What Is Happiness?

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Happiness is defined as having positive emotions and relatively fewer negative emotions in one's life. It also involves feeling satisfied and having purpose and meaning in life. The goal is to maximize both the emotional and cognitive components of happiness. However, there can be moments where these components dissociate, such as when new parents experience the joy of having a baby but also face challenges like dirty diapers and sleepless nights. Similarly, wealthy individuals may have luxury and material comfort, but still feel a sense of emptiness. The ideal situation is to have a balance and maximize both components for a truly happy life.

Can you accurately identify what aspects of life make you happy? Would you even know if you found true happiness? Leading psychology professor and happiness expert Laurie Santos dives deep on all the factors that contribute to our happiness, why we spend so much energy pursuing it, some evidence-based methods to boost your happiness, why it’s crucial to protect yourself from unhappy people, and so much more. Santos is a Professor of Psychology and the Head of Silliman College at Yale University. Since 2018 she’s been teaching Psychology and the Good Life, which is one of the most popular courses at Yale and at one point included approximately a quarter of the school’s undergraduates. She has also turned her course into a popular podcast series, The Happiness Lab.

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