Happiness might seem like a worthy goal but it will invariably be disrupted by unwelcome negative feelings. Far better to seek contentment, which can serve as a foundation for both joy and pleasure.
Articles on Happiness
Displaying 201 - 220 of 259 articles
Women are supposed to be happy about motherhood – if they’re not their parenting is open to question. We have seen a ‘Parenting Hate’ backlash against this, but what’s needed most is better social support.
While the economics of happiness has boomed, the economics of unhappiness has been neglected. Yet there are many objective sources of unhappiness that good economic research might tackle productively.
To pose the question of whether we can love happiness feels a bit like asking whether the Pope is a Catholic. Most of us believe we not only can love happiness, but that we should!
Much of the fear of cancer arises from a lack of control, so I’m at my happiest when a patient with a new diagnosis comes in bewildered and shaken and leaves my office feeling a modicum of control.
Pixar’s new film, Inside Out, shows that chasing happiness along won’t necessarily bring well-being, which is a view backed by the latest psychological research.
Watching cute cat videos and looking at their online pictures may not be a waste of time. A new study has found doing so could boost energy levels and increase feelings of happiness.
Susan Oman interviews Goldsmith’s Will Davies, author of The Happiness Industry.
Large study reveals how children rate their happiness and what they’re most dissatisfied with.
A lifestyle based on aggressive consumption stresses the Earth’s resources and, beyond a certain point of comfort, does not actually foster human fulfillment or happiness.
Lottery winners are euphoric very briefly before they settle back to their normal level of happiness or unhappiness.
The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximising pleasure and minimising pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different.
Well-being at work is a prerequisite for flourishing in life. Most of us have some type of employment, if not a full-time job, and we spend the majority of our waking hours engaged in this work. Therefore…
In setting out our resolutions, we should first step back and take stock of what it is that we really want, what we consider the good life to be, and then think about how best we might achieve it.
The idea that data on happiness and well-being can be used to guide government policy has steadily gained popularity over the past decade. But as we seek ways to replace, or at least complement GDP as…
Once commonplace, the phenomenon of all-female or all-male workplaces have largely gone the way of the buggy whip. Many of the benefits of this increased diversity might be difficult to measure and quantify…
Looking over the landscape I could see an old tree standing frozen and seemingly dead, its branches coated with icy rime. Around it, mossy grass and small rocks lay beneath a coating of snow and in the…
Many readers of this piece will be aware that economists are rethinking the role of happiness and GDP. They question facile assumptions about economic growth alone being good for us. What’s the good of…
Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real problems – the problems of…
Top contributors
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Professor, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne
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Associate Professor, Centre for Positive Health Sciences, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences
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Professor of Law, University of Waikato
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Senior Lecturer in Psychological Interventions, University of Lancashire
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Associate Professor, School of Psychology, UNSW
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Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health, University of Manchester
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Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Old Age Psychiatry, King's College London
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Honorary Research Associate at the Behavioural Science Centre, University of Stirling
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Professor of Psychology, Monmouth University
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Lecturer in Positive Psychology, University of East London
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Professor of Data Science; Director, Adelaide Data Science Centre, Adelaide University
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Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
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Research Psychologist, Health Behaviour Research Centre, UCL
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Professor of Economics, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University