The Pursuit of Happiness
The Pursuit of Happiness Long before the emergence of social psychology, philosophers regarded happiness as the ultimate state of being. In the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson thus cited life, liberty, and “the pursuit of happiness” as the most cher- ished of human rights. But what is happiness, and how is it achieved? Aristo- tle said it was the reward of an active life. Freud linked it with both work and love. Others have variously suggested that happiness requires money and power, health and fitness, religion, beauty, the satisfaction of basic needs, and an ability to derive pleasure from the events of everyday life.
To study happiness—or subjective well-being, as social psychologists like to call it—one must be able to measure it. How do researchers know if someone is happy? Simple: They ask the question. Better yet, they use questionnaires, such as the Satisfaction with Life Scale, in which people respond to statements such as “If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing”. As Marcus Aurelius said, “No man is happy who does not think himself so.” It is worth noting, by the way, that men and women do not differ in their average levels of subjective well-being.
