Are “happiness” and “subjective well-being” really the same thing?
Yes. Happiness consists of both an emotional and a cognitive component. For the emotional part, we use a popular and highly reliable measure called the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule).
The cognitive aspect of happiness is life satisfaction. It is more stable over time than the emotional aspect, and it can be captured reliably with a few simple questions.
The measurement of happiness can be made even more precise and up-to-date by factoring in such factors as sleep, physical activity, and heart-rate variability, all of which we know correlate with subjective well-being.
Most scientists use these terms interchangeably when they address lay audiences.
The word “happiness” is used colloquially and is poorly defined. “Subjective well-being” (SWB), on the other hand, is an established construct in the fields of personality, social, and positive psychology.
There’s reasonable consensus about what exactly SWB means and how to measure it. “Subjective well-being” is just too long and awkward to use in non-scientific contexts.
Although there is no magic pill that will make you happy, there’s a lot you can do in your daily life. New research based on machine learning and regression analysis of a large dataset reveals the following factors to be the most predictive of subjective well-being: control over one’s environment, self-esteem, purpose in life, positive relationships, and stress reactivity.
Thus, for most people, the more successful ways to become happier involve:
- Solving the problems you have in your life.
- Maintaining healthy self-esteem and avoiding self-blame.
- Finding meaning and purpose in life.
- Improving the quality of your relationships, including work, family and friendships
- Finding ways to deal with external stressors beyond your control.
HappyHeroツ can help you with all of the above.
Is there a way to measure happiness?