The Three Levels Of Happiness

When I think of happiness I think of many different events in my life that have influenced me to feel positive emotions. In the text, researchers score happiness on a three level scale. These three levels are happiness, satisfaction with life, and neuroticism. Happiness can be measured in an emotional state. Satisfaction with life is more of weighing out their situations with alternatives and then assessing whether they are happy with their outcomes. Finally having low neuroticism. A big question among all researchers was how to measure happiness. Subjective well-being researchers allowed the subjects to make up the definition for themselves. The reason for this is because we all have our own way of thinking and knowing what our happiness …show more content…
The first trait is self-esteem. High self-esteem leads to increased happiness, confidence, and acceptance. The second trait is optimism and hope. Being optimistic about the future leads you to more hope, which in return leads to life satisfaction. Also people who have this trait tend to have more perseverance. There are two different types of optimism. One is dispositional optimism, which is everything will turn out right in the future. The other is explanatory style, which is if the past was full of bad situations then the future is brighter. Seligman said that people could learn optimism by focusing on how people view and explain their life events (pg.57). People think that optimistic people are looking through rosey glasses, but really there is a term called realistic optimism, which is that there is opportunities for learning experiences and growth even in the hardest situations (pg.57). A third trait is control and self-efficacy. This means that one has control over their situations and the undesired situations will be avoided. There are two kinds of control. Internal locus of control, attribute to outcomes to self-directed efforts, and external locus of control, outcomes in life are due to factors outsides ones immediate control. Self-efficacy is “a concept with strong associations to control and hope” (pg.58). A fourth trait is extraversion which are people who are more likely to engage in activities, be sociable, upbeat personalities, A fifth trait is agreeableness, honest, trustworthy, and modest, and conscientiousness, which is orderly, self-disciplined,