Being concerned about happiness but not aspiring to it is linked to negative emotions and poorer well-being.
- The aspiration for happiness is relatively harmless to one’s well-being.
- However, being concerned about one’s own happiness is associated with lower overall life satisfaction and psychological well-being, as well as greater depressive symptoms.
- The authors advise living your emotions, whether positive or negative, by accepting them in order to be happier.
Previous research suggests that sometimes the more people value happiness, the less happy they are. But for whom and why is this the case? This is the question that researchers from New York University (USA) wanted to answer in a study, the results of which were published in the journal Emotion.
1,815 adults responded to a questionnaire about their beliefs about happiness
To conduct the research, the team recruited 1,815 people, including Yale University students, community members in Denver, and Berkeley, California. Between 2009 and 2020, the participants, who varied in age, gender, ethnicity, and geographic location, answered questions about their beliefs about happiness, as well as their psychological well-being and depressive symptoms. In the work, the authors wanted to distinguish between two individual aspects related to the appreciation of happiness. “The first individual difference occurs at the level of the strength of the value itself and involves regarding happiness as a very important goal (i.e., aspiring to happiness). The second individual difference occurs later in the process of seeking happiness and involves assessing one’s level of happiness (i.e., being concerned about happiness)”, can be read in the study.
Happiness: High expectations lead to greater depressive symptoms
According to the results, pursuing happiness, or viewing happiness as a very important goal, had no detrimental effects on well-being. In contrast, having concerns or judgments about one’s own happiness was associated with lower well-being, partly due to greater negativity and disappointment about positive events. It was also linked to lower overall life satisfaction and greater depressive symptoms. “Overall, allowing yourself to experience your emotions, whether positive or negative, with an attitude of acceptance could be a useful tool for seeking happiness and increasing well-being,” concluded Felicia Zerwaslead author of the work.
