Definition
The degree to which a person evaluates the overall quality of his/her own life as a whole positively. In other words, how much one likes the life one lives.
Description
Concept of Happiness
The word “happiness” is used in various ways. In the widest sense, it is an umbrella term for all that is good. In this meaning, it is often used interchangeably with “well-being” and denotes both individual and social welfare. The word is also used in the more specific meaning of “a subjective enjoyment of life,” and it is on this meaning we will concentrate in this lemma.
Happiness is defined as the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of his/her own life as a whole favorably. In other words, how much one likes the life one leads. This definition is explained in more detail in Veenhoven 1984:22. This definition forms the basis of Veenhoven’s...
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References
Fredrickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive affect. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 359, 1367–1377.
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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Veenhoven, R. (2014). Happiness. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1224
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