Happiness

About: Happiness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 22093 publications have been published within this topic receiving 728411 citations. The topic is also known as: joy & happy.

Evolution of Well-Being and Happiness After Increases in Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables

Abstract: Objectives. To explore whether improvements in psychological well-being occur after increases in fruit and vegetable consumption. Methods. We examined longitudinal food diaries of 12 385 randomly sampled Australian adults over 2007, 2009, and 2013 in the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. We adjusted effects on incident changes in happiness and life satisfaction for people’s changing incomes and personal circumstances. Results. Increased fruit and vegetable consumption was predictive of increased happiness, life satisfaction, and well-being. They were up to 0.24 life-satisfaction points (for an increase of 8 portions a day), which is equal in size to the psychological gain of moving from unemployment to employment. Improvements occurred within 24 months. Conclusions. People’s motivation to eat healthy food is weakened by the fact that physical health benefits accrue decades later, but well-being improvements from increased consumption of fruit and vegetables are closer to immediate. Policy implications. Citizens could be shown evidence that “happiness” gains from healthy eating can occur quickly and many years before enhanced physical health.

Are Most People Happier than their Peers, or Are They Just Happy?:

Abstract: Most people judge themselves to be content with their lives. However, they also judge themselves to be more content than the others in their group, which is a logical impossibility. In line with previous speculations, the authors found in two studies that comparative contentment judgments were highly related to judgments of one’s own contentment but entirely unrelated to judgments of comparison of others’ contentment. That is, comparative contentment judgments are predominantly self-focused. Researchers asking the question, “How content are you relative to your peers?” should be aware that the response might well be to the question “How content are you?”

Metaphorical Expressions of Anger and Happiness in English and Chinese

Abstract: This article presents a comparative study of metaphorical expressions of anger and happiness in English and Chinese. It demonstrates that English and Chinese share the same central conceptual metaphor "ANGER IS HEAT," which then breaks into two sub-versions in both languages. Whereas English has selected "FIRE" and "FLUID" metaphors, Chinese uses "FIRE" and "GAS" for the same purpose. Similarly, both English and Chinese share the "UP," "LIGHT," and "CONTAINER" metaphors in their conceptualizations of happiness, although they differ in some other cases. These two languages also follow the same metonymic principle in talking about anger and happiness by describing the physiological effects of these emotions. A descriptive difference observed throughout the study, however, is that Chinese tends to utilize more body parts, especially internal organs, than English in its metaphors of anger, happiness, and other emotional states. A principled explanation of the differences between the two languages is then made...