Happiness is a psychological force and a source of joy that helps people to be well in many areas of life all over the world and is desired by almost everyone. Being happy is also an important life ideal that is recognized as a measure of a good life.
What makes happiness important is that it is the only positive emotion among the six basic emotions. In this respect, happiness colors our lives as a positive emotion, unlike anger, fear, sadness, disgust and jealousy.
Since the beginning of its historical development, the science of psychology has mainly dealt with psychopathological conditions such as anxiety, depression, somotoform disorders, psycho-somatic disorders and schizophrenia in mental health studies. However, Adler (1964), Peterson et al. (2006), who argued that human beings are not a creature that contains only psychopathological elements by nature, have turned to new searches since the second half of the twentieth century.
Seligman (1998) emphasized that it is insufficient for psychology to look only at the negative, problematic, sick side of the person, and that as an important complement to this, the well-being of the person, the strengths of the personality and healthy coping methods should also be looked at. With the acceptance of this understanding, the positive psychology movement has strengthened in recent years and has become the center of attention in the field of psychology.
According to Peterson (2000), although positive psychology can be defined in many different ways, it can be briefly defined as a scientific field that deals with what is positive, which contributes to a person's attachment to life and moving his/her life from the current position to a better position. Positive psychology is the name of a new approach that focuses on a person's strengths rather than weaknesses, and on the power of solutions rather than problems.
Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi (2000) argue that positive psychology should be addressed at three levels: subjective, individual and group.
The first of these, the subjective level, is related to subjective experiences that are valuable for the individual, and they consider this level in three different time dimensions.
These are:
a) the past dimension, which encompasses well-being and life satisfaction,
b) the now dimension, which encompasses flow and happiness,
c) the future dimension, which encompasses hope and optimism.
The second of these, the individual level, is related to personal characteristics such as wisdom, authenticity, courage, love and forgiveness. Positive psychology argues that these traits should be strengthened in terms of mental health and development.
Finally, the group level is related to citizenship skills such as tolerance, helpfulness and responsibility. As can be seen, while positive psychology deals with all aspects of the individual, it also values the person's relationship with the group in which he or she lives, i.e. society.
One of the most emphasized concepts in positive psychology is the concept of happiness. Since the past, philosophers have seen happiness as the highest ideal that humans can achieve. For many years, psychologists have studied unhappiness and neglected happiness. In recent years, with the influence of positive psychology, scientists have been studying this subject.
and conduct more research (Diener, 2009).
Research on “happiness”, which is defined by Diener (1984) as experiencing positive emotions frequently and negative emotions less frequently and having high satisfaction with life, emphasizes that happy people feel better and experience positive emotions more. Having a positive outlook towards life will also contribute to the happiness of individuals and increase their level of satisfaction with life.
The concept of happiness is considered as the ultimate goal of human behavior in the literature. According to Lyubomirsky (2007), happiness can be defined as a combination of joy, satisfaction or well-being and satisfaction with life. Positive and negative
emotions constitute the affective dimension of happiness, while life satisfaction constitutes the cognitive dimension.
(Çeçen, 2007).
Examples of positive emotions that constitute the affective dimension are joy, cheerfulness, hope, confidence, courage and excitement. Negative emotions include anger, hatred, anxiety,
emotions such as fear, sadness and despair are examples.
Life satisfaction, which constitutes the cognitive dimension of happiness, refers to a person's evaluations and judgments about areas and dimensions of life such as social life, family life, health and work life. A high degree of satisfaction with these areas of life is considered as one of the indicators of happiness (Lyubomirsky, 2001; Myers & Diener, 1995).
In addition to providing positive emotions, happiness has positive benefits in many areas of one's life. Research shows that happiness strengthens the immune system, increases energy and creativity, makes people more liked, live longer and be preferred in their social environment, and increases productivity at work (Lyubomirsky et al,
2005).
According to Seligman et al. (2006), happiness has three roots. These are the good life, which involves fulfillment, the good life, which involves flow and absorption, and the meaningful life, which involves dedication to something beyond and beyond oneself.
According to Csikszentmihayli (2013), happiness is not a spontaneous state, the result of a good coincidence or luck, something that can be bought with money or controlled by power. Happiness is an experience that needs to be prepared by people themselves, shaped by being aware of internal experiences and how they interpret external events. Flow, on the other hand, is the state of intense satisfaction that people feel when they perform an activity (Csikszentmihayli, 1997).
Often the best moments in life are not when we are passive and relaxed, but rather when we put our mind or body to work to overcome a challenge. For an athlete, improving his or her own record, for a pianist, playing a complex piece of music with skill and mastery can be a source of happiness (Csikszentmihayli, 2013).
Theories of Happiness
Adaptation Theory According to the study, humans, as beings who adapt to their environment, somehow get used to the events they experience. When they experience certain life events for the first time, such as having an accident, losing an organ, being promoted, becoming rich, they react positively and negatively. When we look at this situation from the point of view of the happiness of the person; people are not affected by events and conditions in the long term, they get used to such events and conditions over time. For example, the happiness level of a person who unexpectedly receives a large sum of money and the unhappiness level of a person who experiences a great loss do not last long. There are short-term ups and downs in their happiness levels, but over time, their happiness levels remain at the same level as the happiness levels of average people.
Fixed Point Theory People's happiness levels are assessed in terms of their genetic predisposition and personality traits rather than life events. Although people's happiness levels may show some short-term changes affected by various life events, they will return to their fixed points over time. What distinguishes this theory from the adjustment theory is that it is based on genetic predisposition for happiness.
The main criticism of the goal theory, which argues that people will be happy if they achieve a certain goal or fulfill a need in their lives, is what these goals or needs are (Diener & Ryan, 2009).
Goal-based theories, focuses on certain desires that people are aware of, but more on the behaviors to achieve them (Michalos, 1980). Goals are often seen as more important than needs. Many people have the experience of feeling happy when they achieve a goal they consider important. However, what is important here is whether achieving the goal has a long-term effect on happiness rather than short-term mood changes (Diener & Ryan, 2009).
According to the humanistic approach The way to lead a happy life is through self-actualization. This can be understood from the fact that self-actualization is at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Rogers frequently emphasizes self-actualization in his writings. According to Rogers (1961), realizing one's own potential is only possible through being oneself and the only way to do this is to know oneself. In addition, the two most basic needs of the person to be met are to offer unconditional appreciation to oneself and to listen to the voice of one's own needs, dreams and dreams.
According to the cognitive approach Investing too much in one of the information processing areas to the extent that other areas are neglected and living by focusing only on low-level goals makes a person unhappy. In addition, defining one's goals and setting the right goals for oneself is one of the important steps on the way to realizing one's goals, that is, on the way to happiness. According to this approach, happiness is relative. In studies on happiness, it should be kept in mind that the low and high level goals set by the person and the areas to be invested in will vary depending on time and the person's experience.
Psychoanalytic theory, Unlike the humanistic and cognitive approaches, Thomson attributes a person's capacity to be happy to his/her capacity to cope with the difficulties that life imposes on him/her from birth to death. The person, who starts to face disappointments and pain from the moment of birth, receives some wounds that are difficult to erase while struggling with difficult tasks in life (Thomson, 2001).
Freud, “The Restlessness of Civilization” Freud (1930) talks about the constant interaction of pain and happiness, emphasizing that life is full of unhappiness and one's constant pain. According to Freud (1930), the constant pain of the person pushes him/her to search for happiness, and while the person who finds happiness tries to protect and hide it, all these efforts do nothing but return him/her to his/her constant unhappiness, because happiness is a temporary feeling that is experienced instantly and disappears over time.
Freud argues that there are three main sources of unhappiness. These are the human body, the external world and relationships with other people. According to this point of view, the most painful experiences and the source of the greatest unhappiness are the relationships between people, but the greatest source of happiness is also relationships. Freud characterizes this as the most basic principle of being human and emphasizes that avoiding the pain arising from human relationships will bring greater pain to the person.
According to judgment theory In order to be happy, people set some criteria for themselves and make a judgment about their level of happiness based on whether they reach them or not. If the person is above the criteria they expect, they are happy, and vice versa, they are not happy.
Research shows that happy people generally compare themselves to people they perceive to be worse off than themselves, while unhappy people compare themselves to both worse and better people. Another factor is that people's standard of living should be higher than the standards they have achieved in the past. When this happens, people judge themselves to be happy.
According to activity theory The factor that makes people happy is the existence of the activities they do to realize their goals rather than the goals. In other words, different activities on the way to achieving the goal make people happy.
Dear friends, to summarize, happiness is in one's own hands and is the result of one's own choices. Neither lifelong happiness nor eternal happiness is possible.
Being happy seems to depend on good human relations, an increase in the standard of living, and the efforts one makes to achieve one's goals.