For as long as we have been aware, humans have spent our entire lives making decision after decision solely with the idea that it will bring us happiness or pleasure. Despite our best efforts, happiness remains elusive and mysterious. The pursuit of happiness is recognized as a right to us in the United States, but most of us seem to have no idea where this pursuit is supposed to take us. Scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and more all study and have their own opinions about happiness, but subjective experience makes it difficult for them to find solid data. The thing that humans want most is the thing that we have the hardest to understand. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Only recently has happiness become the focus of psychology, but it has worked diligently to understand it. By working together, psychologists were able to develop a table to measure different aspects of subjective well-being. Through research and studying identical twins, they discovered what is called a “genetic threshold” for happiness. The genetic threshold states that 50% of our happiness is determined by our genes, and that no matter how happy or upset we are, we always return to our genetic threshold. Of course, this is not always true. “Some life events are so severe that victims never return to their previous set point or level of balance.” (Headey 2). This means that when a person experiences severe trauma, such as the loss of their child or spouse, the genetic threshold is somewhat lowered and the person generally remains unhappy. However, the genetic threshold still leaves room for more contributors to happiness, so all is not lost. The remaining half is distributed, surprisingly, quite unevenly. Life circumstances such as our health, our job, our social status, our surroundings, our environment and others seem to represent only 10% of our happiness. So what exactly makes up the other 40%? Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D. and professor at the University of California, Riverside, states that “…you can do a lot to become happier, and that 40% is left to intentional behavior…” She, among others, believes that You can control your happiness by consciously changing things in your life or your daily routine. Whether it's trying something new for dinner or simply sitting in the bedroom for a meal instead of the living room, it's important for happiness not to adapt to what you do. “For some people it's going to be a lot of change, for others it's going to be a small change. But this change is important. (Lubomirsky). As they always say, variety is the spice of life. The most frequently asked question about happiness is whether or not it can be measured. Hundreds of psychologists and philosophers have tried to find a way to measure happiness, but it is difficult to measure something that is experienced subjectively. In fact, for a while happiness was considered immeasurable, but Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven and many others no longer agree. “When defined as a person's subjective appreciation of life, happiness is something that we have in mind and what we think can be assessed through questioning.” (Veenhoven 3). Veenhoven describes a kind of questioning to which they subject the subjects in order to obtain ageneral assessment of happiness in all areas by comparing people's responses in a relative way. “An overview of acceptable questions is available in the “Happiness Measures” collection of the World Happiness Database. » (Veenhoven 3). They stored all the questions that were appropriate to ask in order to measure happiness and most other happiness research in this global happiness database for later use. Yet it seems that the more information we accumulate about the concept of happiness, the less we seem to understand it. One of the many debates on the subject of happiness is whether we, as humans, have control over our own happiness. There are surely many things that affect our happiness from the outside, such as the weather, the well-being of our peers and many other social and environmental factors, but can we control it ourselves from the inside ? According to JoNell Strough of West Virginia University, we tend to try to control our happiness through a process called "maximization." “Maximization is a decision strategy that seeks the best option that is more elaborate and potentially more regrettable than choosing an option that is 'good enough'” (Strough 1). Sometimes when we try our best to choose the best option to maximize our happiness, we end up failing faster than we would have by choosing the worse option. However, this might only be a problem among young people. “In surveys of a large national sample, we find that older adults are less likely than younger adults to self-report that they maximize their well-being, which is associated with better perceived well-being two years later." (Strength 1). When we analyze options and compare them with others to determine the best option, we tend to aim too high and take a few steps back from where we started. Fortunately, as we get older, we tend to get rid of this habit and settle for the option that is good enough, which actually saves our happiness in the long run. So we certainly have some control over our own happiness, but we must be careful not to overdo it, otherwise we may very well end up paying the price. Besides self-control, what other aspects of life can influence our happiness. Well, the answer is many things, but many people seem to believe that money is one of them. America was founded on the idea of ​​working hard and rising to the top of a capitalist system in order to accumulate as much wealth as possible to have a happy life. It is believed that a strong work ethic will pay off in the long run, giving you the ability to buy your happiness. However, in Japan, where the work ethic is the highest and people work longer hours than in any other country, people's happiness seems to suffer. Tomoyuki Kawada, of the Department of Hygiene and Public Health, has carried out numerous studies on cases of severe depression and sometimes even death due to overwork in Japan. “The prevalence of mental illness, primarily depression, appears to be increasing in many workplaces in Japan [19]. The suicide rate, which began to increase in the mid-1990s, continues to rise [18]. According to data from the World Health Organization [25], Japan has one of the highest suicide rates among developed countries. » (Kawada 1). People work extremely hard in Japan to achieve a stable and happy life, but they overwork themselves in the process. A cloud of exhaustion hangs over the country's major cities as everyonetries to get the sleep he needs on subway rides. Death from overwork is so common in Japan that in the 1970s they created a term for it: Karoshi. There is also Karojisatsu, a form of Karoshi which refers to a person driven to suicide due to stress from overwork. After studying Japan, it's hard to continue to suggest that money might be the answer to our happiness. On a more positive note, our friends can be a very reliable source of happiness as long as they are happy themselves. There's also not much downside if they're sad. According to Jennifer Abbasi of Happify Daily, "While having a happy friend improves your chances of being happy by 15%, having one who isn't happy only reduces your chances by 7%." Not only can we control our own happiness, but our friends can contribute to it as well. “A Harvard Medical School study of 5,000 people over 20 years found that a person's happiness spreads across their social group, even up to three degrees of separation, and that the effect lasts up to at one year." (Abbasi). That's right, even someone you don't know but is friends with your friend, or even your friend's friend, can also affect your happiness. There is an amazing sense of connection within the human race, and it could very well be a goldmine of happiness. Social interaction is also linked to this. When we interact with people in the community every day, we become happier. Opening the door for someone entering the store, being friendly to the cashier, or even smiling at someone can greatly influence not only their happiness, but ours as well. Dr. Art Markman of Psychology Today says, “The interactions we have with other people affect the way we perceive life. Our close relationships keep us grounded and influence both happiness and a sense of belonging to a larger community. Interestingly, even our interactions with people we don't know very well make us feel like we're part of this larger community. So whatever you do when you're away from home, remember to smile and connect with your community. Who wouldn’t want an overall happier neighborhood? It's more contagious than you think. Happiness has always been thought of as an emotional or psychological state, but research shows that happiness has a direct relationship with our biology. British researchers conducted a study with 228 volunteers aged 49 to 59. In this study, volunteers were asked to report their happiness levels throughout a work day and a day off. Saliva samples were taken and the volunteers also completed a mental stress test. The results showed that those who reported being happier had lower heart rates, lower levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) in their saliva, and lower blood plasma levels linked to heart disease. To be happy is literally to be healthy. Michelle Flythe, author of "The Greater Good," says: "For years, research has shown that reducing depression, stress, anxiety and other negative states lowers the risk of heart disease and heart disease. other diseases. » Happiness is linked to our brain and is part of the system that makes us up, and is in tune with our biology, our health and our mental state. Regardless of depression, anxiety, or other negative psychological states, studies have consistently shown that increased happiness has health benefits. "This suggests that there may be a.