“Happiness in the ordinary sense is not what one needs in life, though one is right to aim at it. The true satisfaction is to come through and see those whom one loves come through.”
E.M Forster's interpretation of happiness
At the moment, researchers are still struggling to devise a definition for happiness. In fact, happiness is often regarded as a subjective experience, and refers to positive affect, emotional well-being and good quality of life. Some researchers suggest that the definitions of happiness hinges on context.
At face value, one would assume that appreciating happiness must bring about positive effects, as the premise suggests that the more one values happiness, the happier they will be. In fact when thinking of achieving goals, models are often based on this belief. According to these, what one values decides what their goal is and that person will therefore pursue their ambition by working towards it. For instance, someone who values excelling in a sport, will want to achieve good results and win, and therefore will train harder. Therefore, if we were to apply this rationale, valuing happiness should result in greater happiness.
However, some aspects of pursuing a goal may result in a potential negative fallout of valuing happiness. Therefore, if we apply the same example as above, the sportsperson who fails to win will feel disappointed when their expectations are not met. Hence, this goal pursuit causes a paradox as the outcome of one's appraisal of the situation is inconsistent with their goal (happiness in this case).
This interpretation generates a counterintuitive hypothesis:
Individuals who highly value happiness set happiness measures that are hard to achieve, resulting in feelings of disappointment and inadequacy, therefore decreasing their levels of happiness the more they crave for it.
The next post will go into more detail about expectations and pleasure vs. happiness. In the meantime, I would encourage you to have a think about the times you feel you have failed and assess yourself on the expectations you placed on yourself in those moments.
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