 2004.
9. Klausen SH. The notion of creativity revisited: A
philosophical perspective on Creativity research,
Creativity research journal, 2010.
10. Menon S. The ontological Pragmaticity of Karma in
Bhagavadgita. Journal of Indian Psychology, 1998.
11. Menon S. What is Indian psychology: Transcendence in
and while thinking, the journal of transpersonal
psychology, 2005.
12. Kumar RP, Dev GO. Unveiling consciousness: Vedantic
theory of personality: Theory of punch Kosh-Revisited,
Paper presented at the national conference on Indian
psychology, yoga and consciousness, Sri Aurobindo
International centre of education, Pondicherry, India,
2004.
13. Raina MK. Construction of a creative and self-
transcending life: George Sudarshan’s conception and
experience of creativity, Creativity research journal,
2013.
14. Salagame KKK. Health and well-being in Indian
traditions, Journal of Indian psychology, 2006.
15. Srivathsan KR. The ‘I’ in it: A Pancha Kosha view,
Global journal of flexible systems management, 2004.
16. Velmans M. How to define consciousness-and how not to
define consciousness, Journal of consciousness studies,
2009.

~ 1384 ~
ss2-2012-obl:Ss4-09-obl.qxd 30.04.2012 11:31 Страница 1

VOLUME 43 NUMBER 2, 2012

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NUMBER 2, 2012

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ss2-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 30.04.2012 11:26 Страница 93

Anthropology of Happiness 93

Anthropology of Happiness:
The State of Well-Being and the Way of Joy
Dmitry LEONTIEV

The problem of happiness has since the times of Antiquity attracted genuine
interest both of philosophers and lay people, although that interest has waxed and
waned over history. On the one hand, this state is in one way or another familiar
to most people; on the other hand, it has always been loaded with philosophical,
ethical and cultural-historical contents.
By the end of the 20th century the problem of happiness transcended the
framework of purely philosophical, ethical and theological discussions to
become a mass culture mythologeme.
Pascal Bruckner critically analyzed in his book Perpetual Euphoria the mass
obsession with the idea of happiness. Bruckner said, among other things, that
forced happiness was the ideology of the second half of the 20th century, a
euphoria imposed on us that “forces us to consider everything in terms of pleas-
antness/unpleasantness” and “banishes or squeamishly gets rid of those who for
some reason do not experience it.” That ideology has direct political conse-
quences: “By becoming part of a political doctrine happiness turned into a terri-
ble weapon of mass destruction. No amount of sacrifice, no purges of the human
herd seem to be excessive if their goal is the bright future.”1
For all the diversity of concrete views, the concept of happiness has always
been identified with the highest good accessible to human being, the ultimate of
the desired. Is happiness simultaneously the highest goal and motive of human
actions? A superficial view would suggest an affirmative answer formulated not
only in the popular poetic simile “human being is created for happiness like a
bird is created for flight,” but also in the preamble to such a serious document as
the US Constitution. Bruckner begins his book by quoting a thesis on happiness
that young Victor Mirabeau was advancing in a 1738 letter to a friend, happiness
as the only goal that makes life worth living. At the same time a closer philo-
D. Leontiev, D. Sc. (Psychology), professor, Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow
State University, head of Research Laboratory of Positive Psychology and Quality of Life
Studies at National Research University—Higher School of Economics. The article was first
published in Russian in the journal Chelovek, No. 5, 2011.
The study was implemented in the framework of the Program of Fundamental Studies of the
Higher School of Economics in 2011.
ss2-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 30.04.2012 11:26 Страница 94

94 SOCIAL SCIENCES

sophical reflection proceeding from recent psychological investigations puts

such a straightforward approach into question.
Psychologists recently joined the discussion of that problem contributing
many empirically established facts and regularities: the problem of happiness is
effectively pivotal for the Positive Psychology trend that emerged at the turn of
the centuries.2 Over the past several decades so many empirical studies have been
published in this field as to lend credence to the claim that humanity learned more
about happiness during this period than in the preceding 2000 years. Most studies
use for a measure of happiness “subjective well-being,” an integral emotional-
rational assessment of a person’s life by that person. We witness psychology
becoming a new type of anthropology. Positive Psychology practically does not
question the principle of the pursuit of happiness. The only reservation is adopt-
ing as the basis not hedonism—life principle emphasizing direct, immediate here-
and-now pleasure,—but rather eudaimonism, the principle that considers the
overall balance of pleasures and the price one has to pay for them in the long term.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the main dilemmas and contradictions
connected with the role of happiness in human life. Drawing on psychological
data and theories we can formulate the problem more precisely and discover at
least two distinct realities behind that word.

Trajectory of the Development of Philosophical Ideas about Happiness

The idea of happiness as the supreme good one can attain arose in Antiquity in
the context of juxtaposition of the desire for immediate gratification (hedonism)
and the desire for a more complete, rounded and sustainable well-being (eudaimo-
nia). The content of happiness, the range of elements it contains was not specified:
some linked happiness primarily with pleasure, others with moral good believing
for example that a heroic death for one’s country in the field of battle was supreme
happiness, others again combined the two.3 Not surprisingly, back in the first cen-
tury BC the Roman philosopher Varro counted 289 different views on happiness.
Characteristically, the word “eudaimonia” literally meant the fate of a person pro-
tected by gods, just like the Russian word schastye has the same root as the word
uchast (meaning “fate” or “lot”).4 Therefore, initially happiness was associated
with luck and good fortune. But luck and good fortune do not bestow their gifts at
random. It is a gift of the gods, an expression of their benevolence, with the gods
deciding on whom to bestow their gifts. Therefore, the view of happiness as luck
and good fortune does not only contradict the concept of happiness as a deserved
good, but is rather closely intertwined with it. At the same time happiness cannot
be attained through direct effort, this is beyond the power of human being.
Such a concept of happiness implied a certain objective basis, an external
assessment, a view from the outside, and prevailed for almost two thousand
years. A kind of alternative to this concept was provided by the teachings of Plot-
inus and early Christian philosophers, St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who
saw happiness exclusively as the merger of the soul with God and achieving
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Anthropology of Happiness 95

heavenly bliss in the better world; these authors were skeptical about the possi-
bility to achieve genuine happiness in earthly life and in mundane pursuits.
However, in the Modern Times the objectivist concept of happiness began to
gradually give way to the subjectivist view: only the person himself or herself
can say whether he/she is happy and pleased with life. Given this understanding,
possessing goods is important for happiness (because it is hard to be happy with-
out possessions). But it does not guarantee happiness. Everything depends on
feeling, reaction and the attitude to these benefits. A tramp living under a bridge
can be much happier than a coat-tailed millionaire. The objective criterion was
supplanted by the subjective one: the main thing is how happy you feel while
objective circumstances, though they do play a certain role, are not decisive. Lev
Tolstoy’s Confessions begins with the author telling that he has all the conceiv-
able good things to the utmost degree; nevertheless the meaning of life escapes
him and he feels sometimes like shooting himself.
In the Russian language and in Russian mentality the concept of happiness
was initially associated exclusively with luck and material well-being. Vladimir
Dahl’s Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language (1853) does not contain
a definition of happiness as an inner state of the soul. It only finds its way into
dictionaries in the late 20th century although even there the former interpretation
is prevalent.5
However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries an intensive attack was
launched on the idea of happiness as the foundation and rationale of human life.
The main target of the critique was the utilitarian philosophy (Jeremy Bentham,
John Stuart Mill) which again put the problem of happiness to the center of philo-
sophical discussions while the biggest contribution to this critique was made, in
addition to Friedrich Nietzsche, by Russian religious philosophy. It stated that
the concept of happiness, like the concepts of utility and pleasure, has no moral
character and cannot provide the basis for ethics.6 The principle of the quest of
happiness has no meaning: it can give rise to absolutely contradictory doctrines,7
it does not specify what should be the object of activity,8 it is impossible to com-
pare the happiness experienced by various individuals and finally, happiness
means a suspension of all desires and ignorance of what is good and what is
evil.9 For the same reason the idea of happiness cannot provide a justification of
human life, and the idea of arranging one’s life on earth in accordance with the
principle of happiness is false. “It is unnatural and impossible to make this by-
product the goal that lies ahead; just like it is impossible and ugly for a ship to
move with its bow behind the attached rudder.”10

Happiness and Meaning

Vasily Rozanov, Nikolay Berdyayev, Aleksey Vvedensky and other philoso-

phers juxtaposed to the principle of the quest of happiness the principle of the
quest of meaning oriented towards something valuable in the world. What is
important is that they saw the meaning of life as something transcending life itself.
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96 SOCIAL SCIENCES

“The only logical justification of the belief in the meaning of life is our belief that
our life is a journey leading us to a goal of absolute value that lies outside our life
and is implemented through life.”11 “An evaluation in terms of meaning invari-
ably presupposes standing above what is being evaluated.”12 That is why human
being is capable of enduring suffering: suffering the meaning of which is known,
differs from the suffering lacking goal and meaning.13 In that tradition happiness
is seen as an intentional experience that is not closed in itself, but is generated by
the discovery and realization of meaning through action in the world.
Essentially the same logic was presented in the existential anthropology of
Viktor Frankl in which the principle of seeking for meaning was clearly opposed
to the quest of pleasure and happiness, and not only in the philosophical-ethical,
but also in the psychological context. “The theory based on the principle of plea-
sure ignores an important quality of mental activity, i.e., intentionality. And in
general people desire not pleasure as such, they simply want what they want.”14
Elaborating this thesis Frankl stressed that what we need is not happiness per se,
but rather the reasons for it; if they are there, happiness will come by itself.15 An
attempt to sidestep the need for meaning and derive a sense of happiness direct-
ly leads to alcoholic or narcotic addiction.16 Meaning provides the basis of hap-
piness and possessing it is a prerequisite of happiness and even of the very pos-
sibility of experiencing it. Lack of meaning deprives man of the ability to expe-
rience happiness and to endure suffering.17
The idea that orientation towards meaning comes before the experience of
happiness gradually makes its way into positive psychology to which the problem
of happiness, identified with a sustained subjective sense of well-being, is central.
Some authors have come to consider meaning as a significant factor of happiness
which turns out to be “a by-product of participating in worthwhile projects and
activities that do not have as their primary focus the attainment of happiness.”18
Empirical studies in positive psychology that in practice take into account
the factor of meaning, are comparatively few, but their results are indicative.
They show that what contributes to a sense of happiness most is progress in
achieving not any, but personally significant (“internal” or “motive-congruent”)
goals and that the most powerful positive experiences are connected with being
absorbed in something that goes beyond one’s self.19 However while meaning
predicts happiness, the reverse is not true: meaning does not depend on the level
of well-being, it helps not only to attain happiness, but also to do without it.20
Thus an analysis of the problem of happiness cannot be complete without
taking into account the role of meaning in achieving it. The role of meaning is
manifested, first, in that its implementation is one of the key reasons for experi-
encing happiness. Second, it determines the direction of the quest and the quali-
ty of the very state of happiness, not only its intensity, but rather maturity. Final-
ly and thirdly, meaning is a great help in coping not only with a deficit of happi-
ness, but with still more serious adversities. Both accomplishments and discov-
eries, and gaps and blind alleys of positive psychology provide vivid evidence of
the key role of the concept of meaning in the solution of the central problems of
present-day psychology.
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Anthropology of Happiness 97

Happiness As a State and Happiness As an Activity:

Following Aristotle

The opponents of the idea of happiness as the supreme goal and foundation
of human life, from Nietzsche to Solovyov to Bruckner, advance three groups of
arguments.
 The first argument is that the concept of “happiness” is vague and even
tautological: there is not a single concrete object that everybody would
describe as “happiness,” everyone invests the word with one’s own con-
tent and for everyone the word has a different meaning. An interesting
analysis of the problem of happiness was provided in Mikhail Veller’s
philosophical treatise Everything About Life.21 Analyzing logically vari-
ous ideas of happiness, which are very diverse whereas the psychological
state that this word indicates is pretty well defined, Veller concludes with
good reason: happiness is the function of distance from the current posi-
tion to the passionately desired position, whatever the latter may be. It is
the distance between the desired and the actual that lends dynamism to
life and striving this dynamism disappears once happiness is achieved.
 This leads to the second argument against happiness, the statement that
happiness viewed in the traditional way is time standing still, the end of
life. The pure metaphor of supreme happiness is “now I can (or even want
to) die.” Indeed, a person in a state of happiness has no further motivation
for life, no perspective. I am already at the highest point. From there the
only way leads downward. Psychology describes the “Martin Eden syn-
drome” after the main character of Jack London’s novel of that title. Mar-
tin Eden rose from a humble background and through hard and at times
adventurous life, effort and sheer ability made it to the top. He became a
famous writer, a member of high society and achieved everything he had
dreamt of. At the peak of his powers he committed suicide because every-
thing had been achieved and there was nothing left to live for. Is there a
way out of this impasse? The answer is no if one considers happiness to
be a purely emotional phenomenon, an experience of the state of bliss.
 The third argument is that an inner state cannot be the goal and founda-
tion of life. Strictly speaking, it refers not to the idea of happiness as such,
but the reduction of happiness to the most positive emotional state possi-
ble. One can gain a better insight into this by looking at the problem of
happiness from the viewpoint of the universal structure of self-regulation
of purposive activities of living systems. In that structure happiness can
play the role either of a feedback mechanism or a goal criterion of a
desired state. In the first case happiness, like all emotions, performs the
function of giving a signal to the subject as to how well his or her life is
proceeding. But if happiness or other positive emotions within that struc-
ture play the role of the criterion of what should be and what is desirable,
then the subject ceases seeking for really improving life if positive emo-
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98 SOCIAL SCIENCES

tions can be achieved by other ways, for example, through alcohol or

drugs. Indeed, if emotions (including happiness) become the goal, life
does not necessarily have to be good and full, an illusion that everything
is fine can be obtained bypassing life.
Let us turn to Aristotle, who was invariably credited with introducing the
principle of happiness in popular domain, while few people read what he has actu-
ally written. As if foreseeing this situation, the philosopher wrote: “With regard to
what happiness is people differ and the majority do not give the same account as
the wise.” Aristotle’s ideas of happiness were very far from the current ideology
of “perpetual euphoria.” He tried to construe relationships between such concepts
as pleasure, good, virtue and happiness. The boundaries between them were and
still are not easy to identify. But most importantly, Aristotle stressed that “happi-
ness is an activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue” and that “activity
plainly comes into being and is not present at the start like a piece of property.”
This is not an accidental formula. In his Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle per-
sistently repeated that happiness means activity (energeia). Moreover, he even
distinguished between the kind of happiness that implies activity and more lowly
kinds. “Any chance person, even a slave, can enjoy the bodily pleasures no less
than the best man; but no one assigns to a slave a share in happiness unless he
assigns to him also a share in human life for happiness does not lie in such occu-
pations but, as we have said before, in virtuous activities.”22 Thus with Aristotle
we discover a connection of genuine happiness not with an emotional state, but
with activity, virtue and with being engaged in life, at the same time, he distin-
guished his concept of happiness from more primitive views.
Thus, what leads us into an impasse is not so much the idea of happiness as
such but rather the interpretation of happiness as an emotional state, a state of
supreme bliss. That notion arose as a result of an unnoticed departure from Aris-
totle and the other “wise men” towards vulgar superficial interpretations of hap-
piness promoted by the mass consumerist culture. These elicited the following
comment from Aristotle written 2000 years ago: “Neither should the opinions of
the many (for it is they who speak at random about almost everything, and espe-
cially so). For it is absurd to apply reasonably to those who need sensation rather
than reason.”23 No comment is needed.

The Duality of Happiness

Empirical studies carried out during the past decade in the field of positive
psychology, although still assuming happiness to be a subjective state, gradually
bring to awareness that this understanding is insufficient and that it is necessary
to take into account the role of activity, meaning and personality.
At the center of generally recognized regularities of the psychology of hap-
piness and subjective well-being is the “pie model” of Sonya Lyubomirski, Ken
Sheldon and David Schkade which draws on many psychological studies of the
factors that influence our state of happiness. The model compares the contribu-
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Anthropology of Happiness 99

tion of three groups of factors to the extent to which people feel happy, and in
terms of common sense that relationship turns out to be somewhat unexpected.
All that pertains to external conditions and can be described by the umbrella term
“quality of life” accounts for just about 10% of the variance of the individual
sense of happiness or subjective well-being, far less than is commonly believed.
The stable personality structure of the individual which is considered to be
hereditary to a large extent (but not entirely), accounts for up to 50% of the vari-
ance. And about 40% of the variance pertains to the factors that the authors
describe in terms of “intentional activity,” which echoes Aristotle and the ideas
of some modern authors. These are factors that have to do with the way we orga-
nize our lives, relate to our fellows, with the goals we pursue, in short, with what
is in our hands and is an object of our choice.24
Some other data put in still bolder relief the fact that happiness in different
people may differ not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. For example,
many publications of the past decade devoted to the dependence of the experience
of happiness and subjective well-being on the material welfare (per capita GDP),
based on the comparison of the data of international surveys, invariably reproduce
one and the same pattern.25 The chart that expresses the dependence of happiness
on money is divided into two parts. The lower part of the chart (when GDP val-
ues are low) reveals a direct linear dependence of the level of subjective well-
being on material welfare. However, that dependence ends as soon as a certain
level of material welfare is achieved (an average annual GDP of about $15,000
per capita by now). If one passes from international comparisons to individual dif-
ferences in one and the same country only the position of the turning point will
change but the regularity will be the same. Beginning from a certain moment the
curve becomes almost flat, which means that further improvement of well-being
hardly correlates with happiness, and a person with a fortune of 100 million dol-
lars is only marginally happier than a person with a fortune of 1 million. As
Sholom Aleichem said, having money is not as good, as it is bad having none.
In fact this curve reflects two kinds of happiness. The first is the minimum
happiness directly linked to living conditions and the satisfaction of basic needs.
If the level of welfare is low it is possible to make a person happier by improv-
ing the material welfare. But there comes a moment when the basic needs that
determine the quality of life are met. In fact, the concept of “the middle class”
corresponds to the level of material welfare at which happiness ceases to depend
on it and becomes determined by other factors. That is the maximum happiness,
individual happiness connected with meaning, activity and virtue; Aristotle
termed it eudaimonia. It depends on the person, his/her own life and relation-
ships with other people. Another recently discovered empirical regularity refutes
the long-standing belief among psychologists that every person has his/her own
stable individual range within which his or her experience of contentment with
life and psychological well-being fluctuates: particularly joyful or tragic circum-
stances may only temporarily change the individual level of happiness before it
returns to the original level.26 The data of a longitudinal study conducted in Ger-
many over many years have shown that although this is really the case for the
majority of respondents, there is a group of them (24% of the total sample) that
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100 SOCIAL SCIENCES

reveal sustained shifts (mostly positive) of the level of subjective well-being by

at least one standard deviation.27
Thus, the answer to the question “is there happiness?” would be: “yes, and
more than one.” There are at least two. One can be provided for a person by help-
ing him/her to meet his/her basic needs, raising the standard and quality of life.
Such happiness can be bestowed or ensured by another person or the state, it can
be bought for money and in fact it consists in money that enables one to buy the
necessities—a shelter, nutritious and healthy food, leisure and entertainment,
family hearth, sex, security and confidence of tomorrow—“like all the other peo-
ple.” It has its upper limit that may be considered to be the psychological norm
while an insufficient level is a deviation. The second kind of happiness is indi-
vidual and can be achieved by tortuous ways, it cannot be given or established
as a norm, it can only be found in meaningful activities. It does not have an upper
limit or standards for comparison and is in general hard to quantify, whereas its
qualitative-phenomenological characteristic turns out to be very significant. One
can go along with the definition of eudaimonic happiness as the degree of suc-
cess in fulfilling one’s personal existential project.28 It means that happiness
depends not only on success, but on what kind of project it is, in other words,
alongside the quantitative measure it has a qualitative dimension.
The theory of autotelic experiences, or the theory of “flow” put forward by
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi29 is the most widely recognized of the modern theories
that treat happiness in terms of activity. The author interviewed initially repre-
sentatives of creative professions and then of various occupational, age and eth-
nic groups to discover and describe the optimal experiences characterized by
engagement in a certain self-motivating activity. Flow is the state of total immer-
sion in one’s action, absorption in that action, when you are oblivious of time, of
yourself and when instead of fatigue you experience a surge of energy. That flow
is not bestowed on us like a blessing, but is generated by our conscious efforts, it
is in our hands. In it pleasure merges with effort and meaning generating a pow-
erful sense of enjoyment that in turn generates energy. Unlike happiness, enjoy-
ment preserves energy, preserves motivation, preserves movement and offers a
perspective and meaning. Flow experience is a reward for the effort exerted in
order to be able to cope with ever more complicated tasks and thus is the driving
force of evolution towards growing complexity. The flow is directly linked to per-
sonality characteristics, to the level of its development and maturity.
The two above described kinds of happiness are in line with the distinction
between two categories of motivational processes in one of the versions of Abra-
ham Maslow’s theory, that on deficiency-related and Being-related ones. We
speak about the first type of motivation when a person lacks something specific
and needs to urgently fill the gap. The Being motivation is connected not with a
deficit of something special but rather with the free development of the poten-
tialities inherent in a person. Maslow described for example deficiency motivat-
ed and Being motivated processes of cognition, love, etc.30 The distinction
between both types of processes corresponds well to the above mentioned facts
of dual determination of individual happiness.
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Anthropology of Happiness 101

Happiness and Human Nature

Thus there are a number of reasons for distinguishing two realities which we
are used to describe by one and the same word, “happiness,” in all languages.
They correlate directly with the two regimes of human existence:
(1) the necessity mode on the basis of fixed auto-pilot mechanisms that
make it predictable and manageable, and
(2) optional mode of existence on the basis of reflexive consciousness,
autonomy and orientation towards meaningful possibilities.31
We described earlier the former state as a minimum happiness, or, to use
Maslow’s term, deficiency happiness; it can also be equated to subjective well-
being. That is a stable characteristic that varies little, has its quantitative measure
and can be applied to any person by describing that person’s position on a cor-
responding scale. It reflects the extent to which the basic human needs are met,
adjusted for the general predisposition of a particular person to positive or neg-
ative emotions, accordingly, it is determined and predicted by the chances for
needs gratification and by individual traits on which account for the ability to
fully enjoy the positive aspects of life.
The second state was described above as maximum happiness, or Being hap-
piness, to use Maslow’s term. It can be equated to such concepts as “eudaimo-
nia” or “optimal experience.” It expresses the degree to which the meaning of the
life or personal existential project is being fulfilled, conditioned by the very exis-
tence of such meaning or project (not everyone has it) and by its individual char-
acter. Therefore it has greater specificity and is better described in qualitative
than quantitative terms. It does not arise by accident or through some automatic
mechanisms, but through the intentional activity and communication thanks to
conscious and authentic efforts of the subject; it can be called self-determined.
Although potentially that kind of happiness is also within everyone’s reach, not
everyone has ever encountered it in his or her life due to the widespread phe-
nomenon of “escape from freedom,” from decision-making, choices, efforts and
consciousness. At the same time, although there are good reasons for consider-
ing it to be a higher level of happiness, it can be present in life even against the
background of very unfavorable external conditions and a low level of subjec-
tive well-being, in particular when a person can attain joy and happiness despite
low living standards through inner psychological resources and meanings. It is
not so uncommon, especially in Russia, when, to use Mikhail Zhvanetsky’s apt
remark, it is easier to be happy than contented.
As material welfare grows and people’s basic needs are met they become
happier; their subjective well-being increases along with their objective welfare.
Having experienced this dynamics and having implemented the minimum pro-
gram people try to continue moving up that trajectory, but, although they are
earning still more money happiness does not increase anymore. To succeed in
further search of happiness one has to change the trajectory of that search to a
more complicated maximum program not through gratification, but through
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102 SOCIAL SCIENCES

activity, through goals and relationships. In these forms of activity we find enjoy-
ment rather than satisfaction, or subjective well-being.
Thus, the dilemma as to whether happiness is generated by objective mater-
ial welfare or subjective experiences that confer meaning on what we do is
resolved at the deficiency level through the recognition of the interaction
between both sets of factors with the subjective factors playing the key role,
while at the Being level through a dialectical synthesis that leads to the under-
standing of happiness as an intentional experience connected with meanings in
the world that impel us and with the experience of progress in their discovery and
fulfillment. One can agree with Maslow’s definition of happiness as “experienc-
ing real emotions over real problems and real tasks.”32
That view corresponds also to the well-known paradox of happiness formu-
lated by John Stuart Mill: “Not seeking happiness and being able to do without
it is the most reliable way of attaining it.” Since then philosophers and psychol-
ogists have repeatedly used various words to reaffirm this paradoxical but unas-
sailable truth: the more we seek happiness the harder it is to achieve, but it comes
by itself if you pursue other worthy goals in your life. This relates to the convic-
tion, expressed by many outstanding thinkers, that happiness can be found any-
where except within oneself. “The door to happiness opens outwards,” as Søren
Kierkegaard put it.
Since the problem of happiness is directly linked to the solution of the prob-
lem of meaning it is inseparable from the problems of personality and personal
maturity. With regard to happiness the appropriate verb is “to be” rather than “to
have.” The question is to what extent a person is capable of being happy. While
repeating the old saying that everyone is the blacksmith of one’s own happiness
we tend to forget how laborious and complicated the blacksmith’s trade is. As
Abraham Maslow pointed out, it is at the level of advanced and mature individ-
ual and advanced and mature happiness that the failure of the hedonistic world-
view is particularly apparent.33 The common type of hedonism propagated by the
consumerist culture is the life strategy of the passive majority which tends to pre-
fer the soft option. Of course, the hedonistic principle is an inalienable part of
human nature because every living organism tends to conserve resources while
seeking to obtain maximum results. It would be a mistake, however, to see the
human essence in that principle. There are higher guiding principles that become
more noticeable as the person grows up, matures and develops. Human nature is
not static: transcendence of the given is its only invariant and we develop as we
move towards higher principles of organization. Happiness can easily be
achieved at the lower levels of personal maturity when the images and criteria of
higher good are simple. Security and wealth that ensure bodily comfort and well-
being of one’s family and friends and/or infinite sexual pleasure is all that the
majority of people can imagine as a picture of complete happiness. Not surpris-
ingly, children are as a rule happier than adults. At higher levels of maturity (per-
sonal and spiritual, rather than biological one) the distance between reality and
the ideal increases and happiness acquires a different quality and becomes more
complicated and difficult to achieve. At the same time it becomes more individ-
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Anthropology of Happiness 103

ual and no less authentic. One has to pay a higher price for it, but the rewards are
much greater. “Everyone has to grow up to one’s happiness.”34 Even a little high-
quality “hand-made” happiness can outweigh large amounts of primitive
“machine-made” happiness.
Thus, humans are impelled not just by seeking a certain point of bliss. A
mature personality starts seeking to raise that point which can be at different lev-
els, at different horizons. Happiness is like the horizon not only because as you
walk towards it, it recedes. The taller the person the broader his or her horizon.
Happiness is directly linked to the magnitude of the personality: a little person
cannot have genuinely great happiness although everyone can have happiness of
a suitable size. A big person has big happiness although such a person is proba-
bly less concerned with achieving it... As Maslow pointed out, it is in human
nature to seek for higher and higher heavens. And different kinds of heavens, one
may add.
Finally, happiness is independent of life only in a drug addict or a severely
mentally ill person because there is no other way towards happiness than the way
of life.
“And to the young Mirabeau I would reply: ‘I love life too much to wish
nothing but happiness.’”35

NOTES
1 P. Bruckner, L’Euphorie perpétuelle. Essais sur le devoir de Bonheur, Gasset, 2000.
2 See: M. Seligman, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize
Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment, New York, 2003; I. Boniwell, Positive Psychology
in a Nutshell: A Balanced Introduction to the Science of Optimal Functioning, London,
2006.
3 V. Tatarkevich, On Happiness and the Perfection of Man, Moscow, 1981, pp. 34-35 (in
Russian).
4 A. Guseynov, R. Apresyan, Ethics, Moscow, 1998, p. 296 (in Russian).
5 See: S. Vorkachev, Happiness As a Linguocultural Concept, Moscow, 2004 (in Russian).
6 See: M. Tareyev, The Purpose and Meaning of Life: Quoted from The Meaning of Life: an
Anthology, Ed. N. Gavryushin, Moscow, 1994, p. 134 (in Russian).
7 Ibid.
8 V. Rozanov, The Purpose of Human Life, quoted from Ibid. p. 41.
9 N. Berdyayev, On the Mission of Man, Moscow, 1993, p. 77, 247-248 (in Russian).
10 V. Rozanov, op. cit., p. 42.
11 A. Vvedensky, The Conditions of Admissibility of Faith in the Meaning of Life; quoted
from The Meaning of Life: an Anthology, p. 100.
12 N. Berdyayev, op. cit., p. 37.
13 N. Berdyayev, “On Suicide,” Psikhologichesky zhurnal, 1992, No. 1, p. 91.
14 V. Frankl, Der Mensch auf der Suche nach Sinn, Stuttgart, 1972.
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104 SOCIAL SCIENCES

15 V. Frankl, Der Wille zum Sinn, München, 1991, p. 20.

16 Idem, The Unheard Cry for Meaning, New York, 1978, p. 69.
17 Idem, Der leidende Mensch: Anthropologische Grundlagen der Psychotherapie, Bern,
1984, S. 54.
18 R. Emmons, “Personal Goals, Life Meaning, and Virtue: Wellsprings of a Positive Life,”
C. Keyes, J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived,
Washington (DC), 2003, p. 106.
19 See: M. Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York,
1990.
20 See: R. Baumeister, K. Vohs, “The Pursuit of Meaningfulness in Life,” C. Snyder, S. Lopez
(Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology, New York, 2002.
21 M. Veller, All About Life, St. Petersburg, 1999 (in Russian).
22 See: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Chicago, 2006.
23 Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics, Oxford, 1998, p. 9.
24 S. Lyubomirski, The HOW of Happiness: A Practical Approach to Getting the Life You
Want, London, 2007.
25 See, for example, E. Diener, S. Oishi, “Are Scandinavians Happier than Asians? Issues in
Comparing Nations on Subjective Well-Being,” F. Columbus (Ed.), Asian Economic and
Political Issues, Hauppage (NY), vol. 10, 2004.
26 See: M. Seligman, op. cit.
27 See: E. Diener, R. Lucas, C. Scollon, “Beyond the Hedonic Treadmill: Revisions to the
Adaptation Theory of Well-Being,” American Psychologist, 2006, vol. 61.
28 See: D. Galati, I. Sotgiu, “Happiness and Positive Emotions,” Ricerche di Psicologia,
2004, No. 1.
29 M. Csikszentmihalyi, op. cit.
30 A. Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being, 2nd ed., New York, 1968.
31 D. Leontiev, “New Benchmarks in Understanding Personality in Psychology: from the
Necessary to the Possible,” Voprosy psikhologii, 2011, No. 1.
32 A. Maslow, “The Psychology of Happiness,” E. Hoffman (Ed.), Future Visions: The
Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow, Thousand Oaks, 1964/1996, p. 23.
33 Ibid.
34 K. Wojtyla, “The Foundations of Ethics,” Voprosy filosofii, 1991, No. 1, p. 45.
35 P. Bruckner, op. cit., p. 14.

Translated by Yevgeny Filippov

Psychol Stud
DOI 10.1007/s12646-013-0230-x
REFLECTIONS
Understanding Happiness: A Vedantic Perspective
Vinayachandra K. Banavathy & Anuradha Choudry
Received: 29 May 2013 / Accepted: 25 November 2013
# National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2013
Abstract The pursuit of happiness has been the one of the
most prominent goals of humanity since time immemorial.
However, understanding and experiencing happiness varies
across cultures. While the dominant understanding on happi-
ness has developed from the Euro-American cultural back-
ground there are other significant conceptualizations present
in the Eastern philosophical and cultural traditions like India
and China. It has been noted that Eastern psychologies offer
rich insights into human phenomena which are equally uni-
versal in nature because of their long-standing civilizational
experiences. Drawing from these traditions would make the
discourse on happiness culturally informed and more compre-
hensive. Furthermore, Indian tradition which considers bliss
as the essential nature of the individual personality can con-
tribute immensely in understanding and realizing lasting hap-
piness. This paper explores the types and nature of happiness
as expounded in the Vedantic tradition in the context of Indian
psychology.
Keywords Enduring happiness . Bliss . Nature of happiness .
Transcendental happiness . Indian Philosophy . Indian
Psychology . Culture
V. K. Banavathy (*) : A. Choudry
Centre for Indian Psychology, Jain University, No. 34, I Cross, J.C.
Road, Bangalore 560 001, India
e-mail: vinayachandra.bk@jainuniversity.ac.in
V. K. Banavathy
e-mail: aurovinaya@gmail.com
A. Choudry
e-mail: panditanu@gmail.com
V. K. Banavathy
Development Foundation, No. 218, JP Royale, Sampige Road,
Malleswaram, Bangalore 560003, India
Introduction
The pursuit of happiness has been the axiomatic refer-
ence of all human endeavours across cultures and time-
lines. In the Indic traditions, this idea could be noted in
statements like, ‘Let me be happy and not sad, is the
intent behind all human actions’1 or in the most com-
mon wish expressed, ‘let all be happy’2. In the West
one can note that even the formation of the modern
state and market economy are guided by this underlying
principle of happiness. ‘The United States Declaration
of Independence’ adopted in 1776 by 13 states of the
East coast stated, ‘We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness’. The remarkable figure of Scottish
Enlightenment, Adam Smith, notes that, ‘The happiness
of mankind as well as of all other rational creatures,
seem to have been the original purpose intended by the
Author of Nature.’ (Smith 2009, p. 132). Thus the need
to seek ‘happiness’ and be ‘happy’ through all one’s
actions is universally acknowledged as the main moti-
vating force in the lives of people.
The heightened interest in the study of happiness in the
West, in the recent times, owes its sources to the advent of
positive psychology and to the works of Martin Seligman,
Diener, Kahneman, Csikszentmihalyi etc. With this approach,
the study of well-being and happiness has acquired central
focus in the discipline of psychology today (Diener, Subjec-
tive well-being: The sceince of happiness, and a proposal for a
national index, 2000) (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005).
1
sukham: me syāt duhkam: me mā bhūt iti lokapravr: ttih:
2
sarve bhavantu sukhinah:

Current Understanding on Happiness
At present, there are two dominant approaches to human happi-
ness and well‐being: Hedonic and Eudaimonic perspectives. The
hedonic perspective with its roots in Hedonism – an ancient
school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic
good, seeks to maximize one’s happiness by maximizing one’s
pleasure and avoiding displeasures. Subjective Well-being
(SWB) has been associated with the hedonistic approach. Well-
being in itself refers to the optimal psychological experience and
functioning of the individual. As it involves people evaluating
themselves subjectively, the extent to which they experience a
sense of wellness is termed as Subjective Well-being (SWB).
SWB is operationally defined in terms of experiencing a high
level of positive affect, a low level of negative affect, and a high
degree of satisfaction with one’s life. Strictly speaking, from the
hedonistic perspective, it would suffice to consider the presence
of positive affect and absence of negative affect as the constitu-
ents of SWB and leave out life satisfaction as is not particularly a
hedonic concept. However, life satisfaction has been widely
accepted in the operational definition of SWB. This concept of
SWB, as earlier defined, is frequently used interchangeably with
happiness. This implies that hedonic happiness occurs when one
is primarily seeking pleasant feelings and avoiding unpleasant
ones (Ryan and Deci 2001).
The other important approach to happiness is the
eudaimonic perspective. This approach bases itself on the
Aristotelian philosophy of life. In his famous Nichomachean
Ethics, Aristotle deliberates on the nature of the happy man
and then attempts to define happiness as the highest good that
one seeks and one ought to seek as the end in itself and not as a
means to any other end. It results from a life based on virtu-
ousness and contemplation (Aristotle 1999).
The eudaimonic perspective also draws its substance from
the works of analytical and humanistic psychologists like
Fromm, Jung, Maslow, Allport, Rogers etc. and proposes that
human well-being is a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s
true self – daimon. Here, well-being is achieved when an
individual lives in accordance with her true nature i.e. when
she aligns her activities and fully engages her life with the
values that are deeply held within. In such a condition an
individual feels she is ‘intensely alive’, ‘complete’ and
existing as she ‘really is’ (Waterman 1993). Psychological
well-being (PWB) is the counterpart of SWB in the
eudaimonic tradition. Ryff defining eudiamonia or psycholog-
ical well-being ‘as the striving for perfection that represents
the realization of one’s true potentials’ (Ryff 1995) identifies
six characters of it viz. self-acceptance, purpose in life, per-
sonal growth, autonomy, environmental mastery and positive
relationships (Ryff 1989). This conceptualization maintains
that not all desires – not all outcomes that a person might have
– would yield well-being when achieved. Fulfilment of desire
may be pleasure-producing but not necessarily good and
Psychol Stud
hence may not promote well-being. It is interesting to note
that in this way, eudaimonic theory distinguishes well-being
from happiness (Ryan and Deci 2001).
The concept of well-being has social dimensions as well.
Extending the ideas of eudaimonic approach at the social level,
Keyes has defined social well-being as the positive ‘appraisal of
one’s circumstance and functioning in society’ (Keyes 1998).
He further identifies five dimensions of social well-being viz.
social acceptance, social integration, social contribution, social
coherence and social actualization. This is based on the premise
like in PWB that society as a whole has a collective purpose
and each member of the society has a definite role and respon-
sibility in realizing its purpose. Accordingly, maximizing hap-
piness at the social level is largely dependent on one’s ability to
realize her role and contribute towards its fulfilment. According
to Keyes, this approach to well-being is based on ‘classical
sociological theory and current social psychological perspec-
tives’ (Keyes 1998, p. 133). Nevertheless, it is clear that the
measures of social well-being are closely connected to and
modelled on the lines of the measures of PWB.
The Need for Alternative Perspectives
Defining happiness operationally in terms of SWB and Psy-
chological well-being, researchers have come up with measure-
ments for both of them. Research on SWB and PWB focus on
the factors that contribute to SWB – personal, socio-
environmental and cultural factors (Deci and Ryan 2008) and
on the six parameters mentioned respectively. However, some
researchers have critiqued the comprehensiveness and sophis-
tication of the current understanding of the concept of happi-
ness. They have also questioned the psychological depth be-
hind the theory, efficacy and utility of the instruments and the
applications of such ill-conceived theories (Ryff 1989). Despite
serious research and a good number of empirical studies being
conducted in the field of happiness, Diener himself acknowl-
edges that the progress has been slow and little when it comes
to understand the core of this fundamental human experience
called happiness (Diener et al. 1999).
Furthermore, some others have pointed out that the current
understanding of happiness is not culturally informed. Ryff
remarks that the contemporary notions of well-being obscures
the awareness that culture, history, ethnicity, class, and so on
give rise to different, perhaps competing, conceptions of well-
being (Ryff 1989). It is been largely felt that the existing
conceptualization and the measurements draw heavily from
the Euro-American cultural perspective while ignoring the
Eastern perspectives (Lu 2001). While there are many com-
mon underpinnings, the West and the East epitomizing the
individual and social oriented societies respectively, have
altogether different conceptualizations of happiness (Lu and
Gilmour 2004) (Uchida et al. 2004). Hence, culture being a
Psychol Stud
significant factor in the construction of happiness, determin-
ing its causes, conditions, motivations, correlates and out-
comes, any meaningful discourse on happiness has to be
culturally informed. In this backdrop, this paper presents the
Vedantic perspective of happiness from the Indic tradition in
its original context and maps out its contours.
In addition, there are studies that question the direction and
utility of the researches that are happening in the field of
happiness. They observe that on a practical side the findings
of these studies have helped people little in deepening their
knowledge about what makes them truly happy (Nelson et al.
2013). ‘To the extent that people’s predictions about what will
make them happy are flawed’, Wilson and Gilbert remark that,
‘people fail at maximizing their happiness’ (Wilson and Gilbert
2005). Consequently, the decision and the choices that the
people make would be negatively impacted. On the other hand
some people have noted that there are psychological traditions
in the East that have recognised the individual’s ability to grow
and evolve and thereby provide her a ‘sense of the unlimited
ecstasy that could be found within a self which is freed of
personal strivings’ (Murphy and Murphy 1968). While men-
tioning about the Indian sages whom he personally met who
had achieved higher and newer (not familiar in the West) states
of health and well-being, Boss notes (Boss 1965, pp. 187–188):
And yet there were exalted figures of the sages and holy
men themselves, each one of them a living example of
the possibility of the human growth and maturity and of
the attainment of an impeccable inner peace, a joyous
freedom from guilt, and a purified, selfless goodness
and calmness…No matter how carefully I observe the
waking lives of the holy men, no matter how ready they
were to tell me about their dreams, I could not detect in
the best of them a trace of a selfish action or any kind of
repressed or consciously concealed shadow life.
Moreover, new research suggests that authentic happiness
equated with the Indic concept of ‘sukha ’ is marked with the
presence of ‘plenitude, bliss, peace of mind, serenity, inner
peace or fulfilment’ (Dambrun and Ricard 2011). In this
context it becomes desirable to revisit some of the conceptu-
alizations of happiness and well-being in the Vedantic view
point from the Indic tradition.
Happiness in the Vedantic Tradition
Any discussion concerning Indian intellectual heritage must
necessarily begin with the Vedic reference for a simple reason
that it is the first available document of human culture and
thought. When one glances through the Vedic and especially
the Upanishadic (also known as Vedantic) texts, one would
note the presence of significant number of passages that deal
with the topic of happiness amongst others that are of interest
to us in the present context.
In the first section of this paper, we will examine the major
Upanis: ads and allied texts for their content of happiness. All
the Upanis: ads, to a considerable extent, share a similar un-
derstanding of the concept of happiness though the details
differ from one another. The texts that have been the focus of
discussion here are, in strict terms, from Vedantic school of
thought, which is one of the traditions practised even today.
Moreover, since most of the other schools of Indic thought
share similar views on happiness, the term Indic is used
synonymously with the term Vendantic in this paper.
Before getting into the concept of happiness, it would be
helpful and essential to take a cursory glance of the two terms
that have been used to denote or represent the concept of
happiness.
1. Ānanda: This term is made of the prefix ‘Ā’ and the root
‘nand’ meaning rejoicing. Happiness, joy, enjoyment, sen-
sual pleasure, pure happiness are the meanings of the term
as provided by Monier Williams. It is the most commonly
used word in Vedantic literature. Generally, it covers the
entire range of happiness at various levels but mainly refers
to the ultimate happiness or bliss. It is also one of the terms
used to describe the essential nature of the Self along with
Sat (Existence) and Cit (Consciousness).
2. Sukha: This is the other most common term for happiness
in Vedantic literature and folk culture. It means pleasant,
comfort, easiness, prosperity, pleasure, happiness etc. ac-
cording to the Monier Williams dictionary.
In common language the terms sukha and Ānanda are used
synonymously. However, it must be noted that sukha belongs
to a set of concepts where dualities exist i.e. dukha (pain,
sorrow, suffering etc.) stands in contrast to sukha, whereas
Ānanda is beyond sukha as it transcends both sukha and
dukha. As such it has no term that stands in anti-thesis to
the experience of Ānanda.
The other terms used to describe aspects of happiness
would be explained in the subsequent passages as necessary.
Summary of Discussion on Happiness in Various
Upanis: ads
It is interesting to note that the happiness and well-being of an
individual have been dealt with so extensively in the Upanis: ads.
Ānanda, the term for bliss or happiness itself, appears in various
places and there are extensive discussions on the nature and
sources of happiness. This section will merely describe the
different contexts in which the concept of happiness has been
covered without attempting to be either interpretative or prescrip-
tive. A discussion on the same will follow later.

Taittirīya Upanis: ad
To start with, in the Taittirīya Upanis: ad, the second chapter is
called Brahmānandavallī. It is a chapter on Ānanda of the
Brahman. Accordingly, it starts and ends with a detailed discus-
sion on the nature of happiness and realizing it as the core of
one’s being. According to it, the innermost core of the being is
the ‘Ānanda’ – pure existential/transcendental bliss, along with
‘Sat’ (Existence) and ‘Cit’ (Consciousness). It is the core of
human personality around which the individual exists and func-
tions. However, there are many layers or sheaths around this core
which impede the experience of the original condition. The
sheaths that cover are five in number viz. Annamaya kośa -
physical, Prāṇamaya kośa – the vital, Manomaya kośa – the
mental, Vijñānamaya kośa – the intuitive, and Ānandamaya
kośa – the blissful (Salagame 2003). This idea is strengthened
in the third and next chapter Bhr: guvallī. Continuing further, a
very interesting imagery of a bird is presented in another passage.
It introduces the threefold concept of priya, moda and pramoda
and says that the ‘priya’ is its head, ‘moda’ and ‘pramoda’ are
its left and right wings respectively, ‘ānanda’ is the soul and
‘brahman’ is its base. Shankaracharya, while commenting on
this section, shares an interesting insight pertaining to happiness.
He notes that the happiness experienced, when an object is seen
or perceived with a sense of wanting it is ‘priya’, when the object
is possessed, it is ‘moda’ and when enjoyed/utilized, it is
‘pramoda’.
In another significant section, at the end of the same chap-
ter, there is a detailed discussion on the grades of happiness
that can be experienced by a person. Human happiness or
‘mānus: a ānanda ’ is considered to be the baseline and
‘brahmānanda’ is perceived to be at the top of the scale with
nine levels in between. Each level marks a hundredfold in-
crease of happiness than the preceding one. What is very
interesting to note apart from the gradation is the mentioning
of the determinants of human happiness, i.e., age, learning,
value system, psychological, physical and financial resource-
fulness. This converges largely with the determinants identified
by Argyle viz. age, health conditions, family and friends, mar-
ital status, employment, income and wealth (Argyle, The
Psychology of Happiness, 1987) (Argyle, Causes and
Correlates of Happiness, 1999).
Br: hadāraṇyaka Upanis: ad
In the Br: hadāraṇyaka Upanis: ad, which is the most volumi-
nous of all the Upanis: ads, there is a story of Prajapati, which
says that he became happy after creating a companion for
himself emphasizing the need for relationships.
Another psychologically significant parable of Yajnavalkya
appears in this Upanis: ad. Yajnayavalka, who is married to
Maitreyi and Katyayini, decides at some stage in his life to give
Psychol Stud
up his worldly pursuit in quest of immortality or amr: tatvam. As
he had decided to leave, he wanted to distribute his property
equitably between his two wives. When he announces his deci-
sion to them, Maitreyi questions him if he intended to distribute
anything acquiring which she could be immortal. At the end of a
detailed dialogue that ensues between them, Yajnyavalka utters
the oft discussed phrase of the Upanis: ad -‘ātmanastu kāmāya
: :
sarvam priyam bhavati’, which means, ‘for the sake of the self
everything else becomes dear or desirable.’
Māṇḍūkya Upanis: ad
In the Māṇḍūkya Upanis: ad , the self of the individual is
described using two words ‘ānandamaya’(filled with bliss)
and ‘ānandabhuk ’ (experiencer of bliss). However, in the
previous line in the concerned section, the self is qualified as
the being in the dreamless state with no desires unfulfilled.
Chāndogya Upanis: ad
In the seventh chapter of the Chāndogya Upanis: ad, in the
conversation between Narada, a great scholar himself and
sage Sanat Kumara, Sanat Kumara says that happiness lies
in fullness or vastness and not in a sense of limitedness.
Kat: h hopanis: ad
The Kat: hopanis: ad, which is in the form of a dialogue between
Yama and Nachiketa, also provides us with rich insights in
understanding the concept of happiness. At a certain point
where Yama tries to lure Nachiketa with various forms of
riches and sensual pleasures, the young boy, Nachiketa, is
persistent in seeking the knowledge of immortality as he
knows for certain that ‘wealth cannot bring him happiness’3.
Bhagavad Gītā
The Bhagavad Gītā is another important source that needs to
be examined in this context. Scholars and common people alike
have sought answers to many issues concerning life – happi-
ness being a prominent one among them – from Bhagavad
Gītā. The Gītā defines it as ‘something which the individual
rejoices having attained with effort and which also marks the
absence of unhappiness’4. It then goes on to classify three kinds
of sukha – sātvika (noble), rājasika (dynamic) and tāmasika
(lethargic). According to the classification, sātvika sukha
3
Kat: hopanis: ad 1.27
4
Bhagavad Gītā 18.36
Psychol Stud
consists of such happiness which appears to be effortful (while
pursuing it) but eventually tastes like nectar, i.e. very pleasant.
Such happiness arises as a result of intelligent and creative
efforts with a right knowledge of oneself5. Rājasika sukha is
the resultant of the contact of the sense organs and the objects
which appears to be pleasurable initially but unpleasant at the
end, i.e. after the experience as it leaves a person with a sense of
wanting6. The third category, tāmasika sukha, is the happiness
that is delusionary in nature from beginning to the end that may
arise from sleep, laziness, ignorance, illusion etc.7
Another important text in the Vedantic tradition which deals
with the idea of happiness at considerable length is the
Pañcadaśī . Later texts on dramaturgy, and aesthetics like
Nāt: yaśāstra, Dhvanyāloka etc. also reflect similar ideas. With-
out going into a detailed discussion on the various kinds of
happiness that have been mentioned as it is beyond the scope
and purpose of the present paper, it would suffice to present
some key ideas provided by them. According to them, happi-
ness can be broadly classified into three categories (levels as
well). Such a classification and the nuances presented in this
framework, in short conveys the quintessence of the Indic
insight on happiness. They are (in the order of gross to subtle):
1. Vis: ayānanda – Sensual/Material happiness
2. Kāvyānanda – Aesthetic happiness
3. Brahmānanda – Existential/transcendental happiness
Vis: ayānanda – ‘Vis: aya’ refers to objects. Vis: ayānanda 8,
which can be equated to hedonistic happiness, is experienced
by an individual when she comes in contact with the objects of
her desire. Usually, it is the pleasure associated with either
yearning, possessing, consuming, etc. of material objects. It is
the grossest form of happiness. The Gītā notes that such plea-
surable experience based on the sense-object contact is momen-
tary or short lived, and may even leave the person with a sense of
wanting and lack and consequently cause pain and suffering once
the external stimulus fades9. Moreover, the intensity of happiness
experienced is said to reduce with prolonged exposure to the
source. Rājasika and tāmasika sukha described in the Gītā come
under this category. It must be noted that the Indic tradition does
not negate the role and necessity of material happiness. However,
it very clearly brings out the limitations of such happiness and
persuades the individual to go beyond immediate gratification
and seek a deeper and more lasting happiness.
Kāvyānanda – ‘Kāvya’ literally means the work/product of
a ‘kavi’ – a visionary, a seer, a poet, an artist, an adventurer etc.
In this context, it refers to a class of activities where talent, skill,
courage, will, grace, etc. are employed. Similar to eudaimonic
5
Ibid 18.37
6
Ibid 18.38
7 We have so far mentioned briefly sources from Vedantic texts
Ibid 18.39
8
Pañcadaśī 15.1
9
Bhagavad Gītā 5.22
happiness, this is experienced in a situation where the individual
is called to respond to a challenge where she has adequate
resources to do so. This presupposes that every individual has
certain potentialities within which need to be expressed and
actualized. In other words, this is the kind of happiness a person
experiences in self-actualization. Here, the external situation
calls upon the person to rise above her ordinary comfort zone
and excel in the required task and in response, her internal
system rises to the occasion successfully. While the best comes
out from within the individual, the situation or objects outside
act as motivators or stimulants. Consequently, there is a sense of
fulfilment, accomplishment, and enhanced self-worthiness that
accompanies such an experience which could be self-directed as
well as directed towards others. Such an experience is enduring
in nature as it leaves the individual with a sense of contentment
for a relatively longer period and also results in the augmentation
of self-confidence and of psychological resources of the indi-
vidual. This is also known as sātvika sukha.
The first and the second conceptualization as noted could be
equated with the notions of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness
respectively. The causes, determinants and correlates of these
two kinds of happiness match to a large extent with their western
counterparts. However, there is one more kind of happiness that
the Vedantic tradition identifies – the existential/transcendental
happiness. This conceptualization, is not completely unknown in
the mystic traditions of both the East and the West, but nowhere
else has it been made the essential basis of the philosophy of life.
The same will be explained in the following sections.
Brahmānanda or transcendental happiness – ‘Brahma’, ac-
cording to Indian thought, is the supreme singular being who is
the essential reality of every individual as well as the substratum
of the whole universe. ‘Brahmānanda’, is regarded as the highest
form of happiness or bliss that a person can experience. It is
transcendental in the sense that it transcends the limitations of
compartmentalized individual existence. It is also called ‘exis-
tential’ because it is the core aspect of human existence in as
much that it cannot be separated from human identity (Swami
2005). It is subjective in nature and not dependent on any
external object, situation or person. The ancient texts assure us
that every individual is capable of experiencing such a state of
happiness through a conscious and systematic process of Self-
discovery as it is the very nature of one’s being and it is intrinsic
to all of us. This kind of happiness results from Self-realization
which is qualitatively different from self-actualization. The tradi-
tion claims that for those who have attained this blissful state
once, it becomes the baseline for all their future actions (Table 1).
Nature of Happiness
and traditions which have deliberations on the causes, nature,
correlates and consequences of happiness experiences. This
 Psychol Stud

Table 1 Summary of the discussion on happiness presented in Indian tradition

Sl No. Sheaths (from Level Happiness Nature Basis Indian Euro-American

gross to subtle) of happiness concept conceptualization

1 Annamaya Physical Rati (longing), Exciting Object based Visayānanda Hedonic

Priya (desire) Fleeting (External) ˙ Happiness
Moda (Joy) Exhausting
Pramoda (Excitement) Momentary
2 Prāṇamaya Vital Harśa (Delight) " " " "
Ullāsa (Merriment)
3 Manomaya Mental Santosa (Contentment) Satisfying Lower ego based Kāvyānanda Eudaimonic
Śānti ˙(Peace) Pacifying Happiness
Trpti (Satisfaction) Transient
4 Vijñānamaya Intuitive ˙
Ānanda (Relatively Refreshing Higher ego based " "
lasting happiness) Calming
Creative
Harmonious
Relatively enduring
Transcendental
happiness in parts
5 Ānandamaya Blissful Bhuma-ānanda (unlimited Transcendental Self based Brahmānanda Nil
happiness or bliss) Existential
Liberating
Enduring

section will present a synthetic view of the nature of happiness
that has been discussed at various places with the focus on
transcendental happiness as it forms the core contribution of
Indian thought. Though each source approaches the topic in its
own unique way, they all share a common ground of understand-
ing which may or may not be mentioned explicitly. For instance,
the texts on aesthetics mention the category of Brahmānanda but
do not venture to explain it as it comes under the scope of
spiritual texts. In another example, the equation of dreamless
sleep with absolute bliss cited in the Brihadāranyaka Upanisad
˙ ˙ ˙
is dealt with in greater detail in Māṇḍūkya Upanisad. However,
˙
the point is that all these sources provide us with necessary
insights into the concept of happiness from which a comprehen-
sive theory on happiness can be constructed. Based on the
material available and presented thus far, the following charac-
teristics of happiness with the concept of the transcendental one
at its core are presented here.
1. Happiness is the primary motivator and guiding value of
human life
The Upanisads declare that ‘all beings emerge from
˙
happiness, live by happiness and to happiness they re-
turn’10, ‘an individual endeavours with the prospect of
finding happiness, and does not do so when there is no
happiness’11. Even folk literature reiterates the same idea
when it says ‘all beings act with the motive of attaining
happiness and getting rid of unhappiness’12. Accordingly,
happiness is the greatest good that an individual considers in
10
Taittirīya Upanisad 3.6
11
Chāndogya Upanis˙ ad 7.22
12 ˙ kaṁ me mā bhūt iti lokapravrttih
sukhaṁ me syāt duh
˙ ˙ ˙
all activities and engagements. In addition, it is not only the
highest value against which all other possessions, accom-
plishments and experiences are evaluated but also the su-
preme goal which brings meaning to all endeavours of life.
2. Lasting happiness is realizable
The experience of happiness may be difficult to de-
scribe, however, the sources assure us that it can be realized
effectively by everyone13 and in a lasting manner depend-
ing on the kind of happiness one strives to experience. This
must be noted in contrast to early Western thinking that
happiness could be attained only by the ‘virtuous – the
happy few’ (McMahon 2009). After having stated in un-
equivocal terms that happiness is attainable by all, elaborate
road maps are provided to attain the same. The following
aspects are beneficial in understanding the roadmap.
a. Wisdom/knowledge framework
The philosophical and spiritual traditions of India
talk of several seekers who have undertaken rigorous
practices to experience deep and lasting happiness.
Furthermore, the very fact that the Indic tradition
considers that lasting happiness is attainable implies
that there have been people who have walked the path
and described their experiences in great detail along
with the methodology they followed in order to arrive
at it. There is therefore, an extensive body of docu-
mented knowledge which serves as a useful manual to
discover the different stages of happiness in one’s life
by providing a framework as well as practical guide-
lines on the roadmap to happiness.
13
sarve bhavantu sukhinah
˙
Psychol Stud
At this stage, it would be appropriate to look into
the Indian philosophical framework in order to briefly
understand the position of happiness and its pursuit in
life. In simple terms, it is considered that every indi-
vidual has to choose between two paths in life –
preyomārga (path of worldly life) and śreyomārga
(path of spiritual life). Though both paths are quite
different and demand different disciplines in adhering
to them, both of them are equally valid and accepted.
The goal of śreyomārga is apavarga (liberation or
self-realisation) and of preyomārga is bhoga (worldly
enjoyment or gratification). Hence, the path of world-
ly life sanctions an active pursuit of kāma (desires)
while the path of spiritual life demands an active
pursuit of trpti (contentment). Nonetheless, both
˙
paths aim at happiness of different kinds. Further
discussion on this topic declares that contentment
leads to ānanda (bliss) and the pursuit of desires leads
to sukha (pleasure) (Fig. 1).
It must be noted that, as per the texts, the pursuit of
desires and enjoyment in preyomārga also needs to be
done in a regulated manner on the basis of Dharma 14
(righteousness) (Salagame 2003). There are numerous
discussions on this front which are beyond the scope
of the present paper. However, it is worth noting at
this point that Indian tradition which is often labelled
as otherworldly or pessimistic has an extensive liter-
ature on happiness clearly establishing it as a corner-
stone of life’s philosophy and thereby disproving any
such notion which suggests otherwise.
b. Individual as the agent of happiness
All the discussions about happiness lead to the
conclusion that, eventually, the individual is solely
responsible for her own happiness. All others – per-
sons, situation and objects are only instrumental
causes for that experience. To add to this, the choice
of being happy ultimately rests with the individual.
She has to finally decide whether she wants to be
happy or unhappy in any given situation. She can
either allow external circumstances to overpower
her or use her discretion and exercise control over
their effects on her. Indian tradition suggests that
individuals can systematically cultivate the capacity
of exercising such a mastery and freedom.
c. Self-cultivation as the means
A very important contribution from Indian thought to
the existing discourse on happiness is the detailed and
practical methodology developed therein for self-
cultivation leading towards self-mastery. The entire
world of yogic knowledge provides various exercises
for self-cultivation. Branches of Yoga, like Jñāna Yoga
14
Mahābhārata 18.5.49
Fig. 1 Two paths of life
(path of knowledge) suggest ways of working on one-
self from a cognitive point of view; Karma Yoga (path
of action) follows the conative path; Rāja Yoga (path of
psychic control) adopts the psychic way and Bhakti
Yoga (path of devotion) offers techniques to work on
the emotional being of the individual. In addition to
these, the much encouraged virtues like dāna (alms
giving), dhanyatā (gratitude), prapatti (surrender),
vairāgya (non-attachment), etc. are very beneficial in
preparing oneself to realize happiness. Self-cultivation is
an important aspect necessary for the transformation of
an individual as the Indian thought emphasizes that all
knowledge has to necessarily culminate in experience15.
d. Favourable conditions for experiencing happiness
Though happiness is considered to the psycholog-
ical state of the individual it has been acknowledged,
there are certain conditions which are favourable in
experiencing happiness. One of the popular verses16
of Sanskrit literature identifies them as follows:
i. Physical and psychological health
ii. Good, worthy and positive engagements in life
iii. Absence of sorrow
3. Happiness is subjective
Happiness is a subjective phenomenon. It has to be
experienced within. Often there is a mistaken understand-
ing that things outside the being cause happiness. The
Indian thought tradition very clearly states that happiness
has to be sought from inside. The external factors may or
may not be conducive to evoke happiness within the
individual. It has to be experienced from inside only. In
one of the verses in Bhajagovindam , Shankara says, ‘One
may revel in yoga or pleasures; in the company of people
or bereft of company. Only the one whose mind steadily
delights in Brahman revels; He cannot but be happy’17.
The idea here is that objects, situations, people who are
15
Brahmasūtra śānkarabhāsyam 1.1
16
sarve bhavantu sukhinah˙, sarve santu nirāmayāh , sarve bhadrāṇi
˙
paśyantu, mā kaścit dukhabhāg bhavet ˙
17
Bhajagovindam 19 ˙

normally considered to be sources of happiness are at
most stimulants or catalysts and not its essential causes.
A wise person is happy irrespective of the external cir-
cumstances as she has discovered the source of happiness
within herself.
4. Happiness is a psychological state
Happiness is a profound psychological state of satis-
faction and contentment and is irrespective of the external
circumstances. It is also accompanied by positive feelings
of joy, comfort, hope etc.
a. Satisfaction and Contentment
The satisfaction of one’s needs, from material to
spiritual, is one of the means for happiness. Fulfilment
of needs and gratification of desires are the most
acknowledged causes for happiness. However, East-
ern thought, especially the Indian, stresses on the need
for developing a deep sense of contentment as a
practical means to realize happiness. This highlights
the intimate relationship between the sense of con-
tentment and the feeling of happiness. In fact,
Patanjali’s Yoga Sūtra contends that by practising
‘santośa (contentment) one can attain the highest
state of happiness’18. One of the verses of folk
wisdom states that ‘contentment is the greatest wealth
that a man can possess’19. In the Mahābhārata, the
virtue of contentment is brought out in unambiguous
terms as it states that ‘contentment is the highest
heaven, contentment is the highest happiness. There
is nothing (in the world) that is higher than content-
ment’20. In a similar manner, one can go on enlisting
several sources that brings forth the need for practis-
ing contentment in order to realize happiness.
b. Positive emotions
Though happiness, in transcendental terms, is go-
ing beyond emotions, the texts add that the sense of
contentment makes one capable of experiencing
many other positive emotions frequently. While de-
lineating certain characteristics of happy people as
documented in Indian tradition, Srivastava and
Mishra note that ‘they (happy people) are bestowed
with the company of the wise, are loved by the close
ones, remain free from debts, and have certainty of
livelihood. They are magnanimous, not plagued by
bad or negative thoughts, are optimistic, and full of
enthusiasm…..Bliss is said to give rise to knowledge
(to self) and love (for others). People enjoy every
aspect of life if they are happy inside.’ (Srivastava
and Misra 2011). The striking feature of the emotions
18
Pātañjala Yoga Sūtram 2.32
19
santosa eva purusasya paraṁ nidhānam
20 ˙
Mahābhārata ˙
12.21.2
Psychol Stud
mentioned in the passage above, do not include feel-
ing of excitement or those associated with high
arousals that give a momentary ‘kick’ as in the case
of hedonic pleasures. The positive feelings that have
been described that accompany the sense of content-
ment make the individual composed and anchored in
herself, free from any hankering for anything from
outside, as the Gītā points out, ‘for one who is fully
content in oneself, there is nothing to strive for’21.
This kind of happiness is regarded as being long
lasting and beyond all conflicts.
c. Internal harmony
Happiness is also intimately linked to a state of
harmony: harmony at various levels, as a conflict-
ridden mind will never experience happiness. The
process of yoga employed in self-cultivation is itself
defined in terms of balance or equanimity22. Proceed-
ing further, it is to be noted that harmony has to be
achieved at various levels of the being from
annamyakośa to ānandamayakośa, at individual and
social levels and from natural to the spiritual. The idea
of achieving internal harmony as a correlate to happi-
ness is an important aspect in many Asian cultures
and traditions as noted by Lou Lu and Gilmour (Lu
and Gilmour 2004).
5. Happiness is the essential nature of the Self
One of the singularly significant contributions of the
Indian thought to happiness studies, as noted earlier, is the
recognition of happiness as the essential nature of the Self.
The central epithet used to describe the nature of the self is
‘Sat -Cit -Ānanda ’ – ‘Existence-Consciousness-Bliss’.
Accordingly, every individual represents blissful and con-
scious existence. The innermost essence of one’s being is
bliss or absolute happiness – ānandamaya – full of bliss,
as depicted in the pañcakos´a model of the Taittirīya
Upanisad . This being the nature of the Self, Self-
˙
discovery or Self-realization necessarily culminates in
the realization/experience of happiness. Such happiness
is regarded as pure as it is absolutely independent from the
presence or absence of every conceivable external object
of happiness. This is the highest kind of happiness one can
experience referred to earlier as Brahmānanda (Taittirīya
Upanisad) and hence it has been termed as transcendental
˙
happiness.
The Vedantic tradition highlights this particular notion
of happiness as worthy of pursuit and encourages people
to channelize their energies towards recognizing their real
nature which is almost/usually ‘forgotten’. Shankara in
the series of verses called ‘Ātmasatkam’ brings out this
˙ ˙
idea in unequivocal terms when he declares that ‘I am
21
Bhagavad Gītā 3.17
22
Bhagavad Gītā 2.48
Psychol Stud
That Pure Consciousness and Bliss. I am Śiva ; I am
Śiva’.23
Furthermore, understanding Brahman as the
source of all happiness as described by Vedanta, offers
the scope to explain the most ordinary sorts of pleasure
and happiness experienced in life. ‘All (worldly) joys
experienced by all beings are just a minute fraction of this
(Brahmānanda)’24 and are ‘doorways to experience the
ultimate bliss’.25 This position is all-inclusive in the sense
that every other pleasure or happiness, gross or higher/
subtle finds its due place in relation to this highest happi-
ness. However, this position stands quite at the other
extreme to Freud’s contention that the origins of all forms
of happiness including the higher ones are nothing but the
expressions of sexual pleasure. Such a theory would fail
to explain the basis of even simple joys that would arise
out of watching a smiling baby or a rising sun. Alterna-
tively, this meta-theory of happiness can not only accom-
modate all pleasures, joys described in terms of both the
hedonic and eudaimonic views but also reconcile them
harmoniously with the conceptualization of the third one,
i.e. transcendental happiness.
6. Happiness is active interconnectedness with others
Another significant aspect of happiness brought out by
the Upanisads is that it is not just self-directed. It extends
˙
to others as well, as it is based on the perception of an
underlying interconnectedness with others and everything
else in this creation. Others are seen as an extension of
oneself. The experience of happiness related to self-
realisation does not perceive individualized/
compartmentalized spaces but see themselves as part of
a common larger space which is temporarily demarcated
for functional purposes. Speaking from a philosophical
perspective, as one deeply loves oneself and others, being
the extension of the same self, there is a natural tendency
‘to love and to be loved’. In the Rāmāyana Advayam, it is
˙
noted ‘that coming into a state of self-sameness with all
beings is the source of happiness of the wise people’.26
Relating to others becomes both a consequence and a
source of happiness. As a result of this view, a high
premium is placed on ‘satsaṅga’ – company of the wise
people in the process of discovering happiness. Shankara
claims that ‘…in all the three worlds, only the company of
the wise will help one to cross the hardship of life’27 and
move towards happiness.
Furthermore, a significant feature to be noted of the
Indian concept of happiness is that, while relating to
23
Ātmasatkam 1
24 ˙ ˙ yaka Upanisad 4.3.32
Brhadāran
25 ˙
Pañcadaśī˙ 15.1 ˙ 29
26
http://www.krishnamurthys.com/kvforp/Appa/Ramayana-
advayampage4.html#_ftnref2. verse no. 203
27
Bhajagovindam 13
others, others interests are to be taken into consideration
as they become important determinants for one’s overall
experience of happiness unlike in individualistic cultures/
societies of the West. Kautilya, in is work on polity,
advocates that the ‘king’s happiness lies in the happiness
of the people’28. There are many verses in the spiritual,
scholastic and folk traditions that vividly drive home this
point that individual interests are subordinate to the inter-
ests of the family which in turn are subordinate to those of
the society and so on. This is very much in line with
similar notions present in Eastern cultures as Luo Lu
et al. points out that ‘self-restrain and consideration for
the other’s welfare are vital for achieving a harmonious
Chinese relationship’ that would make way for enduring
happiness, based on a comparative study of the Eastern
and Western conceptions of happiness (Lu and Gilmour
2004).
7. Happiness as freedom and completeness
Freedom is defined as the ‘possibility to choose’ from
the given set of choices (Veenhoven 2000). At a personal
level, an individual is said to be free if she can exercise her
freedom to select, to act without being inhibited by her
internal conditionings, opinions, prejudices, conflicts,
doubts etc. provided the environment offers her the ‘op-
portunity to choose’. In the natural course, the individual’s
saṁskāras 29 and the vāsanās 30 act as determinants of
one’s character/behaviour. It is similar to the sub-
conscious and the unconscious in Freudian terms or ‘con-
ditioning’ according to the behaviourists. These restrict
the individual’s ability to exercise freedom in selecting her
response to the given situation. For instance, of the given
ten responses an individual can chose, if she is compelled
by her internal/mental frame to make a particular choice, it
amounts to limiting the choice of the individual. This
limitation imposed on the self of the individual curtails
the freedom of the individual and narrows down the
cognitive, functional and emotional ability of the individ-
ual. In short the being becomes constricted.
On the other hand, the Indian thought emphasizes that
a human being can consciously outgrow her limitations
and overcome the shadow effect of her vāsanās and
saṁskāras and thereby exercise full control over the
situation and also exercise human freedom to a large
extent as she is essentially free from such limiting factors.
These limiting factors, according to it, are incidental and
not essential features of the individual. It demands that
one has to discover that freedom within and exercise it in
the given circumstance. Nevertheless, it stands firmly as a
28
Arthaśāstra 1.19.34
The impressions left behind by experiences and actions that are said to
shape future actions and behaviours
30
Strong desires especially originating from drives or other inborn
tendencies

human possibility. Some great thinkers, even in the west,
have arrived at such an insight through their own experi-
ences. Allport, in his preface to Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s
Search for Meaning’ writes:
In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires
to make the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals
in life are snatched away. What alone remains is “the last
of human freedoms”—the ability to “choose one's atti-
tude in a given set of circumstances.” This ultimate
freedom, recognized by the ancient Stoics as well as
by modern existentialists, takes on vivid significance in
Frankl’s story. The prisoners were only average men,
but some, at least, by choosing to be “worthy of their
suffering” proved man’s capacity to rise above his out-
ward fate.
Vicktor Frankl remarks in his book,
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the
men who walked through the huts comforting others,
giving away their last piece of bread. They may have
been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that
everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last
of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Happiness, on the other hand is deemed as a sense of
expansion of the being. There is a constant urge for and
momentum towards growth and expansion. Expansion here
refers to the process of overcoming the sense of limitedness
due to one’s conditioning. Chāndogya Upanisad declares
˙ 1997, p. 444). At a lower plane, both happiness and
‘that which is ever-expanding is happiness and there is no
happiness in littleness or narrowness’31, i.e. ‘happiness is
plenum, happiness is completeness, happiness is totality’.
Accordingly, the experience of growing or expanding towards
completeness is happiness. Incidentally, in addition to the
experience of expansion itself, all aids, instruments that lead
one to experience the expansion are also seen as sources of
happiness. Hence an ice cream in a hot afternoon, a shower at
the end of the day, a touch of the beloved, possession of a new
smart phone, an increment in the salary, a recognition in the
community everything becomes the causes of happiness. Im-
mediately, an equation between the objects, persons, situa-
tions, etc. is established equating them with happiness. In
reality, it can be seen that these are just catalysts, that tend to
make an individual feel complete though momentarily, which
makes one happy. The yearning is for the experience of
expansion and completeness as the very nature of the self is
completeness and perfection according to the Vedantic
thought. The objects, sensations, feelings, ideas, thoughts
etc. aid in achieving it in the initial stage of the journey. Hence,
it encompasses every form of expansion from material to
31
Chāndogya Upanisad 7.23
˙
Psychol Stud
spiritual. One’s ability to achieve such an expansion is free-
dom and that brings great joy and happiness.
Also, freedom is one of the greatest joys one can experi-
ence. It would certainly include individual freedom protected
and advanced by individualistic societies, collective freedom
to earn and live, and financial freedom, promised by capital-
istic societies, as equally valid and essential. However, spiri-
tual freedom nurtured by non-materialistic societies, for one to
grow towards completeness and perfection internally assumes
significance in this perspective. Hence, in the Indian tradition,
moksa – liberation or freedom – has been presented as the
˙
highest purusārtha – objective of life.
˙
8. Happiness is not absence of unhappiness
The relationship between happiness and unhappiness
has been a matter of debate in most cultures. Indian
thought, at a deeper philosophical level, posits the cyclic
nature of the experience of happiness and unhappiness32.
Rather than seeing them as dialectically opposite entities,
it presents them as one complimentary to the other in
helping the individual grow. The dualities of life, happi-
ness and sorrow, pain and pleasure, gain and loss, fame
and notoriety, etc. including life and death are seen as the
necessary and complimentary experiences that make an
individual’s life complete. As shown earlier, the purpose
of the life experience is to enable a person to grow and to
evolve into a complete being. The experience of sorrow
and joy is seen as contributing towards that end. Echoing
this line of thought, a Sri Aurobindo remarks, ‘Pain is the
hand of Nature sculpturing men to greatness’ (Aurobindo
unhappiness appear to be dialectically opposing one an-
other, but at a higher plane, both are reconciled and
complement each other with a singularity of purpose –
to give a sense of completeness of experience. Hence, in
the larger perspective of transcendental happiness, they
(pleasure and pain) are to be understood as mutually
qualifying and complimentary experiences.
Conclusions and Implications for the Contemporary
Discourse on Happiness
Having a fragmented picture of the human being as a socio-
biological entity and attempting to map all his experiences
including the most significant of them – happiness, in this
backdrop, have yielded little results in the mainstream ap-
proach to psychology based on Euro-American culture. Basic
questions concerning human happiness as to what truly makes
an individual happy remain while the issue of attaining hap-
piness gets even more complicated. One may quote numerous
32
Adhyātmarāmāyaṇam 2.6.1
Psychol Stud
studies that have been conducted in the areas of Subjective
and Psychological well-being. However, neither can one
claim that the world is getting happier day by day, nor can
one deny the fact that the world seems to be slipping into a
darker shade with pain, suffering, agony, conflicts, and vio-
lence at all levels from individual to international. The in-
creasing crime and violence rate around the world is no less
empirical an evidence than the data collected in a laboratory or
in an artificial set-up. Furthermore, one who sticks to the third-
person methodology and statistics even when their effective-
ness in enhancing human happiness and well-being is ques-
tionable is no more rational than who seeks alternative tools.
Rats might be happy with more cheese that one might have
provided them (they also would eventually seek freedom) but
a human being cannot be happy with a little more of every-
thing that she needs and wants – food, sex, wealth, security,
belongingness, recognition. ‘More the merrier’ philosophy
works to a certain extent but fails to deliver the most essential
– the key to lasting happiness. This compels one to question
the basic premise on which the dominant theories of human
happiness have been developed and also the methods adopted
therein to study them. Not that the painstaking research in the
field deserve any less merit, but it could be probable that some
critical aspect of happiness might have been overlooked in the
process. The point, then, is how do we supplement that
essential character and where to do we find it.
At this stage, considering the insights on happiness
provided by the Indian perspective delineated above, we
can reasonably argue that the Vedantic approach can
offer such an essential unifying element as Ananda
Coomaraswamy rightly notes, ‘The heart and essence of
Indian experience is to be found in a constant intuition of
the unity of all life, and the instinctive and ineradicable
conviction that the recognition of this unity is the highest
good and the uttermost freedom’, (Coomaraswamy 2013).
However, it needs to be examined how best we could inte-
grate them with the existing body of knowledge to build a
meta-theory of happiness that could without undermining the
grossest form of happiness, provides central space for the
subtlest and most enduring kind of happiness and allow one
to evaluate various kinds of happiness from the standpoint of
transcendental happiness while providing her with efficient
tools to explore and experience it.
Furthermore, happiness being the fundamental experience
and primary motivator of every human action, it influences all
other fields of individual and social life. It might appear that
one is stretching the argument too far, however, if we observe
carefully, all our social and economic institutions and their
policies, both at national and international levels, are largely
influenced by the perceived notion of what makes a human
being happy. Happiness Economics, an emerging field of
knowledge that attempts to integrate the understanding on
happiness from psychology with other fields such as
Economics and Sociology is a frontrunner in determining
the policies on governance and welfare of states. While argu-
ing for integrating the insights from Buddhist and Eastern
Psychologies with eudaimonic concepts, Tomer notes that
the economists, in determining human happiness, ‘have large-
ly emphasized the hedonic, utilitarian, material and tangible
aspects of human life’ (Tomer 2010) so far. Hence it becomes
important to identify what insights are supplied from psychol-
ogy to other academic and social disciplines. In all likelihood,
a partial or skewed understanding might yield limited results.
On the other hand, with the larger picture in view, with the
acknowledgment of transcendental happiness, one could esti-
mate the possible outcomes and its impact on various fields
including economics and development. A simple shift of
focus from hedonic to eudaimonic happiness would also
call for a shift in private and public policies concerning
the welfare of the state. Gross National Happiness (GNH)
(Priesner 2006) of Bhutan, largely echoing the eudaimonic
notions of happiness, is an outstanding example of one such
major shift in measuring the progress of a society in devia-
tion to the GDP based growth assessment followed by most
nations which is again dependent on the hedonic conception.
And in all likelihood, a shift towards transcendental happi-
ness would only brighten the prospects of better governance
and welfare systems with more holistic and integrated
approaches.
Moreover, introducing insights from not only Indian but
cultures outside the Euro-American world would enable the
discourse on happiness to be more culturally informed. De-
spite the presence of universal underpinnings of happiness, the
study would be incomplete unless culture dependent factors
become an integral part of it, as many empirical studies have
provided considerable evidence to claim that ‘happiness and
well-being are significantly grounded in socio-cultural modes
of being a person and interacting with others’ (Uchida et al.
2004).
Finally, there are many issues that are to be effectively
resolved after having admitted transcendental happiness into
the theoretical discourse, such as: What are its parameters?
How to ensure its tangibility while retaining its essential
intangible character? What kinds of instruments, both quali-
tative and quantitative, are capable of measuring those param-
eters and how to construct them? What are the systemic ways
of achieving lasting happiness? And would it be possible to
demonstrate with compelling empirical evidence that such an
approach accomplishes what it claims to do - providing key to
lasting happiness universally? Besides, the challenges in
building such a meta-theory of happiness are many as it
demands collaborative efforts on behalf of psychologists,
phenomenologists, philosophers, sociologists, economists
and other social science researchers. Nevertheless, it is worth
the effort if it could make an individual sing in ecstasy ‘I am
bliss’, ‘I am bliss’ irrespective of the circumstances.

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 5
Subjective Well-Being
The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction
Ed Diener, Richard E. Lucas, & Shigehiro Oishi
Definition of Subjective Well-Being
Since ancient times humans have wondered
about what makes a good life. Scientists who
study subjective well-being assume that an es-
sential ingredient of the good life is that the
person herself likes her life. Subjective well-
being is defined as a person’s cognitive and af-
fective evaluations of his or her life. These eval-
uations include emotional reactions to events as
well as cognitive judgments of satisfaction and
fulfillment. Thus, subjective well-being is a
broad concept that includes experiencing pleas-
ant emotions, low levels of negative moods, and
high life satisfaction. The positive experiences
embodied in high subjective well-being are a
core concept of positive psychology because
they make life rewarding.
History
Throughout history, philosophers and religious
leaders have suggested that diverse characteris-
tics, such as love, wisdom, and nonattachment,
are the cardinal elements of a fulfilled existence.
63
Utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham, however,
argued that the presence of pleasure and the ab-
sence of pain are the defining characteristics of
a good life (1789/1948). Thus, the Utilitarians
were the intellectual forerunners of subjective
well-being researchers, focusing on the emo-
tional, mental, and physical pleasures and pains
that individuals experience. Although there are
other desirable personal characteristics beyond
whether a person is happy, the individual with
abundant joy has one key ingredient of a good
life.
Early in the 20th century, empirical studies
of subjective well-being began to take shape. As
early as 1925, Flugel studied moods by having
people record their emotional events and then
summing emotional reactions across moments.
Flugel’s work was the forerunner of modern ex-
perience sampling approaches to measuring
subjective well-being on-line as people go about
their everyday lives. After World War II, sur-
vey researchers began polling people about their
happiness and life satisfaction using simple
global survey questionnaires. The pollsters
studied large numbers of people who were often
selected to produce representative samples of
64 PART III. EMOTION-FOCUSED APPROACHES
nations. George Gallup, Gerald Gurin and his
colleagues, and Hadley Cantril pioneered the
use of large-scale surveys as an assessment
technique. They asked people questions such as
“How happy are you?” with simple response
options varying from “very happy” to “not
very happy.” Recently, Diener (2000a) proposed
that a national index be created in which sub-
jective well-being would be tracked over time.
Although early subjective well-being studies
were characterized by very short scales, many
important discoveries were made. In 1969, for
example, Norman Bradburn showed that pleas-
ant and unpleasant affect are somewhat inde-
pendent and have different correlates—they are
not simply opposites of one another. Thus, the
two affects must be studied separately to gain a
complete picture of individuals’ well-being. This
finding had important implications for the field
of subjective well-being: It showed that clinical
psychology’s attempts to eliminate negative
states would not necessarily foster positive
states. The elimination of pain may not result
in a corresponding increase in pleasure; ridding
the world of sadness and anxiety will not nec-
essarily make it a happy place.
Wilson reviewed the meager amount of re-
search on “avowed happiness” in 1967, and
Diener (1984) provided a review of the much
larger database on subjective well-being that
had accumulated by the mid-1980s. By that
time, the field was becoming a science. Since
Diener’s review was published, a number of
books have appeared on the topic of subjective
well-being (e.g., Argyle, 1987; Myers, 1982;
Strack, Argyle, & Schwarz, 1991), and in 1999,
Diener, Suh, Lucas, and Smith authored a new
review of the literature in Psychological Bulle-
tin. A handbook volume of chapters related to
hedonic psychology (Kahneman, Diener, &
Schwarz, 1999) and a book dedicated to cross-
cultural differences in subjective well-being
(Diener & Suh, 2000) also provide more thor-
ough reviews of this area.
The scientific discipline of subjective well-
being grew rapidly. One reason for this is that
people in the Western nations have achieved a
level of material abundance and health that al-
lows them to go beyond mere survival in seek-
ing the good life. People around the globe are
entering a “postmaterialistic” world, in which
they are concerned with issues of quality of life
beyond economic prosperity. Subjective well-
being also is popular because it is particularly
democratic—it grants respect to what people
think and feel about their lives. People are not
content to have experts evaluate their lives;
they believe that their opinions matter. In ad-
dition, the study of subjective well-being flour-
ished because of the growing trend toward in-
dividualism around the globe. Individualists are
concerned with their own feelings and beliefs,
and thus the study of subjective well-being cor-
responds well with the Western zeitgeist. Fi-
nally, the field increased in popularity because
researchers succeeded in developing scientific
methods for studying subjective well-being. For
these reasons the scientific study of subjective
well-being is now poised to grow into a major
scholarly and applied discipline.
Measurement
Early survey instruments usually posed a single
question about people’s happiness or life satis-
faction. Psychometric evaluations of these sim-
ple scales showed that they possess a degree of
validity. For example, Andrews and Withey
(1976) found that global questions about peo-
ple’s overall evaluation of their lives yielded
scores that converged well with one another. As
the field matured, more multi-item scales ap-
peared, with greater reliability and validity than
the single-item instruments. Lucas, Diener, and
Suh (1996) demonstrated that multi-item life
satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant af-
fect scales formed factors that were separable
from each other, as well as from other con-
structs such as self-esteem. A number of hap-
piness, affect, and life satisfaction measures are
now available (see Andrews & Robinson, 1992,
for a review), and we present the five-item Sat-
isfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Lar-
sen, & Griffin, 1985; Pavot & Diener, 1993) in
the appendix.
A major concern of researchers in the field is
whether self-report instruments are valid. After
all, people might report that they are happy yet
not truly experience high subjective well-being.
Sandvik, Diener, and Seidlitz (1993) found that
the self-report measures converge with other
types of assessment, including expert ratings
based on interviews with respondents, experi-
ence sampling measures in which feelings are
reported at random moments in everyday life,
participants’ memory for positive versus nega-
tive events in their lives, the reports of family
and friends, and smiling. Despite the positive
psychometric qualities of global subjective well-

being measures, however, we recommend a
multimethod battery to assess subjective well-
being when this is possible. Additional assess-
ment devices based on memory, informant re-
ports, and experience sampling are likely to
supplement the information obtained from
global measures and guard against response ar-
tifacts, and in some cases the alternative mea-
sures may yield different answers about who is
happiest (e.g., Oishi, 2000).
The use of multiple methods also allows re-
searchers to understand how people construct
subjective well-being judgments. Schwarz,
Strack, and their colleagues, for example,
showed that situational variables can exert a
substantial impact on life satisfaction and mood
reports (Schwarz & Strack, 1999). Schwarz and
Strack’s findings illustrate that life satisfaction
judgments are not immutable, stored values
that are reported when requested. Instead, re-
spondents seem to use currently salient infor-
mation to construct life satisfaction judgments.
Building on this finding, Diener and his col-
leagues (e.g., Diener & Diener, 1995; Suh,
Diener, Oishi, & Triandis, 1998) showed that
certain information is chronically salient to
some individuals but not to others (Suh &
Diener, 1999). Thus, any single piece of infor-
mation may or may not be used by an individ-
ual to construct her or his life satisfaction judg-
ments. For instance, people in individualistic
nations may base their life satisfaction judg-
ments on the extent to which they feel high
self-esteem, whereas people in collectivistic cul-
tures may base their judgments on the opinions
of other people (Diener & Diener, 1995). Thus,
a person may use both situationally induced and
chronically salient information to construct life
satisfaction judgments.
People also may use different metastrategies
in seeking the information upon which to base
their life satisfaction judgments. For example,
some people may search for information about
the positive aspects of their lives, whereas oth-
ers might seek information about problematic
areas (Diener et al., in press). Likewise, people
differ in the degree to which they weigh their
moods and emotions when calculating life sat-
isfaction judgments (Suh & Diener, 1999).
Thus, life satisfaction reflects different infor-
mation for different people and can change de-
pending on what is salient at the moment.
When participants report on any aspect of
global subjective well-being, they must con-
struct a judgment about their well-being. This
CHAPTER 5. SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING 65
constructed judgment may not faithfully cor-
respond to the average mood or level of satis-
faction experienced across many different mo-
ments. Thomas and Diener (1990) found only a
modest match between people’s reports of mo-
mentary moods and their recall of those moods.
Thus, estimates of happiness and reports of af-
fect over time are likely to be influenced by a
person’s current mood, his or her beliefs about
happiness, and the ease of retrieving positive
and negative information.
A fascinating picture of subjective well-being
is emerging in which we can differentiate be-
tween a person’s momentary feelings and
thoughts about well-being, and larger, more
global constructions. At the momentary level,
we can examine people’s reports of moods,
pleasures, pains, and satisfactions recorded on-
line through the experience sampling method.
For example, in our laboratory we use palm-
sized computers to signal people randomly.
When signaled, respondents complete a survey
of their feelings at that moment. Kahneman
(1999) suggested that these types of data offer
the most accurate estimate of subjective well-
being because they are less distorted by artifacts
and biases.
Global reports of subjective well-being also
are valuable, however, because they offer an in-
sight into the fascinating psychological proc-
esses by which people construct global judg-
ments about their lives. In global reports of
subjective well-being, we discover how a person
summarizes her or his life as a whole, and this
synopsis may only be moderately correlated
with on-line reports. For example, we find that
people in cultures where subjective well-being
is valued are more likely to weight their most
positive domains in calculating a global life sat-
isfaction judgment; people in cultures in which
happiness is not an important value are more
likely to weight their most negative domains in
calculating a life satisfaction judgment (Diener,
2000b). If people believe that life satisfaction is
desirable, they may be more likely to search for
positive information when reporting global life
satisfaction judgments. Thus, the relation be-
tween satisfaction with specific domains such as
work and satisfaction with life as a whole is
likely to be dependent on people’s beliefs about
what types of information should be considered
when judging life in its entirety. In a sense,
then, these are two varieties of happiness and
satisfaction—evaluations of specific aspects of
life and on-line at-the-moment feelings of well-
66 PART III. EMOTION-FOCUSED APPROACHES
being versus larger, global judgments about
one’s happiness and satisfaction.
Theoretical Approach
Many theories of happiness have been proposed
since Aristotle’s brilliant insights. These theo-
ries can be categorized into three groups: (1)
need and goal satisfaction theories, (2) process
or activity theories, and (3) genetic and person-
ality predisposition theories. The first constel-
lation of theories centers around the idea that
the reduction of tensions (e.g., the elimination
of pain and the satisfaction of biological and
psychological needs) leads to happiness. Freud’s
(1933/1976) pleasure principle and Maslow’s
(1970) hierarchical needs model represent this
approach. In support of this view, Omodei and
Wearing (1990) found that the degree to which
individuals’ needs were met was positively as-
sociated with the degree of their life satisfaction.
Goal theorists argue that individuals attain
subjective well-being when they move toward
an ideal state or accomplish a valued aim (the
standard). Other researchers have extended this
idea to incorporate the degree of discrepancy
from other potential comparison standards. For
example, Michalos (1985) postulated that hap-
piness is inversely related to the degree of dis-
crepancy from multiple standards, including
what one wants, what one has had in the past,
and what relevant others have. Likewise, Hig-
gins (1987) posited that discrepancies from
one’s “ideal self” and one’s “ought self” lead to
the experiences of negative emotions. Need and
goal satisfaction theorists argue that the reduc-
tion of tension and satisfaction of biological and
psychological needs and goals will cause happi-
ness.
One implication of tension-reduction theories
is that happiness occurs after needs are met and
goals are fulfilled. In other words, happiness is
a desired end state toward which all activity is
directed. These theories can be compared with
models of happiness in which engagement in an
activity itself provides happiness. Most notably,
Csikszentmihalyi (1975) suggested that people
are happiest when they are engaged in interest-
ing activities that match their level of skill. He
called the state of mind that results from this
matching of challenges and skill “flow,” and ar-
gued that people who often experience flow tend
to be very happy. Similarly, Cantor and her col-
leagues (Cantor & Blanton, 1996; Harlow &
Cantor, 1996) emphasized the importance of ac-
tive participation in life tasks. For instance, Har-
low and Cantor (1996) found that social partic-
ipation was a strong predictor of life satisfaction
for retired elders. Sheldon, Ryan, and Reis
(1996) found that people were happiest on days
when they engaged in activities for intrinsic
reasons (because of the fun and enjoyment).
Goal researchers (e.g., Emmons, 1986; Little,
1989) agree that having important goals and
pursuing them are reliable indicators of well-
being, and therefore goal theories can combine
the elements of tension reduction and pleasur-
able activity in explaining subjective well-being.
People who have important goals tend to be
more energetic, experience more positive emo-
tions, and feel that life is meaningful (e.g.,
McGregor & Little, 1998).
Both needs theorists and activity theorists ar-
gue that subjective well-being will change with
the conditions in people’s lives. When individ-
uals are approaching their goals or are engaged
in interesting activities, they should experience
positive well-being. However, other theorists
argue that there is an element of stability in
people’s levels of well-being that cannot be ex-
plained by the stability in the conditions of peo-
ple’s lives. These theorists argue that subjective
well-being is strongly influenced by stable per-
sonality dispositions.
Subjective well-being judgments reflect cog-
nitive and emotional reactions to life circum-
stances. Because circumstances can be short-
lived and changeable or relatively stable,
researchers study both momentary and long-
term subjective well-being. Not surprisingly,
momentary levels of affect fluctuate quite a bit.
For example, Diener and Larsen (1984) found
that when people’s emotions were sampled at
random times throughout the day, a single re-
port of momentary pleasant affect on average
correlated only about .10 with pleasant affect in
other random moments. People react to chang-
ing circumstances, and these reactions are re-
flected in momentary reports of subjective well-
being.
Although it is difficult to predict how happy
an individual will be at any given moment,
when affect is averaged across many occasions,
stable patterns of individual differences emerge.
For example, Diener and Larsen (1984) reported
that mean levels of pleasant affect experienced
in work situations correlated .74 with average
levels of pleasant affect experienced in recrea-
tion situations. Similarly, average life satisfac-

tion in social situations correlated .92 with av-
erage life satisfaction when alone. Based on
these results, it appears that although emotions
fluctuate, individuals do have characteristic
emotional responses to a variety of situations
and life circumstances. These characteristic
emotional responses are also moderately to
strongly stable across long periods of time.
Magnus and Diener (1991) found a correlation
of .58 between life satisfaction measures as-
sessed over a 4-year interval. Costa and McCrae
(1988) reported substantial stability coefficients
for affective components of subjective well-
being over a period of 6 years.
These results have led some theorists to sug-
gest that although life events can influence sub-
jective well-being, people eventually adapt to
these changes and return to biologically deter-
mined “set points” or “adaptation levels” (e.g.,
Headey & Wearing, 1992). For instance, Diener,
Sandvik, Seidlitz, and Diener (1993) found that
stability in subjective well-being was compara-
ble among people whose income went up, down,
or stayed the same over 10 years. Similarly,
Costa, McCrae, and Zonderman (1987) reported
that people who lived in stable circumstances
were no more stable than people who experi-
enced major life changes (e.g., divorce, widow-
hood, or job loss).
One reason for the stability and consistency
of subjective well-being is that there is a sub-
stantial genetic component to it; to some degree
people are born prone to be happy or unhappy.
Tellegen et al. (1988), for example, examined
monozygotic twins who were reared apart and
compared them with dizygotic twins who were
reared apart, as well as with monozygotic and
dizygotic twins who were raised together. After
comparing the similarities of the various types
of twins, Tellegen et al. estimated that 40% of
the variability in positive emotionality and 55%
of the variability in negative emotionality could
be predicted by genetic variation. These esti-
mates allow for environmental influences, but
genes do appear to influence characteristic emo-
tional responses to life circumstances.
When one examines personality influences in
more detail, the traits that are most consistently
linked to subjective well-being are extraversion
and neuroticism (Diener & Lucas, 1999). Lucas
and Fujita (2000) used meta-analytic and con-
firmatory factor analytic techniques to show
that extraversion is consistently correlated
moderately to strongly with pleasant affect; and
Fujita (1991) found that neuroticism and nega-
CHAPTER 5. SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING 67
tive affect are indistinguishable after controlling
for measurement error. While other personality
traits from the Five Factor Model (e.g., agree-
ableness, conscientiousness, and openness to ex-
perience) do correlate with subjective well-
being, these relations are smaller and less
consistent (see, e.g., Watson & Clark, 1992).
Thus, it can be said that an extraverted non-
neurotic has a head start in achieving happiness,
but that other traits, as well as life circum-
stances, matter as well.
Differences in subjective well-being also re-
sult from stable individual differences in how
people think about the world. Differences in the
accessibility of pleasant versus unpleasant in-
formation, as well as the accuracy and efficiency
with which people process pleasant versus un-
pleasant information influence subjective well-
being. Certain people attend to and recall the
pleasant aspects of life more than others. Sim-
ilarly, certain cognitive dispositions such as
hope (Snyder et al., 1991), dispositional opti-
mism (e.g., Scheier & Carver, 1993), and ex-
pectancy for control (Grob, Stetsenko, Sabatier,
Botcheva, & Macek, 1999) appear to influence
subjective well-being. It is not just who we are
that matters to happiness, but how we think
about our lives.
Current Findings
Demographic Correlates of Subjective
Well-Being
The strong association between temperament
and subjective well-being does not mean that
events and circumstances are irrelevant to peo-
ple’s subjective well-being. In the first major re-
view of happiness, Wilson (1967) showed that
both personality and demographic factors cor-
relate with subjective well-being. He stated that
the happy person is a “young, healthy, well-
educated, well-paid, extroverted, optimistic,
worry-free, religious, married person with high
self-esteem, job morale, modest aspirations, of
either sex and of a wide range of intelligence”
(p. 294). However. Campbell, Converse, and
Rodgers (1976) studied the well-being of Amer-
icans and found that demographic variables such
as age, income, and education did not account
for much variance in reports of well-being,
echoing earlier findings by Bradburn (1969) and
others. In the past 30 years, researchers syste-
matically cataloged the various demographic
68 PART III. EMOTION-FOCUSED APPROACHES
correlates of subjective well-being (Diener et al.,
1999), with a number of replicable findings
emerging: (a) demographic factors such as age,
sex, and income are related to subjective well-
being; (b) these effects are usually small; and (c)
most people are moderately happy, and thus,
demographic factors tend to distinguish between
people who are moderately happy and those
who are very happy (Diener & Diener, 1996).
Income, for example, is consistently related to
subjective well-being in both within-nation
(e.g., Diener et al., 1993; Haring, Stock, &
Okun, 1984) and between-nation analyses (e.g.,
Diener et al., 1993); but at both the individual
and the national level, income change over time
has little net effect on subjective well-being
(Diener et al., 1993; Diener & Suh, 1998). Goals
and expectations must be taken into account to
understand the relation between income and
subjective well-being; the benefits of a rising in-
come are offset if one’s material desires increase
even faster than wealth.
Age and sex are related to subjective well-
being, but these effects are small, too, and de-
pend on the component of subjective well-being
being measured. For example, in an inter-
national sample of 40 nations, Diener and Suh
(1998) found that although pleasant affect de-
clined across age cohorts, life satisfaction and
unpleasant affect showed little change. In two
separate international samples consisting of ap-
proximately 40 nations each, Lucas and Gohm
(2000) found that sex differences in subjective
well-being were small (only about one fifth of
a standard deviation difference), with women
reporting greater unpleasant and pleasant affect
(though only significant differences in unpleas-
ant affect were replicated across both interna-
tional samples). Based on these results, one
could not simply say that men are happier than
women or that the young are happier than the
old. The conclusion depends on the component
of subjective well-being that is measured.
Diener et al. (1999) argued that if theory in this
area is to progress, researchers must study the
separable components of subjective well-being—
“happiness” is not a single thing.
Similarly, researchers must be careful about
the conceptualization and measurement of in-
dependent variables. For example, Wilson
(1967) concluded that physical health is corre-
lated with subjective well-being. However, re-
cent findings qualify this conclusion: The rela-
tion depends on whether self-report or objective
ratings of health are assessed. Although self-
reported health correlates positively with sub-
jective well-being (e.g., Okun, Stock, & Haring,
1984), the correlation is weak when objective
health ratings are examined (Watten, Vassend,
Myhrer, & Syversen, 1997). Subjective well-
being influences the subjective perception of
health, and this inflates the correlation between
subjective well-being and subjective health. It
appears that the way people perceive the world
is much more important to happiness than ob-
jective circumstances.
Other demographic characteristics such as
marital status and religious activity are also
positively correlated with subjective well-being;
but the effects of marriage can differ for men
and women, and the effects of religious activity
may depend on the specific type of religiosity
being assessed. Thus, the answer to whether
particular demographic factors increase subjec-
tive well-being is likely dependent on people’s
values and goals, personality, and culture.
Culture and Subjective Well-Being
In recent years, cultural differences in subjective
well-being (see Diener & Suh, 2000) have been
explored, with a realization that there are pro-
found differences in what makes people happy.
Self-esteem, for example, is less strongly asso-
ciated with life satisfaction (Diener & Diener,
1995), and extraversion is less strongly associ-
ated with pleasant affect (Lucas, Diener, Grob,
Suh, & Shao, 2000) in collectivist cultures than
in individualist cultures. Similarly, Suh (1999)
found that there are cultural differences in the
importance of personality congruence. Person-
ality congruence reflects the extent to which a
person’s behaviors are consistent across situa-
tions and with the person’s inner feelings. Al-
though the importance of personality con-
gruence is often emphasized in Western
psychology, it is not universally important. Suh
found that collectivists are less congruent than
individualists, and that congruence is less
strongly related to subjective well-being among
collectivists. Suh et al. (1998) also found that
among collectivists, the extent to which one’s
life accords with the wishes of significant others
is more important than the emotions that the
person feels in predicting his or her life satis-
faction.
By examining between-nation differences in
wealth and subjective well-being, researchers
have arrived at a more complete understanding
of the relation between income and happiness.

Some argue that wealth leads to higher subjec-
tive well-being only within the poorest nations.
According to this idea, wealth influences sub-
jective well-being when basic needs are in dan-
ger of not being met. However, Diener, Diener,
and Diener (1995) found that even when levels
of basic needs were controlled, income had a
significant and moderate effect on national sub-
jective well-being. Thus, people in the wealthi-
est nations tend to be the happiest. This might
be because they possess more material goods,
but it also could be because the wealthiest
nations experience higher levels of human
rights, greater longevity, and more equality.
Because demographic variables have different
consequences in different cultures, these corre-
lates can vary in importance. For example, mar-
riage is an important demographic correlate of
subjective well-being (Diener, Gohm, Suh, &
Oishi, 2000). However, it is unclear whether the
benefits of marriage result from the love and
companionship that accompany long-term rela-
tionships or from the social approval that mar-
ried couples receive. Diener, Gohm, Suh, and
Oishi (2000) found that unmarried individuals
who lived together were happier than married or
single individuals in individualist cultures (sug-
gesting that in these cultures companionship is
more important than social approval), but un-
married partners who lived together were less
happy than married or single individuals in col-
lectivist cultures (suggesting that in these cul-
tures social approval is an important benefit of
marriage). Thus, cultural norms can change the
correlates of subjective well-being.
Interventions
Interventions to increase subjective well-being
are important not only because it feels good to
be happy but also because happy people tend to
volunteer more, have more positive work be-
havior, and exhibit other desirable characteris-
tics. Because of the roots of the field of subjec-
tive well-being in survey research, few direct
intervention efforts have been implemented.
However, Fordyce (1977, 1983) published sev-
eral studies in which he evaluated a program
designed to boost people’s happiness. The pro-
gram is based on the idea that people’s subjec-
tive well-being can be increased if they learn to
imitate the traits of happy people, characteristics
such as being organized, keeping busy, spending
more time socializing, developing a positive
CHAPTER 5. SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING 69
outlook, and working on a healthy personality.
Fordyce found that the program produced in-
creases in happiness compared with a placebo
control, as well as compared with participants in
conditions receiving only partial information. In
a follow-up 9 to 28 months after the study, For-
dyce found that there were lasting effects of his
intervention.
Seligman, Reivich, Jaycox, and Gillham
(1995) performed an experimental study with
children in which the treatment groups were
exposed to optimism training. Through cogni-
tive training and social-problem solving, ele-
mentary school children who were at risk for
depression were taught to see the bright side of
events. After the intervention, the treatment
groups were significantly less depressed than
the control group, and this effect grew over the
period of the study’s 2-year follow-up.
Clearly, more efforts to enhance subjective
well-being are needed, along with rigorous
methods to evaluate these interventions. For ex-
ample, more diverse dependent variables and
measuring instruments would be salutary, as
well as explorations of which interventions are
most beneficial, and why. The positive benefits
of the few existing experiments, however, sug-
gest that programs designed to enhance subjec-
tive well-being can be quite effective.
Future Research
In terms of measurement and research methods,
many researchers have relied solely on global
retrospective self-reports. A series of construct
validation studies by Diener and colleagues
(e.g., Lucas et al., 1996; Sandvik et al., 1993)
illustrated that global self-reports have a degree
of validity. However, it is still unclear to what
extent individual and cultural differences found
in global reports are accurate reflections of dif-
ferences in on-line experiences or are manifes-
tations of processes related to global ways peo-
ple see themselves. What is needed is a battery
of subjective well-being measures based on on-
line experiences, informant reports, biological
measures, and cognitive measures that assess
the accessibility of positive events in memory.
In addition to better measures, we need many
more longitudinal studies in order to assess
variables in a temporal order.
In terms of substantive areas, more attention
should be paid to developmental processes in-
volving subjective well-being. In particular,
70 PART III. EMOTION-FOCUSED APPROACHES
given recent advances in infant/child tempera-
ment research (e.g., Goldsmith, 1996; Rothbart
& Ahadi, 1995), the link between positive af-
fectivity in infancy and childhood and subjective
well-being in adulthood should be explored, not
only in terms of stability but also with respect
to the mechanisms that operate in maintaining
or changing one’s susceptibility to positive
stimuli throughout life. Similarly, a longitudi-
nal approach should be taken in an investigation
of society and culture. Specifically, the way in
which changes in macro systems (e.g., political,
economic, and cultural) have an impact on peo-
ple’s well-being should be examined more care-
fully to create the happy societies Bentham and
others envisioned.
In 1949, Henry Murray and Clyde Kluck-
hohn claimed that “Aristotle’s assertion that the
only rational goal of goals is happiness has
never been successfully refuted as far as we
know, but, as yet no scientist has ventured to
break ground for a psychology of happiness”
(p. 13). As demonstrated in this chapter, scien-
tists have now begun the scientific study of hap-
piness. Although the happy person is more
likely to be from a wealthy nation and have
enough resources to pursue his or her particular
goals, characteristics such as a positive outlook,
meaningful goals, close social relationships, and
a temperament characterized by low worry are
very important to high subjective well-being.
We look to the day when effective interventions
based on scientific findings will provide a readily
available way to increase happiness.
APPENDIX
Satisfaction with Life Scale
Below are five statements that you may agree
or disagree with. Using the 1–7 scale below in-
dicate your agreement with each item by plac-
ing the appropriate number on the line preced-
ing that item. Please be open and honest in your
responding.
7 Strongly agree
6 Agree
5 Slightly agree
4 Neither agree nor disagree
3 Slightly disagree
2 Disagree
1 Strongly disagree
In most ways my life is close to my
ideal
The conditions of my life are excellent
I am satisfied with my life
So far I have gotten the important
things I want in life
If I could live my life over, I would
change almost nothing
Scoring and Interpretation of the Scale
Add up your answers to the five items and use
the following normative information to help in
“interpretation:”
5–9 Extremely dissatisfied with your life
10–14 Very dissatisfied with your life
15–19 Slightly dissatisfied with your life
20 About neutral
21–25 Somewhat satisfied with your life
26–30 Very satisfied with your life
31–35 Extremely satisfied with your life
Most Americans score in the 21–25 range. A
score above 25 indicates that you are more sat-
isfied than most people. The Satisfaction with
Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin,
1985).
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 Chapter VII

The Ananda Brahman

T
HE WAY of devotion in the integral synthetic Yoga will
take the form of a seeking after the Divine through love
and delight and a seizing with joy on all the ways of his
being. It will find its acme in a perfect union of love and a perfect
enjoyment of all the ways of the soul’s intimacy with God. It may
start from knowledge or it may start from works, but it will then
turn knowledge into a joy of luminous union with the being of
the Beloved and turn works into a joy of the active union of our
being with the will and the power of being of the Beloved. Or it
may start directly from love and delight; it will then take both
these other things into itself and will develop them as part of the
complete joy of oneness.
The beginning of the heart’s attraction to the Divine may be
impersonal, the touch of an impersonal joy in something univer-
sal or transcendent that has revealed itself directly or indirectly
to our emotional or our aesthetic being or to our capacity of spir-
itual felicity. That which we thus grow aware of is the Ananda
Brahman, the bliss existence. There is an adoration of an imper-
sonal Delight and Beauty, of a pure and an infinite perfection to
which we can give no name or form, a moved attraction of the
soul to some ideal and infinite Presence, Power, existence in the
world or beyond it, which in some way becomes psychologically
or spiritually sensible to us and then more and more intimate
and real. That is the call, the touch of the bliss existence upon
us. Then to have always the joy and nearness of its presence, to
know what it is, so as to satisfy the intellect and the intuitional
mind of its constant reality, to put our passive and, so far as we
can manage it, our active, our inner immortal and even our outer
mortal being into perfect harmony with it, grow into a necessity
of our living. And to open ourselves to it is what we feel to be
the one true happiness, to live into it the sole real perfection.
594 The Yoga of Divine Love

A transcendent Bliss, unimaginable and inexpressible by the

mind and speech, is the nature of the Ineffable. That broods
immanent and secret in the whole universe and in everything in
the universe. Its presence is described as a secret ether of the bliss
of being, of which the Scripture says that, if this were not, none
could for a moment breathe or live. And this spiritual bliss is
here also in our hearts. It is hidden in from the toil of the surface
mind which catches only at weak and flawed translations of
it into various mental, vital and physical forms of the joy of
existence. But if the mind has once grown sufficiently subtle and
pure in its receptions and not limited by the grosser nature of
our outward responses to existence, we can take a reflection of
it which will wear perhaps wholly or predominantly the hue of
whatever is strongest in our nature. It may present itself first as a
yearning for some universal Beauty which we feel in Nature and
man and in all that is around us; or we may have the intuition
of some transcendent Beauty of which all apparent beauty here
is only a symbol. That is how it may come to those in whom
the aesthetic being is developed and insistent and the instincts
which, when they find form of expression, make the poet and
artist, are predominant. Or it may be the sense of a divine spirit
of love or else a helpful and compassionate infinite Presence in
the universe or behind or beyond it which responds to us when
we turn the need of our spirit towards it. So it may first show
itself when the emotional being is intensely developed. It may
come near to us in other ways, but always as a Power or Presence
of delight, beauty, love or peace which touches the mind, but is
beyond the forms these things take ordinarily in the mind.
For all joy, beauty, love, peace, delight are outflowings from
the Ananda Brahman, — all delight of the spirit, the intellect,
the imagination, aesthetic sense, ethical aspiration and satisfac-
tion, action, life, the body. And through all ways of our being
the Divine can touch us and make use of them to awaken and
liberate the spirit. But to reach the Ananda Brahman in itself the
mental reception of it must be subtilised, spiritualised, univer-
salised, discharged of everything that is turbid and limiting. For
when we draw quite near or enter into it, it is by an awakened
 The Ananda Brahman 595

spiritual sense of a transcendent and a universal Delight which

exists within and yet behind and beyond the contradictions
of the world and to which we can unite ourselves through a
growing universal and spiritual or a transcendental ecstasy.
Ordinarily, the mind is satisfied with reflecting this Infinity
we perceive or with feeling the sense of it within and with-
out us, as an experience which, however frequent, yet remains
exceptional. It seems in itself so satisfying and wonderful when
it comes and our ordinary mind and the active life which we
have to lead may seem to us so incompatible with it, that we
may think it excessive to expect anything more. But the very
spirit of Yoga is this, to make the exceptional normal, and to
turn that which is above us and greater than our normal selves
into our own constant consciousness. Therefore we should not
hesitate to open ourselves more steadily to whatever experience
of the Infinite we have, to purify and intensify it, to make it our
object of constant thought and contemplation, till it becomes
the originating power that acts in us, the Godhead we adore
and embrace, our whole being is put into tune with it and it is
made the very self of our being.
Our experience of it has to be purified of any mental alloy
in it, otherwise it departs, we cannot hold it. And part of this
purification is that it shall cease to be dependent on any cause
or exciting condition of mind; it must become its own cause
and self-existent, source of all other delight, which will exist
only by it, and not attached to any cosmic or other image or
symbol through which we first came into contact with it. Our
experience of it has to be constantly intensified and made more
concentrated; otherwise we shall only reflect it in the mirror
of the imperfect mind and not reach that point of uplifting and
transfiguration by which we are carried beyond the mind into the
ineffable bliss. Object of our constant thought and contempla-
tion, it will turn all that is into itself, reveal itself as the universal
Ananda Brahman and make all existence its outpouring. If we
wait upon it for the inspiration of all our inner and our outer
acts, it will become the joy of the Divine pouring itself through
us in light and love and power on life and all that lives. Sought
596 The Yoga of Divine Love

by the adoration and love of the soul, it reveals itself as the

Godhead, we see in it the face of God and know the bliss of
our Lover. Tuning our whole being to it, we grow into a happy
perfection of likeness to it, a human rendering of the divine
nature. And when it becomes in every way the self of our self,
we are fulfilled in being and we bear the plenitude.
Brahman always reveals himself to us in three ways, within
ourselves, above our plane, around us in the universe. Within
us, there are two centres of the Purusha, the inner Soul through
which he touches us to our awakening; there is the Purusha in
the lotus of the heart which opens upward all our powers and the
Purusha in the thousand-petalled lotus whence descend through
the thought and will, opening the third eye in us, the lightnings
of vision and the fire of the divine energy. The bliss existence
may come to us through either one of these centres. When the
lotus of the heart breaks open, we feel a divine joy, love and
peace expanding in us like a flower of light which irradiates the
whole being. They can then unite themselves with their secret
source, the Divine in our hearts, and adore him as in a temple;
they can flow upwards to take possession of the thought and
the will and break out upward towards the Transcendent; they
stream out in thought and feeling and act towards all that is
around us. But so long as our normal being offers any obstacle
or is not wholly moulded into a response to this divine influence
or an instrument of this divine possession, the experience will
be intermittent and we may fall back constantly into our old
mortal heart; but by repetition, abhyāsa, or by the force of
our desire and adoration of the Divine, it will be progressively
remoulded until this abnormal experience becomes our natural
consciousness.
When the other upper lotus opens, the whole mind becomes
full of a divine light, joy and power, behind which is the Divine,
the Lord of our being on his throne with our soul beside him
or drawn inward into his rays; all the thought and will become
then a luminosity, power and ecstasy; in communication with the
Transcendent, this can pour down towards our mortal members
and flow by them outwards on the world. In this dawn too there
 The Ananda Brahman 597

are, as the Vedic mystics knew, our alternations of its day and
night, our exiles from the light; but as we grow in the power
to hold this new existence, we become able to look long on the
sun from which this irradiation proceeds and in our inner being
we can grow one body with it. Sometimes the rapidity of this
change depends on the strength of our longing for the Divine
thus revealed, and on the intensity of our force of seeking; but at
others it proceeds rather by a passive surrender to the rhythms
of his all-wise working which acts always by its own at first
inscrutable method. But the latter becomes the foundation when
our love and trust are complete and our whole being lies in the
clasp of a Power that is perfect love and wisdom.
The Divine reveals himself in the world around us when we
look upon that with a spiritual desire of delight that seeks him
in all things. There is often a sudden opening by which the veil
of forms is itself turned into a revelation. A universal spiritual
Presence, a universal peace, a universal infinite Delight has man-
ifested, immanent, embracing, all-penetrating. This Presence by
our love of it, our delight in it, our constant thought of it returns
and grows upon us; it becomes the thing that we see and all else
is only its habitation, form and symbol. Even all that is most
outward, the body, the form, the sound, whatever our senses
seize, are seen as this Presence; they cease to be physical and are
changed into a substance of spirit. This transformation means
a transformation of our own inner consciousness; we are taken
by the surrounding Presence into itself and we become part of
it. Our own mind, life, body become to us only its habitation
and temple, a form of its working and an instrument of its
self-expression. All is only soul and body of this delight.
This is the Divine seen around us and on our own physical
plane. But he may reveal himself above. We see or feel him as
a high-uplifted Presence, a great infinite of Ananda above us,
— or in it, our Father in heaven, — and do not feel or see him
in ourselves or around us. So long as we keep this vision, the
mortality in us is quelled by that Immortality; it feels the light,
power and joy and responds to it according to its capacity;
or it feels the descent of the spirit and it is then for a time
598 The Yoga of Divine Love

transformed or else uplifted into some lustre of reflection of the

light and power; it becomes a vessel of the Ananda. But at other
times it lapses into the old mortality and exists or works dully or
pettily in the ruck of its earthly habits. The complete redemption
comes by the descent of the divine Power into the human mind
and body and the remoulding of their inner life into the divine
image, — what the Vedic seers called the birth of the Son by
the sacrifice. It is in fact by a continual sacrifice or offering, a
sacrifice of adoration and aspiration, of works, of thought and
knowledge, of the mounting flame of the Godward will that we
build ourselves into the being of this Infinite.
When we possess firmly this consciousness of the Ananda
Brahman in all of these three manifestations, above, within,
around, we have the full oneness of it and embrace all existences
in its delight, peace, joy and love; then all the worlds become
the body of this self. But we have not the richest knowledge of
this Ananda if it is only an impersonal presence, largeness or
immanence that we feel, if our adoration has not been intimate
enough for this Being to reveal to us out of its wide-extended joy
the face and body and make us feel the hands of the Friend and
Lover. Its impersonality is the blissful greatness of the Brahman,
but from that can look out upon us the sweetness and intimate
control of the divine Personality. For Ananda is the presence of
the Self and Master of our being and the stream of its outflowing
can be the pure joy of his Lila.
Journal of Social Change
2017, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages 4–31
©Walden University, LLC, Minneapolis, MN
DOI: 10.5590/JOSC.2017.09.1.02

Happiness Index Methodology

Laura Musikanski
Happiness Alliance

Scott Cloutier
Arizona State University

Erica Bejarano
Arizona State University

Davi Briggs
Arizona State University

Julia Colbert
Arizona State University

Gracie Strasser
Arizona State University

Steven Russell
Arizona State University

The Happiness Index is a comprehensive survey instrument that assesses happiness, well-
being, and aspects of sustainability and resilience. The Happiness Alliance developed the
Happiness Index to provide a survey instrument to community organizers, researchers, and
others seeking to use a subjective well-being index and data. It is the only instrument of its
kind freely available worldwide and translated into over ten languages. This instrument can
be used to measure satisfaction with life and the conditions of life. It can also be used to
define income inequality, trust in government, sense of community and other aspects of well-
being within specific demographics of a population. This manuscript documents the
development the Happiness Index between 2011 and 2015, and includes suggestions for
implementation.

Keywords: survey, questionnaire, subjective well-being indicators, sustainability indicators,

happiness, well-being, quality of life, beyond GDP, community indicators

Please address queries to: Laura Musikanski, Happiness Alliance. Email: laura@happycounts.org
 Musikanski et al., 2017

Introduction
The Happiness Alliance is a nonprofit organization envisioning a world where all beings can thrive,
founded on a mission to improve societal well-being by increasing public understanding and
appreciation of factors that lead to life satisfaction, resilience, and sustainability. The mission of the
organization is based on evidence that when people and society implement happiness measures then
the value of individual happiness, the well-being of others, and concern for the sustainability of the
planet increase (Cloutier, Jambeck, & Scott, 2014; Pfeiffer & Cloutier, 2016; Zidanšek, 2007). The
increase is reflected via changed mindsets, decisions, and behaviors that improve personal and
community happiness, ecological sustainability, and public policy (Frey & Stutzer, 2011). The
Happiness Alliance’s mission is implemented through: (1) the provision of social engagement tools
and resources; (2) the sharing of general knowledge of economic, social, environmental, and
governance indicators; and (3) the support for grassroots activism. Although the Happiness Alliance
initially used the 2010 Greater Victoria Well-Being Survey as its evaluative tool, in 2011, the
organization developed its own Happiness Index (Victoria Foundation, 2010; Happiness Alliance,
2014b), modeled after the Kingdom of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness Index (GNHI)—an
alternative measure of progress to the frequently used gross domestic product (GDP).

The Concept of Gross National Happiness

The concept of gross national happiness (GNH) was developed of by the Kingdom of Bhutan in
response to pressures to use Gross National Product as the primary goal and metric for the
government (Ura et. al, 2012). In Bhutan, GNH is measured using the GNHI. The Bhutanese Gross
National Happiness Commission (n.d.), composed of the Prime Minister, Secretaries of all ministries
as well as other high level officials, has the mandate to “ensure all development policies and plans
are formulated and implemented in line with the principles of GNH” (p. 5). In 2015, the government
issued its third GNH report, Compass Towards a Just and Harmonious Society (The Center for
Bhutan Studies & GNH Research, 2015), finding that aspects of well-being that had improved
included mental well-being, physical health, youth literacy, participation in community events
countered by increases in working hours, satisfaction with government performance, and sense of
belonging. The sense in Bhutan is that the country’s development has been “comparatively
successful. Partly…due to the concept of GNH…” (p. 42).

The Concept of the Happiness Index

The Happiness Alliance took inspiration from Bhutan and followed suit. Between 2011 and 2016, the
Happiness Alliance’s survey instrument was called the Happiness Index and the GNHI
interchangeably. It was issued with a Creative Commons Attribution noncommercial
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/) license; meaning users could use it for any noncommercial
purposes as long as they credit the Happiness Alliance.

Domains of Happiness
The Happiness Index measures life satisfaction, the feeling of happiness, and other happiness
domains: psychological well-being, health, time balance, community, social support, education, arts
and culture, environment, governance, material well-being, and work (Happiness Alliance, 2014c).
The qualities measured in the domains are as follows:

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

● Psychological Well-Being: optimism, senses of purpose and of accomplishment;

● Health: energy level and ability to perform everyday activities;
● Time Balance: enjoyment, feeling rushed, and sense of leisure;
● Community: sense of belonging, volunteerism, and sense of safety;
● Social Support: satisfaction with friends and family, feeling loved, and feeling lonely;
● Education, Arts, and Culture: access to cultural and educational events and
diversity;
● Environment: access to nature, pollution, and conservation;
● Governance: trust in government, sense of corruption, and competency;
● Material Well-Being: financial security and meeting basic needs; and
● Work: compensation, autonomy, and productivity. (Happiness Alliance, 2014c)

Intended Uses of the Happiness Index

The Happiness Index is a tool for the use of researchers, community organizers and policy makers
seeking to understand and enhance individual happiness, community well-being, social justice,
economic equality, and environmental sustainability. The index was formed with the intent to
promote social change by making the survey instrument and data freely available to community
organizers, educators, researchers, students, organizations, government, and more. The index is
unique in that it is the only widely comprehensive index available for free online that survey takers
to access their own scores in comparison the entire data set, while also allowing users to customize
the tool for a target population, add their own questions to the survey instrument, and readily access
data for their own sample as well as comparison data to the entire data set.

Basis for Practical Utility

The aims of this resource are to (a) explain how the Happiness Index was created and refined in
iterative rounds, and (b) describe how the Happiness Index can contribute to a new paradigm of
sustainability, social justice, and happiness. A robust statistical analysis of the Happiness Index over
time is in consideration for a future paper. However, with over 200 applications of the index to
groups to date, and over half a decade of development, it is reasonable to deem that the index has
passed the rigor of practical utility. The Happiness Alliance has worked with many of these
practitioners and academics to apply the index since 2011, and has integrated feedback to improve
the tool through iterations. Users of the survey instrument, including scholars, policy makers and
community organizers, generally agree that the index passes face validity and is effective in
measuring happiness in communities and for groups, as intended.

Literature Review
Historically, governments have used GDP as a primary indicator of national well-being and growth
(Ovaska & Takashima, 2006). This is an incomplete strategy due to the disconnect between GDP and
personal income, and the gap between personal income and happiness. Not only can a country’s GDP
grow while per capita income declines for the vast majority of a population (Layard, 2005) but
personal income is only one factor of personal happiness and well-being (Diener, Tay & Oishi, 2013).
Other happiness factors include, but are not limited to: personal relationships, economic freedom,
political freedom, health, education, and income distribution (Ovaska & Takashima, 2006); although
these factors vary between individuals and across cultures. Several countries have started to
measure happiness in addition to or in lieu of GDP (Musikanski & Polley, 2016).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Happiness and the Economy

Generally, GDP cannot distinguish when economic activities have a positive or negative impact on
well-being (Ovaska & Takashima, 2006). For example, GDP does not take into account the hidden
costs of economic development, such as inflation and unemployment, and an overemphasis of GDP
diminishes the value of important well-being factors such as natural capital, knowledge, health, and
social capital (Frank, 1997; Ovaska & Takashima, 2006). Measuring happiness, therefore, should not
only consider observable objective well-being measures (e.g., health and socioeconomic status), but
also subjective well-being measures, such as domain satisfaction and quality of life. Easterlin (1974,
1995, 2001) argues that in the long-term monetary gains have relatively small effects on quality of
life.

Finally, as people may be the best judges of their own happiness, subjective well-being is measured
by asking individuals to assess their happiness by answering a single question or a multiple-item
survey (Frey & Luechinger, 2007; Diener & Pavot, 1993). The Happiness Alliance suggests that a
more holistic way to measure progress for governments and communities is by using a nonmonetary,
multidimensional approach that measures satisfaction and advancements across various life
domains, including economy, governance, environment, community, social support, culture, learning,
health, time-balance, and work. The Happiness Alliance considers the Happiness Index a holistic
measure, similar to alternative measures of progress employed by the Happy Planet Index and
GNHI (Marks, Abdallah, Simms, & Thompson, 2006; Ura, Alkire, Zangmo, & Wangdi, 2012).

The Happiness Index Development

While the use of a happiness metric is, in itself, a means to influence social change, the validity and
reliability of the survey and collected data is equally important. After working in communities, with
researchers, policy makers and others, the Happiness Alliance decided to publish this article as an
explanation of the development processes behind the Happiness Index. The goal is to inform users of
the index on the validity and reliability of the instrument and data collected to date. It is worth
reiterating here that the Happiness Alliance intends to undertake more robust statistical analyses in
future studies. But, the Happiness Alliance contends that the index, as it stands currently, has
established face validity through a cocreative iterative development process, spanning several years
of research by multiple academic and professional institutions.

The development process of the Happiness Index has been guided by the Happiness Alliance’s goals
of supporting positive social change, the quest for social justice, enhanced individual and societal
happiness and a sustainable future as well as governmental adoption of wider measures of well-
being to guide public policy. Modifications to the Happiness Index have been undertaken through an
organic and responsive process working with communities and community organizers since 2010.
The survey instrument is evolving, with core questions that do not change, much like the European
Social Survey (2006) and other instruments. The index is intended to be easily administered, quickly
completed by survey takers, while validly reflecting the main constructs that influence happiness. It
is also intended to produce data that community organizers and researchers can use to contribute to
a transformation of the economic and social paradigm. Examples of how researchers and community
organizers have used the survey instrument to gather data, analyzed and reported the data, and
used it to educate the public and inform policy can be seen on the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development’s Wikiprogress page dedicated to the Happiness Alliance
(http://wikiprogress.org/data/organization/happiness-alliance).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Development Overview
The Happiness Alliance hired the Personality and Well-Being Lab at San Francisco State University
to develop the Happiness Index in 2011, which resulted in Round 1 of the instrument. The
subsequent rounds were undertaken by staff and advisors to the Happiness Alliance. The following
description of the development phases of the survey instrument concisely explains the process of the
survey and index development to date.

The development procedures are described so survey instrument users understand the history of
data collected by the Happiness Alliance and can use the information when analyzing data. The
information may serve researchers seeking to understand the historical context of their own data
collection and to compare their data to other collected by the Happiness Index and by other survey
instruments. The description of the development procedures also ensures the reliability and validity
of the survey instrument.

Data Sources
The majority of the data collected by the Happiness Index are from convenience sampling that began
in January of 2011. A small portion of the data (less than 5%) was collected through random
samples. Most survey takers learned of the Happiness Index through word of mouth, media, or from
community organizers who took trainings from the Happiness Alliance on how to use the survey
instrument in their community, company, city, or state. The majority of survey takers come from the
United States (over 70%), with the balance from other countries. Over 85% of surveys are taken in
English, with the rest in certified translations of the survey instrument in Spanish, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, and other languages. Between 2011 and
2016, over 65,000 responses had been gathered at a rate of about 1,000–1,500 responses per month.

Survey Development Rounds

The survey instrument was developed in four distinct rounds (see Figure 1).

Rounds of Development
Round 1 of the Happiness Index assessed the relevance of the Bhutanese kingdom GNHI domains to
happiness, well-being, and quality of life. The GNHI domains include psychological well-being,
health, community vitality, living standard, governance, environment diversity, culture, education,
and time use (Ura et al., 2012). Round 2 focused on decreasing the time required to complete the
survey. Rounds 3 and 4 both focused on standardizing subjective well-being indicators and reducing
the survey length and time of completion.

Round 1: Survey Development

Round 1 of the survey was completed in five distinct phases (see Figure 2).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Figure 1. Happiness Index Development in Four Rounds Flowchart

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Figure 2. Happiness Index Round 1 Flowchart

Round 1, Phase 1. In Round 1, Phase 1, a questionnaire was arranged corresponding to the domains
of the GNHI developed by Bhutan, with several domains added. It contained the following domains
in order: (a) Satisfaction With Life; (b) Positive and Negative Experiences; (c) Domain Satisfaction;
(d) Psychological Well-Being; (e) Health; (f) Time Balance; (g) Community Vitality; (h) Social
Support; (i) Access to Education, Arts, and Culture; (j) Your Neighborhood; (k) Environmental
Quality; (l) Governance; (m) Material Well-Being; and (n) Work, followed by a section on
demographics (Happiness Alliance, 2011).

Round 1, Phase 1 resulted in an hour-long online survey. The survey was distributed to
approximately 10,000 people via existing email lists gathered by Sustainable Seattle, a national
nonprofit internationally renowned for creating the first regional sustainability indicators, and Take
Back Your Time, a national organization that raises awareness on the issue of overworking (Holden,
2006; Take Back Your Time, n.d.). A total of 515 individuals completed the survey. At the end of the
survey, participants were asked to provide any additional comments regarding survey improvement.

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Round 1, Phase 2. Round 1, Phase 2 consisted of a factor analysis, corrected item-total correlation
analysis, reliability analyses, convergent correlation analysis, and analysis of participant feedback to
determine the questions that best fit each domain. (The Personality and Well-Being Lab at San
Francisco State University did not provide the results of the analysis to the Happiness Alliance, and
hence this data is not included in this resource. They did, however, provide assurance of validity
determined by their own analysis.) Results of Round 1, Phase 2 yielded 15 domains. After this phase,
the time it took to take the survey was reduced from approximately 1 hr to approximately 30 min.

Round 1, Phase 3. Next, Round 1, Phase 3 was initiated. During this phase, the refined survey was
shared through Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) website. MTurk participants were paid a
nominal fee for their participation. The objective of Round 1, Phase 3 was to reduce the number of
items for the domains from approximately 14 to eight or less with the criteria that the items would
maximize the internal consistency and predictive validity of the Happiness Index survey while also
providing a breadth of coverage. The only sections that were not reduced during this phase were
Positive and Negative Experience, Domain Satisfaction, and Your Neighborhood. To better test for
convergent validity, the survey included a question asking each participant to indicate their level of
satisfaction with the operational definitions of the 10 Happiness Index domains. As a result of Round
1, Phase 3, the number of items for each domain was reduced to an average of eight and the survey
time decreased from approximately 30 min to approximately 15 min.

Round 1, Phase 4. Round 1, Phase 4 was subsequently implemented to test the new survey version.
The survey was reposted on Mturk and the original survey takers were excluded from participation.
Phase 4 included one additional modification: The response scales became 5-point Likert scales for
all domains except the first two, which were scaled between 0 and 10. The domains were then
assessed by the Personality and Well-Being Lab at San Francisco State University to ensure that (a)
they formed a single factor using factor analysis, (b) they were internally consistent with their alpha
coefficients being greater than .70, and (c) the sum of the scale significantly (p < .05) correlated with
the satisfaction rating at the beginning of the survey it was intended to predict.

Round 1, Phase 5. Finally, in Round 1, Phase 5, a nationally representative sample of adults was
recruited through SurveyMonkey.com. During this phase 578 participants completed the survey.
Subsequently, a factor analysis of variance, internal consistency of data, and correlation with the
satisfaction rating confirmed the validity of the survey.

Round 2: Domain and Question Reduction

As with Round 1, Phase 3, the purpose of Round 2 was to reduce the time it took to take the survey.
The value that guided the shortening of the survey instrument was usefulness to community
organizers and professors administering the survey instrument for courses. Early conversations with
professional pollsters from Gallup (J. de Graff, personal communication, November 2, 2010) and
other polling companies (A. Davis, personal communication, November 11, 2011) confirmed that a
survey longer than 12 min to administer rendered the instrument overwhelming to most survey
takers. An aspect of usefulness considered was the applicability of the survey for random polling, in
which professional pollsters strongly advised the Happiness Alliance to ensure the survey
instrument took less than 12 min to complete or about 60 questions, not including demographic
questions.

Round 2: Domain and Question Reduction

During Round 2, questions and domains were eliminated: four questions from the Access to
Education, Arts, and Culture section after a correlation analysis, and the two domains of Your
Neighborhood and Domain Satisfaction. The domains of Your Neighborhood and Domain

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Satisfaction had initially been included to verify that data gathered by convenience sampling
correlated to well-being. The Happiness Alliance conducted a statistical analysis of this correlation
during this phase and deemed that it was no longer necessary to gather the data from these
domains. Furthermore, survey participant feedback suggested that the data collected within these
domains does not necessarily bolster the survey’s intended purpose.

The second domain, Positive and Negative Experiences, was reduced from 12 to four questions. In
the end, Round 2 of the survey contained the same domains as Round 1, in the same order, with the
exclusion of Domain Satisfaction and Your Neighborhood. Round 2 resulted in the following domains
in order: (a) Satisfaction With Life; (b) Positive and Negative Experiences; (c) Psychological Well-
Being; (d) Health; (e) Time Balance; (f) Community Vitality; (g) Social Support; (h) Access to
Education, Arts, and Culture; (i) Environmental Quality; (j) Governance; (k) Material Well-Being; (l)
Work; and (m) Demographics.

Round 3: Survey Standardization

The values that guided Round 3 were to foster standardization among subjective well-being
indicators and to further shorten survey time. The primary benefit of standardization among
indicators is that it allows comparability across geographic, demographics and time. While the
harmonization of subjective well-being indicators is important, whereby each population develops its
own indicators tailored to its own unique circumstances, the standardization of subjective well-being
indicators, in which each population shares a common set of indicators, is central to progress
towards the adoption of wider indicators of well-being by national and local governments seeking to
protect and secure people’s right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

In Round 3, the second domain, Positive and Negative Experience, was replaced by questions from
the U.K. Office for National Statistics. This replacement was made in an effort to contribute to
progress in the happiness movement and to help standardize subjective well-being indicators.
Questions about fiscal and monetary policy, social policy, political orientation, household net wealth,
late payments to creditors, and methods for meeting unplanned expenses were eliminated from the
demographic section. The domains within the survey did not change.

Round 4: Survey Honing

The purpose of Round 4 was to eliminate unnecessary questions and shorten the survey. Questions
were deemed unnecessary when they yielded the same statistical analysis as another question,
thereby not providing new information. Correlation analyses were conducted by staff and board
directors of the Happiness Alliance using data gathered through a convenience sampling conducted
between November 2011, and July 2014. Over 95% of the sampling was conducted online and
participants learned about the survey through media, word of mouth, and from grassroots activists
who had taken the trainings conducted by the Happiness Alliance and used the Happiness Index in
their work. More than 85% of the survey takers were from the United States, with the remainder
from around the world. The survey had been translated into Spanish, Chinese Traditional, Chinese
Simple, Vietnamese, Filipino (Tagalog), Romanian, Oromo, and Somali. All of the data were collated
in one database.

In total, 14 questions were eliminated resulting in a survey with 50 domain questions and 15
demographic questions, a total of 65 questions (see Appendices A and B). Additionally, in Round 4,
sections were renamed and section numbers revised so as to no longer contain references to
eliminated sections. Round 4 resulted in the following domains in the following order: (a) Cantril
Ladder; (b) Satisfaction With Life; (c) Psychological Well-Being; (d) Health; (e) Time Balance; (f)

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Lifelong Learning, Arts, and Culture; (g) Community; (h) Social Support; (i) Environment; (j)
Governance; (k) Standard of Living/Economy; (l) Work; and (m) Demographics.

Cantril Ladder
The Happiness Index draws on well-known reliable and valid scales like the Cantril Ladder to assess
domains of happiness. The Cantril Ladder, also known as Cantril’s Self-Anchoring Ladder of Life
Satisfaction, measures life satisfaction by asking participants to imagine their ideal life and hopes
for the future as well as the worst future scenario of their lives and fears associated with that future.
They are then are presented with a series of pictures of a ladder and mark where they see
themselves in the past, present, and future (Cantril, 1965; Levin & Currie, 2014). The Cantril’s
Ladder method is frequently applied in the literature on well-being and is often used to test the
validity of other measures (Cramm, Starting, de Vreede, Steverink, & Nieboer, 2012; Oliver, Huxley,
Priebe & Kaiser, 1997). It has also been integrated widely into questionnaires and composite indexes
across disciplines (Jaarsma et al., 1999; Kahneman & Deaton, 2010; Levin & Currie, 2014;
Svindseth, Nøttestad, & Dahl, 2013; Szramka-Pawlak et al., 2014).

Providing a Comprehensive Survey Instrument

Through Rounds 2–4, the survey was shortened in an attempt to improve survey completion rates,
while also maintaining survey validity and reliability. Round 4 resulted in a survey instrument that
is shorter in length than the other rounds and offers a more precise measure for each domain of well-
being. Round 4 of the survey instrument provides continuity in the comprehensive measuring of
well-being as encompassed by all the domains.

Because the Happiness Index is primarily used for convenience sampling, and data is collected
without compensation, it is paramount that the survey be as attractive and easy to use for volunteer
participants as possible. Likewise, due to the fact that policy makers, community organizers,
academics, consultants, therapists, and others use data gathered through the Happiness Index, it is
vital that the questions measure well-being as accurately as possible. The refinement process
undertaken in rounds allowed the Happiness Alliance to balance brevity and precision within a
comprehensive survey instrument: the Happiness Index.

Suggestions for Implementing the Happiness Index

The Happiness Index was created as a tool for organizations, researchers, and social actors. Through
the refinement process and the use of the survey for groups by community organizers, researchers
and others since 2011, the Happiness Alliance has identified a number of functions the survey and
its data can serve: group assessment, individual assessment, identification of vulnerability in
populations, fundraising, policy and program guidance, resource allocation, awareness raising,
education and outreach, life-skill development, academic research, community engagement, and
program or project evaluation, among other functions.

Assessing and Using the Happiness Index

The Happiness Index can be readily accessed online and users can create a group for administering
the survey online (http://www.happycounts.org/how-happy-are-you-take-the-gross-national-
happiness-index-survey.html). When using the Happiness Index for a group, it is most facilely
distributed via online, such as web pages, social media cites, newsletters, memos, briefings, or other
media. In some cases, the survey is distributed in a paper form as survey takers do not have access
to the Internet. The Happiness Alliance provides a downloadable file for printing for these cases

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

(http://www.happycounts.org/for-researchers.html). Guides, videos, presentations, and examples

based on prior use of the survey instrument by community organizers, researchers, media, nonprofits
and others are provided freely online by the Happiness Alliance (http://www.happycounts.org/happy-
community-toolkit.html).

Measuring for Positive Social Change

The Happiness Index can be used to measure: the impact of social injustice, climate injustice, income
inequality, disengagement from the democratic process, loneliness, isolation, ill health, and other
aspects of human suffering within a population or within specific demographics of a population. The
data gathered by the index provides measurement of often-excluded concepts such as social justice,
where objective data does not always provide a complete picture. Moreover, analyses of varying
demographic aspects of a population often reveal unexpected information about who is suffering and
who is thriving within a population. The survey can be used, and has been used by communities to
measure gaps in well-being according to race, income level, zip code, education, age, gender, and
household characteristics. Finally, summarized data and recommendations can be, and has been,
shared with policy makers, and used to inform public conversations and policy makers’ decisions
about budgeting.

Measuring for Education

In an educational setting, the Happiness Index can contribute to a variety of learning activities. For
example, lecturers can invite their audiences to take the survey before or after an event. If the
questionnaire is used before an event, the scores can be incorporated into a lecture or informal talk
and used for an interactive session with the audience. Explaining the relationship of the domains of
happiness to individual happiness can provide a personalized way to understand the concepts of
sustainability, well-being, quality of life, and happiness. The Happiness Index can also contribute to
class assignments and research projects and act as a qualitative methods learning tool. The
Happiness Alliance provides full data sets to students and researchers who agree to the protection of
personal data policy (however, emails and profile information are never shared). The survey has
undergone institutional review board reviews at several universities, and was included within course
curricula. It has been administered for a random sample on a campus by a student class learning the
concepts of survey development, random sampling, and data analysis. It has been used in classes as
extra-credit assignments where an institutional review board review process was not performed.
Finally, the data collected since 2011 has been used for analysis in master’s theses and doctoral
dissertations.

Conclusion
The Happiness Alliance’s Happiness Index has been used by over 200 groups since 2011. It was
developed out of a growing interest to (a) understand and evaluate personal and community well-
being as it relates to happiness, sustainability, and quality of life; (b) address the need for, and lack
of, existing freely available valid survey-based well-being measurement tools for community
organizers, researchers, and others; (c) shape personal, community, organizational, and societal
strategies and policies in a way that enhances the connected concepts of happiness, well-being,
quality of life, and sustainability; and, ultimately, (d) the adoption of wider measures of well-being
by governments protecting and securing people’s right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. The
survey was developed over a series of four rounds, each of which sought to streamline and clarify the
measurement instrument. Based on experience gathered by the use of the Happiness Index for
groups since 2011, the Happiness Index has and can serve as a valuable tool for advancing
happiness, well-being, quality of life, sustainability, and social change. Researchers, teachers,

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students, policy makers, community organizers, managers and business leaders, therapists and
consultants, speakers and authors, and others are invited to use the Happiness Index in their work.
The Happiness Index is one piece of the puzzle that completes a picture conveying the importance of
happiness, and the happiness movement as a new environmental, social, and economic paradigm to
enhance quality of life and sustainability for all beings.

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S) among older patients shortly after hospitalization. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes,
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(Appendices follow)

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Appendix A
Questions in Round 4 of the Happiness Index and Sources
Below are the sources for each question in Round 4 of the Happiness Index. It is organized by
domains. Each domain lists the full text of the questions with answer choices followed by the
sources.

Domain 1: Cantril Ladder

The first domain has one question: the Cantril Ladder.

Question
There is one question in Domain 1:

Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top.
Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the
bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible. If the top step is 10 and the bottom step is
0, on which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?
(Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development [OECD], 2013, p. 249)

Answers
The answers are on an 11-point scale rated from 0 (worst possible life for you) to 10 (best possible life
for you). This question is Cantril’s self-anchoring ladder (OECD, 2013).

Domain 2: Satisfaction With Life

The second domain has four questions. They are the same as those used by the Government of the
United Kingdom for measuring well-being.

Questions
There are four questions in Domain 2: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?”
“Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?” “Overall, how
happy did you feel yesterday?” “Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?”

Answers
The answer choices are on an 11-point scale rated from 0 (not at all) to 10 (completely). The source of
the questions is the U.K. Office for National Statistics Personal Well-Being (2015).

Domain 3: Psychological Well-Being

There are five questions in Domain 3. They measure mental well-being, also termed psychological
health or flourishing.

Questions
The five questions in Domain 3 ask to what extent participants agree with the following statements:
“I lead a purposeful and meaningful life,” “I am engaged and interested in my daily activities”
(OECD, 2013), “I am optimistic about my future,” “Most days I feel a sense of accomplishment from
what I do,” and “In general, I feel positive about myself” (Huppert & So, 2011, p. 843).

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Answers
The answer choices in this domain and in all subsequent domains except the demographic section
are on a 5-point scale rated 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree),
and 4 (strongly agree). The source for the first two questions is Diener and Biswas’ Psychological
Well-Being Scale (OECD, 2013). The source for the last three questions is the European Social
Survey 2003 (Huppert & So, 2011).

Domain 4: Health
There are four questions in Domain 4 that measure physical health.

Questions
The first question is “In general, I would say my health is (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent).”
This question is adapted from the World Health Organization (2002), in which the question is “How
satisfied are you with your health?” (p. 14). The second is “Please indicate how much of the time
during the past week you had a lot of energy.” This question is adapted from the World Health
Organization question, “Do you have enough energy for everyday life?” (p. 11).

The third and fourth questions ask participants to rate their level of satisfaction. “How satisfied
were you with your ability to perform your daily living activities?” “How satisfied were you with the
quality of your exercise?” The source of the third question is the World Health Organization (2002),
in which the question is “How satisfied are you with your ability to perform your daily living
activities?” (p. 15). The fourth question is an adaptation of a question used by the United Kingdom
Department of Health (2006), in which the question is “During the last week, how many hours did
you spend on each of the following activities? Physical exercise such as swimming, jogging, aerobics,
football, tennis, gym, workout, etc.” (p. 2).

Answers
The answer choices for the second question are 0 (very rarely or never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3
(often), and 4 (very often or always; World Health Organization, 2002, p. 11). The answer choices for
the third and fourth questions are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor
dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied; p. 15).

Domain 5: Time Balance

There are three questions in the Time Balance domain. They address time balance from three
perspectives. The time balance domain does not include a question about work–life balance. A
question about work–life balance is included in the work domain.

Questions
The first question is “In a typical week, how much of your time are you able to spend doing the kinds
of things that you enjoy?” The second two questions ask participants to think specifically about how
things were for them over the past week. “My life has been too rushed.” “I have plenty of spare time.”

Answers
The answers choices for the first question are 0 (none of my time), 1 (not much of my time), 2 (some of
my time), 3 (most of my time), and 4 (all of my time). The answer choices for the second and third
questions are 0 (strongly agree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly
agree). The source of both questions is Kasser and Sheldon (2009, p. 247).

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Domain 6: Lifelong Learning, Arts, and Culture

There are four questions in the Lifelong Learning, Arts, and Culture domain. They are about access
to lifelong learning, arts, and culture as well as about diversity and inclusion.

Questions
The first three questions ask how satisfied participants are in their neighborhood or community with
“Your access to sports and recreational activities?” “Your access to artistic and cultural activities?”
and “Your access to activities to develop skills through informal education?” (Victoria Foundation,
2010, p. 15). Local governments in Australia used similar questions in 2012 (Morton & Edwards,
2012). The questions were as follows: “How adequate are the opportunities in your local community
for you to effectively engage in (a) sports and recreation, (b) art and cultural activities?” (p. 13) and
“How would you rate the adequacy of the following services in your local community in terms of your
needs and well-being: Education?” (p. 19).

The fourth question in this domain is “How often do you feel uncomfortable or out of place in your
neighborhood because of your ethnicity, culture, race, skin color, language, accent, gender, sexual
orientation, or religion?” (Tran, 2006, p. 6). Tran’s question is “How often do you feel uncomfortable
or out of place in Canada now because of your ethnicity, culture, race, skin colour, language, accent
or religion?” (p. 6). This question is similar to a question in the 2010 Greater Victoria Well-Being
Survey, except that the time frame is the last 5 years and the question begins with the sentence
“Discrimination may happen when people are treated unfairly because they are being seen as
different from others.” (p. 15). This question is also similar to two questions used by Kessler,
Mickelson, and William (1999): “How many times in your life have you been discriminated against in
each of the following ways because of such things as your race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion,
physical appearance, sexual orientation, or other characteristics?” (Section VI) and “(number of times
in your life...) You were prevented from remaining in a neighborhood because neighbors made life so
uncomfortable?” (Section VI).

Answers
The answer choice to the first three questions are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2 (neither
satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied; Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 15). The
answer choices for the fourth questions are 0 (never), 1 (rarely), 2 (some of the time), 3 (most of the
time), and 4 (all of the time; Tran, 2006, p. 6).

Domain 7: Community
There are seven questions in the Community domain, including questions about a sense of belonging,
volunteerism, donation activity, and trust, as well as a question about a lost wallet.

Questions
The first question in the community domain is “How would you describe your feeling of belonging to
your local community?” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 6). The answer choices are “very weak,
somewhat weak, neither weak nor strong, somewhat strong, very strong” (p. 6). The source of the
questions is the 2010 Greater Victoria Well-Being Survey (Victoria Foundation, 2010), in which the
question is “How would you describe your sense of belonging to your local community? Would you say
it is?” (p. 6). This question is similar to a question in the Detroit Area Study 2001: Quality of Life in
the Metro-Detroit Area (Marans, 2001), in which the question is “Here are some statements about
neighbors and neighborhoods. For each statement, please tell me if you strongly agree, agree, neither
agree nor disagree, disagree, or strongly disagree? You feel like you belong to a community” (pp. 25–

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26). It is also similar to a question in the World Values Survey Wave 5 (World Values Survey, n.d.b),
in which the question is “People have different views about themselves and how they relate to the
world. Using this card, would you tell me how strongly you agree or disagree with each of the
following statements about how you see yourself? I see myself as part of my local community” (p. 19).

The second questions is “Please tell us how many of the following people you trust: Your neighbors”
(Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 6). The source of the second question is the 2010 Greater Victoria
Well-Being Survey (Victoria Foundation, 2010), in which the question is “How much do you
trust…Most strangers that you encounter” (p. 6). The World Values Survey Wave 6 (n.d.c) has a
similar question. It is “Could you tell me for each whether you trust people from this group
completely, somewhat, not very much or not at all? Your neighborhood” (p. 8).

The third questions is “Please tell us how many of the following people you trust: Businesses in your
community” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 6). The source of the third question is the 2010 Greater
Victoria Well-Being Survey (Victoria Foundation, 2010), in which the question is “How much do you
trust…Businesses in your community” (p. 6). The World Values Survey Waves 5 (n.d.a) and 6 (n.d.c)
have a similar question. It is “…could you tell me how much confidence you have in them: is it a
great deal of confidence, quite a lot of confidence, not very much confidence or none at all? Major
companies.” (World Values Survey, n.d.c, p. 9; World Values Survey, n.d.b, p. 11). The General Social
Survey (Smith, Marsden, Hout, & Kim, 2013) also has a similar question. It is “Confidence? Major
companies?” (Smith et al., 2013, p. 163).

The fourth question is “Imagine that you lost a wallet or purse that contained $200. Please indicate
how likely you think it would be to have all of your money returned to you if it was found by someone
who lives close by” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 17). The source of this question is the 2010 Greater
Victoria Well-Being Survey, in which the question is “If you lost a wallet or purse that contained two
hundred dollars, what is the likelihood of it being returned with the money in it if it was found by:
Someone who lives close by” (p. 17). This question is similar to the one used by the Gallup World Poll
2006 (Helliwell & Wang, 2011). The question is “In the city or area where you live, imagine that you
lost your wallet or something holding your identification or address and it was found by someone
else. Do you think your wallet (or your valuables) would be returned to you if it were found by
strangers” (Helliwell & Wang, 2011, pp. 74–75).

The fifth question is “How satisfied are you with your personal safety in your city or town?” The fifth
question is similar to a question in the International Well-Being Group’s (2013) Personal Well-Being
Index, in which the question is “How satisfied are you with…personal safely? How safe do you feel?”
(p. 11). The World Health Organization (2002) has similar questions including “How safe do you feel
in your daily life?” (p. 9), “Do you feel you are living in a safe and secure environment?” (p. 9), and
“How satisfied are you with your safety and security?” (p. 16). The Detroit Area Study 2001: Quality
of Life in the Metro-Detroit Area (Marans, 2001) also has similar questions including “How safe do
you feel about being out alone in your neighborhood during the day?” (p. 34), “How about at night—
how safe do you feel about being out alone in your neighborhood at night?” (p. 34), and “On a scale of
1 to 7, where 1 is completely dissatisfied and 7 is completely satisfied, how satisfied are you with
your personal safety in this neighborhood?” (p. 34). Gallup World Poll (2008) also has a similar
question, which is “Do you feel safe walking alone at night in the city or area where you life?” (p. 4).

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The sixth and seventh questions are “Using the scale below, please indicate how frequently you have
done these activities in the past 12 months: Volunteered your time to an organization. Donated
money to a charity” (Smith et al., 2013, pp. 634–635). The source of the questions is the General
Social Survey 2002. The questions in the General Social Survey 2002 are “During the past 12 months
how often have you done each of the following things: Done volunteer work for a charity” (Smith et
al., 2013, p. 634) and “During the past 12 months how often have you done each of the following
things: Given money to a charity” (Smith et al., 2013, p. 635). The Gallup World Poll (2008) has
similar questions, which are “Have you volunteered your time to an organization in the past month?”
(p. 2) and “Have you donated money to a charity in the past month?” (p. 2).

Answers
The answer choices for the second and third question about trust are 0 (trust none of them), 1 (trust a
few of them), 2 (trust some of them), 3 (trust most of them), and 4 (trust all of them; Victoria
Foundation, 2010, p. 6).

The answer choices for the fourth question regarding a lost wallet are 0 (not at all likely), 1
(somewhat likely), 2 (fairly likely), 3 (very likely), and 4 (extremely likely; Victoria Foundation, 2010,
p. 17).

The answer choices for the fifth question regarding personal safety are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1
(dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied).

The answer choices for the sixth and seventh questions regarding volunteerism and donating activity
are 0 (at least once a month), 1 (at least once every 3 months), 2 (at least once every 6 months), 3 (once
in the last year), and 4 (never; Smith et al., 2013, pp. 634–635).

Domain 8: Social Support

There are four questions in the Social Support domain. The questions measure satisfaction with
relationships, and feeling cared for, loved, and lonely.

Questions
The first question is “Please rate your level of satisfaction. How satisfied are you with your personal
relationships?” (World Health Organization, 2002, p. 15).

The second question is “To what extent do you agree with the following statement? People in my life
care about me” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 8). The source of the question is the 2010 Greater
Victoria Well-Being Survey (Victoria Foundation, 2010). This question is similar to a question in the
European Social Survey (2006), in which the question is “please say to what extent you agree or
disagree with each of the following statements…There are people in my life who really care about
me” (p. 52).

The third question is “Please indicate how much of the time during the past week...You felt loved.”
This question is similar to Seligman’s PERMA flourishing scale question “To what extent do you feel
loved?” (Hone, Jarden, Schofield, & Duncan, 2014, p. 70).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

The fourth question is “Please indicate how much of the time during the past week…You felt lonely”
(OECD, 2013, p. 250). The source of question is the European Social Survey well-being module
developed by Huppert et al. (2009). The question is “Please tell me how much of the time during the
past week…you felt lonely” (OECD, 2013, p. 250). This question is similar to a question in the U.K.
Office for National Statistics (2013) report Measuring National Well-being: Older people and
loneliness, 2013 that used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, Wave 5, 2009–2010
for the question “How often do you feel lonely?” (U.K. Office for National Statistics, 2013, p. 19). The
fourth question is also similar to the UCLA Loneliness Scale’s question “Indicate how often each of
the statements below is descriptive of you. 11. I feel completely alone” (Russell, 1996, p. 2).

Answers
The answer choices are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3
(satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied; World Health Organization, 2002, p. 15). The answer choices for the
second question about feeling cared about are 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor
disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly agree; Victoria Foundation, 2010, p. 8). The answer choice for the
third and fourth questions about feeling lonely and loved are 0 (very rarely or never), 1 (rarely), 2
(sometimes), 3 (often), and 4 (very often or always; OECD, 2013, p. 250).

Domain 9: Environment
There are four questions in the Environment domain. They measure access to nature, sense of
healthy or toxic environment, local natural preservation efforts and satisfaction with air quality.

Questions
The first question is “How healthy is your physical environment?” World Values Survey (1999–2004,
p. 17).

The second and third questions are “Please rate your level of satisfaction: How satisfied are you with
the efforts being made to preserve the natural environment in your neighborhood? How satisfied are
you with the opportunities that you have to enjoy nature” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, p.19). The
source of these questions is the 2010 Greater Victoria Well-Being Survey (Victoria Foundation,
2010). The Gallup World Poll (2008) has a similar question to the second question, which is “In your
country, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with efforts to preserve the environment?” (p. 3).

The fourth question is “How satisfied are you with the air quality in your environment?” (OECD,
2013, p. 262). The source of the fourth question is the International Well-Being Group’s (2006)
Personal Well-Being Index, in which the question is “How satisfied are you with the air quality in
your environment?” (OECD, 2013, p. 262). The fourth question is similar to a question in the Detroit
Area Study 2001: Quality of Life in the Metro-Detroit Area (Marans, 2001, p. 41), in which the
question is “…first issue is the loss of natural scenic areas. Would you say that this is a very serious
problem, a somewhat serious problem, not a serious problem, or not a problem at all in all. Air
pollution in (NAME OF COUNTY)” (p. 41). The World Values Survey (n.d.a) also has a similar
question, which is “How satisfied are you with your physical environment (e.g. pollution, climate,
noise, attractiveness)?” (p. 17). The Gallup World Poll (2008) also has another similar question,
which is “In your city or area where you live, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of air?”
(p. 3). In addition, Gallup’s (2012) Global States of Mind New Metrics for World Leaders report
included a similar question, which is “In the city or area where you life, are you satisfied or
dissatisfied with the quality of air?” (p. 5).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Answers
The answer choice for the first question regarding the health of the environment are 0 (not at all), 1
(a little), 2 (somewhat), 3 (very), and 4 (extremely; World Values Survey, n.d.a, p. 17). The answer
choices for the second and third question regarding satisfaction with access to and preservation of
nature are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and
4 (very satisfied; Victoria Foundation, 2010, p.19). The answer choices for the fourth question
regarding air quality are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3
(satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied; OECD, 2013, p. 262).

Domain 10: Governance

There are four questions in the governance domain. They include questions about sense of
corruption, sense of local officials caring about what people think, and satisfaction with local and
national government.

Questions
The first question is “State your level of agreement with the following statements: Corruption is
widespread throughout the government in my city or town” (Gallup World Poll, 2008, p. 4). The
source of question is the Gallup World Poll (2008), in which the question is “Is corruption is
widespread throughout the government in my city or town?” (p. 4).

The second question is “State your level of agreement with the following statements: The public
officials in my city or town pay attention to what people think” (Marans, 2001, p. 7). The source of
the question is the Detroit Area Study 2001: Quality of Life in the Metro-Detroit Area (Marans,
2001), in which the question is “Public officials in (NAME OF CITY/TOWNSHIP) pay attention to
what people think. How much do you agree or disagree?” (p. 7).

The third and fourth questions are “Please indicate how much confidence you have in the following
organizations: National government and. Local government” (Victoria Foundation, 2010, pp. 17–18).
The source of the third and fourth questions is the 2010 Greater Victoria Well-being Survey (Victoria
Foundation, 2010), in which the questions are “For the following organizations, please indicate how
much confidence you have in them: is it a great deal of confidence, quite a lot of confidence, not very
much confidence or no confidence? Federal government. Local government” (pp. 17–18). The World
Values Survey (n.d.a) Wave 4 has a similar question, which is “…how much confidence you have
in…The government (in your nation’s capital)” (p. 13). The Gallup World Poll (2008) also has a
similar question, which is “In this country, do you have confidence in national government?” (p. 4).

Answers
The answer choices for the third and fourth question regarding confidence in local and national
government are 0 (no confidence), 1 (not very much confidence), 2 (a fair amount of confidence), 3
(quite a lot of confidence), and 4 (a great deal of confidence; Victoria Foundation, 2010, pp. 17–18).
The answer choices for the first question about corruption are 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2
(neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly agree; Gallup World Poll, 2008, p. 4). The
answer choices for the second question regarding sense that public official pay attention to what
people think are 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree), and 4
(strongly agree; Marans, 2001, p. 7).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Domain 11: Standard of Living/Economy

There are four questions in the Standard of Living/Economy domain. They measure stress about
personal finance, getting by paycheck to paycheck, inability to afford food and sense of having
enough money.

Questions
The first question is “In general, how much stress do you feel about your personal finances?”
(Heartland Institute of Financial Education, 2006, p. 8). The source of the question is the Heartland
Institute of Financial Education, in which the question is “How stressed do you feel about your
personal finances in general?” (p. 8). The Heartland Institute of Financial Education has another
similar question, which is “What do you feel is the level of your financial stress today?” (p. 1). The

Gallup World Poll (2008) also has a similar question, which is “How concerned are you…based on
your current financial situation. Are you very worried, moderately worried, not too worries or not at
all worried about not being able to maintain the standard of living you enjoy?” (p. 7).

The second question is “How frequently do you find yourself just getting by financially and living
paycheck to paycheck?” (Heartland Institute of Financial Education, 2006, p. 7). The source of the
question is the Heartland Institute of Financial Education in which the question is “How frequently
do you find yourself just getting by financially and living paycheck to paycheck?” (p. 7).

The third question is “Please indicate how frequently you have had the following experiences in the
past 12 months. You ate less because there wasn’t enough food or money for food.” The question is
similar to a question in the Greater Victoria Well-being Survey (Victoria Foundation, 2010), in which
the question is “In the past 12 months, did any of the following happen to you? Decreased the size of
your meal or skipped meals because there wasn’t enough food or money for food?” (p. 3). This
question is similar to the Gallup World Poll (2008) question “Have there been times in the past 12
months when you did not have enough money to buy the food that you or your family?” (Gallup
World Poll, 2008, p. 3). Gallup’s (2012) Gallup World Path poll also has a similar question, which is
“Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy the food
that you and your family needed?” (p. 4). The Heartland Institute of Financial Education (2006) also
has a similar question, which is “How often does this happen to you? You want to go out to eat, go to
a movie or do something else and don’t go because you can’t afford to?” (p. 6).

The fourth question is “To what extent do you agree with the following statement? I have enough
money to buy things I want” (Kasser & Sheldon, 2009, p. 247). The source of the question is Kasser
and Sheldon, in which the question is “I have had enough money to buy the things that are
important to me” (p. 247).

Answers
The answer choices for the first question about stress over personal finances are “overwhelming
stress, high stress, moderate stress, low stress, no stress at all” (Heartland Institute of Financial
Education, 2006, p. 8). The answer choices for the second question regarding getting by paycheck to
paycheck are 0 (all the time), 1 (most of the time), 2 (sometimes), 3 (rarely), and 4 (never; p. 7). The
answer choices for the third question regarding having enough money for food are 0 (at least once a
month), 1 (at least once every 3 months), 2 (at least once every 6 months), 3 (once in the last year), and
4 (never). The answer choices are for the fourth question regarding having enough money are 0
(strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly agree)
(Kasser & Sheldon, 2009, p. 247).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Domain 12: Work

There are six questions in the Work domain. They measure satisfaction with work, work–life
balance, autonomy, pay, productivity, and job interest.

Questions
The first question asks participants to answer the following questions about their satisfaction with
their current working situation (if they are not working [unemployed, retired, a student,
homemaker, volunteer, or other], they are instructed to answer only the questions that apply to their
main activity or occupation). “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your current work
life? (Note: if you work or volunteer at more than one job, you should answer about the job you spend
the longest time working at).” The question is similar to a question in the General Social Survey
2010 quality of work life module, in which the question is “All in all, how satisfied would you say you
are with your job?” (p. 12). The General Social Survey 2002 (Smith et al., 2013) also has a similar
question, which is “All in all, how satisfied would you say you are with your job?” (p. 603).

The second question is “How satisfied are you with the balance between the time you spend on your
job and the time you spend on other aspects of your life?” The source of the question is in Round 5 of
the European Social Survey (2011), in which the question is “How satisfied are you with the balance
between the time you spend on your paid work and the time you spend on other aspects of your life?”
(p. 72). Round 3 of the European Social Survey (2006) also has the same question, which is “How
satisfied are you with the balance between the time you spend on your paid work and the time you
spend on other aspects of your life?” (p. 53).

The third question is “How much of the time do you find your current work life interesting?” The
source of the question is in Round 3 of the European Social Survey (2006), in which the question is
“How much of the time do you find your job…interesting?” (p. 51). Round 5 of the European Social
Survey (2011) also has a similar question, which is “the reason I put effort into my work is…because
my work tasks are interesting?” (p. 65).

The fourth question is “Please state your level of agreement with each of these statements.
Considering all my efforts and achievements in my job I feel I get paid appropriately” (European
Social Survey, 2006, p. 53). The source of this question is Round 3 of the European Social Survey
(2006).

The fifth question is “Please state your level of agreement with each of these statements. The
conditions of my job allow me to be about as productive as I could be” (The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health [NIOSH], n.d., p. 5). The source this question is the NIOSH quality
of work life module (n.d.).

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

The sixth question is “Please state your level of agreement with each of these statements. I am
allowed to decide how to go about getting my job done” (NIOSH, n.d., p. 5). The source this question
is the NIOSH (n.d) quality of work life module used by the General Social Survey, a survey
instrument developed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of
Chicago. This question is similar another question in the NIOSH (n.d) quality of work life module,
which is “I am given a lot of freedom to decide how to do my own work” (p. 6). The General Social
Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in 2002 using the NIOSH, work life module
also contains a similar question, which is “I am given a lot of freedom to decide how to do my own
work” (Smith et al., 2013, p. 892). Round 5 of the European Social Survey (2011) also has a similar
question, which is “how much the management at your work allows/allowed you…to decide how your
own daily work is/was organized? (p. 44).

Answers
The answer choices for the first question regarding satisfaction with work are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1
(dissatisfied), 2 (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied). The answer
choices for the second question about work-life balance are 0 (very dissatisfied), 1 (dissatisfied), 2
(neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), 3 (satisfied), and 4 (very satisfied; European Social Survey, 2011,
p. 72). The answer choices for the third question regarding interest in work are 0 (very rarely or
never), 1 (rarely), 2 (sometimes), 3 (often), and 4 (very often or always; European Social Survey, 2006,
p. 51). The answer choices for the fourth question regarding pay are 0 (strongly disagree), 1
(disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly agree; p. 53). The answer choices
for the fifth question regarding productivity are 0(strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor
disagree), 3 (agree), and 4 (strongly agree; NIOSH, n.d., p. 5). The answer choices for the sixth
question regarding autonomy are 0 (strongly disagree), 1 (disagree), 2 (neither agree nor disagree), 3
(agree), and 4 (strongly agree; NIOSH, n.d., p. 5).

Journal of Social Change 29

 Musikanski et al., 2017

Appendix B
Demographic Questions in Round 4 of the Happiness Index
Below is a list of demographic questions within Round 4 the Happiness Index (Happiness Alliance,
2014a). The questions are listed in the order presented in the survey, with the answer choices listed.
Users of the Happiness Index who use the index for a population are able to access their results for
each of the aspects of demographics, for example a data query may compare females, age 50–54, with
children under the age of 18 with males, age 50-54, with children under the age of 18 or any other
aspect of demographic qualities included in the index.

Demographic Questions
The demographic questions are listed with answer choices following each question.

Question: What is your current age?

Answers: <12 years old, 12–17 years old, 18–24 years old, 25–29 years old, 30–34 years old, 35–39
years old, 40–44 years old, 45–49 years old, 50–54 years old, 55–59 years old, 60–64 years old, 65–69
years old, 70–74 years old, 75–79 years old, 80–84 years old, 85–89 years old, 90 years or older

Question: Which gender do you identify as?

Answers: Female, male, other.

Question: What race or ethnicity do you identify as?

Answers: Black/African, East Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, South Asian,

White/European/Caucasian, two or more, other, prefer not to say.

Question: What is your current marital status?

Answers: Married, domestic partnership, never married and/or never in a domestic partnership,
separated, divorced, widowed, other.

Question: How many people currently reside in your household, including you?

Answers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 or more

Question: Do you have any children under 18?

Answers: Yes, no.

Question: What is your postal code? (we just want the more general part; e.g. 98101 for U.S. zip
Codes or SE11 for U.K. postcodes).

Question: How spiritual do you consider yourself to be?

Answers: Not at all, not very, somewhat, moderately, very.

Question: What is the highest level of education that you have completed?

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 Musikanski et al., 2017

Answers: Less than Grade 9 (no high school), More than Grade 9 but less than Grade 12 (started
high school but did not graduate), high school graduate or equivalent, Trade, technical or vocational
training, associate’s degree (AA, AS, etc.), bachelor's degree (BA, AB, BS, etc.), Graduate university
degree (MA, MS, MBA, etc.), professional degree (MD, DDS, DVM, LLB, JD, etc.), doctoral degree
(PhD, EdD, etc.), other.

Question: What was your total household income from all sources last year?

Answers: <$10,000, $10,000–$19,999, $20,000–$29,999, $30,000–$39,999, $40,000–$49,999,

$50,000–$59,999, $60,000–$69,999, $70,000–$79,999, $80,000–$89,999, $90,000–$99,999, $100,000–
$109,999, $110,000–$119,999, $120,000–$129,999, $130,000–$139,999, $140,000–$149,999,
$150,000–$159,999, $160,000–$169,999, $170,000–$179,999, $180,000–$189,999, $190,000–
$199,999, ≥$200,000.

Question: Regarding employment, which of the following options best describe your current work
life?

Answers: Full-time employee, part-time employee, working independently/self-employed, military,

volunteer, homemaker, unemployed looking for work, unemployed not looking for work, retired,
student or in training, unable to work, other.

Question: What is the one thing you would like to do to improve your own well-being and the
wellbeing of your community and our planet?

Question: In one word, what makes you happy?

The Journal of Social Change, sponsored by Walden University, welcomes manuscripts focusing
on interdisciplinary research in social change that improves the human condition and moves
people, groups, organizations, cultures, and society toward a more positive future.

Walden University Publishing: http://www.publishing.waldenu.edu

Journal of Social Change 31

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