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Happiness

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences
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Synonyms

Flourishing; Satisfaction with life; Well-being

Definition

Happiness in psychology has two references. First, happiness is an umbrella term for several theories of well-being. These theories cover intrinsically rewarding and valued experience, positive beliefs about self and the world, or positive psychological functioning. Second, happiness has been considered a basic emotion by most theorists within the psychology of emotions. This chapter has been focused on happiness as well-being.

Introduction

Psychological theories of happiness build upon philosophical concepts such as hedonia, eudaimonia, and meaning in life as well as philosophical traditions of utilitarianism or moral philosophy (Tatarkiewicz 1976). Scholars within the field of psychology have attempted to translate these philosophical concepts into empirical measureable constructs (e.g., Waterman et al. 2010). For the sake of scientific accuracy, it is recommended to refer to a specific theory when the term...

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Correspondence to Lukasz D. Kaczmarek .

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Kaczmarek, L.D. (2017). Happiness. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_522-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_522-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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