Hunt For Happiness Essay

The Hunt for Happiness: The Relationship Between Goals and Subjective Well-Being.

It is interesting to note that the field of positive psychology, described by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) as “a science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits and positive institutions” (p. 5), has flourished over the last 15 years. This has been a time of relative peace and prosperity, conditions most would associate with contentment and joy, but also a time, as argued by Ryan and Deci (2001, p. 142), during which the more affluent among us may have discovered that financial security and material possessions alone do not necessarily equate to happiness. As Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 6) explain, prior to World War II, making the lives of all people more productive was one of three aims of the field of psychology, the other two being to cure mental illness and detect and foster extraordinary ability. Following the war however, the economic benefit to psychologists of treating mental illness narrowed the focus of psychology firmly on repair rather than prevention. Psychologists came to see people as passive beings being acted upon by external stressors and it is this view that positive psychology aims to change. Sheldon and King (2001, p. 216) maintain that the field of positive psychology encourages psychologists to embrace a more unrestricted and valued perspective of human potential, hopes and strengths; a view also espoused by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 8) who suggest that the major psychological theories (psychoanalytical, behavioural and humanistic) have now been transformed by the bolstering of a new science of “strength and resilience” (p. 8). Much research therefore is currently focusse...

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...chological well-being (including as identified in this report, the value of need-based goal setting), will provide, as suggested by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000, p. 5), protection against mental illness, empowering individuals, families, communities and societies to prosper. Myers and Diener (1996, p. 72) add that researching the habits of happy people may suggest how we can modify our behaviour to improve happiness. This in turn will help people to achieve the maximum satisfaction that they can from their own particular circumstances. In addition, as the body of empirical evidence grows in support of this positive psychology, the focus can once again, (as Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) intend it should), return to the two objectives previously abandoned by psychology, namely fostering excellence and making ordinary people more resilient and productive.