An Explanation of Happiness

We are all in the search of happiness, but the failure of finding it can cause us all kinds of frustrations and psychological issues. First of all, it is tricky to even define happiness: is it having what you want or wanting what you have? A new research published in the Psychological Science tested this. The results point that people can grow accustomed to their possessions, which in the end bring them less happiness. Nevertheless, people can keep wanting the things they have and it is precisely this category that experiences the highest level of happiness.

The team, made by Texas Tech University psychologist Jeff Larsen and Amie McKibban of Wichita State University, asked undergraduate subjects to fill in a questionnaire assessing if they possessed 52 different material items, like a car, a stereo or a bed.

"Simply having a bunch of things is not the key to happiness. Our data show that you also need to appreciate those things you have. It’s also important to keep your desire for things you don’t own in check," said Larsen.

In the cases of subjects who owned a personal car, they were asked to rate how much they had wanted the car they possessed. In the case of subjects devoid of a car, they had to rate how much they wanted this item. Based on their answers, the researchers assessed the extent to which subjects desired what they possessed and possessed what they desired.

It clearly showed that wanting what you have and having what you want do not automatically generate the same happiness levels. Persons possessing what they wanted seemed to generally appreciate those items, but the link presented significantly various happiness outcomes. Subjects who appreciated more what they possessed were much happier than those who were more indifferent to what material things they had.

Another possession and happiness correlation was that subjects having more of what they wanted had reached higher levels of happiness compared to those who had less of what they targeted.

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