Freud once said our common mental state is unhappiness. Hence, we punctuate with attempts to achieve varying success to relieve it. The American Declaration of Independence accords the right to all American citizens the 'pursuit of happiness'. It is belief, in the psychological way, that we all deserve happiness and should pursue i without hindrance.

However, it is easier said than done.


Research show that lottery winners have a short-time boost in well- being but no significant long-term increase in happiness.

The famous North American Nun study found an association between positive thoughts expressed in handwritten diaries and longer living (Danner et al., 2001).

A study by Zelenski and Larsen (2000) reported that we experience positive emotions more frequently during the day. In the study, 82 undergraduates were to report their emotions experienced for 3 times a day over the course of a month. It is found that positive emotions dominated the participants' self- report.

In fact, the intensity and frequency of positive emotions far outnumbered negative emotions. Research also found that some emotions are experienced together.
For example:
- fear and sadness
- sadness and anger
- anger and disgust

Among all. jealousy was most commonly experienced secondary emotion.

So, do people that outwardly express positive emotions also have high degree of positive affect in their 'inner' life?
Harker and Keltner (2001)- took photographs printed in their college yearbook and relate the degree of affect expressed in their faces and personality later in life. they found that higher degree of positive affect expressed in the photograph correlated with self reported traits of attribution, competence and low negative affect.
Positive facial expression was also positively correlated with having a good marriage and enhanced well being. Women showing positive affect were also judged more positively.



Another study show that very happy people are likely to have stronger social and romantic relations than their less happy counterparts. From a study carried out by Diener and Sligman (2002), very happy people were found to have rich social life and to spend less time alone.They had stronger romantic and social relationships and were more extroverted, agreeable and less neurotic.

However, the very happy people did not experience a greater number of objectively defined good events in their lives than did the other groups. None of the groups were sufficient for happiness. Even the very happy people were not consistently happy- they too occasionally experienced negative moods.

Framingham's study has found that people who surround themselves with happy people are central to their social network are more likely to be happy in the future.